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Social science says that the altruistic act of volunteering is supposed to feel good. However, when I volunteered recently it hurt.

I was playing basketball with my middle school mentee and he shoved me in the back as I was going in for an easy layup. I went spilling onto the asphalt.

I scraped my right knee and jammed my left wrist. A ref would have whistled him for a flagrant foul and kicked him out of the game. But this was a playground.

I made him lift me back up. I didn’t have to be his parent or his teacher. I was just there to school him on the finer points of what happens when you play dirty on the basketball court.

We began to play again and I intentionally, and repeatedly, stepped on his Crocs causing them to fall off. He’d be chasing after his footwear and I’d easily score. 

(Side note, I can’t wait for the day when Nike, Reebok or Adidas make the first pair of basketball slippers. Basketball in Polynesia will go to a whole new level when that day comes.)

My mentee is lucky to attend a school with a thriving mentoring program. It’s a wonderful way for our town to connect in one of the “third spaces” that have been identified as being crucial to community health and happiness.

Helping Out Is Ingrained In Our Culture

We just finished National Volunteer Month and released by the United Health Foundation said Hawaii ranked 45th in volunteer rates. (It’s worth noting that research only measured volunteer response through 2021, before the Maui wildfires.)

According to the report, fewer than 1 in 5 adults in Hawaii said they volunteered last year. I don’t think our culture of helping fits neatly on dashboards.

“Local people don’t call it volunteering, they just call it being normal,” said Keone Kealoha, the executive director of . “Oh, I got to go mow grandma’s yard. It’s just what you do. Oh, so-and-so’s having a luau. OK, we’re all going to go wrap laulau — that’s what we do.” 

Kanu Hawaii helps match volunteer organizations with people looking to help. Volunteer matching services are crucial for helping boost civic engagement and help build community.

is a county-run volunteer service center and its longtime coordinator, Wendy Stebbins, said it’s had an unimaginable year. Stebbins, a Lahaina resident, had to relocate to Kahana, but she has kept up her work helping dozens of Maui’s volunteer organizations do their thing.

She said Maui’s volunteer organizations still need people to help with the programs that were previously in place: feeding the elderly, helping with hospice care and distributing clothing.

“Those kinds of (volunteer) agencies suffered because everybody wanted to help with the fire,” Stebbins said. 

Because Maui has a number of residents still unemployed, Stebbins said HandsOn Maui has been able to point people to volunteer opportunities.

“I do know that the people at the (volunteer) hubs are really grateful that they have something to commit to because they don’t have jobs,” she said. She’s seen a significant change in attitudes toward volunteering, not only with Maui residents but with visitors.

​​”The visitor industry really wants to help out more than ever,” she said. “And that’s the start of a new change. I just know that there’s been just an outpour of people wanting to help.”

Many visitors are interested in being part of the disaster cleanup, but the work is quite dangerous and requires intense training.

Making Personal Connections

Kealoha said voluntourism is appealing to younger generations of visitors to Hawaii.

“They want to support the community, they want to eat local, they want to meet real people and service work is just one way to do that,” he said. 

People want to belong and volunteering is a great way to establish personal connections.

“Those are the kind of ways that you get invited to the baby luau,” Kealoha said. “You’re not going to get invited to the baby luau via the concierge desk.”

As a journalist who covered 9/11, I’ve always been wary of comparing Maui and New York. However, one of the wonderful responses has been to turn the anniversary into . It would be wonderful to turn Aug. 8 into a day of service across Hawaii. 

“You’re not going to get invited to the baby luau via the concierge desk.”

Keone Kealoha, Kanu Hawaii

“We need to start figuring out how we connect those pieces of our community before there’s a disaster,” Kealoha said. “And that’s something that I haven’t seen figured out.” 

A day of service on Aug. 8, 2024, would be a special way for our communities to mark the anniversary of the fires, to amplify the importance of volunteering in our communities, and to help establish knowledge about how to help before a disaster. 

There are three months until August. That’s plenty of time to plan for cleanups, tree plantings or youth programs. Indeed, if you’re interested in a basketball game with a middle-schooler, I can help arrange it — just bring your own Band-Aids. Every bit of service helps.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.