Nonprofit Kula Community Watershed Alliance (KCWA) and The Rotary Club of Upcountry Maui are teaming up this week to help restore Upcountry Maui’s native ecosystems.
Volunteers are needed from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, May 29, at KCWA’s Community Restoration Nursery at Pūlehunui Sanctuary, where Native Hawaiian species — including pukiawe, pilo, maile, and ʻaʻaliʻi — are being propagated and replanted on a large scale in Kula.
Since the aftermath of the August 2023 wildfires, KCWA has worked to restore more than 200 acres of the Waiakoa watershed in Upper Kula, including dozens of homes and structures, that were burned to the ground, per its website.
Kula residents formed KCWA to “Mālama Awāwa O Kula,” or nurture the valleys and gulches of Kula, by building long-term wildfire resilience through land restoration, watershed preservation and native plant propagation. “And in doing so, nurture the well-being of our communities, too,” the website states.
For Rotary members, joining forces now on this community-led initiative “carries special meaning.”
In 2025, the Hawaiʻi Rotary District 5000 Foundation awarded KCWA a $103,000 grant through its Maui Fires Relief Fund, according to a Tuesday announcement from The Rotary Club of Upcountry Maui. The funds were used “to expand the very nursery (where volunteers will be working [Friday]) — funding infrastructure including a solar-powered irrigation system, and a shade and community workshop structure.”
The grant served as a match to Hawai’i Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund award of $481,800 to KCWA in 2024, which funded two 60-foot hoop houses, to steward fire-affected lands in Kula. The Nāhele Hou Foundation provides land for KCWA’s Community Restoration Nursery.
At that time, KCWA Executive Director Sara Tekula called the Rotary contribution “transformative” in bringing the community’s vision to life.
“It strengthens the backbone of our restoration work — giving the land what it needs to heal and giving our community the infrastructure needed to show up for that work,” she stated in a September 2025 news release. “... We are also deeply grateful for the landowner for agreeing to host us for as long as it takes."
Nick Winfrey, community service organizer of Rotary Club of Upcountry Maui, told Aloha State Daily, “That [their] partnership began in 2025 with a grant, and it will continue long into the future."
He added that the club typically offers community service days every few months and the public is always welcome. The club serves the Upcountry Maui community via partnerships and projects with local nonprofits.
“For this particular event, we have 15 available slots and encourage everyone to bring a friend to also learn about our Rotary Club," Winfrey told ASD.
Personally, he’s most looking forward to “a tour of the operations (of KCWA) and of course, connecting with the ʻāina.”
Interested in attending Friday’s workday? Sign up in advance, here, for additional details, including parking and what to bring; light work gloves are recommended.
According to Winfrey, the club is also focused on supporting recovery efforts in Upcountry Maui and the long-term patients that were displaced when Kula Hospital closed during the Kona Low storms in March.
Like all Rotary clubs worldwide, “Service Above Self” is their motto. “As part of Rotary International's District 5000, we embody the spirit of aloha in everything we do, working tirelessly to make a tangible difference right here in our beloved Upcountry Maui community and beyond,” the Rotary Club of Upcountry Maui website notes.
"This is a full-circle moment for Rotary," said Mary Albitz, president of the Rotary Club of Upcountry Maui, in a statement about the upcoming service day. "Our District helped make this nursery possible, and now our members and neighbors get to put their hands in the soil and be part of the healing work it was built for. We hope this day inspires more people across Maui to get connected to the remarkable organizations doing this work right in our backyard."
There are more than 50 Rotary in Hawaiʻi clubs comprised of approximately 1,500 members in total across the Islands. Each club is funded by member contributions, foundations and endowments, and community partnerships and fundraising.
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
