HANAPEPE — Twenty-two Thrivent volunteers from Kihei Lutheran Church joined volunteers from Lihue Lutheran Church to help Kauai Habitat for Humanity. “The Kihei group, including 19 youth of different ages, and three adults, spent Tuesday and Wednesday working at the
HANAPEPE — Twenty-two Thrivent volunteers from Kihei Lutheran Church joined volunteers from Lihue Lutheran Church to help Kauai Habitat for Humanity.
“The Kihei group, including 19 youth of different ages, and three adults, spent Tuesday and Wednesday working at the Kauai Habitat for Humanity,” said Karen Kirchner of the Lihue Lutheran Church.
Thursday, the group was up in Kokee, but not for sight-seeing, Kirchner said. They cleared trails.
“Friday, they got to enjoy Kauai, spending time at the beach and enjoying themselves before returning to Maui,” she said.
Pastor Dave Kruger of the Kihei group said normally the youth group attends a regional church conference where they do service projects.
Between the regional conference, which the group attends every three years, he takes the group to the Outer Islands where they spend a week doing service projects. Last year’s trip involved visiting Oahu, and this year, they’re on Kauai.
“While we were waiting at Maui Airport, I asked how many of the group had visited Kauai,” Kruger said. “It’s amazing how they were born on Maui, but for many, have never been to Kauai.”
Monday, the group spent the greater part of their day painting the Fellowship Hall at the Lihue Lutheran Church before embarking on two days of work at the Kauai Habitat for Humanity.
Milani Pimental of Kauai Habitat said the group just bubbled up, and they had part of the group helping Cynthia Dazzi, the ReStore manager, with the Kauai Habitat thrift shop. The remainder of the group worked to repaint one of the Eleele homes.
“What is amazing is the donation of the base paint by Valspar,” Pimental said. “Locally, we had to pay for the tinting, which Hardware Hawaii offered Kauai Habitat a good discount for. With the help from the Kihei and Lihue group, this project is almost at no cost to us.”
She added the project also got a boost from a Thrivent grant. Dazzi welcomed the group at the ReStore thrift shop in Hanapepe where the group got to work with the doors closed.
“We have new store hours where on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays we open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.,” Dazzi, who has been managing the facility, said. “On Wednesdays and Fridays, we open from noon until 4 p.m. The store is closed on Sundays and Mondays.”
Dazzi said there is nothing the ReStore doesn’t sell, except for mattresses.
“When we started closing because we needed the time to get the store in shape, we thought it would hurt us,” Dazzi said. “But surprisingly, the closings actually helped our sales. We’re selling more now.”
Kruger said the younger members of the group worked at the ReStore while the older people helped with the painting at the Eleele site, both groups coming together for the midday meal at the Eleele home site.
“The Kihei congregation is very supportive of this program,” Kruger said. “When we return, the youth will be doing the sermon Sunday when they talk about what they’ve done on this trip. Our congregation loves this, listening to the good being done by the youth.”
Kauai Habitat features two main home building programs — new home construction and repair and renovation program. Kauai Habitat also operates ReStore, which sells new and used discounted building and construction materials and household items.
Proceeds from ReStore support Kauai Habitat for Humanity’s mission to build affordable housing.
Visit www.kauaihabitat.org for more information, to donate or to volunteer.
