Friends of Amy B H Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden

Public access: the Garden continues to be open 4 days a week with free admission. The total number of visitors, both resident and tourist, as well as adults and children, has increased year by year to over 10,000 in 2023. Visitors continue to use an interpretive flyer and a trail/plant area map for self-guided tours along with the izi travel cell phone app. A skilled volunteer continues to offer free tours of the Garden on sundays during the farmer's market. Public events: weekly farmers market is held every sunday. The market promotes food and green conservation and is hosted by the Garden with a contract to the pure kona green market. This event attracts 500 people weekly. The annual grow Hawaiian festival is the Garden's signature event. A successful festival was held in february with about 600 adults and children attending. Activities included youth focused projects, Hawaiian cultural and plant demonstrations and education, plus food, music and entertainment. Plant sales were held quarterly. The Garden nursery supports the conservation of over 40 species of endangered plants as well as the maintenance of over 250 cultivars and Hawaiian landscape species. Arbor day/annual meeting/board election was held with educational displays and a native plant sale. Annual fall kalo harvest was held at which huli starts are shared with the community and replanting maintains one of the largest kalo variety collections in Hawaii. Education: the Garden continues its focus on education for youth and adults. In collaboration with a state program and private partners, the Garden developed brief educational videos for web and classroom use in "roots and shoots-'ulu (breadfruit) for the future." An increasing number of groups and tours were active in the Garden: k-12 school and university groups, Hawaiian immersion classes, girl scout and boy scout troops, and Hawaiian art and craft groups. Kealakehe elementary, konawaena elementary, konawaena high school, and alternative learning students for special trainings and visits. Youth camp-overs and service work. Regular boy scout multi-day camp overs and service trips at the Garden. Many other youth organization educational visits. Occasional university groups, hawai'Hawaii'i and beyond. Youth video education. Youth are featured in the Garden's online project, and event videos online, also used for in-garden group talk-stories, with staff, volunteers and board members. The Garden's nursery: supports the conservation of the Garden's over 40 endangered plants, and gained a 'threatened and endangered' permit from dlnr to propagate and share these Hawaiian plants. It also supports the maintenance of over 250 cultivars and Hawaiian landscape species. Volunteer participation: a faithful cadre of volunteers assisted Garden staff in maintaining and improving the four main Garden zones representing the ancient Hawaiian planting system. Along with the board and facilities volunteers, the total number of hours in 2023 exceeds 6,000 hours. Archaeological sites: work was started at one of the Garden's sites to identify and document excavated remains of possible archaeological significance. This is ongoing work with state and local authorities. Facilities improvements: restoration of the original home of Amy Greenwell continues. The boardroom and educational center is complete and has seen much use in 2023. Improvements have also been made to the nursery. Fundraising: the Garden has had significant success in 2023 in fundraising: notification of the largest award in our ownership was announced in 2023 with funding to occur in 2024. Leadership and management: active all-volunteer board with effective governance, policies and reporting. Nonprofit accounting standards with oversight. Partnerships: the Garden continues to work community, nonprofit, state and federal entities on Garden programming and oversight. The community forest management plan for the 1st federally-designated community forest in Hawaii has been implemented.