Mother's Day Sip & Shop Supports Local Non-Profit

We are thrilled to once again open our café doors for our Sip & Shop. This event will be extra special in honor of Mother’s Day. Join us on Friday, April 29th from 4-8 pm. We’ll have a variety of local artists selling their work and food and drink options including pizza from Sundog Bread and natural wine from Hawaii Wines. What’s more, this event supports a local non-profit, Kaulana Nā Pua, as they raise funds for their upcoming trip. Read below to learn more about the group and their travel plans. Hope to see you at the Sip & Shop!

Aloha mai kākou! Kaulana Nā Pua is back and ready to step out in faith again.

Kaulana Nā Pua (KNP) is a Nonprofit 501c3 Corporation established to serve in the healing of youth ages 10-25 in our community through the arts of hula, chant, and teaching of Hawaiian culture, values and tradition. Our mission and vision are to help our most prone population of youth vulnerable to drugs, alcohol, and teen suicide find their self-worth and self-esteem through the arts of hula, chant, and Hawaiian culture. By keeping youth off the streets and teaching values, we believe that young people will begin to make a difference in our community by sharing and giving back as a pono (right-standing) youth who in-turn become pono adults.

As our world starts to ease up on the traveling restrictions, Kaulana Nā Pua is on the road again! With our theme being “Spreading Aloha Into the World Through Hula.” The non-profit is raising funds for their upcoming travels at our Mother’s Day Sip & Shop event at the café! Join us Friday, April 29th, 4-8 pm

We all know at this time now that our fellow Ukranians are in the worst time of their lives right now, that ALOHA is key in keeping our youth focused and spreading what we have known here in our islands ALOHA. We started Kaulana Nā Pua intending to create a cultural youth program to instill Hawaiian values such as kuleana or responsibility, hōʻihi, respect, and by doing it all through the values of Aloha. Aloha is more than a word, it is a feeling that you feel when you know that love comes from knowing who you are and where you are from. This is what our youth is learning, although we may fall short we know that the power of aloha lives and we can heal to be a healing in our world.

We are planning to take youth ages 13-23 to do a cultural exchange with our Native American ʻohana and various Youth Challenge presentations in California, Vegas, and Arizona. Although we couldn’t make it to Tahiti this year, which it would only be responsible as a Kumu Hula of youth to keep them in the country this time around, as the world takes its turn in healing from a pandemic being in the country we wouldn’t experience the shut down like we did in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We will be traveling to California, our first stop will be engaging with the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians on the Viejas Reservation in San Diego. There we will head to Las Vegas where my hula sister of Hālau Na Lei Kahiki will be doing a hula workshop for the youth in Las Vegas, featuring our ʻōpio in a hoʻike (presentation), and ending our trip in Arizona where various Native American youth will be coming to us in Phoenix to exchange their healing and traditional mele as well.

Kaulana Nā Pua making koa wood poi boards that will be featured in a silent auction at the Mother’s Day Sip & Shop April 29th.

We are again grateful for this opportunity to share our organization’s core values and heart for our youth and community. It has been a challenging time with mandated lock-downs and social distancing, but we have been able to be creative in fundraising for travel. We are extremely thankful for your kindness, support and generosity.