The clean-up of Maunalua Bay continues and sometimes it’s in relatively small steps.
A student group at Kaiser High School is doing its part to make a difference.
Relatively speaking, it’s a small patch of land, called a rain garden. Last year, the Kaiser Rotary Interact club planted the garden to enhance the landscape and prevent a major problem.
“Erosion and polluted water run-off has become a big problem in Maunalua Bay so rain gardens like this by securing sediments in the ground, it prevents the run-off from going into the bay,” says Kira Fox, who is part of the Interact Club.
“And the sediment coming down from this upper parking lot behind the cafeteria and during heavy rains, there would be mud that would cross over the sidewalk, sometime into the classroom building, down in to the band room,” says Scott Murakami of PBR Hawaii.
Scott works for an architectural/landscaping firm and – as it happens – as a Kaiser alum.
“Yes, I graduated a while back but definitely it’s good to do things to give back to the high school,” he says.
All the students try to keep the rain garden free of litter. It is filled with native Hawaiian plants.
“The area before was very dry and barren and now to see something so flourishing is really nice and it gives the campus kind of a down to earth feel and I really like it,” Fox says. “And we planted the garden. The hole was dug but all the plants you see now, we planted that day. We put in some rocks and it was a really fun thing to do.”
The Interact club received an award from Scenic Hawaii for its work on the garden.
“Interact Club is a division of the Rotary Club for students in high schools and middle schools if they want to get involved in their community. Interact club gives them a chance to volunteer and put themselves out there and kind of try to make a difference,” Fox says.
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