On Saturday, June 20, our students departed for a new host family and a new setting to begin their Service Term, the second half of SST. Stay tuned for more updates about the communities in which the students are living and the volunteer work they're doing with nonprofits, community organizations, and municipal governments!
News
Keeping Lahaina Lands in Lahaina Hands
May 14 2026
by Mike McHugh
We’re halfway through our second week and are seeing a lot of progress from when we started last week. The roof decking is nearly complete on the Madrigal house and most of the exterior sheathing is installed. The Plum house has had a lot of work done, including the porch railing being built and painted. The exterior of the Asuncion house was fully calked & painted and the flooring started to get installed this week. While those are the visible projects, a lot of other work that is not as visible has been done on those and a few other places. A lot of strength and sweat has gone into the work every day, and most days end with a quick cool down at the beach which serves as a bit of rejuvenation before a filling dinner by our excellent cooks. Tonight, our very own Marta is helping to prepare the meal!
Speaking of dinner, Tuesday night was pizza night—no, there wasn’t any ham & pineapple 🙂 but there were many other delicious kinds to choose from. We were delighted to have special guests from the Lahaina Community Land Trust share with us about their organization during dinner. Their non-profit helps keep “Lahaina lands in Lahaina hands” by working with fire victims who want to stay in Lahaina but need help with finding the resources to rebuild. The land trust company helps them by purchasing the land for their home and puts the deed into a trust that protects it from being purchased by non-private parties in the future. The families can then work with partner organizations like the LTRG and MDS to have a new home affordably built. Several of the MDS homes currently being built, and another one in the early stages of design work were part of their program. Visit lahainacommunitylandtrust.org to learn more about the organization and how they’re keep Lahaina lands in Lahaina hands.
Before we started work on Monday morning, we all took some time to visit the memorial that was created to remember those that lost their lives in the 2023 wildfires. Read more about the memorial in this article written by the Honolulu Civil Beat.
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