Churches celebrate Tuesday
Eleven faith groups and 200-plus people came together Tuesday night to sing and celebrate during the 17th annual Thanksgiving Interfaith Concert at the Lutheran Church of Holy Trinity.
The evening of songs doubled as a donation drive as canned food donations were raised by attendees for the Hawaii Food Basket.
Nations campus giving back to Kona community
University of Nations has always tried to send students and staff into the community to serve. It’s usually several courses carving out one afternoon a week to enable their students to get out in the community to give back. But never before has it been to this level.
Usually, when students attend U of N, they come for 12 weeks and they are required to give back to the campus by serving in some capacity two hours a day, such as keeping the grounds clean or serving in the cafeteria.
But this fall, a bumper crop for this missionary training school is trying something new.
About 60 are serving 10 hours each a week in the greater Kona community. And most of them are here for nine months. They call themselves Community Kokua, and can be spotted around town in red T-shirts of that name.
The campus as a whole is supporting the outreach by supplying funding for meals, painting and weeding equipment, and the shirts. Those 600 hours per week are going toward picking up litter and pulling weeds at Honokohau Harbor, painting and cleaning Queen Liliokolani rec center and tutoring at Kealakehe Intermediate School kids five days a week, to name a few examples.