PUHI — The Sea Scout program has left the starting line running. Despite the need for startup funding, Skipper Larry Richardson — head, or Decisive, of the fledgling program — has already acquired two boats for the Troop and is
PUHI — The Sea Scout program has left the starting line running.
Despite the need for startup funding, Skipper Larry Richardson — head, or Decisive, of the fledgling program — has already acquired two boats for the Troop and is scheduled to take delivery of a third vessel.
This was revealed during a Kaua‘i Police Activities League Board meeting at the Grove Farm Co. conference room where Wanda Shibata of the Young Brothers Community Advisory Board offered a grant of $1,000 to help with startup costs for the Sea Scout program.
Sea Scouts is just one of many facets falling under K-Pal and the Kaua‘i Police Department’s multi-faceted umbrella.
Earlier in October, Richardson took delivery of a 40-foot cruising trawler which was anonymously donated to the program.
That contribution literally provided the impetus for the program as the Scouts and Richardson spent the greater part of the holidays doing maintenance and repair to the boat while enjoying weekend cruises.
Another boat, a 26-foot sailboat named “Jaipari,” was reason for two Sea Scouts, a parent and Richardson to fly to O‘ahu where the group took delivery of the sailboat and sailed it back to Nawiliwili Harbor early in December.
Between the work being done on the boats, the Scouts have also joined forces with the United States Coast Guard and the Surfrider Foundation in performing a service project involving cleaning up the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor of general trash and debris which accumulates from the heavy use of the boating facility.
This was not a beach clean up in the traditional sense, but a general clean up to rid the area of ‘opala, Richardson said of the Jan. 16 project.
Following the policing project, the Scouts toured the U.S. Coast Guard Nawilwili Mooring and its cutter.
Ozaki was joined by Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry and K-PAL Board member Michael Tresler in expressing the gratitude of K-PAL for its support for the Sea Scout program demonstrated by the Young Brothers organization.
K-PAL has approximately 2,000 participants on Kaua‘i and provides several programs throughout the island for youth and young adults ages 5 to 19, Ozaki said in a release.
Special focus is given to those at risk, or financially less fortunate.
The K-PAL programs are used as a tool to attract participants into a safe and supervised activity as well as a common gathering place.
Studies have shown that if a youngster respects a police officer on the ball field or in the gym, they will very likely come to respect the laws the police officer enforces.
The athletic and recreational activities provide valuable lessons in teamwork, self esteem, discipline, sportsmanship and the merits of hard work.
“K-PAL’s current program direction is to continue and expand our use of a time-proven formula: providing athletics and recreational activities and crime and drug prevention education in combination with mentoring from police officers and other responsible adults with the theory that the combined use of desirable activities, education and positive mentoring/role modeling will provide an effective means of promoting a crime and drug fee lifestyle to the youth of Kaua‘i,” Ozaki said. “Our sincere hope is that the juveniles we reach will be empowered to embrace a healthy crime and drug free lifestyle, thereby reaching their full potential as members of our island ‘ohana. Through our crime and drug prevention programs, our mission and commitment is to ‘Filling Playgrounds, Not Prisons.’”
