LIHU‘E — Nearly 600 fifth grade students got a unique and fun water education during the Make A Splash with Project WET (Water Education Today) at the Vidinha Stadium soccer fields on Friday.
“This event is an inspiring demonstration of teamwork, educational connections, and the value of water,” said Jonell Kaohelauli‘i of the Department of Water.
“Water agencies from across the state come together to help teach and inspire students, offering them the knowledge and experience that promotes critical thinking to make informed decisions about how they can contribute to wise water use and environmental stewardship.”
Kaohelauli‘i said the number of students were concentrated from the Hawai‘i Department of Education Central and West complexes because the East complex schools had a day off from school.
She said having the East complex schools on a day off had its share of blessings, such as not having enough buses to accommodate the mass of students to the single-day event.
“We’ll be doing mini Make A Splashes for those schools that couldn’t come,” Kaohelauli‘i said. “We also got help from the Transportation Agency, who let us use three Kaua‘i Bus to pick up students from schools where there weren’t enough buses.”
This effort joined those of the 240 volunteers that included representatives from business firms with neighbor island offices, including O‘ahu, Maui and the Big Island, which manned 11 educational stations with each station offering a different slice of water education drawn from the curriculum of Project WET.
“This year, the DOW Make A Splash featured eight Project WET activities, and three partner-guided activities from Aqua Engineers, Inc., the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” Kaohelauli‘i said.
“The DOW would like to thank the following water partners for their commitment to water education and their commendable efforts towards making this year’s Make A Splash a success.”
Aqua Engineers Inc., American Water Works Association-Hawai‘i Section, Bowers and Kubota, LLC, Carollo Engineers, Inc., DLNR-Aquatics Resources, DLNR-Division of Forestry and Wildlife, the Department of Health-Safe Drinking Water Branch, East and West Kaua‘i Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Grove Farm Land Corporation and Hawai‘i Rural Water Association each contributed to make this year’s program a smash.
Also contributing to this year’s program were the Hawai‘i Water Environmental Association, NOAA-Marine Animal Rescue Program, Kapa‘a High School JROTC program, the Kaua‘i Bus, Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau, University of Hawai‘i-College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Kaua‘i Community College-Early Childhood Learning Program, Kodani and Associates Engineers LLC, The Nature’s Conservancy, Uncle Tilo’s Clean Water LLC and participating DOW staff.
