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itself, as a lineal descendant of Kahalu‘u. My father was born and raised on Pauahi’s lands on a lease
<br />in Kahalu‘u. His mother, Mysie Kalamanamana Nahale was born and raised in Kahalu‘u. Her
<br />father, Kaauwaiakeakua Nahale, and her mother, Kaheiauikawalunao Puukohola, raised her in
<br />Kahalu‘u, and they rest at Helani Church in Kahalu‘u, and so on and so forth. So for me, raised
<br />picking coffee and chasing cows and fishing in Kona, it’s a privilege to come back and be able to
<br />work to try and serve this place that gave life to my parents and to my family.
<br />
<br />This project, you know, with Kamehameha Schools as the largest private landowner in the state and
<br />also as the largest purveyor of education, private education, in the state, really symbolizes bringing
<br />life, bringing these two things together; it symbolizes bringing life to our lands and to our children
<br />and to Pauahi’s mission that you see here on the board. It symbolizes reactivating the original
<br />learning space where people like Kamehameha himself learned to lead. Before there was Kapālama
<br />Campus, before there was Maui Campus, before there was the Kea‘au Campus in Hilo, there was
<br />‘āina as the campus as place to learn; there was kai, ocean, the marine environment, as a teacher;
<br />there was lewa or lani as a teacher. So in many ways you come in full circle to the original regional
<br />place of learning, and elevating that, especially at this place where, as Kalei mentioned,
<br />Lonoikamakahiki had this as a university of sorts so many hundred years ago. We are here to ask for
<br />your blessing to rededicate Kahalu‘u as a center of learning and leadership excellence grounded in
<br />the traditions, the mo‘olelo of Kona and the traditions of our Hawaiian people of Hawai‘i. We want
<br />this to be a place for everyone from the little babies all the way to Hawaiians and others getting their
<br />Ph.D., a place to study fish to physics, from agriculture to, you know, biology. We want it to be a
<br />safe and vibrant place for learning and life success. We want it to be a place for the Department of
<br />Education for public schools, for charter schools, for the university system, for the community
<br />college system, and beyond. You notice today that, there was no Kamehameha Schools classes here
<br />today, but again in the vision of where we are going in our new strategic plan, Pauahi’s keiki are all
<br />over. In fact, a majority of Pauahi’s keiki that she left her lands and will to are not, cannot be served
<br />on our campuses. And our new strategic plan is all about, and her mission was to serve educational
<br />opportunities in perpetuity and improve the capability and wellbeing of people of Hawaiian ancestry.
<br />We need to move, continue excellence of our campuses, but we absolutely have to move beyond that,
<br />and that is a big focus of the next strategic plan of this Board of Trustees. And this project in
<br />Kahalu‘u Ma Kai actually is a very strong physical representation of the direction that Kamehameha
<br />Schools is taking to embrace the rest of Pauahi’s kids, the rest, in our communities all over the state.
<br />And we think that by elevating our native Hawaiian kids and families, we are actually going to
<br />elevate the whole community, Hawaiian or otherwise, and you can see that demonstrated before you
<br />today.
<br />
<br />So today we bring you a project, and there is a question about, you know, why we don’t need an EA,
<br />or why we got a Findings of No Significant Impact, and I know you folks hear a lot of request to
<br />develop and to build and to have certain impact, and today we bring you a project that, compared to
<br />the two hotels we had there, a project that restores sacred sites and spaces, doesn’t desecrate them, or
<br />a project that reduces environmental impacts from what was being done in the hotel’s site, a project
<br />that reduces traffic from when it was a resort, a project that enhances water quality and the marine
<br />environment, a project that provides safe and respectful and sensitive access, with the public access
<br />plan we have in there, there would be, besides restoration of these for viewing and learning, more
<br />public access than has ever existed on the site, probably in over 100 years or more. And on top of all
<br />of that a project that provides a public and community benefit for our most precious resource, which
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