Enrollment at the new university quickly grew; and CCH began to attract students from throughout Hawaii, the Pacific Islands and Asia. In 1959 a group of Polynesian students began to perform respective traditional songs and dances in Waikiki. Calling themselves the Polynesian Panorama, they first appeared at the International Market Place, then moved to what was called "the dome" at the Kaiser Hawaiian Village (now the Hilton Hawaiian Village), and by 1961 — the same year Church College became a four-year university — they were performing to sell-out crowds at the Waikiki Shell. The tourists loved them.
In these same early years of the College, most Hawaii students had to work in Honolulu, the pineapple fields, or even travel to other islands over the summer to raise money for school, while most international students had even fewer economic opportunities and couldn't come to Laie at all without financial assistance.
Recognizing these needs, Church and college leaders merged elements of the community hukilau program, the ideas for Elder Cowley and President Clissold's "little villages," the successful Polynesian Panorama performances, and the students' need to earn money . . . and decided to create the Polynesian Cultural Center as a visitor attraction.
Labor missionaries, who were already at work expanding the college campus, building more local chapels, enlarging the visitor center at the Temple and adding other facilities in Laie, extended their efforts to include building traditional Polynesian structures and elements of material culture on a 15-acre site adjacent to the college. A former labor missionary who came from Tonga and after remained in Laie said of the experience:
As I look back on that first plan of what we called the 'Polynesian Village' I see that it actually changed the course of my life. There were many families in Laie called to work specifically in the construction of the PCC villages and the whole community's feelings about the Center were very, very good. People sensed that the village of Laie would benefit from the Polynesian Cultural Center and they supported the project one hundred percent.
Another woman recalled: Community people were also called to come and help. They came and spent their days there without any pay — families, husbands and wives. I think that is the key to the success of the program — the fact that nobody had money on their minds. It was a [church] call and everybody worked with that goal in mind. If it had been for money, I don't think it would have been very successful; but because it was a calling, it worked.
Many others also helped: A special contingent of over 100 Maori came at their own expense from New Zealand to help get their "village" ready and participate in the opening ceremonies. Other Polynesians from the South Pacific had contributed building materials, and the late Queen Salote of Tonga sent two of her master builders to ensure that the quarter-scale model of her summer palace we created appropriately.
