Cis George and Carl Kim of Scenic Hawaii present HWC's president Linda Elliott with the Betty Crocker Community Garden Honor Award 2011 for the native plant garden, installed with the assistance of more than 100 community volunteers. (Photo courtesy of Hawaii Wildlife Center)

From the Hawaii Wildlife Center Board of Directors:

We have met our fundraising goal of $300,000 to finish construction and to open for business. The Hawaii Wildlife Center building exterior is complete and beautifully landscaped with Hawaiian trees, plants, and granite benches. Subcontractors for Tinguely Development, Inc. are busy with plumbing, wiring, and interior infrastructure.

Now the challenge is to support the Center in its first year of operation. You can be a vital part of protecting species found nowhere else in the world.

Wonderful donations large and small have brought us to our present level. We owe our present funding level to generous individual donations, additional grants from Patagonia Haleiwa, Change Happens Foundation, and Kaulunani Urban Forestry, as well as regular annual gifts and new supporters.

Every bit as important are our local community supporters, from the $175 raised by Kohala Middle School leadership group, to the dollars, quarters, dimes and nickels from donation jars at local businesses. HWC is a Center for the whole community, with research, education, and outreach closely tied to the main job of treating, rehabilitating, caring for, and eventually releasing Hawaiian wildlife back to their home sites.

Help us reach our $120,000 fundraising goal to operate HWC for its first year! We need to be ready to respond immediately, whether the event is caused by nature or humans. That means perhaps receiving several hundred oil covered seabirds needing stabilization, washing, treatment, feeding, and rehabilitation-something like an ER for the whole central Pacific Ocean.

HWC serves the central Pacific and Hawaiian archipelago, including the largest area under conservation status in the U.S., Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands). Approximately 14 million Hawaiian seabirds are estimated in Papahanaumokuakea.

A Wildlife Rehabilitation Manager will be hired shortly to assist Center Director Linda Elliott in preparing and keeping HWC ready at all times.

HWC also conducts training on other Hawaiian and Pacific islands. HWC currently consults for training and wildlife rehabilitation with Kauai Save Our Shearwater program. An important component of HWC will be the training of volunteers, critical when large numbers of wildlife come to the Center for care.

Mahalo Nui Loa to Our Amazing Supporters:

This year HWC assisted State DLNR with banding nee fledglings in West Hawaii, and also assisted with translocation of nee fledglings from Kauai to Maui.

HWC expects to be complete and operational in November of this year. HWC dedication is set for Saturday, Nov. 19. Please save the date for the celebration.

Here are some recent highlights in our HWC progress:

* Kohala Cub Scouts community service day
* Community planting day at HWC with more than 100 volunteers
* Donation of printed educational posters & materials by Conservation Council of Hawaii
* Granite garden benches installed by U.S. Marines
* Scenic Hawaii Betty Crocker Award for HWC
* Continuing mowing & weeding by volunteers
* New equipment storage shed set up by volunteers
* Tour of HWC by National Wildlife Federation Expedition visitors
Excellence in Natural Science Award for HWC Board member Rob Shallenberger for his book “Hawaiian Birds of the Sea: Na Manu Kai”
* HWC Board member Jon Giffin recognized for rediscovering a rare endemic Clermontia plant thought extinct.
* Director Linda Elliott presented at the inaugural Waimea Ocean Film Festival
* Board member Pete Hendricks and Elliott hosted an HWC booth at the Ocean & Earth Festival at Keauhou Beach Hotel
* Donation of the office trailer by Tinguely Development, Inc.

Thank you again for your support. Mahalo nui loa.

— Find out more:
www.hawaiiwildlifecenter.org