Ama OluKai Foundation funds TNU grants for Sacred Hearts Lahaina teachers

This month, over a dozen Sacred Hearts School teachers each received $500 Teachers Need Us (TNU) grants sponsored by OluKai’s Ama OluKai Foundation to purchase basic supplies for their classrooms. The grants benefit 13 teachers who had lost their classrooms and years of resources to the Aug. 8, 2023 Lahaina wildfire.

TNU grants were one of five charitable plans that Ama Olukai Foundation Executive Director Dan McInerny spoke about in his one-year anniversary announcement.

“Lahaina is not just any community and Maui is not just any island,” said McInerny. “This is where generations of Hawaiians, Japanese, Puerto Ricans, Filipinos, and many others came together to live in a thriving and harmonious community that had once served as the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It is the people, that lost so much, who have transformed this story from one of disaster and devastation to one of strength and resilience.”

In his message, McInerny wrote that the Ama OluKai Foundation has supported a variety of grassroots wildfire recovery efforts since August 2023, initially opening a Maui Fire Relief Fund to provide immediate needs like food courtesy of Chef Hui, and secondly focusing on community healing by donating to organizations that appeared in the aftermath.

Its five most recent beneficiaries, thanks to its Maui Fire Relief Fund, include:

• Teachers Need Us, an organization that is focused on relieving the financial burden from teachers and families at Sacred Hearts School in Lahaina as they create a positive learning environment for local students.
• The Maui Hero Project, an experiential-based, trauma-informed, clinical counseling program that serves youth survivors of the Maui Wildfires.
• Kahākūkahi, an organization that cultivates a learning experience for Lahaina youth around ocean sports stewardship and the importance of nurturing a harmonious relationship with the Kai (Ocean) and the ʻĀina (Land).
• Treecovery, a non-profit that keeps the surviving trees within the burn zone of Lahaina and Kula alive, maintaining the historic Banyan and ʻulu trees. They also provide free trees for affected families in this region, replacing what was lost or supporting their dreams of rebuilding yards. The positive impacts of trees are overwhelming: food, shade, fresh air, greenery, soil stabilization, mental healing, tools, treehouses, avian habitat, windbreak, and fire prevention.
• Kaiāulu Initiatives, which replaces the abandoned fallow lands above Lahaina that is currently overrun by invasive plants that fuel wildfires with native species. They aim to recreate a traditional watershed for the Lahaina community to serve as a natural fire break. To expand their planting initiative, by way of a Greenhouse, they plan to cultivate native plants to serve the local community, for cultural use, community distribution, and mental health issues.

“Our support has never wavered,” stated McInerny. “Moving forward, we are constantly seeking impactful projects with non-profit organizations on Maui that can make a difference.  There is a long road ahead, but we feel very optimistic about the progress that is being made.”