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Having lived like a really, uh, rotten life, it just makes life easier now, because I just think however I ‎ would've done something back then, I just do the exact opposite now.

‎ Meet a man who had a spiritual awakening that turned his life completely around.

‎ See how a young cartographer creates imaginary worlds with the maps he draws.

‎ Learn how to make jewelry out of old magazines.

‎ Meet a single mom who is just one of the thousands of Big Island residents struggling to make ends ‎ meet.

‎ Find out how a group of seventh graders is helping to get essential hygiene products to the people in ‎ need.

‎ And get to know a chef who has dedicated his life to feeding the homeless.

‎ All on this episode of HIKI NŌ, coming to you from the students of ʻEwa Makai Middle School on ‎ Oʻahu, Home of the Tigers.

‎ That's next on Hawaiʻi's New Wave of Storytellers, HIKI NŌ.

‎ Can do!

‎ We're here at ʻEwa Makai, on the island of Oʻahu.

Did you know that ʻEwa Makai is one of the few ‎ green schools in our ʻEwa district?

We grow our own produce in our own courtyards to be later used in ‎ our culinary classes.

We create dishes like laulau, made with our own ti leaves, baba ganoush made with ‎ our own eggplants, and smoked salmon canapes made with our own cucumbers and tomatoes.

‎ Our first story takes us to the island of Kauaʻi, where students at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School ‎ tell the story of a man who led a life headed for destruction, until a spiritual awakening turns his life ‎ around.

‎ Having lived like a really, uh, rotten life, it just makes life easier now, because I just think however I ‎ would've done something back then, I just do the exact opposite now.

‎ Kauaʻi resident John Rao loves music, the ocean and his relationship with his god, but his past tells a ‎ much darker story.

‎ When I was young, my parents started to get divorced, a friend of mine commited suicide, um, when I ‎ was young, like early teens, pre-teens, those had really negative effects on me.

I just started going down ‎ the wrong path.

I dropped out of high school.

I was doing a lot of drugs.

I found myself in my early 40s, ‎ homeless, living on the streets in Arizona and California, I had a very bad IV drug habit.

‎ When John hit rock bottom, he feared where life would take him next.

‎ I didn't realize when I needed to change.

I didn't know how.

It took me crying out to God to make the ‎ change happen.

I never went to NA.

Like I said, I was living on the streets, homeless, IV drug user, it ‎ didn't happen overnight, but it took several years.

I just started to change, the Lord started working in ‎ my life.

The Lord would send somebody into my life with an act of compassion and love, and a lot of ‎ times her name was Mary, so I venerate the Blessed Mother like crazy to this day.

‎ John's spiritual journey led him to Kauaʻi.

But an early morning stroll and an unexpected encounter ‎ paved his way to his god.

‎ Listening to the holy spirit moved me to come to Hawai'i and I had always dreamed of living in ‎ Hawai'i.

I work in the concierge business.

I sell activities at Brennecke's Beach Center down in Po'ipū ‎ Beach, and I serve St. Raphael Catholic Church.

One day, I had a walk up the Hapa Trail over here, and ‎ it was very early in the morning and the sun was rising over there, and the Hapa Trail comes out right ‎ over here at the driveway of the church and, uh, I saw that they were having mass, it was a weekday and ‎ it was a 7 a.m., and a bird flew out of the bell tower as I was about to turn around and walk to Kōloa, ‎ and he flew right in front of my face and flew right back up in to the bell tower and that's how I started ‎ coming to St. Raphael Church.

‎ There's always something about him.

When I first met him, he was a role model to me.

Here I am, ‎ comfortable in my life and I see this man who came here with nothing and yet, there's something that he ‎ has that, um, is very positive and very attractive.

‎ With the help of his friends, his church and his new island home, John continues to rebuild his life with ‎ happiness and hope.

‎ Well, I'm undoing all the mistakes of my past, you know, living the most righteous way that I can.

‎ Nobody's perfect, we're all sinners.

I'm living my dream, uh, like I said, this had always been like a ‎ dream of mine, too.

I live in a nice community.

Hang out, surf, and play music with my friends and do ‎ things with meaning and purpose.

‎ John openly shares his story of struggle so others can learn from his mistakes and draw inspiration from ‎ his journey.

‎ Without sounding cliché, all the things you always hear: Stay in school.

