GIVE Aloha: The Keala Foundation
Perhaps it will be an unpopular opinion that heaven, in fact, is not a place on earth. Though we may be privileged to see brief and glorious glimpses of it from a human existence, I stand that we cannot possibly imagine nor create a utopian eternity at our own hands. Ignorant as we might or positive as we may, the underbelly of earthly paradise is rotten with grief and shame at the hands of the proud and angry. Aware of where we fall short, our worldly options are to elevate our own reality to ignore this, or to actually do something about it regardless of the seeming impossibility of the battle.
The Keala Foundation in Kauai, Hawaii are doing something. And they’re doing something big.
By all outward accounts, the “the Garden Isle” is paradise. Outside of the infinite shades of blue that surround it, nothing can kill you - nothing poisonous inhabits or grows on the island. There’s no snakes and no threats to mankind - you can live off of the land with ease. Traffic is slow and crime rates are low. The tropical climate gives the island a vibrant sense of life year around and the beaches extend far into the sea with glimmering clarity. On the northwest side of the island, the Napali coastline is the mountainous shoreline with remote beaches and unreal views of steep valleys and cascading waterfalls that served as the iconic background to the film Jurassic Park.
The locals may not be especially keen to tourists, but that's because they're used to having more taken from them than given. And yet even as a guest, the positive vibes of the community are hard to miss. Life is a little slower, interaction and connection are respected and the honor of aloha is more a sensation of the waves than a postcard greeting. You learn that if you give aloha, you'll get aloha.
And yet...
Kauai has a major drug problem.
Opioids, heroin, cocaine and crystal methamphetamine are rampant on the island. Drug overdose is one of the leading causes of death as well as the main contributor to increasing rates of crime and suicide. The cycle usually starts with marijuana, simply because the youth get bored and the addiction often lasts a lifetime, looming its heavy cloud over the next generation. Because of this lasting cycle, many of the islands children are left to raise themselves.
Aaron Hoff, founder of the Keala Foundation, knows this cycle intimately well. Now 22 years sober, Aaron himself is a unique testament to what happens when someone breaks free of addiction. With his freedom, Aaron has built up an incredibly powerful force to produce break through from the undertow that threatens the island he calls home.
The Keala Foundation serves over 600 kids on the island and the reach is rapidly growing. In a big move to keep kids in a healthy environment and out of the drug scene, as well as to provide them the sense of family support that many of them are missing, the foundation sponsors kids from the hardiest island communities into CrossFit fitness programs. Using vans, the staff pick up the kids from school each day, transporting them to one of the three gym locations where they are taught life lessons in teamwork, perseverance and doing hard things. Then they are fed dinner every day before being transported back to their homes.
“We are fighting the epidemic of addiction, depression and suicide in Hawaii by building communities that stand together and lift each other up,” reads the foundations mission statement.
Having met “Uncle Hoff” in San Diego 2017 and hearing his story, I finally got the opportunity to experience the foundations big event, the Ultimate Hawaiian Trail Run, for the first time last month. Attracting athletes and volunteers from around the world, the UHTR is the foundation’s primary fundraiser for the year. Although they supplement with some small grants, the main mover to drive the mission statement of the Keala Foundation comes from this one single week in September. And it is iconic.
Professional athletes bend a knee to serve a community they don’t know. Strangers to the program volunteer a potential “Hawaii vacation” to man water stations, handle event registration and quite literally, pick out the dirt from weathered shoes. Left and right, the thousands of people who arrive in Poipu to participate in the UHTR are loving one another and lifting each other up “until the cup runneth over,” as Noah Olsen (2nd Fittest Man of the 2019 CrossFit Games) illustrated it. It’s more than just a fun run.
The man power required to pull off this event is incalculable. In fact, by all accounts even impossible. The making of the trail itself, nearly 10 miles of pathway cut through brutal, overgrown jungle terrain, is monumental. But it’s the labor in service of Love that radiates from every aspect of what is being done that is the very thing casting out the darkness. If you look closely enough, if you look past the fresh poke bowls, the perfect waves and weather... if you look past the dropping barbells, the heavy dumbbells and the eager ambitions of the visiting CrossFitters... if you look past even the heroic staff in the reflection of Rory Zambard, Juan Carlos, Ronny Chen, Tyler Hahn and Sarah Braunsdorf... if you look through the eyes of the kids and if you look to the writing on the wall, you’ll see it. It’s Love - pure and true and whole and aside from man himself.
So, no, heaven is not a place on earth. Earth here in this human existence has hardships and struggles. Even beneath our perceptions of paradise, things are dirty and rotten and painful and broken. But when we acknowledge this and live by the truth that we need the power of something more, something beyond ourselves, we see that Love has made a way to show us a glimpse into the glory of that which awaits the servants heart.
If you would like to donate to the Keala Foundation, click here:
https://give.classy.org/pointonevision
For more information about the UHTR and Keala Foundation, view the web and social links below:
https://www.kealafoundation.com/
