Every semester, Chaminade’s Office of Enrollment Management and Student Success tackles a service project together. On Dec. 17, they ventured out for their latest volunteering effort—a clean-up of Palolo Stream.
Over the course of the day, some 19 staff members collected 197.2 pounds of trash that would have ended up in the ocean.
The stream runs through Chaminade’s campus on its way to Waikiki, and the volunteers found everything from tires to plastic bottles.
Jennifer Creech, vice president for Enrollment Management and associate provost for Student Success, said her group was delighted to leave the stream cleaner than they found it. Students regularly venture into the stream in the area for class projects.
“We have a shared responsibility to be stewards of the resources and care for the land,” Creech said.
“While the students and the classes use this area as an active learning space, we believe it is important to do our part to maintain a beautiful and clean entrance to welcome others into our community.”
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Creech said taking on a service learning project as a team is a no-brainer: It’s fun with a mission.
The volunteer effort was coordinated with the assistance of Jon Watase MBA ’24, who is director of ‘āina-based learning at Saint Louis School.
Creech said Watase does an “outstanding job coordinating the efforts and incorporating educational components, ensuring we all leave with a deeper understanding and a stronger sense of commitment to caring for this special place.”