KAILUA-KONA — Kona Community Hospital is used to helping people in need, and now it needs a little help from the Big Island community.
A benefit concert featuring Na Hoku Hanohano Award winners Kahulanui will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Aloha Theatre, with proceeds going toward the Kona Hospital Foundation and its efforts to raise money for a renovation of the hospital’s Cancer Center.
The extension to the department will add 1,400 square feet, a dedicated chemotherapy patient restroom, a nurses station, an isolation room for infectious patients, and nine chemotherapy treatment chairs, up from the six currently at the department.
Sanoe Kauhane, director of oncology services at Kona Community Hospital, said the extension will be an important factor in upgrading the hospital’s ability to assist more cancer patients.
“We have our existing building, where we have our infusion center and our medical oncology center within the same building,” Kauhane said. “We’re just really crammed in together, and this extension would allow us to add more treatment chairs, which would allow us to expand our schedule, treat more patients and help our community, especially patients that are undergoing chemotherapy treatment.”
Patricia Clark, trustee of Kona Hospital Foundation, said the foundation’s goal for money raised from the benefit concert is $15,000.
“This is kind of an extension to funds we raised several years ago for the project,” Clark said. “For administrative reasons, the project couldn’t be completed four years ago. So these are additional funds now needed to cover the updated costs of the project.”
The Cancer Center at Kona Community Hospital offers chemotherapy and infusion, radiation oncology, and medical oncology and hematology to cancer patients throughout the west side of the Big Island. Oncology is the study and treatment of different types of cancer.
“The Cancer Center has always been a facility that been of great need at Kona hospital,” Clark said.
Kauhane is involved with the design, planning and permitting process of the extension, said the funds are the only thing stopping the project from moving forward now.
“At this point, we’ve raised the majority of the funds. We’re nearly there,” Kauhane said. “We have our permits and we’re ready to basically get our building going. And the foundation has been really generous in raising money for the building over the last couple of years and helping us achieve our goals for the community’s needs.”
Kahulanui is a Hawaiian swing band from the Big Island that was nominated for a Grammy in 2014, and won the Na Hoku Hanohano Award this year for Jazz Album of the Year. They are often found performing at Gertrude’s Jazz Bar in Kailua-Kona, and the band is a big name throughout the Hawaiian islands.
“They are really well known and well liked by the community,” Kauhane said. “We’re just really thankful that they’re taking the time to work with us to bring the community together to raise more funds.”
Kauhane said the concert is a way for residents of Kona to help out while having fun at the same time.
“We just want to give the community the opportunity to get together and listen to really great music and, at the same time, help an aspect of the community which is to be able to expand services of cancer care,” Kauhane said. “That’s just a really wonderful thing to be a part of.”
Info: Tickets to the Kona Hospital Foundation benefit for the Cancer Center are $40 for reserved seating, and $75 for VIP. Tickets can be purchased at apachawaii.org. The concert is from 7-9 p.m. Saturday at the Aloha Theatre.