In this blog post, you’ll learn about ways you and your company can volunteer during the holiday to help our keiki, our elders, and our oceans in the weeks leading up to the new year. The holidays are a wonderful time to come together with friends or coworkers to give back to the community. This season offers unique volunteer opportunities for individuals and groups.

1. Help Our Keiki

In Hawaiian, the word Imua means to move forward. When you volunteer during the holidays, you move people in need forward. Our local non-profit, Imua Family Services is on a mission to empower children and their families to reach their full potential. Back in December of 1950, Imua held their first annual Keiki Holiday party. For the children receiving services at Imua, this celebration mark another year of growth, another year moving forward. 

This year will be the 69th annual Keiki Holiday Party on Thursday, December 12th and there are nearly 500 participating families. Volunteers are needed for tasks including handing out drinks, hosting a children’s art area, table assistants and more. Learn more here: https://handsonmaui.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/?need_id=472120

3 Ways You and Your Company Can Volunteer During the Holidays

The annual bike build program provides at-risk keiki in Maui County new bikes for the holidays. Volunteering with to assemble bikes is a simple way to positively impact 500 kids that would not otherwise ever receive a great gift such as a bike. 

“Everyone can remember the feeling they got the first time they took off on a bike. We want to help provide that for the next generations” shared Krank Cycles Owner, Aaron (Moose) Reichert. “One way we can help give back is to organize the bike build for the holiday’s program.” No mechanical experience is required, and volunteers of all skill levels can learn more here: https://handsonmaui.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/?need_id=468939

2. Give Back to Our Seniors

3 Ways You and Your Company Can Volunteer During the HolidaysDuring the holidays, it’s especially important to give back to our community. “Set time aside to take an older adult out for lunch, a walk by the beach or a scenic drive.” explains the staff at NA HOALOHA-Loving Friends “Doesn’t cost much, but for a senior who lives alone, it would be priceless!” 

Be a “Spark of Life” in the day of an elderly person. Maui Adult Day Care Centers is looking for volunteers to enjoy doing such things as arts and crafts, BINGO, Karaoke, dancing, talking story, reading, and holiday celebrations with their clients. Leave with a full heart everyday knowing you made a difference in the life of someone with physical and/or mental challenges who may be frail or have dementia. Join in the fun while giving of yourself! Get the details here: https://handsonmaui.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/?need_id=124830

3. Protect the Ocean

Protect our OceansPlastic blowing down the beach often finds its final resting spot the sea. It’s easier to keep trash out of the environment if we catch it before it floats off to sea. “An estimated 17.6 billion pounds of plastic leaks into the marine environment from land-based sources every year—this is roughly equivalent to dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the oceans every minute.” (source: oceana.org

One reason it’s so hard to get trash out of the sea is because it breaks down into much smaller pieces that are harder to remove. “Cleaning up marine debris found in the open ocean is not as simple as it may sound,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (source: NOAA via theverg.com). “The great Pacific garbage patch, for instance, is constantly shifting, the plastic litters the water column from top to bottom, and most of the pieces are minute.” This inevitably makes cleaning it up expensive. 

So, let’s all do our part to pick up plastics and other trash while they’re still on land. Join the next beach clean up with Malama Maui Nui. They’ll supply all the clean up gear and you’re likely to meet some pretty awesome people. 

You can also share your passion for the ocean by educating others. Volunteer during the holidays and you could be the next Docent at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (HIHWNMS) in Kihei. More information about this opportunity is available here: https://handsonmaui.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/?need_id=318981 

Whale

 

Go Volunteer During the Holidays! 

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there, make new friends and share the holiday cheer. Browse through the full list of volunteer opportunities in Maui here: handsonmaui.galaxydigital.com/need/