After beginning our gardens at the Ke Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center this past summer, it became clear quite quickly that it was the children who were most engaged and excited about the gardens.
So, on September 11th as part of National Day of Service CWD/CPPW partnered with Voluntourism and HandsUpMaui to create a day JUST for the children. Island Artist Caro Walker, who was the set designer for Ulalena, donated time to work on an outline of a beautiful mural on the backwalls of the childrens center. The mural was of little-brother Kalo sitting under the umbrella of a huge Kalo leaf...above is head was a rainbow, and the Goddess of Rain raining down the abundance from the clouds.
At 10am, 28 excited children came running over to the childrens center ready to get dirty. Lucky, HandsUpMaui had donated some T-shirts for the event, so we got the kids dressed and introduced them to the mural.
"This is the best thing I have ever done" I heard one boy exclaim.
"I'm good at this- another girl said- and I have never done this before".
I gasped, what do you mean you have NEVER done this before...what Painted??? The little girl was 7 years old, and she had in fact NEVER painted in her life. And indeed, she was a natural.
We had children from 3-12 years old that day, working together to make their space more beautiful. Their hand-prints became the fern-garden along the entry-way...A Hawaiian Stilt became the "Big Bird" leading the way into the Childrens center.
When the kids needed a break, we had healthy snacks and fruit donated by Hana Farms and Tribe. Other kids played music with Waylon Rich a local musician, and learned some new cords on the ukelele.
In the afternoon we built 3 beautiful cedar and redwood garden boxes just for the kids plants and filled the boxes with the children. They got to learn about making a lasagna with the various materials that we sourced from the island. Cinder, Horse Manure, Seaweed, Comfrey Leaf, Worm Castings Compost and top soil. Each of the kids got to pick their own plant to put into the garden beds...and as they planted each of their 'babies' into the beds...they would whisper as they patted them gingerly in place..."goodnight...welcome home".
I realized as I heard the children welcoming their plants into their new home that this actually what we were doing with the children as well...Welcoming them home. When we connect children to the land, and their food source, their creativity, and we give them a space to express themselves, empowering them to make decisions- and we honor them and sing with them and encourage them- we create a sense of HOME for these children who have literally grown up hearing that they are homeLESS.
It was a profound day- a day I will remember forever. And a reminder that Home is truly where the Heart is...and when you have LOVE...you are NEVER homeless.
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| The kids working with Caro Walker on the mural. Tiffany the Director of the Childrens Center came with some helping hands for the day. |
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| Some of the mothers came and lended a helping hand for the day |
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| Artist Caro Walker getting gloves on one of the kids |
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| Yes, and of course the kids had a blast being allowed to get as messy as they wanted to |
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| Painting brother Kalo |
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| The rainbow gets it's color back |
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| Waylon Rich playing with the kids at breaktime |
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| growing happy plants and happy kids |
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| These are a few of the boys who exclaimed that it was the "best thing they had ever done". They were in charge of painting the Hawaiian Stilt on the way into the center and they did an incredible job. |
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| wonderlust and handprints |
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| Naith is an exceptional woman who lives at the Center with her 3 children, she has been so involved in the gardens and in connecting the children with their food source. She came out to cheer us all on as we built the children 3 new garden beds. |
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| After the workday was over, the kids still wanted to "work"...so we took them down to the main community garden on the site and planted additional fruit trees, flowers, and beneficial plants to introduce more diversity as well as creating planting guilds that the kids call "giving the other plants friends to play with". |
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| At the beginning of the day... |
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| At the end of the day....quite a transformation already.... |
