Kauai Marathon and Kauai Coffee award $3,000 in scholarships

Three Kauai graduates each left the Kauai Coffee Visitor Center in Numila with a $1,000 scholarship on Friday, a small award by college standards but a direct boost for students headed into some of the steepest costs in higher education.

The Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon, in partnership with Kauai Coffee Company, awarded $3,000 total to Jayna Sams of Waimea High School, Cedric Crampton-Nabaa of Hawaii Technology Academy and Jennifer Guerin of Kapaa High School. Sams, a multisport Menehune, is headed to Boise State University to major in psychology and occupational therapy. Crampton-Nabaa, one of Waimea High School’s top boys’ cross-country runners, said he was still deciding on a field of study before enrolling at the University of Victoria in Canada and was leaning toward statistics. Guerin, a strong volleyball player for Kapaa, is bound for the University of Southern California to study Health and Human Sciences.

The checks were presented by race founders Jeff and Liz Sacchini, Race Director Robin Jumper and Ophelia Buduan of Kauai Coffee. The handoff showed how the marathon has grown into more than a single-day athletic event: it has become a local scholarship stream for students who have balanced schoolwork, sport and the transition out of island classrooms.

That support has been building for years. Kauai Coffee became the presenting sponsor of the Youth Running Program in late 2014, and the program added scholarships in 2015. By late 2024, the marathon had awarded $50,000 in scholarship awards since the races began in 2009, alongside $250,000 in charitable gifts. The Youth Running Program has also raised more than $30,000 and reached 2,209 keiki through the running program and keiki races over 12 years.

The scholarship announcement also came as the 17th annual Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon moved closer to Sept. 6, 2026. The full and half marathon are scheduled to start at 6 a.m. on Poipu Road and finish oceanfront at Koloa Landing Resort, with race officials saying registration was nearing a 2,000-runner ceiling.

The race website says the event has generated more than $52 million in economic impact over 16 years and distributed more than $280,000 to Kauai nonprofit groups. It has drawn 13,980 mainland participants, 1,577 international runners, 4,658 neighbor-island runners and 9,990 runners from Kauai, with about 60% of participants women ages 25 to 45. For the students recognized Friday, that means one of Kauai’s signature tourism events is still helping pay for the next step off-island.