Regency at Puakea Activities Coordinator Kailee Mu had a difficult time concealing her excitement Friday when the Boy Scouts, their leader and a group of helpers showed up with a delivery.
“It’s the spring equinox,” Mu said. “This means it’s a good time to plant.”
The Scouts, including Eagle Scout candidate Shayn Shibuya, were delivering a pair of raised planter boxes, trays of starter vegetable plants, a chestful of garden tools and a gift card to acquire more seeds, all part of Shibuya’s Eagle Scout project.
“My mom Kathy suggested I talk with Kailee — she taught me how to swim when she was at the YMCA — and see if the kupuna at Regency would like to have something they can plant,” Shayn Shibuya said.
Mu’s response was in total agreement of having raised planter boxes, because a lot of the Regency residents have window-silll gardens of herbs and other little plants.
“They laughed at me when I suggested raised planters,” Kathy Shibuya said. “Shayn does most of the gardening in our family, so I know he likes gardening and growing things. I put in some basil one day, and overnight the slugs and snails got to it. There was nothing left, so I said ‘we need to have the gardens raised,’ and they laughed at me.”
Arriving at a budget of about $750, Shayn Shibuya said a lot of the funds needed were raised through a GoFundMe account.
“The Home Depot was one of those who contributed to this account,” Shayn Shibuya said. “But they didn’t stop there, because while we were shopping for the container and the garden tools, they offered a discount off the total price, too. That generosity is reflected in the gift card we’re presenting so the residents can get more plants.”
Other donations came from the community, and Shibuya’s neighbors, including Keith Sugihara and Alvin Uchida, helped with the delivery and final setting up of the planter boxes that measure two feet by four feet, standing three feet off the ground.
“They were very supportive,” Kathy Shibuya said of Sugihara and Uchida. “They spent a lot of time helping Shayn in the driveway, and they collaborated a lot.”
Nathan Konishi of Pacific Blue Construction, whose son Kalen Konishi is also involved in a combination Eagle and Capstone project at Kaua‘i High School, contributed the composite wood that formed the sides of the planter boxes, the composite wood being resistant to rotting from the planting material inside.
“We used the leftover pieces to form the pads at the bottom of the legs so the boxes would be more stable and also less susceptible to rot,” Shayn Shibuya said. “The other parts of the boxes are treated regular lumber.”
Brandon Miranda provided the soil that filled the two boxes, said Troop 148 Scoutmaster Jordan Berg, whose son shoveled the rich soil from atop a lift truck while Shayn Shibuya and Talen Koerte smoothed and tamped the material in preparation for the vegetable starters as Regency residents came to watch and talk with the Scouts in action.
“Let’s plant something!” Mu said.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
Bravo! A lot of thought, hard work and help went into this project.