A Kona pastor has faith in today’s youth, and is providing a path to discover careers in the trades by establishing a vocational center.
Spencer Baker, pastor of Big Island Baptist Church and chaplain for the Hawaii County Police Department, has had a dream to provide vocational training to West Hawaii’s youth.
“About 70% of our high school graduates are not going to college. We want to introduce them to the trades to show them there is more than a job you just stumble upon. Good paying jobs,” he said.
Baker’s ambitious goal is to establish a two-year, nationally accredited vocational school teaching welding, framing, tile, masonry and sheet rock among other skills, including small business accounting and marketing. To realize that dream, he will need financing and a suitable location.
Because his effort is completely volunteer driven and reliant on donations, he doesn’t expect the reality for another five years. Although he knows grant money is available for such an endeavor, he neither has the time or expertise to secure that stream of funding.
“We would love to have a volunteer grant writer find us funding,” he said.
Both Baker and his brother, who is instrumental in the program, have extensive construction backgrounds and want to create a conduit to local companies for skilled laborers.
“Construction companies are fully on-board,” he said, noting he has had interest from many companies who would like to hire graduates.
He envisions the program to be available to high school juniors and seniors as alternative classes, or full-time for high school graduates.
For now, he is holding workshops every six weeks for keiki ages 12 to 18 years old at the church campus located at the old Makua Lani School campus in Holualoa. He hopes to spark their interest and imagination and get them out of the house.
“If we had more funding, we could do more. This is purely a church-volunteer driven program,” he said.
Their first endeavor was to build three chicken coops. The finished coops, along with chickens donated by local farmers, went home to three lucky families. Next keiki were exposed to heavy equipment operations and safety, including learning how to tie down a load and getting the opportunity to run excavators.
On Saturday, 40 kids under the supervision of 18 volunteers made cutting boards from scraps of koa, ohia, pine and other woods.
After a briefing on proper tool use and safety, they broke down into groups to design, plane, jigsaw, route, sand, wood burn and oil their creations. All 40 were done in three hours due to a well-oiled machine of timing. Volunteers helped the kids at each station and in the end, a family member was sure to receive a gift they will forever cherish. Lunch was served afterward as the keiki compared their creations.
“This lets them learn how to work with their hands,” said Baker.
He stressed the importance of teaching the kids how to use power tools and learn basic skills.
“Every kid needs confidence to fix things for themselves,” he said.
The program is run on a shoestring budget with volunteers from the church. Baker said he was able to secure some donations of tools, however, each workshop costs the ministry at least $5,000. But that’s money well worth the investment.
Aaron Nakashima, a retired pipe fitter, was teaching kids how to operate a jigsaw during Saturday’s workshop.
“I really like to minister to the kids,” he said. “It’s a positive influence on them. I can see the kids are eager to learn.”
It was evident as the youth went from station to station, eagerly awaiting the finished product.
“The projects are very unique,” said Cody Misaki as he sanded his cutting board. “I’ve learned how to get better using power tools.”
Misaki has attended all three workshops and was a winner of the chicken coop build.
“The heavy equipment was my favorite, but I like them all,” he said. “I’ll definitely keep coming.”
Baker plans future events that will provide life lessons for keiki. His daughter Corinne has been attending all of the vocational events.
The Makua Lani High School student is proud of what her father has accomplished.
“It’s been a lot of work and a lot of years in the making. We have this amazing property to do this,” she said. “I am learning stuff I will use for the rest of my life.”
The next event will be a workshop on butchering. Registered keiki will learn how to slaughter and dress a chicken, pig and goat. Attendance will be limited to 40.
“It’s about teaching them life lessons,” said Baker.
Volunteers willing to share their mana‘o (wisdom), businesses seeking to sponsor the program or provide materials or those wishing to donate to Kona Vocational or sign up for a future workshop visit konavocational.com.
“We love our community and we love our kids,” said Baker. “We plan on doing this many years to come.”