Camp Imua Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Imua Family Services Executive Director Dean Wong poses with Chef Sheldon Simeon and team last September on Kā‘anapali Golf Course. Courtesy photo.

Imua Family Services will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Camp Imua this month.

In 1976, volunteers led by Penny Elkins organized Camp Imua—a week-long overnight recreational camp for children with disabilities and special needs.

Every year in June, children age 6 to 16, come to Camp Maluhia in the West Maui Mountains for a fun-filled week of camp experiences. Over two hundred campers and volunteers come together to experience crafts, games, swimming, surfing, kayaking, hiking, horseback riding, dancing, concerts, outdoor movies, helicopter tours, a talent show and a special closing-ceremony lūʻau.

This year’s Camp Imua begins on Sunday, June 12, and runs through Thursday, June 16.

Imua Family Services would like to express its deepest gratitude to all those who make camp possible by donating their time, money and services.

This year’s closing night dinner, which will include a ceremony marking Camp Imua’s anniversary, which will include a special lūʻau feast provided by the Kā‘anapali Beach Hotel—a Camp Imua supporter since 1992.

Over the last 40 years, thousands of Maui’s special needs children, high school caregivers and a host of other behind-the-scenes volunteers have attended the annual event.

HISTORY

Imua Family Services began in 1947 providing services out of a cottage behind the old Kaunoa School in Spreckelsville as the Maui Branch of the Hawaii Chapter of the National Society of Crippled Children and Adults.

Services included physical therapy to children and adults with polio.

In 1973, the agency moved to the J. Walter Cameron Center and began providing comprehensive infant development services.

In 2012, under the threat of being discontinued due to a lack of operating funds, a group of volunteers had an idea to put together a benefit ocean race as a fundraiser for Camp Imua, and Paddle Imua was born.

For five years, Bluesmiths Crafted Waterwear has been the title sponsor for Paddle Imua allowing the event to grow year after year. With the help of other event sponsors, businesses, the Maui community and an army of volunteers, Paddle Imua has become Maui’s premier benefit ocean sports event raising funds to ensure Camp Imua lives on.

Since 1947, Imua Family Services has provided comprehensive early childhood development resources to children and their families, helping them to achieve their full potential in life.

Imua Family Services is engaged in family-centered, community based, therapeutic services including speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy and special instruction.