Hawaii pride came through loud and clear at a Washington gala to commemorate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on Tuesday. Speaking to the crowd, President Barack Obama was twice interrupted with shouts of “aloha!” according to a White House transcript.

Check out his mentions of Hawaii in the transcript below. (DC808 added the bolded sections for emphasis.) 

OBAMA: I think about all the folks I grew up with in Honolulu, as part of the — (applause) —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Aloha!  (Laughter.) 

OBAMA: As part of the Hawaiian ohana.  I think about the years I spent in Indonesia.  So for me, coming here feels a little bit like home.  This is a community that helped to make me who I am today.  It’s a community that helped make America the country that it is today. 

So your heritage spans the world.  But what unites everyone is that in all of your families you have stories of perseverance that are uniquely American.  Some of you — those from Hawaii or the Pacific Islands — (applause) — live where your family has lived for generations and your story is, in part, about keeping alive treasured native traditions. But for others, your story starts with ancestors who, at some point, left behind everything they knew to seek the promise of a new land. Maybe the story traces back a century and a half, to the laborers who risked their lives to connect our coasts by rail.  Maybe it begins with one of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who, decades ago, made the tough journey to Angel Island. 

Maybe the story starts with your parents.  Or maybe it starts with you.  But here’s the thing.  No matter when it began, no matter where it began, your stories are about someone who came here looking for new opportunities not merely for themselves, but for their children, and for their children’s children, and for all generations to come.  

Few of them had money.  A lot of them didn’t have belongings.  But what they did have was an unshakeable belief that this country — of all countries — is a place where anybody can make it if they try. 

Now, many of them faced hardship; many of them faced ridicule; many of them faced racism.  Many were treated as second-class citizens — as people who didn’t belong.  But they didn’t give up.  They didn’t make excuses.  They kept forging ahead.  They kept building up America.  They kept fighting forAmerica — Like Danny Inouye, who’s here.  (Applause.)  Danny, who was my senator most of my life.  (Laughter.)  Love that man.

But they were trailblazers like Dalip Singh Saund — a young man from India who, in 1920, came to study agriculture, stayed to become a farmer, and took on the cause of citizenship for all people of South Asian descent.  (Applause.)  And once Dalip earned his own citizenship, he stepped up to serve the country he loved — and became the first Asian American elected to the Congress.  (Applause.)

They were pioneers like my former congresswoman, Patsy Mink, who was not only the first — (applause) — not only the first Asian American woman elected to Congress but the author of Title IX — which has changed the playing field for all of our girls.  (Applause.)

… 

Whether your heritage stems from South Asia or East Asia, from my native Hawaii or the Pacific Islands, whether you’re first generation—

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Wahooo!

OBAMA:  These Hawaiians here — (laughter) — what’s up with that?  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  Wahooo!  (Laughter.)  Aloha!  (Applause.)

OBAMA:  Whether you are first generation or the fifth, you’re helping to build a better America.