Page 4 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - March 9, 2022

4 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK MARCH 9, 2022
As right on as life is for Kaui Kauhi as a businessman, athlete and actor, his real treasure is found in the communities he helps to uplift, particularly his beloved Waimānalo.
ome people shy away from challenges. Kaui
ago, Kauhi first embraced the challenge of lifting the spirits of many — specifi- cally, those individuals and families living at shelters and homeless camps from Wai‘anae to Waikīkī.
row his reach, he explains, “One Christmas, I was sitting down in my living room and I saw this homeless family walking. They had about six kids and out of the six kids, I only saw one kid with a bike.”
of underprivileged children. The result was Mālama Da Keiki, a popular affair that has been going on for the past 10 years and serves around 1,000 youth annually.
parade in 2018. “We have entertainment, we have food and we actually do a lot of giveaways of toys like bikes, surfboards, footballs, basket- balls. You name it, anything to do with kids.”
Kauhi runs to them.
“I’m very driven,” he
says. “I like to be challenged. I like when people tell me, ‘You can’t do it,’ because I’m going to do it.”
But about a decade ago, he decided to focus his com- passionate efforts on his hometown of Waimānalo. In recalling what led him to nar-
“I have a lot of my friends and entrepreneurs and men- tors that donate to Mālama Da Keiki,” explains the man who was named grand marshal of the Waimānalo
And because of the event’s continued success, this very large man (he stands 6 feet 6) with equally big ideas
That determination has never been more evident than in how he approaches com- munity work. Twenty years
The scene did not sit right with Kauhi. In response, he began to organize an event that would cater to the needs
SEE PAGE 5