 Aloha and welcome. I'm Peter Rossick. I'm your host for the Hawaii's Volunteer Champions, a program here on thinktecawaii.com where we talk to volunteers and find out why in the world they give up their two most valuable resources, their time and their effort to help some cause or other. And we find out a little bit about some of the causes that they're willing to work for. So today we're going to be talking about a government agency actually, but one that depends on volunteers to do its job. That's the Diamondhead Interpretive Program. And with us are Cassandra Springer, who is the program manager, and a volunteer, Abigail Burke. And let me go right to you, Abigail, and ask you why in the world do you give up your time and your, your, which is valuable and your effort to do this kind of work. I just think it's very rewarding. I get to go to Diamondhead. And first of all, the view's beautiful. I love being able to hike up there. It's a gorgeous view and talking and engaging with the public and being able to give them that little like aha moment and teaching them something about a place that they're just visiting for the first time and they don't know that much about. It's, I think it's very rewarding. And what is it to tell us a little bit more about what you do for the Diamondhead Interpretive Program? So I will hike along the trail and basically just be a resource for any visitors and hikers. And they can ask me questions, ask me for help or guidance for the trail. And yeah, pretty much. You speak Japanese? I do not. I bet you get a lot of Japanese visitors though, right? Yes. What happens if you get a Japanese visitor and they're, they need something? What do you, what do you do? I have used like Google Translate before to try and help as much as I can, or they usually have like the physical map with them. And I can kind of point to where they are on the trail or where they're headed or which direction to point them in. All right, that's terrific. So how often do you do this? How many, how many hours a week or a month do you devote to this? I'm there about one day a week and it's three hours that I'm there. So that's pretty, that's kind of manageable, I guess. But I, you know, I, you're out in the sun. You're, that's kind of a wearing, you know, tiring thing. You're still up for it though. Oh yeah, I love it. Okay. I assume you've got a cool t-shirt or something that you get to wear while you're out there or a sign or something that lets people know you're the, you're the one. I do. I actually have it right here. I can show you. So I guess they'll find you. All right, that's terrific. All right. And that's, and how did you happen to define this? How did you how did you decide to do this kind of stuff? Well, I'm a student at the University of Huy at Manoa and one day I got an email from our college forwarding an email from Cassandra that said that this program was a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about one of Huy's great natural resources and just something for me to do to kind of get out there, get a little bit more experience in the work field that I'm kind of looking towards and I emailed Cassandra and here I am basically. You are terrific. What are you studying at UH? I'm studying natural resources and environmental management. So you are in the right place then, aren't you? Because you're getting some experience in DLNR. Cassandra, I had frankly not heard about this program. I guess I haven't been in Diamond Head Crater. I drive by all the time. I haven't been inside since, can I say, since the Diamond Head Crater Festival. No, I think I've been there since then, but tell us about this program and tell us what's going on with it. So this is my docent program. I created it about two years ago and it was, I did it because there's a definite need for more people on the trail that can interpret the resources, both historical, cultural, natural resources on the trail and in general just give a also be like a cheerleader and advocate for people to hike up the trail because sometimes it can be really hard. And I realized I can't be the only one that does this trail. I need more support. So I created this volunteer program or my docent program to help me get a bigger footprint on the trail physically and you know, everything. And it just, I ended up tapping into the student resources at UH Manoa. And right now I have about maybe a dozen volunteers. My oldest one is 76. My youngest one is probably a sophomore in college. So it's been a real help. And I think the volunteers really enjoy it. And the visitors definitely enjoy it. They can definitely, you know, they have their name tags, they have Hawaii State Parks on their shirt. And I think it's a really good resource for even the students to get that hands-on experience and engaging with people and interpreting the resources to the visitors because we get people from all over the world to come visit Diamondhead as an iconic monument. Do you have a number of how many people visit Diamondhead in a year or roughly speaking? About a million. We get to 3,000 people a day and that roughly translates to about a million a year. Amazing. And you created this program on your own out of the out of nothing. Is that, what did you tell me? A little bit. I used to volunteer at the Waikiki Aquarium as a, what do they call it? I used to be at the