Mar 15, 2012 | Community
Youth Alliance members impressed an expert Maui County planner with ideas about how Wailuku could become a more thriving community. As the supervising planner for the County’s Long Range Planning Division, David Yamashita is charged with overseeing a project called reWailuku. The Wailuku Community Association, the County Planning Department and the Maui Redevelopment Agency coordinated “ReWailuku” as a means to collect community comments on plans to revitalize the historic town. Visiting the community design project gave the Youth Alliance members a chance to provide their perspective to the reWailuku team. “Adults and youth look at things in a whole different way. It was really helpful to hear from the youth,” Yamashita said.
King Duke, a junior at Maui High School, said: “The reWailuku event taught me a lot about how a community thrives. I really respect what they are doing with the fact that they are trying to remember what was good about Wailuku,” Taking its cues from the Youth Alliance, the reWailuku team plans to incorporate the idea of creating a place for young adults to gather and “hang out” in Wailuku, Yamashita said. “We call it the third place,” he said, adding that a person’s first place is home and the second might be school or the workplace. Yamashita said the purpose of reWailuku is to “create a Wailuku for the next generation.”
Having heard from both adults and youth in the community has helped the Planning Department come up with a solid plan for the Central Maui town. “Wailuku should be a walkable town,” Yamashita said. A public presentation on the reWailuku project findings will be made on March 28. More information is available at reWailuku.com. Duke said he and other Youth Alliance members enjoyed sharing ideas and envisioning the future of Wailuku. “Maui should keep its Hawaiian feel, a paradise of sorts where everything is beautiful and you don’t want to stop walking because there’s so many great places to go with such friendly people.”
Mar 8, 2012 | Community
Rick Rutiz with Hana School student, Christine Naihe.
Carpenter Rick Rutiz has developed an award-winning program that boosts self-esteem in Hana’s youth, while building much needed facilities in their community. The Hana School Building Program “Ma Ka Hana Ke ‘Ike” (“in working, one learns”) started 12 years ago with Rutiz guiding a small group of struggling high school students with a task to build a counselor’s office on their campus. From there, more students joined Rutiz’s program and they began tackling projects that required even more specialized skills such as artistic tiling, building with bamboo and renovating facilities to make them accessible to the handicapped. The program began with funding support from small contractors like Rutiz and has since won awards and grants from private citizens, government, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and private foundations.
Today, Ma Ka Hana Ke ‘Ike has graduated 100-plus students, many of whom have landed jobs in the construction field and others who went on to college, equipped with knowledge of how to use basic tools. “Many of our kids have not had an easy time in the classroom. But we found that through our program, they gained life skills, they built their self-esteem and they finally found something they can do and do well,” Rutiz said. “They have learned to find success in themselves.”
The newest component of the Hana Building Program features graduate apprentices who support Rutiz by mentoring younger students. “It’s just great to see them teach younger kids. Our apprentices are continuing to learn, but they’re also helping me with training so that we can perpetuate this program,” Rutiz said. “I’m very proud of my graduates. They’re incredible and most of them have surpassed what I thought they could do.” Rutiz said the program inspires him. “I get to work every day and see this lighting up of self-confidence and self-worth in my students. It’s awesome, absolutely awesome.”
Feb 29, 2012 | Community
Bob and Barbara Spaulding
Husband and wife Bob and Barbara Spaulding deliver hot meals every Sunday, nine months out of the year, to South Maui’s homebound, frail, elderly and disabled. The Spauldings are amongst 28 volunteers who regularly transport cooked meals-to-go from Hale Kau Kau, a soup kitchen aimed at curbing hunger on the island. On each trip, the Spauldings deliver food to as many as 15 homes, taking the time to visit with grateful recipients who are unable for various reasons to shop or cook their own meals. “It’s extremely rewarding to know we feed not only their basic needs, but the soul as well,” Bob Spaulding said. “I realize sometimes it’s the only human contact they have that day,” added Barbara, Spaulding’s wife of 55 years.
The Spauldings say in the 10 years they’ve delivered meals, they’ve experienced great support for the work they do. “Whenever we’ve needed to make a left turn on South Kihei Road, someone gives way. It’s the Maui way, others make allowances so you can do what you need to do,” Mr. Spaulding said. Since the fiscal year opened on July 1, Hale Kau Kau has prepared more than 34,000 meals, a 13 percent increase over the same time period the year before. About three-quarters of the last six month’s meals are served out of a kitchen at St. Theresa Church in Kihei; the rest were delivered to the homebound. The meal program for the homebound has been in existence for about 12 of the 20 years Hale Kau Kau has operated.
