Kalaupapa tour guide to share information on historic settlement

Norman Soares, a tour driver for Damien Tours, will share stories about Kalaupapa in a free presentation, “Journey to Kalaupapa: In the Footsteps of Saints,” at the Hawaii State Library downtown at 11:45 a.m. July 28.

The Friends of the Library of Hawaii is sponsoring the one-hour program in the first-floor reading room, which is geared for people 12 and older.

Soares will talk about the historical sites at Kalaupapa National Historical Park, a remote area on Molokai where Hansen’s disease patients were quarantined from 1866 to 1969, a library news release said. His presentation will include information about the patients and the humanitarian efforts of Father Damien, the first person in Hawaii to be declared a saint in 2009 by the Roman Catholic Church, and of Mother Marianne Cope, who will be canonized in October.

For more information, call 586-3535.