Don't do drugs.

Stay in church ‎ is the number one thing.

‎ He's a role model because he has shown that you can change.

You can move forward.

You don't have to ‎ stay the same way you are.

He's hit rock bottom and he's turned around.

‎ It only takes a couple little bad decisions to turn into a whole bunch of big bad decisions.

Before you ‎ know it, you can be away from the church and far away from God and far away from your dreams and ‎ your goals, and your aspirations, and that's an awful place to be.

‎ This is Gabriel Go from Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School for HIKI NŌ.‎ Now, from the HIKI NŌ archives, another story of spiritual redemption, this time from the students at ‎ Maui High School in Kahului.

‎ One, two, three...[SINGING]‎ If I were to describe Unite in three words, it would be: Following God's design.

‎ Perfect, let's try again.‎ Achieving such a vision was a big task for 18-year-old Marc Antonio, who was given the responsibility ‎ to contact local performers and organize the Unite concert held in June.

‎ Unite is kind of this organization where we aim at uniting the body of Christ.

We unite and come ‎ together and change the youth of this community because there's been a lot of violence, there's been a ‎ lot of suicides, a lot of drug usage and it's become a problem on this island, so that's what Unite pushes ‎ for.

It's to make that first step, to make that first encounter over these kids.

Reaching out to teenagers ‎ becomes a goal because that's where you see the most violence and that's where you see the most ‎ depressing stories.‎ However, Marc had quite a journey before taking on this first step.

‎ I went through my own depression.

I went through these suicidal thoughts.

I experienced what it's like ‎ to have, to want to kill yourself, to want to be on the edge of where you're like, there's no point of me ‎ here, there's no one that loves me here.

I should just go, there's no point in me being here anymore.

And ‎ that's a very dark time and a lot of teenagers experience that.

For nights, I was praying like, let me find ‎ the purpose, let me be able to rest in just your love and just focus on that.

Please give me hope again.

‎ Give me this hope that I've been wanting.

‎ Fortunately, for Marc, his prayer was answered in an unexpected way.

‎ Then I get a call from the Maui County Baptist's Association that, hey, we're thinking of putting on a ‎ concert.

Let's put it towards the youth.

Let's appeal to the youth.

What do you think?

Are you willing ‎ to oversee the whole project?

And then, God's like, yeah, this is where I'm gonna make you feel loved ‎ again.

So, I called back the organization, I said, yeah, I'll take on the project.

‎ After answering the call, Marc went from feeling empty to having a lot on his plate.

Responsible for ‎ gathering the local bands for the concert, Marc found his purpose.

‎ But this is not a treasure I want to keep for myself, but I want to give, now that it's kinda my mission to ‎ love on these kids, give them hope, give them the same love, and my goal is to have that love keep ‎ going.

‎ This is Yasha Ronquillo, from Maui High School, for HIKI NŌ.‎ We're back at ʻEwa Makai Middle School in ʻEwa Beach on the island of Oʻahu in our new sixth grade ‎ wing.

All of our sixth-grade core classes are located on the top floor and most of our electives on the ‎ bottom floor.

Students can work together in the same space to show their amazing talents and ‎ personalities through lots of art forms, including photography in our yearbook class and digital art.

‎ Now from the Nuʻuanu district of Oʻahu, students from Hongwanji Mission School introduce us to a ‎ young cartographer who is charting the worlds of his imagination through maps.

‎ Cartography is the study of maps, but to me, cartography is creating your own world and creating a ‎ place for your imagination to go into.

‎ These days, maps are tools many now use on smart phones and computers.

For Hongwanji Mission ‎ School sixth grader, Sidney Cogswell, maps are unique works of art that he draws by hand.

He became ‎ interested in map-making in the summer of 2019.

‎ I was watching this YouTuber who focused on D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, but I was really interested ‎ in the cartography part, so I decided to learn some techniques, like drawing mountains and forests.

So, ‎ that's how I got into map-making and that's what I like.

‎ Since then, Sidney creates one-of-a-kind maps with a unique characteristic.

‎ I draw, um, fictional maps based off real-world land masses.

I don't really plan my maps, I make ‎ themes.

So, I just focus on the terrain features.

I do get inspiration from nature.

Like the jagged cliffs ‎ and you know, the ridges.

