JUDGING

 After three years in Las Vegas, Walter Winchell discovered her at the Desert Inn and booked her at The Copacabana in New York City, where she worked alongside Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.  She later toured the world with the USO shows, through the Orient, Europe and America.  While in Tokyo, she met her husband, Walter Lüchinger from Switzerland, who worked for the United Nations in Korea.  They married in Pasadena and were blessed with three children and nine grandchildren.  Twenty-five years ago, they moved to Honolulu so Dell-Fin could be close to her dad.  They opened Haku Sales Company, representing twenty mainland companies in hardware and lighting and sold to major retailers on all of the islands. 

Dell-Fin recently released a CD called “Heart to Heart” in which she sings in Hawaiian and other languages.  Dell-Fin wishes to express her deep gratitude to the Miss Hawaii Organization for affording her the opportunity to live her passion.

Prior to joining the Bank of Hawaii in 1987, Tollefson worked in management capacities at First Interstate Bank, Sanwa Bank, and Trans World Airlines.

Active in community and charity organizations, Tollefson serves on the Board of Directors for ten local organizations and committees for state educational initiatives and sustainability issues.  Tollefson was born in Kansas and served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army in Korea and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He holds degrees in psychology and business administration from Kansas State University and successfully completed studies at the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College.

Michael Lanakila Casupang began his study of hula in 1983 under the tutelage of Kumu Hula (Hula Master) Robert Cazimero and his hula school, Halau Na Kamalei.  In 1986, he began dancing with the Royal Dance Company for six years continuously at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for the Brothers Cazimero. As a member of the Royal Dance Company, Casupang has performed and traveled abroad extensively in Australia, Japan and throughout the United States with a performance at Carnegie Hall, New York. 

 In 1995, Casupang graduated through traditional 'uniki ceremonies as a Kumu Hula under Cazimero and began his own hula school, Halau I Ka Wakiu in 1998 with Karl Veto Baker.  Halau I Ka Wakiu has garnered many awards at the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival with an overall win in the Kane Division and of the Festival in 2007.  For the past 23 years Casupang has been teaching at Mid-Pacific Institute.  Casupang began as a choir teacher in 1987 and in 1988 began the existing Hula program with an initial enrollment of 16 students.  Pupukahi I Ke Alo O Na Pua (United as One in the Presence of the Flowers), has received numerous awards for their participation in the Hawaii State Secondary Schools Hula Kahiko Competition and has traveled extensively to Korea, Japan, New Zealand and within the United States sharing the culture of Hawaii through the art of Hula.

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Two of her titleholders became top ten finalists and one became a top five finalist at the Miss America Competition.  Teri is a graduate of California State University where she majored in International Studies and Political Science and she competed for Miss California in 1983.  She previously served as an intern with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Scheduling Coordinator for the California Republican Party, and Sales Manager at several hotels in Washington, D.C., working with diverse people such as Madonna, Guns N Roses, Celine Dion, Placido Domingo, The Grateful Dead, as well as Heads of State from South Africa, Croatia, Austria, Indonesia, and Honduras, the King and Queen of Sweden, and the Palestinian Peace Delegation.  Teri is married and has two very pampered Yorkies, "Xuxa & Zsa Zsa."  Teri serves on the Advisory Board of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, is Vice Chair of the District of Columbia Republican Party and served as a delegate to the 2004 Republican Convention.  In 2007-2008 she was the DC Chair of Women for Mitt and Hispanics for Mitt Romney and campaigned for him throughout the country.