100 Kaiser Volunteers Restore Hawaii's Sacred Lands

When 100 healthcare workers traded their scrubs for work gloves this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, they continued a tradition of service that's been growing stronger for ten years.

Kaiser Permanente physicians, nurses, and staff fanned out across Hawaii Island for their annual Day of Service. They weren't just showing up for a photo op. They came ready to get their hands dirty restoring sacred Hawaiian lands.

In Hilo, volunteers returned to the Haleolono fishpond at Kamokuna for the eighth straight year. Working alongside the Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation, they pulled invasive plants and repaired sections of the historic fishpond wall that serves as both a cultural treasure and vital ecological resource for the community.

Sixty miles away in North Kona, another team partnered with the Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests at Pu'uwa'awa'a Forest Reserve. They planted native species, collected seeds, and cleared invasive weeds threatening Hawaii's rare dryland forest ecosystem. The reserve shelters native plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.

This marks the tenth year Kaiser volunteers have worked on the Pu'uwa'awa'a restoration project. That kind of commitment makes all the difference.

The Ripple Effect

Showing up once is nice. Showing up for a decade creates real transformation.

"When dedicated volunteers show up to work alongside the community members and partners who care for Pu'uwa'awa'a year-round, it creates real, lasting impact," says Rebekah Dickens Ohara, CEO of the Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests. The forests are coming back because people keep coming back.

Luka Kanaka'ole from the Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation puts it beautifully: "This work is about more than restoring a physical place. It's about honoring the history, culture, and relationships connected to this land."

When volunteers return year after year, they're not just removing weeds or planting trees. They're demonstrating kuleana, the Hawaiian concept of responsibility and privilege. They're strengthening the connection between people, land, and community that sustains everyone.

The medical staff who spend their workdays healing people are spending their day off healing the land that sustains us all.