Home Page | Rotary Club of Maui

Welcome to our Club!

Service Above Self

We meet In Person

Fridays at 12:00 PM

Zoom on line meetings

Kahului
Kahului, HI
United States of America

Phone:

(808) 446-3545

Email:

heathermaymueller@yahoo.com

Zoom on-line meetings first and third Friday of each month at 12 Noon

District Site

Venue Map

Polio Plus Bike Ride

Wailea, Maui Sunday 9/6 8am - 9am. Allan took on the challenge of riding for Rotary International END POLIO NOW efforts. The POLIO PLUS program supports global efforts to eradicate all infectious diseases including COVID-19. It is vital more than ever today that we raise funds to support this world wide program. All funds raised will be matched 2:1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which means your donations will be tripled.

Ronelle also joined and walked the route with friend Jaham. Congratulations to all of them for their generous efforts in fundraising for the POLIO PLUS program. We are all very proud of you.

Thank you. https://raise.rotary.org/Allan-Bondergaard/challenge

Baby Rhino named Maui in honor of Rotary Club of Maui

Earlier this year when we first adopted a Rhino, Esmerelda, we learned that she was expecting a baby in July. We decided that we would adopt her baby too and went through the formal proceedings. Weeks later, we got news of the arrival of a baby boy, who was named Maui in honor of our club. Here is an excerpt from the email from Francois du Plessis at the Rhino Foundation, South Africa:

"South Africa was hit by two extremely severe cold fronts during the month of July. Temperatures dropped to below zero at the conservation and this is really unusual for us. The extreme cold led to a lot of problems for our rhinos especially the mothers giving birth and the newborns. This stretched our resources and we worked very long hours. The covid crisis led to a massive increase in poaching activities and due to the budget cuts that we had to implement it just added to the pressure and long hours. I am happy to report that we did not lose one single rhino to illegal poaching during this time.

Thank you so much for your generous contribution in adopting Esmerelda’s baby, and showing such faith in us even before the birth. Time for the good news!

Esmerelda gave birth to a very healthy baby boy on Sunday 26 July 2020. It was very difficult to get the pictures of her and the baby as she was very aggressive after the birth and we had a very small time slot to get the pictures. The first picture was taken in the first two hours after the birth and the second was taken a few hours later. The whole reserve was on notice that if any of the security personel noticed a rhino going into labour in Esmerelda’s crash we were to be notified immediately. Luckily a reaction group was on routine patrol when the call came in.

Both Esmerelda and her baby are thriving. Honoring The Rotary Club of Maui and thanking you for your kind and generous contribution we decided to name the baby Maui. The baby’s name was duly registered and updated in the official stockbook required by our government. Thank you again so much for everything."

It is so touching to know that as a small club on Maui, Hawai'i, we can make a big difference in protecting the endangered Rhino population for more generations. Please join with us in this celebration, because we all share in the successes of all Rotary Clubs. Together we can and do a difference in lives of people and the environment we live in around the world. Thank you for all that you do. Mahalo

Na Hoaloha Grant

Rotary District 5000 generously matches funds that each local club raises. Rotary Club of Maui had a soft spot for the kapuna served by Nā Hoaloha here. Nā Hoaloha provides compassionate care to seniors and those with disabilities to help them to remain independent and to enhance their quality of life. This wonderful organization provides services for elders such as shopping, providing transportation to pick up medications, or go to medical appointments. They also help grocery shop, and are a life line for these fragile kapuna who fiercely want to remain independent. It was our delight to use our clubs yearly grant to support the Na Hoaloha group, and for our members to choose them as our monthly service project by supplying gift cards to local stores for other needed items. Click here to find out more about Nā Hoaloha.

Rebalance, Refresh with Rotary

Rebalance, Refresh with Rotary..........the 3 R project.
Our new governor for Hawaii, Naomi Matsuno was concerned about the stress of COVID on our community including our Rotary Members. She with Lynn Goya, and Bridget Bongaard, brainstormed to launch a program once a month where Rotarians can gather and learn new concepts for stress reduction, including meditation, QiGong for enhancing lung function, Gardening as a stress release, Healthy energy drinks, and more. Each month 3 or 4 different Rotarians present their ideas to share. This upcoming month we have: how to do a vision board to fix your inner goals, Uncertainty and how to deal with this, Aromatherapy for relaxation and more.. Tune in for these sessions at 5pm the first Friday of the month. Naomi usually sends out an email with the Zoom ID and password a week before the session is due.

Passing the Gavel

Bridget Bongaard, 2019 - 2020 Club President passes the gavel to Heather Mueller 2020 - 2021 on Saturday 6/27/2020.

Thank you Val and Steve Spence for hosting the event. There was a silent auction which raised $200 towards community projects. Thank you Bridget for your service and dedication and good luck to Heather taking over during the challenge of COVID-19 world pandemic. Pupukahi i holomua. Translation: Unite to move forward.

Rhino Adoption

Our club, The Rotary Club of Maui supports The Rhino Foundation.

