WAIMEA — Two grinning fathers passed each other between the outdoor playground and the multipurpose football and soccer field Monday during the grand opening of Waimea District Park.
WAIMEA — Two grinning fathers passed each other between the outdoor playground and the multipurpose football and soccer field Monday during the grand opening of Waimea District Park.
“Get excited about this!” said one man, his son following close in tow.
“It’s exactly what we needed,” the other man replied.
The collaborative vision for the park — which spanned multiple mayoral and gubernatorial administrations, decades of work and $24 million spent — culminated with a ceremony Monday afternoon at the base of the Waimea foothills.
The hundreds of people in attendance shared smiles and a spattering of grateful tears as dozens of keiki streamed gleefully into the new facility following a blessing by kumu Kealoha Sugiyama and short speeches by a few of the many contributors who helped make Waimea District Park a reality.
“These facilities are the heartbeats of every community,” said County Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter, whose 1st District includes a portion of Waimea. “This is where kids come and grow up. This is where the families come to build relationships.”
For most, including Mel Macy, chairman of the Waimea District Park Builders, the park was a long time coming.
“The district of South Kohala truly was blessed this Thanksgiving,” said Macy, adding his group has been focused on the park’s opening for more than a decade. “Just to give you some idea of how long we’ve been at it, I was looking back on some early-on correspondence with some stakeholders. We were using a fax machine.”
Macy’s reference to outmoded means of communication stood in stark contrast to the ultramodern facility, replete with not only a playground and a multipurpose field, but also three indoor basketball/volleyball courts, a concession area and new restrooms.
The cover the facility provides is a relief to youth coaches in the area, who have struggled to gain access to practice and game facilities, often being forced outdoors to contend with the sometimes intense elements of Waimea’s climate.
“We had only one gym, and the gym that we had, we could do just so much,” said Mel Paio, who has raised seven children in the area in the past 20 years and coaches his 10-year-old son Nainoa’s basketball and volleyball teams. “We couldn’t practice a lot.”
Until Monday, the Paios’ experience has been a universal reality in Waimea for decades. On Tuesday, Paio and his son played their first volleyball game in the new gym.
And someday in the future, Nainoa’s children might play baseball on a new diamond or swim in a new pool at the park. Paio said both are part of the plans for the park’s second phase of construction.
“(This place), it’s awesome,” said Kalewa O’Neil, who coaches his 13-year-old son Mana’s basketball team. “We don’t have much room, so we’re always battling for gym time. We go practice at the park where there’s no roof or anything, where we’re dealing with the wind and the rain.”
The keiki in attendance were even more ecstatic about their new playground than their parents and coaches.
“It’s different,” said 13-year-old Justin Lina.
“It’s bigger, too,” said Mana O’Neil.
“This place will be way better,” Lina added.
Dutch Kuyper, CEO of Parker Ranch, said the commitment to building the park can be traced all the way back to the 1990s.
Its construction was only a viable concept because Richard Smart, the last member of the Parker family to control the ranch, left it in trust to four beneficiaries — North Hawaii Community Hospital, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Parker School and the Hawaii Community Foundation.
Kuyper said since that time, the organizations have used it to the betterment of the Waimea community.
A big part of that was the donation of the land on which Waimea District Park now stands.
An aide to Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi said state funding in the amount of $5.5 million for construction came through during former Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s administration. The other $18.5 million came from the county, and it was Kenoi’s administration that carried the project across the finish line.
“The bottom line is Waimea — this special, sacred place — becomes a little bit more beautiful, a little bit more special for our children, our families and all of our kupuna,” Kenoi said, wrapping up Monday’s ceremony.
“So, mahalo to all of you who made this happen.”
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.