touch tank where you- The edge of the reef. The edge of the reef. Yeah, the edge of the reef. So I, you know, I have the collector urchins and the hermit crabs and try to engage with people about the little critters and teach them a little bit more about that. So kind of that was my spark or aha moment of like, oh, this is really cool. People are actually learning this. And then I went into live feeds and cleaning the tanks and it went a little bit deeper, but their volunteer program was, I think really successful and I married their program to my program, but they were, I think, a little bit more successful because they have over 100 volunteers. Well, they've been at it for a little bit longer than you have to. I have been a volunteer at the Waikiki Aquarium. As a matter of fact, Chester Campos who's been on this program earlier was the one who recommended that I talked to you because as I said, I really, really hadn't heard of it. And I will tell you a quick story. Back many years ago, I was very interested in fish and in Hanama Bay. So I talked to some people and I said, we really need a friends of Hanama Bay group, you know, for very much the same reason as you. I thought the museums have docents and, you know, all these other organizations have volunteers, but nobody was doing that for Hanama Bay at that time. And this was long before the present structures were built. And so with some other people who were interested and who'd seen that need, we organized the friends of Hanama Bay, which is still a going concern and I think still giving tours and helping people around Hanama Bay. So clearly these kinds of places where hundreds of thousands or a million visitors a year come need a little more than, you know, just what the government agencies that are responsible for them can do for them, right? Right. So that's terrific. And were you doing all this stuff at the aquarium while you were working for DLNR or before? Where did that fit into things? So I have about 400 hours of volunteer work under my belt at the aquarium that I did for a few years because I was very avid volunteer there. And I think I had a really great experience, but I also ended up working for them about for about six months in the live feeds department. And then I was also working for DLNR at the same time, but I had to choose one. So I chose DLNR because the benefits are really good. And I couldn't, you know, I kind of do two jobs at once. They kind of wouldn't let me. So after COVID and everything, I was like, I really need help. So I created this program mirrored from the Waikiki Aquarium. But I have another program that helps remove invasive species and try to restore the native ecosystem here at Diamond Head. And we have that every first Saturday of the month. Okay. So we'll come back to that in a minute. I just wanted to ask Abigail a little bit more about, so do you, when you tell your friends about what you're doing, do they say, are you crazy or do they say, how do I sign up? I've actually gotten a mix of both. I've had some people, some of my friends interested in doing this because they didn't even know it existed as well. But I've had some friends and especially people on the trail when they asked like, oh, you work here. I'm like, yeah, I'm a volunteer here. And they're like, oh, you're crazy for doing this. It's so hot and you're not getting paid. It's like, it's crazy. But yeah. Okay. So you get a little bit of each kind there. That's interesting. And do you have any really memorable moments that you think back on when you felt you really helped somebody or somebody was, I imagine some people get into trouble occasionally on that trail. So do you have any stories that you can tell us about when you had a really memorable moment as a volunteer? I don't know about just like one particular story, but there's just so many instances of people just not knowing anything about like just coming to Diamond Head and not knowing anything about it. And just asking like, hi, what am I looking at? And being able to build like their knowledge of Diamond Head from the ground up basically. And then I can just see like a look on their face that they're leaving and they're like, wow, I actually learned something today. And I kind of just feel good about them walking away from the park then learning something. That's terrific. And how did you learn all about the things that you're telling them? Was there a course or did Cassandra hand you a book and say here, memorize this or how did that work out? Mostly Cassandra gave us like a document to kind of study. And then also just talking with her the first few times I was there. And also, as I keep going on, I even learn new things all the time. And I just can ask her whenever I have a question. All right. So Cassandra, you're out at the Diamond Head most of the time or all the time? Five days a week, unless I'm requested to help out somewhere else. Okay. And you put this training together. You created the program. So I'm guessing you put this training together. Again, you had a good model in the Waikiki Aquarium, which has got a lot of stuff and they've been doing volunteers for forever and have a very strong program. But you put together the training for your volunteers. Is that right? Yes. I have a comprehensive guide that has links and bird sounds and different plants to learn as well as