Rhinos are a critically endangered species. South Africa is home to 80% of the world’s rhinos. Every 8 hours a rhino is killed in South Africa. In the next 6-8 years it is highly likely that all wild rhinos will be extinct. The Rhino Foundation is an independent, registered non-profit local conservation organization, situated in the Bushveld province of Limpopo, South Africa. They care for and protect more than 1800 rhinos in Southern Africa (that is 20% of the entire world’s white rhino population). No rhinos under their care and protection have been poached (the illegal killing of rhino for their horn) for the past 3 years. All the rhinos under their care and protection are wild free ranging rhinos and not kept in small enclosures. Their African Rhino Conservancy (ARC) project breeds almost 20% of all new white rhinos born in the world. They also have a rhino orphanage that currently cares for 49 rhino calves.

Their focus areas are:

Sustainable rhino conservation
Disruption of criminal networks
Rhino care and wellness
Education and awareness
Strategic relationships & engagement
Scientific development and research

They believe that the only way a species is saved from extinction, is if there are more births than deaths.

Due to the current Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic gripping the world, donations from the donor community have severely decreased. This has placed these 1800 vulnerable and critically endangered rhinos and orphans under immense pressure. Please contact Francois Du Plessis francois@therhinofoundation.com for more information on how you support the efforts of the Rhino Foundation.

Yours in Rotary Service,

Anne Marie Studer Bondergaard

Then came COVID19

February 2019 was last of service projects due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will resume our community service projects following guidelines from the health authorities. Until then, stay safe and wear a mask. If you need a mask contact Anne Marie at 808 633 2472 or anniequilts4u@gmail.com. Mahalo

Maui Adult Day Care Centers Annual Caregivers Walk

Maui Adult Day Care Centers provide a social, therapeutic, memory care, daytime
program for frail, elderly individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or related
forms of dementia , as well as, for adults who are physically and/or mentally challenged.
Maui Adult Day Care Centers provides support throughout Maui County to family caregivers by offering monthly support groups, quarterly workshops and ongoing support counseling.

The money raised will...

✓ Help support the Weekday Programs , Saturday & Sunday Respite Programs ,
Sun Downing /Friday Night Social Program & the High-Functioning /Intergenerational Program located at the Ocean View/Nisei Veterans Memorial Center.
✓ Help to keep the cost to families and caregivers to a minimum .
✓ Assist with the continuation of MADCC monthly caregiver support groups , quarterly workshops & counseling sessions.
✓ Help provide funding for MADCC scholarships for those individuals in financial need.

Thank Brian, Laura, Allan, Bridget, Ronelle and Anne Marie for participating. Looking forward to the walk in 2021

Hale Kau Kau Feed the Hungry

Hale Kau Kau Feed the Hungry Program at St Theresa's Church, Kihei, HI

January 2020 Service Project - volunteers with Father Terry at St. Theresa's Church Hale Kau Kau, Feed the Hungry Project. With smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts, we served 57 meals to the community.

Salvation Army Ring the Bell

December 2019 Community Project

Keālia Pond

Keālia Pond

National Wildlife Refuge | Hawaii

Beach/Pond Clean-up

Saturday November 23, 2019, Rotary Club of Maui’s monthly community project was to clean up a small area of this beautiful wildlife refuge. The club volunteers were guided by 2 park officials and together we collected several large garbage bags of trash. Many items were blown off the beds of pick up trucks such as cooler lids, plastic storage container lids, bottles, old tires and even carpet. It was a good day for this project as the area is normally underwater but the rains had not yet arrived to filled the dry ponds. After the group enjoyed shaved ice at nearby Ululani’s Shave Ice on S. Kihei Road. This was a very rewarding project, being outdoors with a lovely group, knowing we’re helping to take care of the land and animals for future generations. Please join us again this year, we’ll post the event here on our website.

Hale Makua Make over completed!

School Supply Drive for Teachers/Keiki

Posted by Bridget Bongaard, MD on Aug 12, 2019

Rotary Club of Maui On the Move!

As our first Service project for the Rotary year 2019-2020, our club members banded together with neighbors, to start a Back to School Supply Drive for Teachers and Keiki in Need in conjunction with Sarah Sorenson of Wishing Well. We added to our first collection drive with a second one organized by Shareen Sekoya, and had over 88 different items including 24 backpacks, 33 boxes of crayons ( and more types art supplies), calculators, over 100 notebooks of all sorts, paper, hi-lighters, an area rug for children to gather on, hand sanitizers, construction paper, whiteboard, glues, pencils, pens, folders, and in all....88 different types of supplies!! Sarah will come to our Rotary Meeting this Wednesday to meet us to say thanks, and talk about students and teachers in need.

Rotary Club of Maui supports Teachers in School Supply Drive 2019

Posted by Bridget Bongaard, MD on Aug 04, 2019

Rotary Club of Maui School Supply Drive

Shareen Sekoya, Brian Moto, Laura Rosenthal, Heather Mueller step up and man the table!

