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...
Carpenter Builds Confidence in Students
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...
Delivering Food and Fellowship
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...
Fire Chief Fulfills Lifelong Dream
Continuing our series on newly appointed County Department Directors, reflecting the role of government in responding to community values and needs. The son of a retired corrections officer and preschool teacher, Maui County Fire Chief Jeff Murray...
Youth Alliance Bonds with Animals
The Maui Humane Society’s mission to forge lifelong bonds between people and animals through education, community outreach and the prevention of cruelty, resonated recently with members of the Focus Maui Nui Youth Alliance. Lahainaluna High School...
Community Volunteers Serving the Environment
A community service project on Kaho‘olawe turned into a renewed appreciation for the Hawaiian culture and the value of giving back. That’s what Kevin Gavagan of the Four Seasons Wailea said happened to some 35 hotel employees and their families...
Honoring a Cultural Tradition on Maui for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Maui retirees Terri and George Rainey have been involved in planning and promoting Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations in Hawaii for nearly two decades now. Terri Rainey recalled meeting the late civil rights leader for the first time in 1961...
Meet Maui County Police Chief Gary Yabuta
Continuing our series on County Department leadership, reflecting the role of government in responding to community values and needs. While residents enjoy the peace of living on an island with a relatively low crime rate, the job of maintaining...
Looking Ahead to 2012 – And Beyond
The New Year brings with it a sense of optimism as we look forward and prepare for exciting challenges ahead. Having been exposed to the Focus Maui Nui vision, Youth Alliance members shared a positive outlook on the county’s future and their role...
Youth Alliance: Raising Awareness About Hunger on Maui
Hunger and the holidays were on the minds of Focus Maui Nui Youth Alliance members as they sorted hundreds of donated canned goods at the Maui Food Bank. With Christmas only a few days away, about 15 high school students volunteered their time to...








