Metro Church and Palama Settlement invites you and your family to our Easter Family Event happening on Friday, March 22nd, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. There will be an easter egg-hunt for children ages 6 and below and fun games for the older children out on the great lawn. A special family dinner will be served at our Dining Hall Lanai to end the night. Parking is available in the back of the Palama Settlement Gymnasium, or the vacant lot facing the intersection of Vineyard Blvd. and Palama St.
A big mahalo to Maui Divers Jewelry for the generous $50,000 donation to the Palama Settlement Tutoring Program!
As we slowly emerge from a pandemic that has forever changed our world, we look back on our own 125-year history and how Palama Settlement has always adapted for a community in need.
Palama Settlement was founded in 1896 as Palama Chapel. The infamous Chinatown fire of 1900 displaced thousands of people who needed healthcare, food, affordable housing, and jobs. Palama Settlement responded and created Honolulu’s first public health nursing program, educational and recreational programs, and a multitude of other important community services.
The recent COVID pandemic has been difficult on this community. But just like it has for the last 125 years, Palama Settlement remained focused on tackling the greatest challenges and needs.
Palama Settlement serves, on average, over 900 children, over 1,000 families, and over 400 seniors annually. During the pandemic, that number increased to over 6,500 served in one year. Palama Settlement’s campus serves as a haven for the residents of this community with programs and services designed to promote healthy and productive lives, including an emergency food pantry, after-school enrichment for children, morning wellness activities for seniors, and various athletic and educational activities for youth.
We are so grateful we are a world on the mend and given the opportunity to reopen our doors. 2022 was an eventful year as we commemorated our 125th Anniversary and continued to provide meaningful programs and services.
As 2022 comes to an end, we look forward to a year of new beginnings and renewed optimism for what 2023 will bring! Your gift is an investment in our communities and helps us serve those who need us most. We hope you will join us and be a part of Palama Settlement’s next 125 years.
Click here to leave your gift today!
APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED AND SPRING FOOTBALL SEASON HAS NOW BEGUN.
Mahalo to all of our participating families in this football season!
Palama Settlement
Digital Arts Department Spring 2023 Adult Classes
Adult Digital Literacy: Computer Basics
Digital Photography Class for Adults
Palama Settlement will present two digital classes for adults this upcoming spring semester. The Adult Digital Literacy: Computer Basics course aims to familiarize adults with computers, internet, and learning basic computer skills. The Digital Photography Class for Adults welcomes students who have basic camera knowledge and camera styles. Students will talk about photos, types of photography styles, and share their work and ideas for future projects.
To register or for more information, please contact Palama Settlement at (808) 848-2510 or via email at agustafson@palamasettlement.org.
Fill Out a Registration Form Online Here: https://forms.gle/HLEczt8sFMNQE71d6
Classes are fee but donations are welcome.
To donate, please visit: https://www.palamasettlement.org/donate/ – enter the amount they wish to give and write in the comment section “Digital Arts Participant.”
Applications for the 2023-2024 Palama Settlement Scholarships
will be available on January 3, 2023.
It’s been such an exciting year for Palama Settlement and yet there is so much more in the works for 2022! One of the highlights of our year came at the tail end as a group of University of Hawai‘i Architecture students presented their final group projects aimed at helping Palama Settlement improve its campus, accessibility, and public access for the entire community to enjoy.
The idea for this class project was initiated by Michael Bennett, former NFL star and humanitarian, along with Jasper Wong, founder and lead director of POW! WOW!. The two friends were discussing the lack of public facilities for the youth and elderly in the Kalihi/Palama area. They really wanted to help build a community gathering place in the area and felt Palama Settlement would be a great location. Since neither of the two are architects, Jasper Wong reached out to a good friend, Bundit Kanisthakhon, who is both an architect and professor.
Under the direction of Professor Kanisthakhon, his class Arch 490 explored the idea of inclusive design to help make our environment usable and friendly for everyone. The mission was to integrate the programmatic needs of Palama Settlement with design generated in this class to achieve safe, convenient, and appealing environments without barriers for people from the community. It will also help foster the awareness of both natural and built environments not only within the Palama Settlement campus but also the neighboring areas. Students were encouraged to identify problematic areas and to come up with empathetic design solutions. They were also encouraged to explore various ways to enhance the sense of community through creative design approaches with arts and architecture. The long-term goal is to implement some of these ideas into Palama Settlement’s campus in the near future.
