PRINCEVILLE — Adopt an After-School Club, a mentoring program that offers a variety of free activities for students at four elementary schools on Kauai, was honored by Rotary International with a Significant Achievement Award. It was the second consecutive year,
PRINCEVILLE — Adopt an After-School Club, a mentoring program that offers a variety of free activities for students at four elementary schools on Kauai, was honored by Rotary International with a Significant Achievement Award.
It was the second consecutive year, and the fourth time in eight years, that the 70-member Rotary Club of Hanalei Bay won the prestigious honor.
Last year, the club won for Adopt a Classroom, which provides $700 to each adopted teacher, to pay for classroom supplies and a field trip.
“Our club is thrilled and honored to receive its fourth Rotary International award in eight years,” said Ric Cox, chair of the club’s Youth Services committee and president of Aloha Angels. “Aloha Angels is delighted to be the new support base for three of the four programs started by the club: Adopt an After-School Club, Adopt a Classroom and Growing Our Own Teachers on Kauai. I’m grateful to all those who contributed to their success and will do my best to strengthen and expand each of them, islandwide.”
Both Adopt an After-School Club and Adopt a Classroom were recently spun off from Rotary and are now operated and funded by Aloha Angels, a donor-advised fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation. In two months, Aloha Angels has raised $237,000.
The after-school program was suggested to Hanalei Rotary by Kilauea Principal Sherry Gonsalves to create a sense of belonging and community among students. During the past school year, 87 percent of that school’s 300 students participated.
Clubs were also offered to elementary students in Koloa and Hanalei, and at Kanuikapono Public Charter School in Anahola. For next year, through Aloha Angels, five clubs have also been funded at Kapaa Elementary and Eleele.
The clubs at Kapaa, and all 69 classrooms at Kapaa Elementary and Kekaha, are being adopted by the Rotary Club of Kapaa Foundation.
Cox said Aloha Angels aims to fund at least five after-school clubs at all 13 public elementary schools on Kauai.
At $1,100 per club, to pay teachers to mentor a club for up to 36 weeks, that goal can be achieved for $71,500. For an additional $94,500, the remaining 135 of Kauai’s 290 public elementary classrooms can be adopted.
