Location: Hanapepe Heights, HI
Build Date: 06/10/06
Project Home Page: http://www.kaboom.org/hanapepecliffside
Project Leader: Kathleen West-Hurd


When Kathleen West-Hurd left her home in Los Angeles in 2003 to settle on the island of Kauai, she knew things would be different.  She and her husband planned to settle into semi-retirement in a home with an ocean view in Hanapepe Heights.  On moving in, she discovered another view:  across from their home was a park consisting of "bare dirt, a couple of rusty swings, and an old basketball court covered in weeds."

West-Hurd wanted to change things at Hanapepe Cliffside and Hanapepe Heights Parks, but soon discovered that her neighborhood was sharply divided. "On the one side we have older Japanese retired couples, and on the other we have young Native Hawaiians and Filipino families.  We're talking about some real age and cultural differences.  But sometimes you learn a lot from contrasts." 

She attended a U Play! event in Oakland in 2005, and while she found some of the information there helpful, she felt that much of it needed to be tweaked to fit her group's needs.  "It's a matter of assessing community assets," she says.  "We live on a rock in the middle of the ocean.  That affects everything –culture, weather, lifestyles.  We have to do things differently here." 

 

Take fundraising, for example.  "These are all hard-working people –many of them are working two jobs and their kids are home alone.  Nobody's even able to come home during lunch to see how their kids are doing –they sure don't have time to plan meetings or attend fundraisers." 

West-Hurd gave it a shot anyway, holding an ice cream social; the refreshments and raffle prizes (including a computer and helicopter ride) were donated.  She arranged to have a fire truck onsite for the kids to explore.  "About 40 kids showed up, with about a dozen adults, and none of them had any money," she laughs, "and of course we couldn't turn them away!  So we wound up giving the kids the ice cream and most of the raffle tickets."

West-Hurd, who holds a PhD in Urban Planning, decided to use her grant-writing skills to raise all of the funds necessary to build both parks.  She wrote a proposal to integrate her neighborhood and received a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation's Mo' Bettah Together Program.  She also received a Federal Matching grant, which required her to write an environmental impact study.

Choosing the playspaces materials to suit that environment was a challenge.  In this climate, the suggested mulch turns to compost in a mere matter of weeks.  Sand is impractical too, given the trade winds -- it harbors insects when it's wet, and blows around when it's dry.  They settled on equipment that would be bolted to a concrete slab, which would then be covered with rubber fall material –a mixture of rubber and glue, applied in layers with a trowel.  "The early stages involved a lot of leaps of faith," West-Hurd says.  "We could plan it and fund it, but who would help us build it?" 

Kids, moms, and retirees showed an early interest.  "I remembered seeing the kids at the U Play! build in Oakland, and they looked so wistful, just hanging out.  They wanted to be involved."  So West-Hurd got the kids in her own community involved, buying them old t-shirts and rubber gloves so that they could clean up the areas.  "Taking part gives them a sense of responsibility for the world around them, as well as self-esteem." 

Next, they put the word out to the dads in the community.  "This is where they live, where they're raising their kids.  They wanted to help, but these are people who work hard all day, every day -- they don't have time for foo-foo meetings." 

What they do have, she says, is energy and physical strength.  To channel those assets, the group relies on the older members of the community, many of whom have worked in construction.  "All of these people are in the trades and they're used to working in teams.  So we've got the young strength and the older wisdom –everyone learns and benefits."

West-Hurd and her group built Cliffside last year, and although Hanapepe Heights wasn't scheduled to be built until 7/22/06, things had to be adjusted again.  "They advised us to order the equipment about 4 weeks in advance, but out here, we're at the end of the supply chain," she says.  "Since things take forever to get here, it makes sense to order earlier." 

The equipment showed up uncharacteristically early in West-Hurd's driveway, and that was a problem.  "We needed to leave town the next week and had to get out," she laughs, "so we built it early in June."

The work- and build-days have been typical, local, Hawaiian-style affairs, involving a rotating cast of 17-18 volunteers.  People stop by to see what we're doing and they come back with something we need.  It might be a few dozen box lunches, or it might be tools and energy.  "A couple of our volunteers are World War II vets who are in their eighties," West-Hurd says.  "Mr. Hata, one of the last surviving members of the all Japanese-American 422nd Regimental Unit, watched us for awhile and then left.  He returned later with his power drill and rolled up his sleeves."
 
Hawaiians use terms "Uncle" and "Auntie" as titles of respect and love, and although West-Hurd says that she still gets occasional twinges of homesickness, it's clear that Auntie Kathleen has found a home in her newly unified community.  The experience of building play spaces, she says, "has given us credibility.  It's also resulted in our new motto:  'Building Community Through Community Building.'"

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