Building Homes and Building Hope

by Mike McHugh

We wrapped up our time in Lahaina last weekend after working hard for two weeks on several homes, and a lot of visible progress was made on them. MDS plans to dedicate two of the homes at the end of the May before the unit shuts down for the summer. (They’ll open back up in the fall and continue once the weather cools down again). As students reflected in their final presentations and papers, one of the biggest takeaways from many of them was that we were not just building homes, we were building hope for the community. Time and time again they recalled talking with homeowners, other people from Lahaina, or the broader county of Maui, and were met with such gratitude for the work we were doing, often to the point of tears. Those interactions and words of gratitude from residents really emphasized that our work was more than just about building homes–it was about building hope. They hope for building back a better community with a stronger emphasis on their culture’s history. We were honored to be invited to be part of that rebuilding effort and for the connections we made while we were there.

Our final weekend together was spent back at Camp Pi’iholo for group presentations and time to write final response papers. We were even treated with some special visitors on Sunday evening by some of the long-term MDS volunteers! While the new group of two-week volunteers was having their orientation in Lahaina, these new friends drove an hour to join us for dinner and some rowdy rounds of Uno. It was a special evening and final few days before we packed up and said farewell to Maui. Mahalo for following along on our blog!