Volunteers

Volunteers are crucial to our success in meeting our commitment to our students. Our primary focus and commitment is to create engaging and healthy learning experiences for our students. Our goal is for volunteers to find their time at Mala’ai to be deeply rewarding. Most importantly, volunteering demonstrates to students the caring and commitment of the larger community.

Several volunteers work with garden classes. They come each week and work with the same classes so that they can develop relationships with our students. We need at least one volunteer with each garden classes to achieve our goal of one adult to every 6 students.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Amanda Rieux, amanda@malaai.org.

Volunteers also work with us in many of other capacities:

• Volunteer garden workdays
• Securing donations and delivery of woodchips for mulching, and manure for our compost and other garden inputs and supplies
• Provide advice and donation of plants and seeds
• Publicity
• Fundraising
• Securing tool and other donations
• Serving snacks
• Teaching workshops for our students
• Sharing cultural lessons and practices such as planting and harvesting kalo, uala, wauke

If you would like to volunteer, the following are the Volunteer Guidelines.

Each new volunteer is required to attend orientation before beginning work in the garden with students. Volunteer orientation is scheduled as needed. If volunteering for an extended period, the school requires additional volunteer processing, which will be explained.

Garden Agreements:

I WILL BE:

• Safe
• Kind and Respectful
• Use my Time Well
• Have an Open Mind
• Be my Best Self

These agreements are the basis of our behavior and attitudes in the garden. We ask all volunteers and students to understand and be guided by them.

Arrival: Check in at the school office. Arrive in the garden 10 minutes before the class is due to begin to review lessons and jobs of the day with the Garden Teacher or Assistant. Please know it is disruptive to arrive after the class has begun.

Scheduling: Volunteers generally work in the garden with the same class or classes each week for a Quarter. Committing to one day a week at a regular time usually works best with our volunteers’ schedule. This consistency and dependability is also most rewarding for the students, since it allows them to build relationships with adults.

What to wear: You will be working with Middle School students. Please wear clothing that is appropriate to the middle school environment. School Dress Code dictates: no short shorts or skirts, no spaghetti strap tank tops, and midriffs and cleavage should be covered. Waimea weather can be very changeable – and sometimes cold. We recommend layering and bringing a change of clothes – expect to get dirty. Bring a jacket or sweater and wear covered shoes.

Conduct: You are serving as a mentor to the students. It is of utmost importance that dress, attitude, language and actions reflect respect and integrity to the people and the place. Interviews, photographing students, videotaping, and special projects require permission from the Garden Teacher. This is a matter of both respect and legality.

What our volunteers do: Volunteers may work alongside students and teachers, occasionally supervise small groups on their own, or work alone outside of class time to maintain the garden itself. Mala’ai provides tools and gloves for students and volunteers, if you have favorite tools you are welcome to bring them with you. Please remember to bring weather protection and drinking water.