Community

The public is invited to the free Kokua Kailua spring concert featuring Nā Hōkū Hanohano award-winning trio Kulāwai on April 16 at Emma’s Square on Aliʻi Drive in downtown Kona.

U.S. Senators Brian Schatz and Ted Budd introduced legislation to improve airport infrastructure across the country, making them more resilient to severe weather and natural disasters.

The Second Annual Hawai’i Mushroom Festival is just around the corner, offering a weekend full of agricultural education and community-building activities.

Hawaiian Electric employees and retirees, with the support of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1260, raised more than $63,400 for Hawai‘i Island United Way during the company’s workplace campaign in 2022.

Queen’s North Hawai’i Community Hospital has launched a summer volunteer program targeted at high school and college students seeking a worthwhile way to spend their summer break.

Proposals for the Food Hub Pilot Program now are being accepted for grants between $50,000 and $250,000.

Jay H. Shidler, an alumnus of the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, has made a remarkable $5 million cash donation to the college. His total giving now amounts to $238 million, making him the largest individual donor in the university’s history.

The free online talk story by Hawaiʻi Care Choices aims to support veterans living with serious illnesses and their at-home caregivers.

The Mac-A-Thon is an essential fundraiser that helps support various community initiatives, including promoting Hawaiian culture and traditions, marine resource protection, and youth mentoring.

Today, after a 183-day stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, two rounds of pneumonia, 10 blood transfusions and surgeries on her heart and eyes, Kalley-Mae Yee of Hilo is a vibrant 4-year-old girl.

Project No Ke Ola Pono O Nā Keiki held a recent “Field Day” event at Hōnaunau Elementary, a small school in West Hawaiʻi, for students in kindergarten to fifth grade.

When Yachiyo Hamada and Jeanette Rhamsey were born in March 1922, Warren Harding was president, Wallace Farrington was governor of the Territory of Hawai‘i and Babe Ruth had already signed a three-year contract with the New York Yankees at $52,000 a year. Later that month, the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier, USS Langley, was commissioned and the first airplane landed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The nearly 50-year-old Kona Community Hospital — built in 1974 — runs the risk of closure every day due to outdated utilities and is lobbying the State Legislature for funding to deal with the problems.

Selflessness, dedication and hard work. Those qualities and others are why the Aloha Exchange Club of East Hawaiʻi selected Hawaiʻi Police Department Puna Patrol Officer Michael Sailer as its Officer of the Year for 2022 and Hawai‘i Fire Department Capt. Jon Wayne Boteilho as its Firefighter of the Year for 2022. The two men were honored during a ceremony March 25 in Hilo.

Exactly 77 years ago, on April Foolʻs Day 1946, Hilo and the surrounding coast was hit by the most devastating tsunami in Hawaiʻi’s modern history. The death toll: 159.

The memorial was made a possible by a group of Vietnam veterans who formed the nonprofit West Hawai‘i Vietnam Veterans War Memorial Association. The group raised $75,000 in 17 months to construct the 6-foot-tall by 7-foot-long memorial, crafted in basalt rock.

Kona Community Hospital has achieved the highly prestigious international Baby-Friendly designation for adhering to the highest standards of care for breastfeeding mothers and their babies.

The Community Wildfire Defense Grants for the Big Island will be used to update four Community Wildfire Protection Plans that are seven to eight years old.

The new memorial was made a reality by a group of Vietnam veterans who formed the nonprofit West Hawai‘i Vietnam Veterans War Memorial Association, which raised $75,000 in 17 months to construct the 6-foot-tall by 7-foot-long memorial, crafted in basalt rock.

The Hele-On’s new ADA-compliant site features a trip planner, real-time bus tracking, weather updates and accessible schedules.