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Garden Island Arts Council proposed the Kahu'Ohana (Caretakers of the Family) project, building on the success of the 2007 Kahu'Aina (Caretakers of the Land) art competition for students. The focus of this project is to encourage students to crystallize in images, words and other forms of expression their appreciation for the family members and other mentors who influence their lives in positive ways.

Van Go! is taking this project "on the road" to give students all over the island the opportunity to express their appreciation through drawings, paintings, photos, poems, songs, videos, pod-casts, and other creative forms of expression. Local artists, songwriters, poets, and well-known personalities will provide workshops and demo sessions in schools, libraries, and various other venues where students can be brought together to participate. A $3,000 grant from Bread for the Journey of Kauai will help pay for supplies, van expenses, exhibition costs, artist fees, and other program expenses.

Bread for the Journey of Kauai was delighted to support the Kanuikapono Learning Center with a grant of $3,000 to help purchase a trailer for moving large equipment to remote sites where students will use them in experiential learning programs. Students learn about community needs through their relationship with community loi (wetland in which taro is grown) restoration. The school’s vision is “to Cultivate the 21st Century Learning Ohana by combining the teachings of our elders and the best of the 21st Century.” The purchase of the trailer will make a big difference to all of the Center’s students, faculty and administration.

The Aloha School has been serving the island community of Kauai since 1978, with experiential learning through cooking, gardening, music, art, dance, and movement. While there is a great deal of wealth on the North Shore of Kauai, many families are struggling with the huge increase in the cost of living over the past five years. With a grant of $3,000 from Bread for the Journey of Kauai, the Aloha School will be able to enroll children whose parents otherwise could not afford to send them to pre-school. This allows parents the security of being able to go to work knowing that their children are in a safe, nurturing, structured environment and the children learn creative social and interactive skills – a win/win for all.

As an adolescent in Vietnam just five years ago, Khuyen Tran had no clue about how to prepare himself for his new life in America. Starting school less than one month after arriving in the States, Khuyen found himself in the proverbial water without a lifejacket . He couldn’t understand the lectures at school and often felt challenged and confused. With help from others, he eventually began to understand and acclimate to the culture, while never forgetting his identity. Now, as a sophomore at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Khuyen Tran has successfully adjusted, and he wants to give back by helping his fellow foreign students to also succeed in a new world. Bread for the Journey of Kauai was pleased to grant $2,500 towards this effort.

A total of 400 students from Kauai Community College Hawaiian Studies, Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha, Island School, — as well as from various home schools — were privileged to attend an amazing cultural exchange program last March in the beautiful Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center. Sponsored by the Garden Island Arts Council, the performance featured the 12-member Maori troupe Te Wananga Maori; master kihoa’lu guitarist Jeff Peterson of Oahu; renowned jazz guitarist Amit of India; native Hawaiian students of Ke Kula Ni’ihau O Kekaha, Island School Hawaiian Hula Halau; master drummer Ernest Borkatey from Ghana; and the Love Tribe Drummers of Kauai. The performance was truly a wonderful sharing of cultures, providing enrichment for the artist and audience alike. A grant of $600 by Bread for the Journey for a post-performance meal provided further opportunity for the children and performers to meet and interact.

The students of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School in Puhi were privileged to see an inspiring demonstration of a significant cultural art form by the finest Taiko drummers in Hawai’i. These Oahu-based drummers study and teach at the Taiko Center of the Pacific. With a $700 grant from Bread for the Journey of Kauai to the Garden Island Arts Council, the entire student body had the rare opportunity to experience this superb performance.

Students at Hanalei Elementary School are broadcasting the news: They are high on life, and they are especially high on broadcasting the news! Yes, every morning Hanalei students broadcast the news at their school, and now they can do so with their very own video editing station, thanks to a $1,500 grant from Bread for the Journey of Kauai. The students are delighted to have a work station that is always available to them, rather than squeezing time in at other computers during lunch, recess, or after school.

