Serving Maui and the people of Hawaii since 2014, Maui Search and Rescue (MSAR) is an all- volunteer organization dedicated to providing expert search and rescue assistance, plus community outreach education. They respond to calls from police and fire departments; however, in situations where these groups have not been activated yet, family members and loved ones may contact MSAR directly. As a nonprofit, MSAR does not charge for their services. They train and search in all types of weather and terrain, day and night, assisting and supporting in times of need.
“If you believe a family member or loved one may be lost or missing please do not hesitate to call us as well as other county organizations,” said Jen Regan, MSAR Vice President. “In many situations when somebody has disappeared, there is a time period when loved ones are not certain whether they are lost or missing. In that case, one does not need to wait to call MSAR. The sooner a phone call is made the better. In some situations, police or fire departments are unable to respond, or require a waiting period, but MSAR can usually respond directly and immediately even in those kind of circumstances.”
MSAR searches for all kinds of people in all kinds of situations including missing hikers, children, Alzheimer’s patients, mentally ill, suicide victims, body recoveries, and evidence searches. They are prepared to do a lot more than just find missing hikers. They have come together as highly trained and concerned citizens whose knowledge of emergency systems you can depend on. They often face real life-and-death issues for the benefit of the community.
“Search and Rescue is not a single discipline,” Regan explained. “We provide monthly search trainings for our volunteers to keep them safe in the field, and there is also special training for our K-9 rescue dogs. We want the community to know about us. Families should not have to scramble to find our information at the worst time of their lives. Our volunteer work is from the heart. We put in hundreds of hours and are here to help.”
Sometimes those in our community find themselves in unfortunate situations. There are lives being saved on a daily basis and that is important to those on both ends of the rescue.
Ramsay Taum, a speaker at numerous Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) events, talks about the importance of integrating Native Hawaiian cultural values in every aspect of our lives, including business and educational programs. Mentored and trained by respected kupuna (elders), Taum’s extensive background and experience in business, government and community service makes him a valuable asset in both public and private sectors. In 2013, he received the Distinguished Peacemaker Award in recognition of his long career advocating the spirit of aloha in Hawaii and around the world.
A Kamehameha Schools graduate, Taum attended the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, and earned a B.S. degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California. He is the founder and president of Life Enhancement Institute of the Pacific, and Director of External Relations & Community Partnerships at the University of Hawaii School of Travel Industry Management.
At a recent MEDB event, Taum discussed the importance of Hawaii’s sense of place: knowing where you are from, who you are, and where you are going. Using a lōkahi (unity) analogy, Lessons from the Reef, he described how each part of the reef works in harmony. “Often when we discuss diversity, the purpose is really to come together, in unity,” Taum explained. “Aloha is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence, working in harmony.”
Taum added, “Aloha is a way of being, a way of behaving. Aloha is more than a greeting. It is the art and spirit of giving and receiving. It is to give and not expect anything in return, to receive and not forget to give back. It speaks of sustainability and reciprocity, rights and privileges, responsibilities and obligations. Our actions must express these ways of thinking with kindness and tenderness. Ha in the words aloha and mahalo is the breath that connects us all. Knowing that ha is the spirit of the air that we all share, we realize we are connected in the spirit of community among the people of Hawaii and the world. Thus, we give thanks for all our aloha blessings.”
Defining Hawaii as Ha (life-giving breath), wai (life-giving water), and i (supreme life-giver), connects us in the presence of divine breath where we are made whole in one community. When we agree to disagree, with aloha, we find that we are truly one people.
Student Space Day went virtual at the 22nd Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference (AMOS) with guest speaker NASA Astronaut United States Space Force Col. Michael Hopkins. Presented by the Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) STEMworks™ Program, the popular event for Hawaii’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) students, drew over 350 youth in grades K-12. Streaming live from AMOS, teachers and students heard a video and talk about Hopkins’ time on the International Space Station (ISS).
Most recently, Hopkins served as Commander of the Crew-1 mission, SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle named Resilience, which landed on May 2, 2021. He also served as Flight Engineer on the ISS for Expedition 64. In his talk, he engaged students and made the material accessible with student friendly language using ‘Baby Yoda’ as a co-host. The presentation gave a glimpse into the day-to-day life of an astronaut who accumulated 168 days in space with five spacewalks.
