Fundraiser tripled goal

KOLOA — Everyone is invited to celebrate the successful Koloa Union Church capital campaign Sunday during the church’s worship service that starts at 10:30 a.m.

The Rev. Dr. David Popham will celebrate his first day on the job as conference minister for the Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ and will deliver the guest message where the campaign capital plaque will be dedicated. The plaque names living donors and special gifts presented in honor and in memory of loved ones.

“I am really amazed that we raised more than $425,000 during the capital campaign that was chaired by Dan Giovanni,” said the Rev. Dr. Alan Akana, pastor of Koloa Union Church.

“Our initial goal was going to be $150,000, and I would have been thrilled if we came up with that amount. However, we had a gathering of our church leaders, including church council members, deacons and our capital campaign team, and they alone came up with more than $150,000 of commitments to the campaign,” Akana said.

”Along with the news of our ‘leadership gifts,’ generosity and excitement spread throughout the congregation and among our friends and extended church family — our ‘snowbirds’ who worship with us every year during the winter time — and the money kept pouring in. We also received two very nice grants from the Vidinha Charitable Trust. Because of our generous members, friends and community we were able to accomplish, in such a short period of time, more than we ever imagined.”

The campaign was spawned from an idea by church leaders in 2014 when they started to create a new vision for the future of the congregation. The leaders decided they wanted to look more inviting and welcoming to people, those driving by, and those who enter the church grounds. The following year, Giovanni agreed to chair the capital campaign committee.

Working with the pastor and with a hobby in landscaping, Giovanni was able to bring a keen eye and knowledge of local flora to the new church landscaping, the most noticeable part of the campaign, Akana said. This includes a new parking lot, sidewalk along the street, walkway to the sanctuary, grass, plants, and numerous flowering trees and shrubs.

“We chose the name Maika‘i Hana Hou (“Creating Goodness and Beauty Once Again”) for the campaign,” Giovanni said, “to honor those who came before us, including the early missionaries who started the church in 1835, those who built our current church sanctuary, those who served as pastors, and the hundreds of church members and friends over the years who faithfully served and supported our church.”

Giovanni’s wife Naomi was just a child when her father, the Rev. Susumu Yamane, was the pastor when the sanctuary was dedicated in 1961. The new arbor, serving as the entryway to the sanctuary and bell tower, is dedicated in memory of Yamane.

Phyllis Kunimura, a former church council member and chair of the church’s board of deacons, expressed a wish from her bed on the day before she passed in December 2017, that worshipers who enter the church do so through koa doors dedicated in memory of her and her husband, the late former Mayor Tony Kunimura.

“With the exception of the communion table which was made by a church member from a monkeypod tree that was once on the church property, all of the chancel furniture, including chancel bench, pulpit and matching flower stand, is made from Hawaiian koa, each piece designed and created by local talent Frank Pullano of Kalaheo,” Akana said.

“There are many other physical improvements to the sanctuary. They all help not only to create a sense of beauty, but also to draw people together into a community and a place where God’s spirit is felt by everyone who enters.”

Other improvements that were part of the capital campaign included the construction of a new women’s restroom, expansion of the church office, installation of a photovoltaic system and upgraded windows, fans, lighting and hardware, painting the interior and exterior of church buildings, paying off much of the church’s debt, and adding thousands of dollars to its youth fund.

“People have created beautiful spaces for thousands of years to help them feel God’s presence and more fully appreciate their part in all of God’s creation,” Akana said.

“What we have done here in Koloa is the same thing that people in the church have been doing since shortly after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus — we have created something beautiful both for God and for others. We are now very well situated for the future. Our facilities and our finances are in really good shape, and we are ready to move ahead with the rest of our vision that includes expanded ministry to children and youth, as well as outreach into our community.”

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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.