ways to interpret the resources because it's not just outdoor education. You're trying to, like Abigail said, build on a foundation and try to get people to an aha moment of a better understanding than when they arrived. And with 3,000 people a day, that's a lot of people. But I think we reach a small portion, but even the small portion can spread the word of, you know, Diamond Head's not a volcano. It's events and these are the reasons. But it's, I built it from the ground up because there was definitely a need and people similar to Abigail kind of want to be park rangers or something in that field. And this is a kind of a way to get that foot in the door or at least the experience to get that foot in the door. All right. So I just think I learned something. Diamond Head Crater, I thought it was a volcano. No, it's events. So we have a two volcano theory and a three volcano theory. If you want me to go on about this, I will. The first volcano... I can do this in two minutes. I got this. So the three volcano theory is, and a point is actually the first one, which is now underwater. The second volcano is the Waianais, which are about 3.7 million years old. And all of these are shield volcanoes. The third volcano is the Ko'olaos. But as you see from Nu'uono Pali Lookout, that you can see the center of the caldera and the one side of that volcano fell into the ocean. And so the Ko'olaos are about 2.4 million years old. It went dormant after a minute or after a while, about a million years. And then I had a rejuvenation period, which caused all these vents to pop up, basically like pressure valves. And there was about 30 or 40 of them, including Punchbowl, Salt Lake, Red Hill, Diamond Head, Hanama Bay, and Cocoa Head. Okay. So I always thought it was the crust moving over the hot spot. So that's how the Ko'olaos and the Waianais were made. But not how Diamond Head was made. No. So during the rejuvenation period of the Ko'olaos, it caused all these vents to pop up. Diamond Head only formed within a few days to a week. There was no lava. It was just like a cough. Interesting. And Hanama Bay, my favorite, is that another cough? Yep. Just another vent, but one side of it fell into the ocean. Yeah, which is the only reason we have a bay after all. Wow. Okay. So I'm learning stuff all this time here. That's great. So let's talk about, well, first of all, you say you've got about a dozen people who are doing this sort of thing. If you could just hire or conjure up a bunch more, how many volunteers would be the right number of volunteers to do this program for you? So I have four shifts throughout the day. I have the six to nine, nine to 12, 12 to three, and three to six. So if I can have at least two to three per shift, I'd say like 12 to 15 people per day. Just so we can have coverage on the trail and engage with people. Because being up on the trail for three hours is kind of a lot. And is there any kind of like, is there like a formalized tour a day or is there anything that, you know, is there a sign there that says be here at two o'clock for your docent tour or anything like that? No, because we don't have enough people to do that. Right now I'm just working specifically with school groups on that kind of stuff. So it's, it's scheduled per quarter. But for docent tour groups, I would definitely have to both through my numbers a lot more. You'd probably have to do some more research or prepare some more materials. So that's, is that a goal you have in mind or is that too far off in the future? I would love that. If people want to volunteer or get involved, how do they do that? They can visit our Diamondhead, or sorry, not Diamondhead, our volunteer website on the deal in our hawaii.gov website. And there's a long term volunteer form and then there's a short then there's contacting our Wahoo interpretive specialists. And then he will forward the information to me. Because we have a variety of programs throughout the island, but just going through our volunteer website will get you in touch with me. Okay, just very quickly. What are some of the other volunteer opportunities? Because I'm learning everything for the first time here. What other deal in our, what other things do you have going on that I might get involved in if I don't want to spend three hours in the hot sun? Well, for Diamondhead specifically, we have one every first Saturday of the month. So we do have one coming up on September 2nd. It's from 9am to 12pm, where we remove invasive bellyache, which is from, I believe, South America. And it's a bush that we remove. It's really fun to remove. And then we sprinkle native seeds throughout the soil that we've just disturbed in order to help restore the native seed bank. And then for throughout the island of Wahoo, I recommend contacting my colleague, K. Kai Mar, where he has events at Sand Island, Ka'ivi Coast, Ka'ena Point. And I think those are the main ones he works on. Okay, this gives us at least a sample of the people who might be interested in other places or might want to do more, have a place to go. We'll come back. I want to ask you more about the invasive species in a minute. But I want to ask Abigail a question. And that is, if you could change anything about the program, if you could, you know, make a, maybe you've made a suggestion. And we'll pretend Cassandra won't listen for a minute