“A wide-range of experiments across all scientific fields are being done on the space station,” Hopkins explained. “Scientists focus on research revolving around human health and physiology, agriculture and much more. Examples include: understanding how plants grow in microgravity; how technology can improve liquid movement in space; and how long spaceflight affects the human body. These experiments play a crucial role in planning for future deep space travel.”
Wendy Wells, Lihikai Elementary Science and Math Curriculum Support, said, “The students had many questions for Col. Hopkins such as why the return pods land in water and about weight in space. One student was particularly fascinated by the fact that they were growing plants in space. Another was asking about how long it took to build the rockets used to get to the ISS. Even if students are not inspired to go to space themselves, they could see all the connections to other professions and skills. It is life-changing for any child to feel that their interest or talent may have a use in something as fantastic as space. It motivates us as teachers to provide as many of those experiences as we can.”
I have worked with MEDB’s STEMworks for many years. I am so grateful for the extensive, relevant, and high-quality opportunities they provide.
Wendy Wells, Lihikai Elementary Science and Math Curriculum Support
Maui lost one of its true characters and treasures this last June with the passing away of Peter Damon Baldwin. A scion of the longtime Maui Baldwin family, Peter was the fourth generation to head Haleakala Ranch and Dairy, and was actively involved in community and business leadership throughout his life.
In addition to his credentials as rancher – Peter was inducted into the Paniolo Hall of Fame — Peter was a family man, inveterate prankster, and consummate athlete. In his younger years he was a standout high school athlete in baseball, basketball and tennis, and at university his Cornell polo team won the Collegiate National title. He represented the U.S. in polo, won numerous national tournaments, and his Maui polo teams were a dominant force in the sport. Another passion was roping and rodeo, dating from his All-Round Cowboy title at the Makawao Rodeo in 1968 and competing in the Calgary Stampede. Peter even won the annual Maui Golf Championship four years a row in the 1960s.
The community contribution of which he was most proud was founding the Maui Youth Soccer Organization (MYSO) in 1976, the first organized soccer league on Maui. His Haleakala Dairy sponsored its inaugural year, providing uniforms and equipment for 600 youth participants. Soccer on Maui has never looked back. The Dairy also sponsored a week-long football camp for hundreds of keiki in the early 70s that featured Roman Gabriel, Merlin Olsen and several members of the LA Rams.
Another of his community accomplishments was a to lead the fundraising campaign for the J. Walter Cameron Center in Wailuku. As a savvy and successful businessman, Peter held numerous company directorships, including Bank of Hawaii, Hawaiian Airlines, and Maui Land and Pine. He was also involved in developing the Kihei Safeway center, Piilani Villages, and the Maui Tech Park in Kihei. Peter was an expert delegator – he liked to say that his guiding principle was to hire people who were better than him and knew more than he did.
Makalapua Waring, the wife of Peter’s right-hand man at Haleakala Dairy, Dick Waring, sums Peter up best: “Peter treats everyone the same way. He’s been one of the good guys – he’s done so much for so many for so long.”
A pair of Maui musicians, five-time Grammy Award winner George Kahumoku Jr. and KAOI radio host Cindy Paulos, a UNESCO Cross-Cultural and Peace Crafters Award winner, teamed with musician and filmmaker Rupam Sarmah to produce a special CD release titled Aum─Aloha Blessings. Kahumoku said, “Throughout the CD the aloha chant connects our ha (breath) with the aina (land) and the kai (ocean) creating lokahi (harmony) and peace between man, the creatures of the earth, the plants, and the fruits and vegetables that sustain us.”
Using music for uplifting, redirecting, and reflecting the emotions is vital to improve wellbeing during these challenging times. “The stress of Covid made me turn to the creative side within me to find something positive to do to counter the flood of bad news and fear that was present in the news,” said Paulos. “It felt so good creating this project in a time of such need. The results are direct and immediate.”
The new release, Aum─Aloha Blessings, is available in stereo and Dolby Atmos® on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Tidal, and other platforms. It has 154 minutes of eight tracks plus an additional eight instrumental tracks for meditation. “The divine sound is music for the soul,” Kahumoku emphasized. “The chanting and healing energies from around the world are over 7000 years old.”