‎ As he draws his maps, Sidney constantly looks for ways to make his maps better.

‎ After I finish a map, I tend to just look at my maps, see what I did wrong, see how I can fix it and how I ‎ can make it look better and maybe change my process and then, I hang them up and then, I admire them.

‎ The thing is, I don't ever get bored drawing maps because there's so many possible outcomes.

You use ‎ your creativity, you make a world one way.

Another person uses their own creativity, make it another ‎ way.

I like it because you have many, many possibilities.

‎ Sidney has turned cartography into more than an interest.

It's become a passion.

‎ My biggest goal in cartography is to be able to make people have, you know, fun with maps, I guess.

‎ And so, they can enjoy maps the way I like them.

‎ As Sidney pursues his newly found passion, he will continue to use maps as a canvas to display and ‎ share his unique worlds.

This is Brody Tran from Honwangji Mission School for HIKI NŌ.‎ We take you now to the Makiki District of Oʻahu, where students at Roosevelt High School show you a ‎ fashionable way to make use of all those old magazines you have laying around.

‎ The average household throws away thirteen thousand separate pieces of paper each year.

Today, we'll ‎ show you how to recycle your unwanted magazines by using the paper to make a bracelet.

‎ Gather all the materials: a used magazine, glue-stick, toothpicks, ruler, scissors, clear elastic cord and a ‎ pen.

Collect similar color magazine pages for your design.

We're using blue for our bracelet.‎ Measure the string to a desired length.

Make sure to leave extra length and cut.‎ Measure the base, zero point eight centimeters and connect it to the corner by drawing a diagonal line to ‎ form a long triangle.

Keep alternating the side that you measured the base.

Repeat this till you have ‎ approximately twenty-three to thirty strips.

Cut along the lines.‎ ‎ Use a toothpick and align the base of the triangle to it.

Tightly roll it up and glue the tips.

After the tips ‎ are sturdily glued on, remove the bead from the toothpick.

Repeat till all cut strips are turned into beads.

‎ Slowly, string the beads together on to the measured strand.

To finish, tie the ends together.

This is ‎ Tracy Dinh reporting for HIKI NŌ.‎ We're back here at ʻEwa Makai Middle School as part of the Honouliuli ahupuaʻa on the island of ‎ Oʻahu.

If you didn't know, we Tigers love showcasing our talents and expressing ourselves through art.

‎ All over campus you can find stunning artwork and murals created by our very own Tigers.

That was ‎ created during after-school hours and seasonal breaks by students and community sponsors.

The murals ‎ aim to inspire integrity, growth, and to communicate hā, or in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, the breath, which lets us ‎ share our ideas and connect with everyone around us.

‎ Now from Hilo, students at Waiāea Elementary School, introduce us to one of the thousands of Big ‎ Island residents who are struggling to make ends meet.

‎ According to the ALICE Report, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, over ‎ sixty percent of Hawaiʻi Island's families are struggling financially.

‎ The last report that we have was put out in 2016 For Hawaiʻi Island, it showed that sixty-one percent of ‎ households on our island are in ALICE or in poverty.

What was even more alarming was comparing ‎ ‎2014 to 2016 and seeing that number increase from fourteen percent within those twenty-four months.

‎ Brittany Milam lives that statistic.

‎ I'm a thirty-seven-year old single mom.

I work full-time.

I'm also pursuing my bachelor's degree, ‎ actually a double-major, in UH-Hilo for Psychology being my primary and Sociology, my secondary ‎ major.

I've got three kids and they are my everything.

Childcare is a big obstacle for me, for sure, um, ‎ I'm not originally from Hawaiʻi, yeah, and I don't have family here, so it's...it is a struggle.

But there are ‎ so many resources in this community.

‎ An organization that is trying to coordinate those resources is Vibrant Hawaiʻi.‎ Vibrant Hawai'i is an organization, it's really a community movement that brings together government, ‎ education, social services, faith community, philanthropy, business and individuals from around our ‎ island to really move towards our vision of a vibrant Hawaiʻi, and what that vision comes down to is an ‎ equitable opportunity for everyone to build wealth.

And our community's definition of wealth ‎ encompasses our human, our social, our natural and our financial capital.‎ It's a vision that gives Brittany Milam something to strive for.