Mahalo to Jasper Wong, Michael Bennett, and Bundit Kanisthakhon for your creative thinking and compassion in these first steps to making Palama Settlement more accessible to everyone in the community!
The Palama Settlement Digital Arts Academy Receives Grant from The Creative City
Honolulu, HI—Palama Settlement’s Digital Arts Academy headed by POW! WOW! founder and lead director, Jasper Wong, received a generous and timely $8,000 grant from The Creative City, according to Anna Stone, program administrator for Palama Settlement. The inaugural class of the Digital Arts Academy included 15 high school students, some who do not own an iPad, and needed to borrow devices from the Palama Settlement learning center to complete their projects.
The generous grant was used to purchase new iPads for the Digital Arts students, which is integral to the students’ creative aspirations. “It is important that students have the freedom and confidence to express their creativity. Having their own iPad that they can take home, and use beyond the classroom, affords a complete experience with digital arts,” said Karen Chang Blangiardi, founder of The Creative City.
“Words can’t express our sincere gratitude to Karen Chang and The Creative City for this generous gift,” said Anna Stone. “Our Digital Arts students are so talented. This grant will ensure they now have the proper tools to share their creativity with the world.”
“When I was child my parents owned a shop near Farrington High School, so this neighborhood has always been near and dear to my heart. I know what an art and technology school at Palama Settlement could do for this community that is overflowing with talented youth that may not have the proper tools that could take their talent to the next level,” said Jasper Wong. “I am so grateful for The Creative City for jumping in to support the aspirations of my art students.”
The Creative City is dedicated to providing leadership and resources to grow O’ahu into a place where culture and arts play a major role in delivering quality of life for everyone. The Creative City strives to increase access to and opportunities in the arts, as well as create a sustainable creative ecosystem for our island community. The Creative City fund is managed by the Hawai’i Community Foundation, with distribution of funds stewarded by The Creative City fund advisors. For more information, visit www.thecreativecity.org.
Established in 1896, Palama Settlement is a nonprofit, community-based social service agency serving the Kalihi and Palama neighborhoods. Palama Settlement offers a wide range of educational, recreational, athletic, cultural, social, health, and community building programs and services for children, youth, adults, and senior citizens. Palama Settlement’s mission is to partner with those who have the greatest needs in the community, empowering them to enhance their well-being through health, education, and recreation. For more information, visit www.palamasettlement.org.
Palama Settlement is pleased to welcome Antonet Barut, Tim Gillaspie, Lowell Gillia, Daniel Lam,
Glenn Medeiros, and Stevie-Lyn Takata to its Board of Trustees.
Antonet Barut
Antonet Barut has over 21 years of Hawaii real estate sales experience. Barut is an eight-year Air Force veteran and specializes in working with veterans, first time home buyers, and luxury clients. She has also been an eight-time Ruby Award Winner; Top Producer; TOP 100 REALTOR team member; and a multiple Aloha ‘Āina Award nominee, an award based on client nominations that honors realtors who have gone above and beyond in client service and maintain the highest ethical standards. Barut is also a former program participant of Palama Settlement and looks forward to serving on the Board of Trustees. She enjoys hiking, fishing, and traveling in her spare time. Barut is also a donor and volunteer of Farrington High School and actively supports the school’s band scholarship program.
Tim Gillaspie
Tim Gillaspie is a Senior Program Manager for Amazon Web Service (AWS) where he manages a team of cross functional experts to field strategically impactful programs for AWS training and certification. Tim is a recently retired Air Force Colonel whose last assignment was as Logistics Operations Division Chief for US Indo-Pacific Command. He had 11 other assignments from base level to the Headquarters Air Force in the Pentagon. He has served on the board of Habitat for Humanity in Montgomery, Alabama, President of four different local chapters of the Logistics Officer Association (LOA), and the Chair of the LOA National Board of Directors Nominating Committee. He currently serves as a class representative on the U.S. Air Force Academy Class Advisory Senate and as president of the Hawaii Triathlon Center Club.
Lowell Gillia
Lowell Gillia is President and Creative Director of Design Asylum, a locally-owned full-service, multidisciplinary design firm. The design firm focuses on developing integrated brand strategies for clients including brand and logo concepts, graphic design, and website development. Gillia also serves as a lecturer at Honolulu Community College for courses such Portfolio Presentation, Typography, and Beginning Graphic Design. Gillia is also a multiple Pele Award recipient. He has served the community for several organizations including Lanakila Pacific and Nuuanu Elementary School. Gillia has been married for over 18 years and has two sons. In his spare time, Gillia enjoys collecting comic books and doing home renovations.