Using their new video editing station, the students created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) called “Get High on Life.” The positive-approach, anti-drug video shows kids choosing exercise and making healthy choices to “get high” naturally, rather than on drugs. The students were able to digitally film and edit the project with their new G5 iMac computer. They regularly broadcast the 30-second PSA on the Hanalei School newscast, and have also entered it into three Hawaiian film festivals. The PSA will also air on Education Public TV station 56. Congratulations on a stellar production!

In January, 12 bright kids gathered with Derek Green for the first day of a 21-week course in improvisational fun. This course trains kids in Improv Acting and Skit Writing. Each class starts with a series of improvised scenes that inspire creativity and laughter. These scenes are then turned into writing material for skits in the style of "Saturday Night Live," "MadTV," and "The Amanda Show." Every actor has the potential of doing hundreds of scenes while changing each of their characters along the way.

At the end of the course, the students will perform their skits as part of a fundraiser for The Garden Island Arts Council. Bread for the Journey of Kauai contributed $750 to a scholarship fund, enabling five students from families that needed financial assistance to participate.

Bread for the Journey of Kauai joined in the Christmas spirit and was delighted to contribute $160 toward food donations to the Kauai Food Bank. Funds raised at a collection party of were matched by Bread for the Journey and delivered with a truckload of food goodies and lots of Christmas cheer.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa offers Bachelor’s Degrees in Elementary Education on Kauai, combining Internet classes and face-to-face meetings with professors, which enables students to obtain a degree while remaining at home on Kauai. During their last semester, students are required to work 5 full unpaid days a week and must also attend a 3-credit class that meets at night. For obvious reasons, students are advised against working during this semester. Kauai resident Doreen Stone recently received a scholarship from the Hanalei Bay Rotary Club, meeting some of her financial needs. However, Doreen also supports her daughter and mother, so when she tore ligaments in her ankle this past December, financial stress set in. A grant of $1,000 from Bread for the Journey of Kauai helped Doreen continue through her last semester and reach her goal of becoming a teacher on Kauai.

The YWCA of Kauai wanted to bring actress/educator Brenda Curren to Kauai to conduct a workshop called What Girls Know. This workshop is part of the YWCA’s initiative to prevent sexual assault and violence against women and girls. It consists of two components, one with a group of young women, and the other with trainers who will continue this process in Kauai in the future. The girls’ workshop helps to meet the need of girls to talk and build relationships with each other, to advocate for each other, to practice overcoming obstacles, develop character, and experience all features involved in doing difficult work (including the joy of the finished product!). It also provides the girls with training and experience in presenting their work to the public. Over the course of three weeks, a group of 12 - 20 young women will create a piece of original theatre based on their own ideas and stories. This will be rehearsed and then performed before a public audience.

Bread for the Journey of Kauai was happy to grant $700 to the YWCA of Kauai to pay for Brenda Curren’s travel expenses from NYC to Kauai.

Laura Taylor’s vision of peace includes a world in which all people honor diversity, treat one another with respect, and resolve conflict by listening. Toward that end, she volunteers her time to teach these skills to children in several elementary and middle schools throughout the island of Kauai. After several years in operation, her program – the Aloha Peace Project – is ready to expand by creating a lending library of award-winning videos that focus on issues of bullying, anger management and perseverance, doing the right thing, cliques, decision making and drugs, among other relevant topics. Bread for the Journey of Kauai is honored to support Laura in this character-building endeavor with a $1,000 grant.

Travis Williams, who goes by the name “Trinity,” is an aspiring musician, dancer, actor and producer whose vision is to bring disadvantaged children and their families who live on the island of Kauai together to play, work, and celebrate life. When he came to us with a dream of creating a multi-media event complete with performers, costumes, lighting and music in which everyone would participate — including parents, children, teens, teachers and surfers –his level of passion convinced us that he would make it happen. Bread for the Journey of Kauai’s contribution of $700 will help pay the overhead for his first production.

Carol Yotsuda - Creator of Van Go!

