Make a Difference at Lydgate Park

Is Stacey Ricciardi modeling her work gloves or just enthusiastically sharing double shakas as she and fellow volunteers clear lauhala from the Hikina‘akala Heiau? Create some new friendships on National Make A Difference Day in Lydgate Park Oct. 24. Contributed photo.

The Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park invite you to join in celebrating National Make a Difference Day in Lydgate Park. Please save Saturday morning, Oct. 24, to participate locally in this nationwide day of volunteerism. This well-coordinated community workday features a delicious and wholesome free lunch donated by a host of local restaurateurs.

This will be the 10th year that FKLP has coordinated hundreds of Kaua‘i residents and visitors to spruce up Lydgate Park on Make a Difference Day. Sign in begins at 7:30 a.m. in the main pavilion at Lydgate Park. To minimize plastic waste, please bring your own reusable water bottle. FLKP will serve chilled drinking water throughout the workday and provide lunch to the volunteers. Details including a registration form are posted at www.kamalani.org.

A clean, engaging and attractive park is a source of pride for all of us. FKLP coordinates events enabling us to work together sustaining our island’s most frequently visited beach park, keeping it pleasant and refreshing for all park users.

The Kamalani Playground deserves conscientious maintenance and care so that future generations will enjoy this unique community-built and maintained attraction. Coordinating community workdays that sustain the long-term maintenance effort is an ongoing responsibility that FKLP embraces.

This year the scope of work includes skilled carpentry repairs in the Kamalani Playground, beach grooming, Malama Hikinaakala and Hauola Heiau, developing an inventory of the trees in the park, and park beautification.

Volunteers are asked to please bring their own work gloves, sun protection, and wear closed-toe shoes. Contact the Friends’ general coordinator at 639-1018 or news@kauaipath.org if you can recruit a group of five or more volunteers for the workday. This is also the contact for questions and comments.

With the help of volunteers, FKLP is developing an urban forestry management plan, and during these large workdays has been systematically inventorying the existing individual trees in the park. The Friends will use the inventory to schedule planting suitable young trees that will grow and eventually replace the aging trees.

This event is made possible through broad-based community support, including the County of Kaua‘i, Department of Parks and Recreation; Castle Resorts and Hotels and the Kaha Lani Association of Apartment Owners; Home Depot in the Community; Starbucks Coffee; the Y’s Men; the YWCA of Kaua‘i; Kapa‘a Rotary; and the generous contributions of time, effort and funds from many other businesses, organizations, and especially you — the many Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park.

If you’re ready pitch in this weekend, consider the two-hour Beach Cleanup every Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m at the swimming ponds to get a sample of how FKLP will manage National Make A Difference Day.

• Tommy Noyes serves on Kaua‘i Path’s board of directors, and is a League of American Bicyclists certified instructor.