The new Hāna Arts Facility—biggest project to date for the students of the Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike program, features native 'ohi'a posts from Hawai'i Island and radiata pine recovered from the Polipoli forest fire on Maui. Students also gathered local lava rock and learned how to apply it for the building's exterior facing and worked with recycled plastic lumber for decking.- Photo: Courtesy of Rick Rutiz

Hāna building program constructs
a better future for community

By Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola

Just when it seemed the emerald-hued countryside of Hāna couldn't get much greener, Hāna High School students in the Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike hands-on learning program are using cutting-edge “green” technologies to build structures that aren't only sustainable; they are also monuments to community pride.

Last year, for example, the teen workers of Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike, or “In Working, One Learns,” put the final touches on an alternative energy lab with an off-the-grid system that provides all the power for Hāna High School's industrial arts wing. Hāna residents accepted an invitation to inspect the results and were so enthusiastic about what they saw that the program added a component for teaching students to install photovoltaic, or solar, systems in low-income housing.

Students helped in constructing the facility. - Photo: Courtesy of Rick Rutiz

Typical of Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike's efforts, this project has resulted in delivering free and much-needed construction services to an isolated and largely Native Hawaiian population, burdened with rising fuel costs, which have hiked home utility bills and the price of transportation for building materials.

Other benefits of Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike are hard to put a price tag on, such as improvement in student self-esteem derived from the program's collaboration with the Hāna Senior Center, which coordinates students' construction of cottages for the elderly whose residences have become weather-worn in Hāna's notoriously wet climate.

“It's amazing how much the kids want to be involved in helping their kūpuna. This gives them a chance to be valued in a positive way, while the kūpuna get the satisfaction of seeing the kids, strong and productive, like they were at that age,” said the program's executive director, Rick Rutiz, noting that many of his students are mo'opuna of the kūpuna clients—no surprise in tight-knit Hāna, where many Hawaiians families have roots that extend back over several centuries.

The program also paves a career path for students at Hāna High School, which, like many small rural schools in the state, has sparse resources and must prioritize meeting the requirements of the federally mandated No Child Left Behind Program.

Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike's mounting success goes beyond the hopes that Rutiz had in mind when created the nonprofit program nine years ago by tapping grants, including OHA funding and eventually formed board of directors and built an annual operating budget of $200,000.

Rutiz, a kama'āina contractor whose children attended Hāna schools, believed that many at-risk youths felt left behind by a one-size-fits-all approach to education out of sync with Hāna's rural and family-centered lifestyle. His original plan was to supplement vocational “shop” classes with more culturally appropriate collaborative learning experiences while paying students for their labor done during afterschool hours.

Rutiz said one of the program's greatest accomplishments is that teachers have reported participants' math grades have improved as a result of learning “applied math” with tape measures and other tools of construction trades. But Rutiz gives credit for the program's success to the community: “The uncles will be in a nearby garage fixing fishing net. Then they'll get to talking story with neighbors about how good (the project) looks. Then a truck pulls up and offers food for everyone. This is how Hāna works,” he said, “through the community.”