For the past 29 years, Garden Island Arts Council (GIAC) has been providing art and culture programs for the island of Kaua`i that include visual art exhibitions and workshops, Hawaiian Music programs and concerts, an ARTS newsletter, and much more. As an art teacher for the past 37 years, Carol Kouchi Yotsuda has recently become the volunteer Executive Director of GIAC. Kaua’i’s 56,000 residents are scattered alongside one main highway that encircles the island. Carol noticed that people living at the island’s farther reaches rarely take part in the cultural activities offered in the more densely populated areas of Kaua`i. Recognizing the significance of these activities in people’s lives, Carol declared, "If they don't come to us, then we will go to them." Hence the birth of Van Go!

Equipped with supplies and a teaching artist, a van drives out to small neighborhoods, schools, gathering places, community centers and loosely organized groups to give workshops in percussion, painting, sculpture, kite-making, and other art forms that the residents may request. From the western-most Barking Sands in Mana to the northern-most Waipa Community in quaint Hanalei, Van Go! brings Art to the People and People to the Art. Bread for the Journey of Kauai presented a challenge grant of $1,500, to encourage other Kaua`i residents to support this program. Carol raised another $1,644 for a total of $3,144 to help Van Go! in fulfilling its mission.

For many, the North Shore of Kaua`i is paradise. It has beautiful beaches, lush tropical vegetation, and many magnificent vacation homes. However, for others, particularly for at-risk children, paradise has its price in that there are very limited educational opportunities available to the resident youth population. For example, there is not even a public junior high or high school in this community. Prior to moving to Kaua`i, Suzette Dunning worked as a program designer, behavioral specialist and educator working with disadvantaged youth. Recently, she has dedicated her efforts to seeking out ways to provide tutorial services for students who do not have access to and cannot afford other educational support.

The $2,500 Bread for the Journey of Kaua`i grant is providing seed money to establish a pilot tutoring program, purchase much-needed learning materials, and provide one-on-one mentoring services for disadvantaged youth on Kauai’s North Shore.

“Hale Mea Ai” is a community garden project located in the city of Lihue on the Island of Kaua`i. This garden, housed near a cluster of low-income homes, was created to help re-educate the residents in the practice of growing, harvesting, preparing and eating vegetables and herbs. In addressing health issues and sustainability, Puna Kalama Dawson, a “Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner,” and other gardeners work closely with the children and parents within this community of 475 residents to educate them about healthier food choices.

Most recently, Bread for the Journey of Kaua`i granted them $2,000 for fertilizer, hand tools, and seed monies in support of this community effort. Mahalo a nui loa.

KANUIKAPONO Learning Center perpetuates and teaches the Hawaiian Culture as a living, breathing being … as something that cannot be contained in a classroom alone. A school without walls, KANUIKAPONO believes that the natural environment provides the best classroom. Outreach sites throughout the island serve as authentic learning environments for the curricula, and are configured to mirror the natural world of learning. These include working in authentic and natural environments, diverse age groupings, and recognition of multiple intelligences and learning styles. The development of the whole child as a part of the natural environment – as well as the human community – involves emotional, spiritual, mental and physical development. Parents and other family members are required to actively participate in the educational growth of their children.

One of the learning sites was in dire need of a shade structure so that the children would not have to be exposed to the intense sun all day long. Bread for the Journey of Kaua`i provided $1,000 for materials and labor to build a safe structure. See www.kanuikapono.org to learn more.

A Sense of Stability

A thirteen-year-old girl in foster care arrived at her new home in Kauai, Hawaii, with all of her possessions in a large, gray garbage bag. Later, she confided to Cynthia Weiss, a professional parent recruiter at Hale Opio Kauai that, like her belongings, she too felt like garbage. Cynthia Weiss had heard it before. There are nearly 3,000 children in foster care in Hawaii, with 200 of them on the island of Kauai. Unfortunately, these children move from home to home several times a year, and do this without the benefit of having personal luggage. This time, Cynthia decided to do something about this lack, and approached a representative of Bread for the Journey of Kauai with the idea to purchase suitcases, towels and toiletry kits for every foster child in Kauai. Bread for the Journey thought it was a great idea, since it might offer a sense of stability to children who have so little that they can count on. They gave Cynthia a challenge grant of $2,000 to purchase the suitcases and supplies. The community of Kauai met the challenge and a new program was born.

Bread for the Journey of Kauai
bfjkauai@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 223676
Princeville, HI 96722
808-826-4071