Hale Kau Kau’s major fundraiser of the year takes place Saturday at the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort and Spa. The event features live and silent auctions, a buffet dinner with no host bar, and entertainment by local performers Louise Alborano and Tarvin Makia opening for headliner Makana, Hawaii’s youngest slack key guitar master. To attend the fundraiser or make a donation, call 875-8754 or e-mail: hkkmaui@yahoo.com or hkkmariet@gmail.com
Feb 22, 2012 | Innovation
National Engineering Week is well on its way here on Maui where more than 75 students are immersed in a variety of opportunities to explore the field of engineering. This is the 11th year in which Maui Economic Development Board’s Women in Technology program has taken the lead in coordinating the weeklong event that runs through this Saturday. Partners include the Air Force Research Laboratory, Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers Maui Chapter, the County of Maui and local engineering firms. With fewer than 5 percent of Hawaii’s engineers being women, National Engineering Week is important as it exposes young girls to engineering as a career.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day has more than 250 middle school students participating from Maui County. An engineering expo event will feature 40 students in hands-on activities that expose them to various engineering fields. Other activities include Maui Electric Co. hosting 12 girls on a tour of their central plant, a career shadowing with MECO engineers and an activity that shows them how to build their own circuit boards. In the County’s Wastewater Reclamation Division, 10 girls are poised to learn about civil engineering and the important role of a wastewater treatment plant. Iao Intermediate School student Christine says it all: “Going to an engineer’s worksite and seeing what a big role they have in our community inspired me to pursue engineering as a career.”
Engineering In the Middle competitions are also in the mix including Popsicle Bridge Building and Marshmallow Launcher contests. There are five participating schools — Lokelani Intermediate, Maui Waena Intermediate, Iao School, Kalama Intermediate and Molokai Middle School. Winners will go on to compete at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Jr. Engineering Expo in March. For information about the Women in Technology program, please visit www.womenintech.com or contact Mapu Quitazol at 875-2343 or at mapu@medb.org.
Feb 15, 2012 | Environment
Maui filmmakers Joe Imhoff and Sara Tekula set out to plant native trees in every state, and now they want to document the project. The husband-and-wife team founded the nonprofit “Plant a Wish” and embarked on a tour of all 50 states on Memorial Day 2010, planting native trees in each state and culminating Nov. 5, 2011, in Hawaii. A caretaker for each tree in each state was identified, and overall Imhoff and Tekula put in more than 1,000 native trees at dozens of community planting events across the country.
From Washington to Wyoming, Texas to Tennessee, the duo learned all things native and shared with others the story of Maui’s battle with alien species and loss of indigenous plants and animals. They also explained efforts to repair and restore the effects of trees on human health and the community’s overall environment. “Along the tour, it all began to make so much sense that every living thing has a purpose and those purposes are all connected. That was really meaningful for me,” Tekula said. Imhoff added: “I learned that the power of belief is very effective when doing good things for the world.” Their project was funded by donors who contributed varying amounts from $1 to $2,500. So far, they’ve raised approximately $20,000 for the project.
“What surprised me the most was how many doors of opportunity opened up for us as our mission evolved,” Imhoff said. He and Tekula got access to expert conservationists, educators and authors interested in tree planting and preservation and how they contribute to a healthy environment. “The biggest surprise I think I experienced was the unfortunate amount of sheer devastation we saw happening at the hands of our fellow human beings,” Tekula said. In some places, Tekula said they saw environmental devastation to mountaintops and toxic waste dumps. They found communities where people didn’t know which plants were native to their area. At the end, the couple collected reams of video and photos that recorded the story of their journey. They would like to share the information in a documentary and need public support to do just that. Go to: http://www.plantawish.org/donate.
Photo by Sean Michael Hower
Youth Alliance members impressed an expert Maui County planner with ideas about how Wailuku could become a more thriving community. As the supervising planner for the County’s Long Range Planning Division, David Yamashita is charged with overseeing a project called reWailuku. The Wailuku Community Association, the County Planning Department and the Maui Redevelopment Agency coordinated “ReWailuku” as a means to collect community comments on plans to revitalize the historic town. Visiting the community design project gave the Youth Alliance members a chance to provide their perspective to the reWailuku team. “Adults and youth look at things in a whole different way. It was really helpful to hear from the youth,” Yamashita said.
