From a Single Seed a Community Can Thrive Kaua‘i’s Kanna Family – Making a Difference for Generations Kaua‘i’s Kanna family knows a lot about making things from scratch. For decades, the family’s spirit and working hands have supported gatherings and fundraisers across the island—from their hunting, fishing, cooking, gardening, breadbaking, and jam-making, they’ve nurtured their family and friends while contributing to everything from Grandma Carol’s church to the community college’s Culinary Institute. The kids grew up this way, watching their dad Dr. George Kanna gather in the back room of his Hanap¯ ep¯ e dental practice with his friends from around the community. They’d talk story, maybe figure out which political candidates needed their help, what needed more attention in the community, who could use an extra hand. When Dr. George passed in 2001, his seven children and his wife did what the family does best; they came together to regroup, reminisce, and discussed moving forward by honoring their father’s legacy in some way. Because Dr. George was a strong believer in education, they focused on an educational scholarship fund and, with the support of friends and the community, went to work building it. “We’re not a big or famous or well to-do family,” says son, Stan Kanna. “We’re just a local family with humble beginnings and much aloha for our community.” Over the past fifteen years, people from across the islands turned out to support the family’s annual invitational GAK Scholarship golf tournament.
Everyone worked hard to pull off an event with one goal: honor Dr. George’s legacy, with scholarship funds to help students from each of Kaua‘i’s public high schools pursue their college dreams. Every year, the family gathered – just as Dr. George did with his friends in that back room — planning the event, gathering the “fruit”, and successfully building that Scholarship Fund; something their father would be pleased with. Every year the golf tournament grew in success. It was Grandma Carol, Dr. George’s widow and the childrens’ mother, who finally suggested the family consider getting help with the event. Like their gardens, it started with a seed and an idea, and now it needed more room to grow in order to provide more fruit. After the final golf tournament in 2016, HCF took over the management of the fund, making sure it’s endowed for future generations and giving the family a much – needed break. “I think they felt good that we would do right by Dr. Kanna, the family, and the investment,” says Darcie Yukimura, HCF’s Kaua‘i Office director. A family that’s always producing — good food, good ideas, good outcomes — and then giving it away within their community, that’s the essence of philanthropy, and that’s the big promise of little things.
“We’re not a big or famous or well-to-do family. We’re just a local family with humble beginnings and much aloha for our community.” – Stan Kanna
DID YOU KNOW: By converting a private fund to HCF, the fund’s creators can transition out of the daily management and administrative burden, focusing instead on the vision and the benefactors of the fund’s generosity. To learn how you can transform your generosity into lasting change, please visit:
HawaiiCommunityFundation.org