Rotary Club of Kahului proudly hosted its Annual Scholarship Luncheon, honoring six outstanding Maui High School seniors who were awarded scholarships through the Hawai‘i Rotary Youth Foundation and the Rotary Club of Kahului. The event celebrated the academic achievements and future aspirations of these deserving students in the presence of their families and community leaders. Council Member Tasha Kama and County Director of Public Affairs Mahina Martin joined the luncheon to personally congratulate the recipients and share words of encouragement. The Club also recognized scholarship donor Bob Lee for his continued generosity and commitment to supporting youth education. A special mahalo was extended to Maui High School counselors Leka and Michelle for their invaluable support and guidance in helping students reach their goals."
Rotary Club of Pearl Harbor has been involved with several activities throughout 2024-25 with the Radford High School Interact Club to include the following: Radford Students of the Quarter,
Hawaii Food Bank Food Packing Projects, Hawaii Children and Youth Day, Institute for Human Services Hygiene Kit Packing Project, Thanksgiving Fun Fair, Heeia Fish Pond, Hawaii Rotary Youth Scholarship Award Luncheon. The Journey to Peace events at the Pearl Harbor Air Museum, sponsored by our club, which was popular with Interact leaders and youth and attended 3 times.
Rotary Club or Pearlridge’s RCOP Dictionary 5000 Good Citizen Awards were presented to 14 Aiea and Pearl City Elementary schools. Each Good Citizen Award recipient received a $50.00 scholarship check and recognition letter. Emily and Grant truly define Service Above Self with their selfless contributions to supporting 850+ third graders and their teachers while enhancing the student's literacy through the annual RCOP Dictionary 5000 Program. Each dictionary included Rotary International’s Principles of the “Four Way Test”. Students who best exemplified the Principles of the Four Way Test were chosen by their teachers to receive a Good Citizen Award. The Rotary Club of Pearlridge (RCOP), along with Pearl City High School and Highlands Intermediate Rotary Interact Clubs, and RCOP supporters, lent a hand at the Annual Honolulu City & County Pearl Harbor Bike Path Clean Up. The iconic “The Mike” courtyard at Pearl City High School received a fresh coat of paint on Wednesday, July 2, 2025 by the PCHS Rotary Interact Club. The Rotary Club of Pearlridge presented Highlands Intermediate School Principal Lance Tanouye with a $250.00 check donation on Friday, March 14, 2025 in support of the school’s Pearl City Complex wide COLTS EXPO. Highlands Intermediate Rotary Interact Club members also represent the school’s Student Council. The eight graders return in 2024-2025 as 2023-2024 National Student Council Leadership Award winners. They have their goals set on winning the school’s tenth National Student Council Leadership Award. The RCOP is extremely proud of them and grateful for the opportunity to support and mentor them as a part of our Rotary Club of Pearlridge Interact Leadership Program.
Rotary Club of Hickam Pearl Harbor Youth Service Projects: Queen of Bags project which entailed providing supplies for children entering a foster care facility. Turkey Trot event, which is an annual event that we support at Kalihi Elementary like a field day for the students which involves games and activities. Also, in conjunction with the Peace Pole installation that we installed using our District Grant, we sponsored a writing contest in January for two winners that wrote about What Peace means to them. This year we partnered with the Friends of Makalapa Park to get kids ready for school by providing school supplies and having games and prizes to have a fun afternoon at the Park. The activities involved getting a haircut, ride a bike, shoot some hoops, adopt a plant, volleyball, cornhole toss, making custom buttons and candies and snacks.
Rotary Club of Hilo 4,500 Mile International Friendship is nurtured with in-person trips and virtual meetings. Waiakea High in Hilo and Shudo School in Hiroshima are international sister-clubs by virtue of a very long sister-club relationship between the Rotary Club of Hiroshima-South and the Rotary Club of Hilo. Rotary Sister-club relations include trips to each other's club and city over many many decades. Students of Shudo School and Waiakea High alternate visits to each other. Sparked by the Covid pandemic, our Interact Clubs started periodic virtual meetings that cross the 4,500 miles and 19 hour divide to build friendships and boost individual confidence in global engagement. The Interact Clubs of Waiakea High and Shudo HIgh meet again on June 14, 2025 for another virtual meeting that's always filled with games, challenges and laughter.
Rotary in Kindergarten (RIK): 17 dedicated Rotarian readers + 1,580 books = and12 appreciative schools and 23 teachers, and 397 Happy Kindergarten Students on Hawaii Island. RIK Program Chair, Shirley Woods and her teammate, Beverly Heikes, plan to add two more schools in the 2025-26 school year. Interact Club of Waiakea High School (WHS): The experienced leadership of the WHS Interact Club quickly involved their members in hosting an international Home and Home Sister-Interact-School, Shudo High School in Hiroshima. Club President, Gabriella Tuson, confidently engaged her members in school, community and Rotary Club of Hilo projects. Here are key projects: Alzheimer’s, Salvation Army’s Thanksgiving, Christmas Shoe Box, Hawaii Food Basket, Santa’s Workshop for children, school clean-ups and year-long raising and lowering of school flags. Interact Club of Laupahoehoe Community Public Charter School (LCPCS): Rotarian Advisor, Wally Wong, creatively combined Interact participation as an incentive for schools sports eligibility. This was the answer for a small school to engage students in community service and leadership learning. The Interact Club served their immediate community and projects of the Rotary Club of Hilo.
Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunrise had another great year of supporting our youth. We continue to support Roosevelt High School and Mid Pacific Institute’s Interact Clubs, Our focus continues to be on the new garden planters and composters that our club sponsored with Roosevelt Interact. The students continue to learn about minimizing food waste and having a sustainable food source. We were able to support 3 Roosevelt Interact students to attend RYLA, make and deliver Kupuna-cards to our seniors in need of connection, and selected and donated books to Lincoln Elementary. This was our second year manning the Rotary D5000 Booth at Hawaii Children and Youth Day where Roosevelt students engaged with parents and youth who stopped by the booth to learn more about Rotary. Club President Jerry Denton was interviewed by Olelo there too! We interviewed amazing high school seniors to select our Hawaii Rotary Youth Foundation scholarship winner, and also selected our annual Honolulu Sunrise Rotary Scholarship recipient (in addition to our HRYF scholar).
Honolulu Sunrise is grateful for our partnerships as well as the passion of our members in supporting youth across our community. We look forward to another successful Rotary Year!
Rotary Club of Kona Our youth activities center around the Interact Club at Kealakehe High School. It was founded in 1997 and has about 70 members. They are known for helping international charities, their involvement in local issues and involvement in their school community. The Interact Club’s annual budget is more than $5000. Kona Rotary donates $2000 towards their annual budget. In 2024-25 the Interact Club at Kealakehe has been involved locally with peace week and the peace pole dedication, a beach cleanup at Old Kona Airport Beach, the IronMan Championship Triathlon, picnic bench painting at Kealakehe Middle School, and recycling during the Senior Men’s Golf Tournament in January. The officers and one of the student advisors were guests at our February 20th meeting. The officers gave us an excellent slideshow presentation of what they are about and their recent accomplishments.
Rotary Club Kihei-Wailea’s Imua! Readers Program was produced by experienced retired educators. This phonics-based curriculum aligns with Hawaii DOE English Language Arts standards. Volunteer reading coaches are trained in the teaching method during three-hour workshops that include all instructional materials. The Imua! Readers program targets 1st grade students that have fallen behind in reading proficiency. It is designed to support the classroom teacher by providing the necessary individual attention that is not possible while teaching in a classroom of thirty students. Trained reading coaches meet with students in 45-minute sessions that feature games, worksheets and sight word lists. Students learn to associate letter and letter combinations with the sounds that they make. Post COVID, 36% of Hawaii 4th grade students scored below basic proficiency in reading. The Imua! Readers program provides an early intervention to address reading deficiencies before they become a problem. Students are assessed three times during the school year to monitor their progress toward proficiency. 20 trained volunteers and retired educators work within the program. Three Rotarians serve to administer the program at 2 elementary schools in Kihei.
Rotary Club Kihei-Wailea’s Imua! Readers Program was produced by experienced retired educators. This phonics-based curriculum aligns with Hawaii DOE English Language Arts standards. Volunteer reading coaches are trained in the teaching method during three-hour workshops that include all instructional materials. The Imua! Readers program targets 1st grade students that have fallen behind in reading proficiency. It is designed to support the classroom teacher by providing the necessary individual attention that is not possible while teaching in a classroom of thirty students. Trained reading coaches meet with students in 45-minute sessions that feature games, worksheets and sight word lists. Students learn to associate letter and letter combinations with the sounds that they make. Post COVID, 36% of Hawaii 4th grade students scored below basic proficiency in reading. The Imua! Readers program provides an early intervention to address reading deficiencies before they become a problem. Students are assessed three times during the school year to monitor their progress toward proficiency. 20 trained volunteers and retired educators work within the program. Three Rotarians serve to administer the program at 2 elementary schools in Kihei.
Rotary Club of Kona Sunrise sponsors the Kealakehe Hight School Interact Club established contact with M-3 High School in Pristina, Kosovo through Derek Chignell’s Water for Life Program. The students from both schools did a zoom video meeting, working through a twelve-hour time differential. They have agreed to work together as best they can on mutual service projects. We gave two $1,000 scholarships to two outstanding students at Konawaena High School. And we gave one $5,000 HYRF scholarship. We continue to provide support to our youth.
Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunset A group of 30 students at Lahainaluna High School gathered for a pizza lunch to participate in an “Interested Students” meeting aimed at discussing the reestablishment of the Rotary-sponsored Interact Club. During the event on Sept. 24, attendees had the opportunity to meet four adult advisors from the Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunset, along with two school advisors. The students watched two informative videos showcasing the activities of Interact Clubs and various youth programs under the Rotary International umbrella.
Rotary Club of Kahala Sunrise RoCKS Members Wes Mun and Ryan Kawamoto participated in the Niu Valley Middle School Career Day on March 28, 2025. Wes spoke on his career in healthcare administration and Ryan spoke about his career as a filmmaker and television director. The Rotary Club of Kahala Sunrise supports NVMS through their Interact Club. On March 7, 2025 the Niu Valley Middle School Interact Club held a sushi making event. RoCKS members Wes Mun and Dianne Bosworth attended this fun and educational afternoon. The Rotary Club of Kahala Sunrise teamed up with the Rotary Club of East Honolulu to help with the annual Palolo Elementary Fun Fair. We assisted with the rummage sale and the games! A good day supporting the students and the school! On May 14, 2025 the Rotary Club of Kahala Sunrise presented special student Dictionaries to the entire 3rd Grade at Wilson Elementary as a part of our Education and Literacy Initiatives. As you can see the students were quite excited!