Stories

Looking out for one another — it’s what we do in Volcano 

At the annual meeting of the Volcano Community Association last month, representatives of nearly a dozen groups and organizations got up to tell others what they have been up to in the last year. It was inspirational to hear from everybody — from the Volcano Art Center to the Friends of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to the U.S. Geological Survey and many more.  It’s truly what makes us a special community.

For me, it was an opportunity to look back at how much work members of our Rotary Club of Volcano do in the community. We’re a small group — just 26 members — but together we’ve logged hundreds of hours of service.

Here’s just a partial list of what we’ve been doing:

• Each year we give a free dictionary to every third grader between Naalehu and Mountain View. I wish everyone could see the smile and excitement the books brings to those kids.

*. Once a month, we walk along a two-mile stretch of Highway 11, picking up all the trash left behind. You’d be amazed at what we find.

•. Two days a month we join forces with the Cooper Community Center Pantry to pack, then distribute bags of free food for those who need it.  More than 160 people pick up those packages, and the smiles and shakas we get in return are all the payment we need

•. For the second year in a row, we joined with the Volcano Art Center for a day-after-Thanksgiving Christmas tree lighting. More than 100 people attended, and this year we added a very popular snow machine to the festivities.

• We make and sell chili, pulled pork sandwiches, and holiday cookies to add to the festivities at popular events like the Fourth of July celebration and the Experience Volcano weekend.

•. We give a $5,000 scholarship to a local high school student going to a 4-year college, and we give a $2,000 scholarship to a student planning to enter a vocational training program.

There’s more — but I’m running out of space. So, let’s just say I’m proud of what we do, and even prouder to be in a community where so many other people do so much to look out for one another.