Aum─Aloha Blessingswas inspired by Sarmah’s visit to Maui when he showed his film One LittleFinger at the McCoy theater. His feature film made history with a cast of over eighty persons with disabilities. “One Little Finger is not just a film,” said Kahumoku. “It’s a movement to promote inclusion and diversity to break the barriers of stigma in disability. I worked on the project long-distance during the pandemic with over 100 musicians to create the blending of Indian music with Hawaiian chant and spoken-word invocation.”
Sarmah reflected, “The aloha tradition combined with ancient mantras produces forward-thinking creations of sound. The music compositions will help in meditation, yoga, and healing our minds, with proceeds going to the nonprofit One Little Finger Global Foundation. Our work reflects the message of oneness, peace, and aloha.”
We get to know each other through music. It brings joy amid the pandemic and it is a wonderful way to connect us.
Maui resident Rinko Jeffers, a recipient of the Nihon Bunka Award in 2019, is a gifted haiku master poet. The Award recognizes individuals for their excellence and contributions to the Japanese arts and culture and for their unselfish willingness to share their talents with the community Jeffers aloha and knowledge have been key to her success in bringing the joy of haiku to so many poets writing in Japanese and English alike. In 1996, following her 14-year employment with the United Nations in Japan and Africa, Jeffers co-established the Maui Hototogisu Haiku-kai Club, which she continues to lead. In 2009, she started the Maui Haiku Poetry in English Club. Chancellor of UH, Emeritus, Dr. Clyde Sakamoto, is the honorable resident of both haiku groups.
To Jeffers, enjoying life with haiku is to consciously appreciate the energy in our natural environment. Haiku poetry, a type of short-form poetry originally from Japan, consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. It is a unique form of art between the author and the readers.
“A haiku verse must be written about something that caught the author’s attention for a flash of a second, something that nature presents,” Jeffers explained. “The moon, the flowers, the birds, the wind, and mundane human activities are all there, all the time, around us. But at odd moments, something may hit us unexpectedly, leading us to an aha! moment, a re-recognition of self. To evoke such deep feelings is the essence of haiku writing, and we share that moment. It is a condensed form of a conversation between human souls, between the author and the readers, similar to the effect of emoji.”
Jeffers, a volunteer at the Maui Friends of the Library, also provides introductory haiku classes to third and fourth grade students at Paia, Waihee and Lihikai Elementary Schools. She reflected, “Sometimes, by invitation of the teachers, I introduce haiku to the children in their class as a community service. The students seem to enjoy trying to write haiku. They realize they too are great poets. I have received many thank-you letters from them.”
To write haiku, we just keep on trying to catch the moment and keep practicing, writing with our own language in this short and poetic form.
With beans grown on Maui, the owners of Akamai Coffee Company, Kimberly and Byron Brown, have perfected the cup of coffee from start to finish. In business since 2007, with a drive-thru in Kahului adjacent to Home Depot, the Browns have also opened fashionable Kihei and Wailea cafes. As Akamai dealt with the Covid-19 global impact, they realized the importance of being creative to make the business work through this challenging time. The drive-thru Kahului and Kihei locations with grab-and-go choices were a big help. Once allowed to reopen, they were ready to resume in-person business, with Covid restrictions.
“We have been blessed,” said Sarah Strubhar, Akamai store manager. “We are so grateful for our customers and we work hard to offer them a great product. Akamai coffee beans are 100-percent locally grown on the West Side in Kaanapali. From the farm, our beans go to a private upcountry roaster in Haiku. The brewed coffee, americanos, lattes, frappes, mocha, seasonal roasts, and more, are all local flavors. We roast two to three times a week so everything we make is super fresh. Roasting is an essential part of the seed-to-serving process to get the finest tasting coffee into your cup. The roasters at Akamai have spent countless hours fine-tuning the Maui coffees to get the highest quality flavor notes and profiles in each and every batch.”
The high caffeine content in Akamai coffee is due to the way they roast. Their medium roasting technique ensures the natural caffeine is not burned off. “Once the beans come to us, we make sure everything works to perfection,” Strubhar noted. “Plus, because great coffee starts with good water; we use a filtration system at each location.”