Daniel Lam
Daniel Lam is a business attorney with Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel LLP where he assists public and private companies in various structural, governance, and transactional matters. He specializes in corporate (profit and nonprofit), LLC, partnership, contract, and securities laws, and handles compliance, negotiation, and drafting matters in various areas including mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, and commercial contracts. Lam has been recognized as a Hawaii State Bar Association Leadership Institute Fellow in 2018; a selection to Super Lawyers Rising Stars each year since 2018; and a selection to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for 2021 and 2022. He is fluent in conversational Japanese and is active in the community, volunteering for a number of nonprofit organizations including the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association (includes First Tee Hawaii) where he serves on the board of directors and as treasurer, Business Law Corps, Volunteer Legal Services Hawai‘i, and Hawaii State Bar Foundation. Lam is a graduate of Creighton University School of Law, Gonzaga University, and Punahou School. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and playing golf.
Dr. Glenn Medeiros
Dr. Glenn Medeiros is in his seventh year as President of Saint Louis School. Prior to joining Saint Louis School, Dr. Medeiros served as an Assistant Professor at Chaminade University. For 8 years, Dr. Medeiros served as Vice Principal and high school teacher at Maryknoll School. Medeiros is also a singer and songwriter who achieved national and international success. Medeiros is a graduate of University of Southern California’s Rosier School of Education and University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu. Medeiros was born in Lihue, Kauai. He and his wife Tammy have a son, Chord, and daughter, Lyric.
Stevie-Lyn Takata
Stevie-Lyn Takata is the co-founder of branding and marketing agency, Refinery Creative, where her expertise spans a wide range of tactics including brand strategy, traditional and digital marketing and advertising, content production, and more. With a passion to help build thriving communities, Takata specializes in marketing for real estate developments. In her former role as Vice President of Client Services at Honolulu marketing company Ocean Blue, she has contributed to the successful delivery of projects such as Park Lane Ala Moana, The Collection, Waihonua at Kewalo, and Pacifica Honolulu, as well as the residential and retail offerings at Ward Village. In addition to her work with Palama Settlement, Takata serves on the board of ULI Hawaii Young Leaders Group and is the current past president of the AIGA Honolulu board of directors. She is a proud graduate of Seattle University and Kamehameha Schools Kapālama.
As Palama Settlement prepares to commemorate its 125th Anniversary, City Mill and the David C. Ai Charitable Trust present a large donation to
ensure Kalihi /Palama’s history will be preserved.
(HONOLULU) City Mill’s David C. Ai Charitable Trust presented the historic Palama Settlement with a generous donation to assist with a large-scale preservation and digitization project of photos, historic newspaper articles, annual reports, neighborhood surveys, oral histories and so much more.
“When we first opened the archives, Steven Ai was among the first to visit and was impressed with all the photos and documents that had been preserved for more than 100 years,” said Paula Rath, trustee emeritus for the Palama Settlement Board of Trustees. “Since City Mill has experienced three fires during their storied history, he expressed concern for the welfare of the archives and the importance of digitizing our thousands of photos and documents. At that moment, he promised that the David C. Ai Charitable Trust would help enable our digitization.”
“We are pleased to support this wonderful project which will help preserve the extraordinary collection of history and memories in the Kalihi-Palama area,” said Steven Ai, president and CEO of City Mill. “From its start 125 years ago, Palama Settlement has chronicled the people, culture and events that has exemplified the spirit and community of this area. This project will ensure that its photo and document collections will now be preserved digitally for current and future generations to see.”
“My late mother, Jacky Rath, a retired librarian, spent more than ten years converting random boxes of photos, newspaper articles, and historical documents into an organized Finding Aid,” said Rath. “This made our cataloging and digitization possible. She would be amazed at the current digitization process, as she created the Finding Aid entirely in pencil, without the aid of a computer.”
With the generous donation, Palama Settlement was recently able to properly outfit the Palama Archives and begin the process of digitization.
Established in 1896, Palama Settlement is a nonprofit, community-based social service agency serving the Kalihi and Palama neighborhoods. Palama offers a wide range of educational, recreational, athletic, cultural, social, health, and community building programs and services for children, youth, adults, and senior citizens. Palama Settlement’s mission is to partner with those who have the greatest needs in the community, empowering them to enhance their well-being through health, education, and recreation.
Carol Ai May and Steven Ai
Photo Courtesy: City Mill