Foundation Aids Projects In Waimanalo
The end of 2014 heralded another round of grants for Windward organizations from Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, which donated more than $2.98 million to community projects in December.
The bulk of funding went to Waimanalo Health Center, which received $2 million to add to its $13 million capital improvement campaign over two years. The center is focused on building a new, two-story facility that will serve an additional 2,500 patients a year.
“In light of our community’s needs, this leading contribution from Harold K.L. Castle Foundation is momentous,” stated the center’s CEO, Mary Frances Oneha. WHC serves about 4,000 patients annually, most of them low-income Native Hawaiians.
The foundation’s donation is set up as a “challenge grant” to attract other donors to the project. Estimated completion for the building is 2017.
Castle also granted $110,000 to Ho‘ola Na Pua to assist the nonprofit in establishing security measures for a 24,000-square-foot therapeutic home for young girls who have escaped commercial sexual exploitation.
The Windward Oahu property has been vandalized numerous times, so grant money will be spent on secure fencing, security cameras and landscaping.
Maunawili-based Ho‘okua‘aina, a nonprofit arm of Kapalai Farms, won $118,000 to fund the cultural learning center’s at-risk youth services. Ho‘okua‘aina has teens participate in paid farm work to learn life skills and the value of agriculture. It intends to one day fund its operations entirely through the sale of taro and poi, and fees for classes.
A school nurse also may join the Castle-Kahuku Complex, thanks to a $105,000 grant to University Clinical Education & Research Associates, which seeks to increase the availability of school-based health services.
Other grants included $10,000 to Catholic Charities of Hawaii to help students affected by the Puna lava flow on Hawaii island, and $105,000 to UH-Manoa’s College of Education to improve performance management and accountability in Hawaii’s teachers.
For more information, visit castlefoundation.org.
