KEKAHA — Thanks to Blessings with a Backpack, many Kaua‘i children will have plenty food during the weekend. Students from Kula Aupuni Ni‘ihau A Kahelelani Aloha Public Charter School lined up eagerly, Friday as the clock neared 1 p.m. Not
KEKAHA — Thanks to Blessings with a Backpack, many Kaua‘i children will have plenty food during the weekend.
Students from Kula Aupuni Ni‘ihau A Kahelelani Aloha Public Charter School lined up eagerly, Friday as the clock neared 1 p.m.
Not only was it an early day out, it was time to get their Blessings with a Backpack — an assortment of food which included raisins, oatmeal, saimin, crackers and energy bars.
“The students get a package every week through the Blessings with a Backpack program,” said Hedy Sullivan, principal of the KANAKA Public Charter School. “We are a 100 percent ‘Free and Reduced Lunch’ school, so every student gets a package.”
Sullivan said the program started in August through the Friends of Hawai‘i Charities, a sponsor of the Sony Open in Hawai‘i that concluded play last week on O‘ahu.
“They had programs on Maui and O‘ahu, and wanted to expand it to Kaua‘i,” said Gini Kapali of Kukui‘ula Development, a Kaua‘i partner of Friends of Hawai‘i Charities. “They approached Charles Kawakami of the Big Save stores to see if he would be a Kaua‘i partner, and I got to work with Mr. Kawakami as a Kaua‘i partner.”
The program was expanded to include the KANAKA Public Charter School and Ke Kula Ni‘ihau O Kekaha Learning Center — A Laboratory Public Charter School, states a release from the Friends of Hawai‘i Charities.
Sullivan said the KANAKA Public Charter School serves students from kindergarten through grade 11, noting they don’t have any seniors, this year.
One of the aspects she is proud of is that the school, which started in 1992 in Kekaha Park, formally known as the H.P. Faye Park, has grown to where it now has four teachers with Highly Qualified Teacher status, a feature she said should make the federal people happy.
In addition to the four HQT instructors, KANAKA Public Charter School also has three cultural teachers, Sullivan said.
“In 2010, KANAKA Public Charter School was one of only two charter schools to be invited to the Distinguished Department of Education awards, and KANAKA Public Charter School was the only Hawai‘i (culture)-based school,” Sullivan said. “We are proud of that.”
Sullivan said now that its instructors have HQT certification, KANAKA Public Charter School’s next task is to increase student enrollment.
From its birth in the park, KANAKA Public Charter Schools moved to the Boys and Girls Club, Waimea Clubhouse. In 2004, the school transferred to its current location, on the Ni‘ihau end of the former Kekaha Sugar Company administration building.
“When we got here, we just had one big room where everybody was together,” Sullivan said. “Over the years, we’ve developed areas for the high school, middle school, elementary, and even a technology area.”
Sullivan said they could use a covered cafeteria to replace the complex of quick-tents and picnic tables, but those are an improvement from the days when students would sit on sidewalks alongside the classroom to eat their meals.
The Sony Open in Hawai‘i is the flagship event of Friends of Hawai‘i Charities where 140 sponsors and 1,400 volunteers contribute their time and resources to make this first-field PGA Tour event a success, states the Friends release.
Through the help of charity partner, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, almost $1 million is raised annually for the Friends of Hawai‘i Charities to provide grants to programs serving the islands’ keiki, women, elderly and needy.
More than $10 million to more than 350 not-for-profit organizations has been raised and distributed throughout the Hawaiian Islands over the past 12 years by the Friends of Hawai‘i Charities and its Sony Open charity partner, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
Go to www.friendsofhawaii.org for grant applications.
