Waikōloa culinary fundraiser raises $18,000 for dry forest restoration

$18,000 from a single evening in Waikōloa now goes to one of the island’s most fragile landscapes: 275 acres of remnant lowland dry forest where every dollar helps protect native trees, fund restoration work and keep community stewardship alive.

Culinary Arts Waikōloa hosted the fundraiser at Kings’ Shops on March 27, drawing attendees from across Hawaiʻi Island for food-tasting booths, cocktails, mocktails and live music by the Abe Lagrimas Jr. Trio. The event turned a busy resort retail center into a short-term tasting room for a long-term conservation effort, with proceeds directed to the Waikōloa Dry Forest Initiative.

The participating restaurants reflected how much of West Hawaiʻi’s visitor economy is tied to the Kohala Coast: A-Bay’s, Foster’s Kitchen, Roy’s Waikōloa, Brown’s Beach House, Meridia at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, Hawaiʻi Calls at Waikōloa Beach Marriott, Hau Tree at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Tommy Bahama and Marlin Bar all joined the event. For a dining corridor built on tourism, the fundraiser showed a different kind of return, one measured not only in receipts and reservations but in habitat protected and volunteers supported.

That matters in Waikōloa, one of the driest places in Hawaiʻi, where the nonprofit says average rainfall is only 12 inches. The Waikōloa Dry Forest Initiative says its preserve was created in 2011 after grassroots advocacy and collaboration with the Waikōloa Village Outdoor Circle, and the site now protects some of the last remaining native trees in the area. Its work includes forest restoration, native plant conservation, youth education, guided hikes and volunteer stewardship, all aimed at repairing a degraded landscape that has been weakened by habitat loss, invasive species, wildfire and poor land stewardship.

The fundraiser also underscored how resort businesses are trying to anchor themselves more deeply in the community around them. Kings’ Shops, which opened in December 1991 as part of Waikoloa Resort development on the Kohala Coast, has described its 2025 renovation as a long-term investment in both the visitor economy and the surrounding community. Lynn Rostau, the center’s general manager, said the gathering reflected what the center does best, creating memorable experiences while supporting organizations that strengthen Waikōloa and Hawaiʻi Island.

For the dry forest group, the money will help sustain programs that reach beyond the preserve boundary. Its Future Foresters after-school program brings keiki into the forest to hike, explore and learn, while public tours and volunteer days connect residents and visitors to the land itself. In a region where tourism, development pressure and environmental loss often collide, the fundraiser offered a practical example of how local spending can be converted into stewardship that lasts longer than one night’s crowd.