Lā Mālama ma Puʻuokapolei

The Ulu A‘e Learning Center through the Adopt-A-Park program with the City and County of Honolulu stewards the site of Puʻuokapolei. Lā Mālama, a day of caring is held at the pu‘u several times throughout the year. Volunteers clear out debris, remove graffiti, water plants, seed new plants and maintain the garden at the hula mound.

Below is some information regarding our workday:

What to Wear:

Dress comfortably. You will most likely get dirty. Wear clothes that can get dirty.

Water:

Bring a full bottle of water for yourself to hydrate. One of the easiest things we can do to eliminate waste is to use refillable water bottles. We generally refrain from using single-use plastic water bottles. Due to the pandemic, however, we will use these and not our communal water dispenser.

Gloves and Tools:

We will provide gloves and tools for the work we will be doing. If you have a weed-wacker that you’d like to bring, please do. Weed-wacking is one of the ongoing tasks we tackle and we have just one.

Our Work:

Our general work is split into 3 tasks. Volunteers can choose to work a little with each task or devote the entire time to one task.

• Task 1: clearing out debris and fallen lauhala and stacking in trash pick-up area

• Task 2: digging out invasive weeds and trees

• Task 3: watering plants (great for the keiki)

Other Tasks: For those who bring weed-wackers, we tackle the overgrown California grass and edges. If we have plants, we’ll plant them towards the end of the workday.

Plants:

Sometimes we will have plants to plant. If you would like to bring a plant to plant, please do. Here are some good plants to bring: lā‘ī (ti-leaf), ‘ilima, sweet potato, crown flower or a‘ali‘i.

Keiki:

Our work and everything we do is open to keiki of all ages. Please include your keiki.

Directions:

We are located at the top of Kapolei Regional Park, near the skate park and archery range. Enter from the Fort Barrette entrance. If you are driving on Fort Barrette Road, head ma kai (seaward), when you see the skatepark on the right, take that right and follow the road inward. There will be a blue sign near the cattle gate that says Pu‘uokapolei. Drive towards the bunker and you will find us near the stairs by the puhala tree.

Contact:

This volunteer opportunity is organized by Ulu Aʻe Learning Center. Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at (808) 722-3036 or email info@uluae.org.

For more information, visit https://uluae.org/puuokapolei/.