KAILUA-KONA — Sometimes it doesn’t take a huge sum to make big change.
Back in 1990, a handful of people from different backgrounds sat around a table, and each put $250 into a hat. It was the beginning of the West Hawaii Fund, formed to give a leg up to nonprofits doing good work on the island’s leeward side.
Not long after, the West Hawaii Community Health Center felt something needed to be done to bring dental care to keiki who otherwise wouldn’t receive it. The center approached the fund, and less than $25,000 in grant money helped kick off a mobile dental van.
Today, WHCHC runs a full-time keiki dental clinic staffed with pediatric dentists, and has given thousands of children better health and fuller smiles.
The West Hawaii Fund has since distributed more than $1.5 million in similar grants, said Lydia Clements, director of Neighbor Islands for the Hawaii Community Foundation.
It was this victory and countless others spanning 100 years that a few hundred people celebrated at a centennial gala Saturday evening at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. The event feted more than 200 business leaders and others with deep commitment to philanthropy — and those who have benefited from it.
“Time and again we have witnessed powerful change when people pool their resources around a common passion,” said Kelvin Taketa, the foundation’s CEO.
Front and center were programs like the STEM Learning Partnership, which has helped 125 Hawaii Island educators hone their teaching methods and has benefited initiatives like the Kealakehe robotics program. And the Hawaii Youth Opportunity Initiative, which extends the benefits of foster care to youth under 21 instead of ejecting them into the world at age 18.
Taketa traced the tradition of giving back to the Alii and to the immigrants who formed their own philanthropic groups when there was little else to turn to.
“The foundation’s rich history in Hawaii is made possible by each of you and those who came before us,” said Roberta Chu, a member of HCF Board of Governors and a senior vice president of Bank of Hawaii on the Big Island.
The foundation bills itself as a resource, a partner, a funder and an advocate in the philanthropic process. Its goal, in part, is to “ignite a movement that will make giving universal,” Chu said.
The HCF stewards more than 700 funds, 200 of them scholarship funds. Last year, the foundation distributed more than $46 million in statewide grants and contracts. More than 70 of the funds, including 23 scholarship funds, benefit the Big Island.
“One student told me, ‘it wasn’t the money, it was the fact that someone I didn’t even know believed in me,’” Taketa recounted to the ballroom.
“Together, we can ignite the power of philanthropy so the generosity of some inspires the generosity of all,” he said.
The slam poet known simply as Kealoha, Hawaii’s first poet laureate, left the crowd with some simple thoughts that summed up the reason the group had been gathered:
“When we die, we leave everything behind, everything we acquired during our lifetime. The only thing that remains that has any chance to stick around for a long time is what we stood for, the times we lent a hand without expecting anything back.
“When it comes down to it, what do you want to leave behind?”
Info: hawaiicommunityfoundation.org
