Kether is our visionary for Laulima Garden ‘Ohana. Kether is a Waldorf-credentialed educator whose journey into sustainable gardening and the food security movement began on the island of Molokai in 1995. Since then, she has become a pioneer in creating Waldorf community homeschooling for hundreds of families across three of the Hawaiian Islands, with growing food for local children and families serving as the cornerstone. 

Her passion, under the direction of Hawaiian elders, her late Kumu Raylene Ha’alelea Kawaiae’a, her current mentor Uncle George Kahumoku Jr, and many other cultural leaders, is to build bridges between Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian peoples, as well as create nature-based educational opportunities and environments for children and their families.

Emily has been our lead garden educator for our keiki for the past two years and comes from an extensive farming background! Emily is a graduate of Agricultural and Life Sciences from Cornell University and has a lifetime of experience in farming and farm business. She helps facilitate our weekly outdoor immersion for youth, along with 

supporting organically managed Maui farm 'Oko'a Farms in a multi-faceted role. 

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Jason is an an ex professional baseball player turned farmer! JD is a Soil Food Web graduate, soil wellness consultant, permaculture advocate and father of 2. He helps Maui residents, farms and land-care organizations through Soil Regeneration Maui, a program offering high-quality biological soil amendments at no cost. "Brew Hut," as Soil Regen Maui calls it, puts life back into the soil, creating regenerative landscapes and removing the need for fertilizers, pesticides, or any other synthetic products. The amendments extracted from compost include beneficial species of microorganisms, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes present in a healthy soil-food web.

Jason serves as an incredible resource to Laulima, educating young farmers and volunteers while helping us expand our operations!

Lacey serves as one of our fun-making camp leaders! She joins us from Grow Some Good, offering garden education to Maui youth for the past four years. Lacey is passionate about instilling Malama Aina into the campers--learning to give and take only what you need from Mother Earth. She believes, if you nourish the earth, it will nourish you!

She loves to explore natural surroundings with the keiki because they are such good explorers. 

In addition to the fun-making she brings to our Laulima kids, we have Lacey to thank for helping us apply for this year's MEO Agricultural Microgrant! Wish us luck as we endeavor to expand our offerings!

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Tricia is one of our camp leaders sharing a wealth of knowledge, experience and love! 

She is a business-owner of Ocean Apothecary, a natural skin care company utilizing Hawaiian herbs in her formulas. And that’s not all; Tricia’s education resume is impressive. She holds masters degrees in Educational Psychology, Curriculum Development and Alternative Medicine. 

When leading campers, she offers fun and practical herbalism classes, sharing the Hawaiian principles of Malama Pono (Taking Care of Self) and Malama Honua (Taking Care of the Earth) with the keiki (the kiddos!)!

We are fortunate to get to have Tricia’s daughter each Monday for our weekly volunteer garden program!

Alina is a volunteer joining us from Germany! In addition to helping us with our weekly programs for keiki, she helps us with our weekly volunteer gardening program! Her hobbies include singing, oil painting, pottery and dancing, and has had multi-year experience playing bongo, guitar and clarinet!

Jasmin comes to us as a credentialed primary school teacher from Germany. She supports us in our programs for keiki as well as with our weekly volunteer gardening program! She has a background in coaching soccer and ski instructing. Her love of nature has inspired her to gather skills in food cultivation, specifically with tomatoes!