Scenes from the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Hawai'i Adaptive Surfing Championships.
This year, I had the opportunity to work on a unique project highlighting the work of local nonprofit AccesSurf Hawai'i, which was sponsored by Waiākea Hawaiian Volcanic Water in partnership with The Inertia. Creatively and professionally, this was arguably one of the most fulfilling projects that I have ever been a part of.
The working art project that is soul what is the culmination of my work as an artist but it was born amidst my time working in the nonprofit world, where I spent 9 years of my professional life, technically 14 if you count my time working in Universities. You could make the argument that my journey has come full-circle since my first paid job was in the corporate arena, and after eons of time in non-profits, academics, and universities, I’ve finally returned.
One of my old bosses in nonprofit life once gave a colleague a shirt that stated her job title was Miracle Worker. You could argue it wasn’t much a joke, so much as it was Truth! The nonprofit journey is one of the more challenging, labor of love marathons out there to run (so you better have some good f@cking running shoes, a foam roller, and ice baths ready). Each nonprofit is special and without its professional staff, donors, volunteers, and in particular, the corporate support, it'd be nearly impossible to do what they do, especially in light of government funding cuts and shifts in focus every election cycle.
I have experienced nonprofit life from multiple perspectives and I hope to continue to find ways to support our nonprofit 'ohana. The invaluable services provided are so inspiring, and in many cases, like the arts education offered by my former colleagues at Hawai'i Opera Theatre, it's the only opportunity many of our keiki and kupuna get to receive such services.
Which brings us to AccesSurf. We covered some of their work previously and one other facet of that experience was the creation and production of this video. To date I’ve written a teleplay, a short film script, and a feature length screenplay and have had experience coming up with storyboards and outlines for video concepts before. I think the fact this helped to shine love on a service that is all love and continues because of so much love made it that much more rewarding.
With that, if you have about seven minutes of your time, please check this out and if it moves you, share the story of AccesSurf with your friends. People with physical disabilities are some of the most inspiring souls that I have ever met and the reality is that their challenges really often go unseen and forgotten to those without physical disabilities.
That the heroes who run and volunteer with AccesSurf are able to do so much to help so many of our sisters and brothers throughout the years, as well as inspire change around the world, is truly amazing.
Soul What now? Live, Love, Enjoy.
Soul + Full is a series that explores organizations doing amazing work in our communities. If you would like to be featured in Soul + Full, holla @soulxwhat.