Community Focus

The Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation, named after the issei businessman from Yamaguchi and his wife – who met and wed on Maui then together co-founded Hawaiian Host chocolates in Kaimukī – donated funds to 59 college-bound students across Hawai‘i, for a total of $218,000 in scholarships. The latest wave of Takitani Foundation moneys, allocated....

Hawaiʻi residents, companies, and contractors now have a free “one-stop shop” for local and national economic resources to help them survive COVID-19 — including employment, tax, finance and banking, health and other helpful information. This website, put together by the team of the state’s newly minted Economic and Community Recovery and Resiliency Navigator, Alan Oshima,....

Experienced artists who can demonstrate a track record of exhibitions, installations, and/or commissions, especially those skilled at creating “three dimensional freestanding sculpture, two dimensional images translated into durable materials and large painted murals,” are invited by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts to submit applications in response to the HSFCA’s Request for....

Has the coronavirus pandemic devastated or overturned your life? Are you stuck at home with but naught to do, hoping to leverage the shutdown by starting to learn more about your parents, grandparents and other küpuna (elderly community members)? Have you uncovered the artist within, composing original poems/songs/lyrics (such as haiku or mele), or creating....

The KizunAloha coalition, composed of more than 20 companies, government agencies and nonprofits based in Hawai‘i and Japan, recently unveiled a communications campaign designed to support future and economic recovery efforts by engaging the Japanese market during the coronavirus pandemic. While the state has currently imposed a 14-day quarantine for all incoming travelers and has....

To mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Go For Broke National Education Center presents its 2020 High School and College Essay and Poetry Contest. In addition to cash prizes, four winners (grand prize entry from each category: essay and poetry high school division and essay and poetry college division)....

Hui O Laulima’s Cultural Grants Committee is currently accepting applications for its 2021 Cultural Grant program. The grants are aimed at supporting the applicants’ efforts to preserve and perpetuate Okinawan culture, one of the missions of Hui O Laulima. The grants are awarded to individuals and groups in the spirit of laulima — the Hawaiian....

The Hawai‘i State Public Library recently began offering the streaming service Kanopy at https://www.librarieshawaii.org/ and will continue to offer it for free through April 30. The offerings include 10 films by Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers of Stourwater Pictures, producers of the hour-long documentary, “Proof of Loyalty: Kazuo Yamane and the Nisei Soldiers of Hawai‘i,”....

As the COVID-19 situation intensifies, Hawaii Foodbank is facing an unprecedented challenge of providing food for people affected by the pandemic while continuing to meet the nutritional needs of one in eight Hawai‘i residents already struggling with food insecurity. The current pandemic has closed schools and community centers, creating a gap in meals for countless....

The City and County of Honolulu has partnered with local restaurants, businesses and nonprofit organizations to carry out the “Show Aloha Challenge” initiative. It is a collaboration to deliver thousands of meals to küpuna for free. During Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s “stay-at-home” order, many homebound seniors will need more support with home meal deliveries. If they....