LIHU‘E — While a sea of nearly 100 volunteers worried about getting school supplies to more than 2,100 school students, a handful of volunteers — four, to be exact — worried about getting school supplies to the teachers and educators of thousands of students at the Grove Farm Market held in the Puhi park open field on Saturday.
“This is just a single-day school supplies drive (for teachers),” said Elyse Litvack, one of the founders of Kumu’s Cupboard, which is described as a resource center for Kaua‘i’s teachers and educators.
“Grove Farm Company is sponsoring us the space for the school supplies drive for a single day. We tried doing this with the Back to School Bash, but the people’s attitude is different. We used to get patrons asking, ‘What are you folks giving away?’”
Fundraising for teacher resources continues beyond the one-day school supplies drive with an online auction on July 28 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. coordinated by Malama Auctions. Pickup of successful auction bids will be on Aug. 7 at the Kumu’s Cupboard facility located at Kukui Grove Marketplace near the Target store.
Items available for potential bidders include hotel packages, artwork, jewelry, local activity packages, textiles, gift items, and many more that are available by visiting the Malama Auctions websire at www.malamaauctions.com.
Additionally, contributions from individuals and businesses are welcome at any time by visiting the Kumu’s Cupboard website at www.kumuscupboard.org.
Kumu’s Cupboard will open to teachers from July 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A full listing of the special hours through the opening of school is available on the website.
“We’re ready for the teachers. They’ve been working through the past couple of weeks to set up their classrooms for the students,” Litvack said.
“Now, they can come get the things they need to complete the job. Additionally, we have a special new hires day where all the new teachers, including the teachers from the Philippines, go through training and orientation all day, and can shop from 3 to 6:30 p.m.”
According to Randal Francisco, there are 14 of these “Philippines trained teachers” arriving to Kaua‘i in time for the opening of the fall semester when students first report to class on Aug. 5.
“These are teachers trained in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM),” Francisco said. “They’ll be placed in various Kaua‘i schools to help our students.”
The first group of four teacher arrived last Wednesday and through the efforts of Kaua‘i High School teacher Leah Aiwohi, the new arrivals were treated to a Pacific Biodiesel farm tour to celebrate the First Bloom of sunflowers that were planted in Kaumakani.
More teachers arrived on Saturday when Francisco accompanied several of the new arrivals to a tour of the Kaua‘i Ocean Discovery learning center, which was also involved in the Back to School Bash.
Litvack said once school starts, Kumu’s Cupboard will resume regular hours that include Tuesdays and Fridays from 3 to 6:30 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.
For more information, visit www.kumuscupboard.org.
