Volunteers make a difference at Annual Pearl Harbor Bike Path Clean Up

Apr 8, 2013 | PC Community

The Department of Environmental Services from the City and County of Honolulu held their annual Pearl Harbor Bike Path Clean Up Day on Saturday, April 6, 2013 with the support of community volunteers and businesses.

The purpose of the event is to clean, restore and beautify a stretch of the bike path that runs along the Pearl Harbor shoreline from Pupuole in Waipahu to the Aiea Bay Park.

"Today we are cleaning the bike path and this is one of the locations, Puuloa Stream in Pearl City," said Ponciana Quindica who is the coordinator of the annual Pearl Harbor Bike Path Clean Up from the Department of Environmental Services. "We have five different areas. We started off in Waipahu down at the Pupuole area. We also have Kapakahi Stream, Lehua Avenue, and the waste treatment area, as well as right here at the Puuloa Springs area. The biggest area we clean goes from Neal Blaisdell Park to the Aiea Bay Park which is location five. We want it to be as complete as possible so we try and hit the hot spot areas which is here at Puuloa Springs near Blaisdell Park, Kapakahi, as well as Pupuole."

The success of the bike path cleanup project comes directly from the support of community based volunteers who represent the military, schools, nonprofit organizations, the government and local businesses.

"This is where the community comes together also with the military help," Quindica said. "The school kids come out to put in volunteer time as well as volunteers from church organizations, community groups and businesses."

"Our count was around 270 helping out today," Quindica said. “We’ve had extra groups that was kind of shocking and was a really nice surprise. We have a group from Atlanta come down and is here today helping us. They showed up with 27 volunteers. We also have students from Kamehameha, Damien, Campbell High School, and I think also from Pacific Buddhist Academy as well. Their parents showed up and we had them sign the waiver form and their off helping out."

The Department of Environmental Services actually organizes two Pearl Harbor Bike Path Clean Up events each year during the months of April and October.

"We've been doing this for about seven years already," commented Quindica on the amount of years that they have organized the bike path clean up. "April is our bigger event. We also do it again in October. So we do it in Earth Month and then we do it in Make a Difference Month, or around that time period. Earth Month usually is the bigger one. About 300 plus people come out."

In the Puuloa Springs area, which is located near Blaisdell Park between the bike path and the Pearl Harbor shoreline, volunteers help maintain the stream and native Hawaiian plants that are thriving in the area as a part of the Adopt-A-Stream Program.

"Volunteers help with the restoration and up keeping of the stream," Quindica said, "We have native plants planted here. It's very clean because we have an Adoptor for this stream. Mr. Ai lives near here and he's out here actually everyday.cleaning. It’s a great partnership."