Vendors, schools see lei popularity and sales
Long Beach resident Martha Pasellas has been a lei vendor at graduations for over 30 years. On May 20, she set up her booth outside of the Dignity Health Sports Park; selling handmade floral, candy and ribbon lei to the families of Cal State Dominguez Hills graduates.
Pasellas said that she observed graduation lei sales were more popular in California and the West Coast than in other states, where she hasn't seen too many vendors. She said that she has met other businesses who make around $10,000 during busy graduation season, but those vendors typically travel to farther areas in San Bernardino or San Diego.
“I (sell) a lot more local, usually in Long Beach, and this graduation is the farthest that I go,” she said, “but I make around $3,500.”
Pasellas admitted that sometimes vendors get kicked out from the ceremonies without having the proper sales permits. It can be hard to make a profit then, she said, but other times security does allow business outside the stadiums, on sidewalks and near places where people could walk by.
“We're here and will continue to be here,” she said.
The Orange Unified Public Schools Foundation coordinates graduation lei sales for the district's five high school ceremonies in early June at the Fred Kelly Stadium in Orange. Graduation store coordinator Nicol Jones said that sales go back to the foundation to support schools' programming and resources.
Double orchid leis and personalized kukui nut leis, adorned with school colors and logos, start at $38. Lei orders are made through online retailer The Commencement Group, which Jones said has made things “a lot smoother” for some families. Sidewalk vendors, she said, weren't always as reliable.
“This year, we're selling everything directly to the parents so they pick up their order right from the graduation ceremony itself. That way there's no lastminute rush to the flower shop,” Jones said. “They already have all the school regalia — so it's nice to wear a piece of their families at the ceremony too.”
Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, which has a sister campus in Tokyo, had around 100 graduates at the small liberal arts campus this spring. For its May 26 commencement, the university gifted colorful corsages made of silk flowers, and orange jacaranda leis to each graduate, made by donors in Hawaii and in Japan. Each came with a personalized message: “Wishing you will spread blossoming smiles around the world, like the jacaranda!”
Suafo'a, the Claremont professor, believes that the tradition, particularly during graduation celebrations, has also become “somewhat of an act of resistance.”
“For many Pacific Islanders, it has become a visible mark of success, a way of disrupting an educational system that has historically underserved our community,” Suafo'a said.
“At one point in time, Pacific Islanders had their cultures, their people, their lands, their traditions erased… so, now we wear lei proudly, to honor our ancestors and our families, and to say to another, via the act of gifting a lei to the graduate, `I see you, and I am proud of you'.”