‎ So, my perfect day would be the day that I'm no longer worried about tomorrow, where I can sit ‎ comfortably in my own home with my family and feel secure financially and not have to worry, really.

‎ This is Dayvan Wong from Waiākea Elementary School for HIKI NŌ.‎ From the HIKI NŌ archives, here comes another story about a community pulling together to help those ‎ in need.

This time from the students at Maui Waena Intermediate School on the Valley Isle.

‎ Some people leave like a dollar, two dollars, they get their change...‎ Five years ago, when we started Maui Fresh Streatery, we really wanted to be part of our community.

‎ We didn't want to be just another fly-by-night food truck, and to do that, we started something called ‎ our Aloha Tip Jar.

It's a little jar that sits out in front of our truck and when people like our service or ‎ like our food, they can leave a tip in the jar, but instead of keeping that tips at the end of the month, we ‎ donate them to different non-profits here on Maui, whether it be families in need, children fighting ‎ cancer, community clubs and organizations.

‎ Although the Aloha Tip Jar does support community, it finally found a challenge that change couldn't ‎ conquer.

‎ When the government shut down, later part of last year, we thought, how can we help these people that ‎ weren't going to be getting their paychecks.

And the problem was too big for our tip jar, meaning, we ‎ couldn't collect enough tips to give to all of the different workers.

And so, we thought, how can we help ‎ everybody that's affected?

And so, I had seen something called Pay it Forward and how it works is, we ‎ have a board and we put up the very first five meals.

We offered five meals to any federal worker that ‎ was not getting a paycheck and they could come in and take a tag off the board and redeem it for a free ‎ meal.

Three-to-four-week period when the shutdown was occurring, we had over five hundred meals ‎ donated.

I think we fed almost 450, if not more, federal workers and families in need.

‎ Chef Kyle and his food truck were guided by more than just the desire to help the community.

He was ‎ driven by his kuleana.‎ So, to have someone think about us, especially during these kind of trying times, is really, really ‎ thoughtful and appreciated.

‎ Kuleana is an interesting word.

We oftentimes refer to it as our responsibility.

Being a small-business ‎ owner here in Maui County, it's our responsibility to take care of our community, our ʻohanas, our ‎ families.‎ Not only do these actions benefit the community, they build community.

‎ All of the things that we do to give back to our community, whether it be through our Aloha Tip Jar or ‎ our pay-it-forward board, are very rewarding to me because it gives me a sense of belonging to our ‎ community.

‎ This is Holden Suzuki from Maui Waena Intermediate School for HIKI NŌ.

‎ Here's another story about people stepping up to help those in need, this time from students at Ᾱliamanu ‎ Middle School on Oʻahu.

‎ Hygiene is a very important part of life.

However, not everyone has access to the luxury of hygiene ‎ products.

A survey done by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in January of 2019 counted four thousand ‎ three hundred and eleven homeless people on the island of O'ahu.

The majority of these people don't ‎ have the money to buy hygiene products.

But at Ᾱliamanu Middle, two classes are working together to ‎ do their part to address this issue.

The seventh-grade leadership students, together with the eighth-grade ‎ AVID students, organized a hygiene drive in hopes to help the homeless by allowing students to donate ‎ hygiene products such as deodorant and laundry detergent.

‎ If you go downtown, you can see tons of homeless people on the street, so hopefully you'd want to help ‎ them out by giving them luxuries that we take for granted every day that maybe they don't have.

‎ The idea was separately conceptualized by students in both classes.

In order to make sure supplies got to ‎ those in need, the students ended up partnering with Family Promise, an organization with a mission to ‎ help homeless and low-income families achieve sustainable independence with the help of community.

‎ Yeah, so Family Promise of Hawai'i is a non-profit organization that deals with multiple aspects of just ‎ helping families out in need.

So, one of the needs was, uh, their month, was collecting hygiene products, ‎ so, that actually fell into line of what we were trying to do, both the eighth-grade AVID class and the ‎ seventh-grade leadership class.

‎ The two classes' partnership was born from a coincidence as both classes just happened to come up with ‎ the same idea for a service project.

‎ Ms. Young actually contacted me and let me know that her leadership class is doing the same thing so ‎ that both groups of students should work together.

So, that's kind of where the partnership started.

So, ‎ they worked on the fliers together, they worked on the infomercials for it.

