Youth volunteers help clear stone path at Kalākaua Park

By KELSEY WALLING Hawai‘i Tribune-Herald | Friday, March 19, 2021, 12:05 a.m.

A group of 11 young people have been volunteering this week in Hilo through a program meant for students taking a gap semester from school.

Adventures Cross-Country, or ARCC, is a program that gives adolescents different options of travel and study after graduating high school.  One option includes traveling to Hawai‘i to volunteer for local organizations and to explore important environmental and social issues while being immersed in Hawaiian culture.

On Tuesday morning, the group worked to clear grass and dirt from Kalākaua Park to help restore the park to its former appearance.

K.T. Eger is part of a group forming the Friends of Kalākaua Park and thought the students in ARCC would be helpful in starting a project to historically restore the park.

Last year, the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation gave a grant to Friends of Kalākaua to restore the stones that were loose or removed back into the pattern they were originally placed in the 1930s, when the park was the center of town.

“On Tuesday, the students uncovered the stone pathway that goes from Kalākaua to Waianuenue behind the King David Kalākaua statue,” Eger said. “There is a lovely stone pathway there that has been subject to decades of erosion.”

The stones will be uncovered in the coming weeks, but the goal is to have the project completed by May Day in the hopes that the Hilo Lei Day festival will take place at the park this year.

“This is just the first step in this process, and they did a great job with it,” Eger said. “Our goal is to have everything done by the end of April, so if the May Day festival is able to happen again, then the space is ready.”

The students have also been working on environmental projects at Lili‘uokalani Park and Gardens and talking with people in the community for their research projects.