Our History - Our Story

In 2012, a small group of North Shore residents came together to develop a community health and fitness facility which sparked the creation of the Kaua'i North Shore Community Foundation.  

Flexibility Yields Results 

Despite investing time and effort to create a plan for a health and fitness community center, we were unsuccessful in locating a piece of land on which we could develop the facility. However, we learned important lessons during the process—to be flexible and adapt as opportunities presented themselves. While working on the project, we were introduced to an anonymous donor who wished to create a dog park. Twelve months later, we opened the North Shore Dog Park where dogs can exercise and play off-leash.

While building the dog park, the Foundation hosted its first ‘Ohana FitFest in 2012, an annual event focused on family fitness and fun with kids and adults challenging themselves and each other in fun, healthy competition. Many local organizations have sponsored the event over the years.

Let’s Build a School

While supporting the North Shore Dog Park and Ohana FitFest, the Foundation’s Education Committee focused on a longstanding desire of North Shore residents to have a community-based middle school and high school. Despite decades of community requests and petitions, the Department of Education has declined to build a public secondary school on the North Shore. Most North Shore students attend middle and high school in Kapa'a, requiring a long bus commute.

Students who live beyond Hanalei take two buses each day, waiting in the pre-dawn darkness for the first bus to take them to Hanalei where they catch a second bus to arrive in Kapa'a by 8am.  The round-trip journey can consume in excess of three hours each day and creates barriers to kids’ participation in sports and after-school activities. For parents, the 25+-mile distance creates challenges for parents in arranging transportation and being active participants in the school community.

In 2015, the Foundation circulated a petition that gathered 600 signatures from people who supported the formation of a North Shore public charter school, launched the “Let’s Build a School” initiative, and organized the Charter School Steering Committee to support the next phase of the school’s development.

Our efforts received a huge boost when philanthropist Joan Porter—who founded the Anaina Hou Community Park with her late husband, Bill Porter—granted the Foundation a 99-year license for eight acres of land at the Wai Koa Plantation in Kilauea conditioned on the exclusive use of the site for a public charter school. We began fundraising to support Namahana School’s pre-opening and pre-construction expenses.

Reaching Out to the Community

A wide-ranging community survey explored the community’s hopes and dreams for a North Shore public charter school serving middle and high-school students. Those results were presented at a well-attended public meeting in September 2019 where we announced the school name—Namahana Public Charter School—identified by our cultural consultant, Kumu Hula Devin Kamealoha Forrest.

The Foundation has passed the baton to the Namahana Education Foundation (NEF), the non-profit created to fundraise, build, and operate the school under the Board of Education’s Charter which approved our application in June 2022.

More recently, an 11.3-acre parcel in Kilauea became available for sale, which will provide a permanent site in the center of our largest community, close to the Kilauea Gym, a school bus stop, shops and businesses that will provide even more opportunities for our students. In 2023, the land was purchased and the school is currently in the planning and design phase. Namahana School will open in 2025 with its first cohort of students. More on Namahana Public Charter School.

The Foundation Continues Its Mission

In 2024, the Foundation hired its first full-time executive director, formalized its new dba North Shore Give, and launched two new initiatives: a) the first annual North Shore Give Online Charity Auction & Gala took place in February and raised over $100,000; b) scheduled for the Fall of 2024, Live & Give North Shore is a locally focused “giving event,” and is currently in the planning stages.

While still a relatively young organization, the Foundation has combined the resources of a small, dedicated group and a very generous community, and together we are making a difference. We collaborate with other organizations, nonprofits, and civic institutions to accomplish meaningful solutions for the North Shore. Please join us!