West Maui YMCA Community Center Partnership Park receives $250,000 from Rotary D5000 Foundation Maui Fires Relief Fund

A $250,000 check was presented to the West Maui YMCA for its Community Center Partnership Park.

The check, from Rotary D5000 Foundation Maui Fires Relief Fund, will support the construction of a Dual Modular unit that will serve as both a youth space, office space, flexible program space and an additional covered area for the community.

“The West Maui YMCA Community Center Partnership Park will provide a much-needed community meeting and program space in support of positive mental health for Lahaina residents recovering from the fires of 2023,” said Steve Scraggs, Chief Executive Officer of Maui YMCA. “The Partnership Park concept involves interior spaces for youth development programming, including tutoring, summer camps, and college and career programming.”

Scraggs notes that these spaces will be shared with multiple nonprofit partners and double as program space for kupuna and cultural programming, as well as mental health services.

The Partnership Park will feature covered spaces, including the community pavilion, which will serve as a community gathering hub. Vegetation, including fruit trees will serve to create a peaceful green space and produce food.

“With so many suffering with mental health concerns, creating a peaceful green space in Lahaina is important to this project,” organizers said.

One of the facilities already under construction at the West Maui YMCA facility is the Maui Calm Project.  The project, which received a $25,000 contribution from the Rotary D5000 Foundation Maui Fires Relief Fund, will provide floatation therapy at no cost to Maui residents, first responders and wildfire survivors—a new resource in post-disaster mental health recovery.

“This one-of-a-kind park will provide the Lahaina community with a much-needed space to heal,” said Dr. Justin Feinstein, founder of Float Research Collective. “There is still so much stress and trauma from the fires, and it brings me great joy to see the YMCA and Rotary come together around mental health.”