COURTESY BROOKE WILSON Hawaii Community Foundation Vice President Chris van Bergeijk, left, and Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation President Tom Layton honored Roy Katsuda, Tin Myaing Thein, Christina Cox and Wally Lau, with HCF’s Kelvin Taketa.

Ho'okeles recognize community leaders

The Hawaii Community Foundation honored leaders of nonprofit organizations with 2006 Ho'okele Awards, valued at $10,000 each, yesterday for their contributions to the community.

Honorees included Christina Cox, president of KCAA Preschools of Hawaii; Roy Katsuda, executive director of Hale Mahaolu (Maui); Wally Lau, executive director, Neighborhood Place of Kona; and Dr. Tin Myaing Thein, executive director of the Pacific Gateway Center.

The award is co-sponsored by the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation to honor the significant and less visible role the leaders play in improving the quality of life for Hawaii's people, according to Kelvin Taketa, Hawaii Community Foundation chief executive officer.

Cox, who has spent the past six years with KCAA, previously served as vice president of the preschool division of Kamaaina Kids, managing 11 preschools. The rewards in her job include the warm, lasting relationships she has formed with the families of her children and seeing the growth in the professional development of her teachers and aides.

She also serves as the liaison for the Childcare Business Coalition, a group serving more than 3,000 children annually, and is on the Henry & Dorothy Castle Memorial Fund Advisory Council.

Before Katsuda began working at Hale Mahaolu in 1982, the agency focused mostly on providing affordable housing to low- and moderate-income families. Under his leadership, the agency tackled senior housing and expanded the amount of housing and support services available on Maui.

Katsuda said providing seniors with "a happy, safe living environment" has its reward in their expressions of gratitude.

Hale Mahaolu provides "not just four walls and a roof," but services like personal care and meals, to enable seniors to live in their own apartment as independently as possible, he said.

The nisei or second generation of all ethnic groups who labored hard on sugar and pineapple fields have contributed so much to society that going the extra mile for them is a way to give back, Katsuda said.

In 2000 he received the Outstanding Executive Director Award from the J. Walter Cameron Center, one of the many nonprofit organizations of which he is a member on Maui, Oahu and Kauai.

Lau has dedicated his career for the past 30 years to using Hawaiian culture, values and practices to instill pride and hope to at-risk youth and families. The Neighborhood Place of Kona assists about 250 families in Kona, Kohala and Kau on the Big Island each year.

The focus of his work has been preventing child abuse by strengthening the families, whose problems usually stem from drug or alcohol abuse.

"Their confidence and trust in me (to provide guidance) -- I really enjoy that," he said.

Prior to the Neighborhood Place, Lau was a teacher at the Salvation Army Residential Treatment Facilities for Children and Youth on Oahu. He then worked for the Kamehameha Schools for 17 years administering the Alternative Education programs throughout the state.

Myaing has spent the past nine years with the Pacific Gateway Center, overseeing 14 programs assisting immigrants, refugees and low-income clients become economically and socially self-sufficient.

Myaing doesn't consider her job to be "work" since she finds it so meaningful, she said. "I know I'm helping people. I see the results in getting people jobs, housing or filling out forms that they don't understand -- it's very tangible. To help people toward self-sufficiency keeps us going."