Throughout this school year, our Native Hawaiian garden has
received more and more support from the community and other organizations. I wanted to take some time to thank these
different community members and organizations for all that they have done to make
this project come to life. There is more
work to be done, but a huge MAHALO for all that you have donated and done for
us these past months.
Mahalo to Mrs. Christy Sasaki, the parent of one of our 5th
graders, for coming out and working continuously within the garden (especially
in the HOT Ewa sun). Mrs. Sasaki has put
in a lot of time in the garden, preparing the mounds for the planting and
checking up on our taro patch to make sure everything is running smoothly. She has also donated a lot of materials for
the garden.
Mahalo to Mr. Justin Keliipaakaua from Leeward Community College
Mahalo to the Alcos family for your support in the initial
stages of our garden. We would not have
been able to start off our garden without your help.
Mahalo to Mr. Cary Takenaka, the president of Takenaka
Landscaping Company in Mililani, for coming out and bringing in his expertise
on Native gardens. He will be installing
our drip system later on this month, laying down the foundation for the pathways,
as well as other components within the garden.
Mahalo to HECO for collaborating with us on this project and
making sure that all of our garden needs were being met. They were able to recommend Mr. Cary and find
experts from Hui Ku Maoli Ola to guide us to the right path with our plants and
spacing for each plant. HECO will also be in charge of putting in all of the plants for the last sections within the garden (medicinal plants, endangered plants, lowland, etc.)
Mahalo to Haseko and Ewa by Gentry for your kind donations. We received a monetary donation from Gentry
to help out with our garden expenses.
Haseko provided all of the dirt for our garden beds. They were also able to provide the machinery and
workers to prep our garden area.
Mahalo to the following organizations for the grant opportunity
and for the monetary support to start up our garden. Kokua Hawaii Foundation, Chevron Grant
(HaSTA), Youth Service America (Disney’s Friend for Change)
Mahalo to all of the parents and staff of Keone’ula
Elementary for all of your support. We
could not have gotten this far without you.
You have donated time and money to help start off Keone’ulas first
school garden. Also thank you Mrs.
Hirota for allowing us to continue with our garden project and for supporting
the students ideas within the garden. Another
person we would like to recognize is Ms. Obra.
Thank you for coming out every Saturday to work in the garden and to support the students with this project. Rain or shine, we knew that Ms. Obra would be
out there with a smile ready to greet the students/volunteers with her positive attitude and energy.
Lastly, a big MAHALO to the students for all of your
enthusiasm and positive energy! For those
who came out and helped in the garden, I hope you had a great experience
working in it and hopefully you will continue to take care of it in the future. For the KIC students and 6th graders
(2011-2012) who are moving on, all of your hard work has paid off. You researched for the plants that you wanted
to have in the garden, you wrote donation letters to parents and community
organizations/groups, you gave up your Saturdays to get down and dirty in the
garden…and now it’s halfway done. I hope
you remember this project that you have started this school year and come back
to help see it through.
Keone’ula Cub Pride!!!
Ms Coffin