The food menu at Akamai also consists of local Maui ingredients. With their pastries and other dishes, such as avocado toast, and their specialized coffees including Maui Peaberry, Maui Mokka, Makawao Avenue Roast, Yellow Brick Road Roast and their Akamai Signature Roast, customers are returning daily. Strubhar emphasized, “Our goal is to provide the best we can for our clientele. It is time for Made on Maui to shine!”
Maui produces some of the most delicious coffees in the world. It means a great deal to share a piece of Maui with the people in the community.
Born and raised in Wailuku, local artist Malorie Arisumi loves to share her talent and passion for painting. Her enthusiasm for art began at a young age, when an elementary school art project sparked something magical for her. She was further inspired by various media during high school and created her first oil painting of a purple Maui sunset. Arisumi graduated from UH Maui College (UHMC) in 1986 with an associate degree in Business. In 2015 she received another degree from UHMC in Visual Arts.
“Being in school again in my late 40s, I was surrounded by art students of all ages,” said Arisumi. “I had the wonderful opportunity to be an assistant artist to Samuel Kaiwi on the mural titled Makahiki on the UHMC campus, where I learned to work as a team with other artists. Since 2017, I have been teaching painting for beginners and all levels at the Kaunoa Senior Center, where classes begin again in October. My students experience several forms of media such oils, acrylic, watercolor, alcohol ink and printmaking. It is more than paper and paint; we inspire and learn from each other in a peaceful and healing environment.”
Sandy Nakama, Kaunoa art student, commented, “Arisumi is an inspiring and encouraging teacher. She motivates in a positive way and I always learn new techniques. I have been in her bamboo painting class since 2017 and one of my paintings won an award at the county fair!”Currently, Arisumi does various commission pieces, teaches art classes, sells at craft fairs, and is featured on fineartamerica.com. Queen Kaahumanu Center is showcasing her mural, Kaanapali Regatta, along with four of her paintings in window wraps throughout the mall; for which she is touched and honored. She is doing Zoom art classes for families through UHMC where participants explore Hawaiian themes, renewable energy and conservation. “I am thankful to be part of special projects in which we are able to blend sustainability concepts with artistic techniques,” Arisumi reflected. “Painting is a work of love. It makes me very happy to share it with others. I enjoy seeing everyone paint!”
It’s never too late to follow your heart and passion. It’s definitely never too late to paint!
This past March, Lokelani ‘Ohana re-opened their Saori weaving class to celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. Located in Wailuku, the nonprofit organization partnered with local artist Melissa Hagerty to bring therapeutic arts to the Maui community. “After the passing of our beloved Dana Allen, who led the creative weaving program for 15 years, the current class offered by Hagerty is a blessing to our community,” said Christina Chang, Founder and Director of Lokelani ‘Ohana. “Saori is a unique method of artistic weaving developed in Japan over fifty years ago by Misao Jo. Its underlying philosophy, weaving as a means to discover our true selves, encourages individual creativity.”
Based on the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, Saori is a worldview centered on accepting and appreciating the beauty of simplicity and naturalness. It is about exhibiting one’s true self through expressive, no-rules weaving. In a missed warp thread there can be unique human value in the non-machine-like fabric. These irregularities represent the uniqueness of human-made woven cloth as compared to a perfectly woven cloth. Imperfections on all levels are embraced. Most of all, Saori encourages inclusion of anyone who wishes to weave.
“The class, called Heart of the Hive, involves participants weaving one honey-comb hexagon shaped cell of a beehive in the indigenous Huichol weaving style known as the Ojo de Dios, the Eye of God,” Chang explained. “This style of weaving brings participants into their hearts, where they create a meaningful purpose that is expressed through their weaving.”
Hagerty added, “The participants create something special for themselves, friends, families, and communities. These goals could be for our earth, themselves, or each other. ‘Heart of the Hive’ says that the heart is where the intention for the weaving comes from, while the hive represents our communities as a whole. The simple style of weaving sparked the participants’ creativity, while also celebrating community and the power of forming intentions together. Once enough weavings are created, they can be connected to produce a large-scale woven beehive community art installation, symbolizing originality and harmony.”
Lokelani ‘Ohana creates therapeutic programs in housing, organic gardening, and the arts for all of our Maui community, including adults with developmental disabilities.
Christina Chang, Founder and Director, Lokelani ‘Ohana