‎ There was still doubt about whether there would be any donations at all.

‎ When it started, a lot of, uh, we had a lot of doubt because we weren't sure if we could top the can-‎ stacking competition and we wanted to hopefully get donations and then when we finished, we did get ‎ donations, which was really exciting because we didn't go in thinking that we were going to get ‎ anything.

‎ They found that most things that were donated were free products from hotels as opposed to things you ‎ might find around your home.

The drive was still a great success for the leadership class and helped ‎ students to make a change in their communities while learning to be a leader.

‎ When we did our service project, um, it definitely had a change on my perspective as seeing things in ‎ different ways.

‎ It gave me some time to actually see things head on and give me some actual situations where I can use ‎ those leadership skills, so some actual life lessons.

‎ I think what was nice about it is that the kids really got to work on and figure out solutions to problems ‎ of things that are in our community.

‎ So, in the end, it seems that everyone involved benefited from the experience in making a difference in ‎ our community.

This is Cammy Martinez from Ᾱliamanu Middle School for HIKI NŌ.‎ We're back here at ʻEwa Makai Middle School in the city of ʻEwa Beach on the island of Oʻahu.

‎ Changing schools can be one of the toughest things to endure as a child.

The Takai Transition Center ‎ was established at our school to help students feel welcomed to our community and island.

This Center ‎ is named in honor of the late U.S. Representative Mark Takai.

Welcoming students with an open heart, ‎ the Center provides guidance and assists students in making their first year at our school their best.

The ‎ Center also trains students, known as the Aloha Ambassadors, who help welcome the new students and ‎ ensure everyone has a friend when they arrive at our school.

‎ Our final story continues this show's theme of helping those in need and comes to us from the students ‎ of Kamehameha Schools Maui Middle School in Pukalani.

‎ Richard Chiasson, a former chef who once cooked at restaurants, now uses his culinary talents to feed ‎ dozens of homeless people at a shelter in Maui.

‎ I retired two years ago because the job I was working closed and they laid everybody off.

‎ Prior to his retirement, Mr. Chiasson learned about how bad the homeless situation was, as an employee ‎ at a homeless shelter.

‎ I worked at the homeless shelter because there was a job opening and it was casual at first.

Like two ‎ days a week, maybe ten hours a week, and then eventually, people quit and they go, oh, you want to ‎ work fulltime?

I go, oh, gosh, I already get catering, and Hope Chapel, I said, yeah, I think I can fit it in.

‎ But things got overwhelming.

‎ I worked there for five years until I got burnt out.

Yeah, you know, it was just uh, very, it was very ‎ stressful at first.

But then you get involved, because you get different clients in there all the time.

‎ Though he once felt burnt out, Mr. Chiasson found himself back at the shelter with the challenge of ‎ coordinating other volunteers through his church.

‎ My challenge would be getting people to come in to help me prepare the food and to serve the food.

‎ They didn't know what's going on over there, so, it was just good...it's a good experience to have these ‎ people to come over to see what actually goes on on Maui.

So, when you feed these people and serve ‎ these people, they are so thankful, and a lot of people know me, so when I go down there, they're like, ‎ wow, you're back.

I said, I'm back with a team, not just me.

‎ Mr. Chiasson came a long way to make Maui his home.

‎ I'm from Maine, originally.

I moved to Maui back in 1980.

My brother, um, moved here in '78 with his ‎ family, and he called me and said, why don't you, um, probably come to Maui.

I said, Oh yeah, I'll ‎ check it out.

So, I came over here and stayed.

I would like people to remember me as, uh, somebody that ‎ does good for the community, helping people at the homeless shelter, or just helping anybody that needs ‎ food, and setting up food, and helping the churches.

That's what I would like to do.

‎ With the compassion for the homeless and needy, and the devotion to the people of Hawaiʻi, Mr. ‎ Chiasson plans to continue to serve his community.

This is Evalani Keawekane from Kamehameha ‎ Schools Maui for HIKI NŌ.

‎ Welcome back!

Looks like we're at the end of this episode.‎ Don't forget, all of the stories you see here were created, shot and edited by students like us.

‎ We hope the stories we've told were just as fun to watch as they were to make.

‎ Join us next week to see what Hawaiʻi's future storytellers HIKI NŌ.

‎ Can do!

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