Kalama Intermediate expands ‘Drive With Aloha’ to middle school for first time

Kalama Intermediate School has been selected as the first middle school campus in Hawaiʻi to join the statewide “Drive With Aloha” campaign initiative. To mark the occasion, the school is launching a school-wide Student Arts Competition featuring poetry, songwriting and visual art.

Brought to campus in partnership with Keep It Flowing Media—an initiative supported by the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, HPPUAD, and the Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaiʻi—the contest empowers students to advocate for safe, sober driving through their personal strengths.

Submissions in the writing categories (poetry and songwriting) are welcome in both English and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. This competition is an internal program open exclusively to current Kalama Intermediate School students. 

The school’s selection is rooted in a deeply personal story. Former Kalama staff member Charlene Brown and her husband, Everett—both Kalama alumni—lost their daughter Hannah, a Maui High alumna, to an impaired driver. Brown has since dedicated herself to advocating for traffic safety.

After “Keep It Flowing Media previously partnered with Maui High on a “Drive with Aloha” mural project, Director Ken Nishimura felt a profound connection between Hannah, Maui High, and Kalama—inspiring the organization to expand the initiative to middle schools for the very first time.