2006-09-22 TALLIANCE - Laserfiche WebLink

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my community; and I’ve been pretty active for the last 30 years. I’m the coordinator of Project Venture, which I’m glad that Grady was here and Ralph has helped our program. We’ve been in existence for five years. It’s a substance abuse prevention program for middle school kids. I also work at the middle school and am really active with the Community Development Plan. I just was reading what the kids said they want Kohala to look like in 20 years; and a lot of their th comments were, you know, “no fast foods,” believe it or not. These are 8 graders. Our program, like Grady alluded to, really stresses outdoor adventure. In the last five years not only for our “Right of Passage Camp,” we’ve had trouble finding places just to take the kids. Jenny and Sully also worked at our camp for two years. I’ve seen them in action, I’ve seen their desire. I grew up in Union Mill, I played on the land that is their land now. I told them it’s a little red flag for some people that it’s a Christian camp; but I have seen the way they work with all people. Our program stresses spirit, connections to spirit; and I’ve seen where I think sometimes the word Christian can be very, you know, for people -. I feel that they will be really open to all, you know, all facets of life. I realize there are, and I’m glad, I’m very interested in Mike’s testimony. There are a lot of other kinds of accommodations, including Makapala and New Moon. We use New Moon. But I grew up as a Girl Scout counselor at Kilohana and I know, I know what camping experience is, how they can mold young people. And I really feel that this is one type of opportunity that’s missing in Kohala. We plan to be very involved with them. We have lots of experience with camps and, again, we need places not only for our kids but for our families. With the privatization of land in Kohala, you know, it’s becoming scarcer to be able to go to the ocean. You know, we’re glad Ralph is very open and other land owners, so that’s all I have to say. Thank you. ALAMEDA:Thank you, Ms. Bowman. Any questions? Seeing none. Thank you. Sir? LEWIS:I’m Todd Lewis at 74-5046 Lapa Nui Street, Kailua-Kona, administrator- facilitator of the Kona Fellowship of Home Churches, an informal fellowship of the church in the home. And I want to say that I have known the Sullivans, and I know their integrity, and I know their heart. And it’s a heart for the people who would come, it’s a heart for Kohala as well. In the Kona Fellowship of Home Churches, we do have retreats, we do have time away; and we’ve had to search for that facility, that place, that atmosphere. We’re not just looking to go away to any camping spot or any hotel. We often try to find a home next to Kona, but it’s not ideal. Because compared to what the Sullivans have there in that particular location, they just fail in comparison in terms of silence and beauty, the opportunity to be in an environment that takes care of the earth. They have excellent gardens there and they weave in the agricultural component of what they’re doing into the very nature of the life that they live and the life that they invite others into. I believe this is a unique resource for certainly the people of West Hawai`i, if not the whole of the Big Island, as well as people in North Kohala. We highly support it. ALAMEDA:Thank you, sir. Questions? Seeing none, ma’am? You may be seated. LUTZ:Well, this is embarrassing but I have a nervous condition. So for me to even talk publicly you’re going to see a lot of shaking going on. ALAMEDA:No problem. You can speak into the mike. EXHIBIT A 12