Other Club members serving but not in photo: Zoee Crowley, Ronelle Esty, B. Bongaard

We kicked off our July 2019 year of service with a drive to provide much needed school supplies to our Maui Teachers and their students by pairing up with Wishing Well a nonprofit group who collects supplies year round then gives them to teachers who distribute in their class rooms to children in need. Our club started with personal donations and neighborhood drives through "Kula Next Door" whose neighborhoods opened their hearts and sent items through Amazon, or drop offs for the project. A huge amount of supplies was then given to Sarah Sorenson of Wishing Well to distribute to the teachers in need at our schools on this side of the island. Our Rotary club then wrapped up with a collection at Office Max ( many thanks to the great staff there for supporting our Ohana) yesterday August 3rd, and collected more supplies from great hearted people coming to shop. One lovely lady stopped at our table, asked who these supplies were going to and on learning the mission, she softly said...…." I was one of those keiki" and donated a load of supplies....What an example of paying it forward and keeping the goodness rolling for others.

We are proud to serve as the Rotary Club of Maui.

Mahalo to all!!

Rotary Club Peace Initiative

Posted by Bridget Bongaard, MD

The Rotary Club of Maui worked in conjunction with Wendy Acasta of the Valley Isle Rotary Club to host the second annual Cypriots for Peace Program. 8 teen pairs were chosen out of an application pool of over 170 in Cyprus to attend this 4 week training in Peace and Conflict Resolution. Cyprus experienced a terrible war which divided their country into 2 factions: Greek and Turkish Cypriots. There is still a divisive line between the two sides, but the heart of the people there wish change to a united country once again. The CFP is geared to help create future leaders with a global mindset and ability to solve the problems on a different level. These 8 young Cypriots, four from the Greek side and 4 from the Turkish side were hosted in pairs and lived together in the same bedroom in our home for 3 weeks while exchanging ideas, culture, and experiencing the Hawaiian traditions of family, and community. Leadership skills were developed so that they could return to Cyprus and help effect a change for their country as they grew into adults, attended universities, and came into the workforce in professional capacities. We were proud to be part of the support team to help them be positive courageous agents of change for their country. See our Rotary Club of Maui Facebook page for more fun pictures and great times with our Cypriot teens.

Hale Makua Paint Day

Posted by Steve Spence on Apr 30, 2018

Hale Makua is a center that serves our whole community and needs our care. When Maui Club was forming ideas for 2017-2018 projects Anna Mayeda suggested that the center really needed a refresh on the activity rooms. We decided that new paint and new side chairs would be a great project for our matching grant money.

All the Central Maui clubs put forth the effort to make this happen. Wailuku club bought all the paint. Kahului club, Upcountry club, Maui club provided the volunteers brushes, and rollers.

Hale Makua staff did a fantastic job of prepping the large, two room space so Saturday morning April 28 we hit the ground running.

Flatbread pizza donated lunch for the crew.

It from 8 am to 4 pm but it got done! Great team/community effort. Here is Doctor B at work.

Lending a helping hand locally

Posted by Shareen Seykota

After his mother died Ronden Smith-Marras has raised his 4 siblings on his own. The Rotary Club of Maui was able to apply for a grant to pay for school supplies and uniforms to start the school year. Shareen took the family through Office Max and Target to pick up needed items.

We are Moving Locations this WEDNESDAY AUGUST 2nd Only

Wednesday, Aug 2, lunch. TANTE’S MEETING ROOM NEXT TO RESTAURANT AT MAUI BEACH HOTEL. This Wednesday only, then we are back home to Lumeria next week.

Rotary Clubs of Maui All Island Induction of President Steve Spence

LUMERIA our new location for Wednesday noon luncheon meetings

Posted on Jul 01, 2017

RELAY FOR LIFE 2015/2016

Posted on Jul 07, 2016

Our last community service project for the 2015/2016 Rotary Year.

IN WITH THE NEW-OUT WITH THE OLD (More ways than one!)

Posted by Valorie Spence on Jun 30, 2016

Last Meeting for Valorie, first for Theresa!

MAUI STAYCATION DRAWING WINNER!!!

And the winner is: Ed Fujinaka! Thank you all who donated and made this a huge success for our Rotary Club of Maui Fundraiser. This $4,000 will fund our youth, community, and international service projects for the 2016/2017 Rotary year! We are so grateful to Joe Sugarman for donating the estate, Chris and Jeannette Kasin for the Private Chef event for food, supplies, cooking, and serving up to ten at the staycation, and Wailea Wines for the wine pairings to Chris's amazing culinary creations.

Leilani Farm Animal Sanctuary Clean Up Project

Posted by Valorie Spence on May 14, 2016

Saturday May 14th, 2016 Our club members cleaned up the Leilani Farm Sanctuary in Haiku

FLATBREAD PIZZA BENEFIT NIGHT

Posted by Steve Spence on Jun 28, 2016

Please join us and invite all friends and family to enjoy Flatbread Company Paia, famous for their pizza, on Tuesday June 28^th from 5 pm to 9pm. All flatbread pizzas sold that evening will contribute to the Rotary Club of Maui’s benefit amount.

Please mark your calendar and bring a friend for a fun evening and good food. Visit with those of us staffing the Rotary table! Be sure to thank Steve Spence and Kayla for their hard work setting this up for our club.

A special thanks to the Flatbread Company, the Paia restaurant specifically, and the management team for their dedication to community service in our beautiful island home.