WAILUA — More than a hundred volunteers from the community gathered for the annual Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park Earth Day cleanup on Saturday. With the recent inclement weather, teams cleared the south beach of vegetative debris accumulated from
WAILUA — More than a hundred volunteers from the community gathered for the annual Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park Earth Day cleanup on Saturday.
With the recent inclement weather, teams cleared the south beach of vegetative debris accumulated from the winds and big northeastern swells.
Another team cleared submerged vegetative leaf mold and debris within the Morgan’s Ponds swimming areas while others cleared the shorelines.
Most of the work for this year’s event centered around the Lydgate Park and Kamalani Playground area.
“It’s already been 19 years,” said Graeme Merrin, a volunteer working to rejuvenate some of the equipment at the playground. “Next year, it’ll be the 20th anniversary, and I remember Bob Leathers telling us the playground will have a life of 19 years when we put it in.”
Merrin headed up a group of volunteers that included members from the Rotary Club of Kapa‘a, which will celebrate its annual Taste of Hawai‘i event in early June.
Angela Tillson, program manager for the National Tropical Botanical Gardens Breadfruit Institute, joined the Earth Day celebration by distributing breadfruit seedlings.
“This is a true Earth Day event,” she said.
Tillson said the Breadfruit Institute has distributed about 2,000 seedlings since October, and with the aid of a grant, has a target of distributing 4,000 seedlings throughout the state by the summer.
The Lydgate Park event was one of several Earth Day events taking place around the island. Cub Scouts from Cub Pack 148, sponsored by the Lihu‘e Christian Church, stopped by to help with litter pickup before attending the Boy Scouts of America, Aloha Council Makahiki at the Kapa‘a Beach Park.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