here if you want to complain about something, but not too bad. But is there anything you would change? Is there anything you would do differently? Are you perfectly happy with the way things are going? I don't know. I think right now I'm perfectly happy with it. Okay. Nothing you would suggest. No improvements. Come on. You're a student at UH. You've got to have a plan for something to do better. Oh, I don't know. My mind's blank. All right. I'm sorry to put you on the spot that way. But the enthusiasm you're bringing to this is really, you're pretty remarkable. I think many people look at, you know, many old fluts like me look at students today and think, oh, they're just lazy and they want to spend their all their time. I mean, when do you do your social media? When do you, when do you, when do you get on, you know, TikTok with your friends if you're out there in the sun? All right. I'm kidding. That's not fair. All right. Cassandra, tell me a little bit more about this invasive species program. So I started it when I began back in 2009, 2019. I realized there was this, this is from a previous program from the previous Park Tech, where she started this program of removing invasive bellyache. And like I said, it's from South America. I'm not entirely sure how, why it was brought here. And it's not really known to be anywhere else but diamondhead. But so far, in the last four years, five years, we've removed about five acres. And I have a lot more volunteers for that program. I get upwards to 60 people per month for that one event. Just to make sure that I heard you right. It's called bellyache. Jitropha gossiphoria. Well, I'll call it Jitropha. I guess, I would guess a bellyache because if you eat it, you get sick. It's either that, but there's also antidotes that I've read where if you treat it correctly, it's medicinal. Okay. Well, that's interesting. Medicine, any medicine, if you take it in the right doses are good. And if you take too much of it, it's bad. My high school biology teacher always said anything you put in your body is bad for you. Even food, if you take too much of it. So that's very interesting. And you've cleared how many acres now? About four or five acres. Okay. And that is what part of the total estimated acreage would you guess? Well, we have about 475 acres of the whole park. So. And it's all over everywhere? 0.005. Stop doing math in your head. It makes me nervous. But you're saying it's all over everywhere? This 475 acres of is got bellyache all over it? I've put a significant dent in the massive groves that I saw when I first started because I get up to 60 people per month for this one event and they decimate acres. And every year I end up removing about either an acre or a little bit more each year. So I think it's been very successful. And sometimes when I go out and look for bellyache, I'm like, oh man, I don't think I'm going to have enough bellyache for this coming up volunteer workday. And then, lo and behold, they clear more bellyache. I find more bellyache. Right. Abigail, you don't want to go out and clear bellyache? You'd rather hear the bellyaching of the people walking on the trail? I did do it once. And it was very fun to pull out. It was. Is this like bend over labor? Is this like pick and cotton or I've never, I don't know what a bellyache even looks like. Correct me if I'm wrong, Cassandra, but it's like a little shrub basically. And it comes out really smoothly. It's pretty fun. Okay. Wow. Abigail, your idea of fun and my idea of fun, they're not quite the same, but I really admire what you're doing here. So, Cassandra, this means this will probably show after, this program will probably be available after the September 2nd date. But just to be clear, every first Saturday of the month, nine o'clock, the people need to register or do they need to, do they just show up and where do they show up? Or how does, if I'm overcome somehow and feel lightheaded and want to go out and pick bellyache for a few hours, how do I do that? You can either visit 808 Cleanups on the app or you can visit Kanu, Hawaii. Those are my two volunteer platforms. You can email me directly. And then I provide gloves and ice water for volunteers. If you, and then I recommend volunteers bring wear closed-toed shoes, clothes they don't mind getting dirty and, you know. Head covering, I would think. A strong sense of wanting to get some work done. Right. I just think it'd be great to be able to come back home and say, I've just cleared an acre of bellyache. But then who knows? So Abigail, you know, a lot of organizations take a really good care of their volunteers. They give them a lot of stuff, you know, they'll give them a lot of logo wear and they put on events and everything like that for them. Is Cassandra doing anything like that for you? Well, I got the cool t-shirt like I showed you earlier and the same tag, but it's really just so much fun to hang out with her and everyone else at the park and no cool logo wear, but an awesome time. Oh, that's great to hear. I have nothing wrong with people who volunteer to, you know, go to the parties and everything like that. But people who volunteer just for the pure joy of it, that's got to be a little bit unusual. So how did you get interested in this subject that you're now pursuing in school? What brought you to this point? Well, just growing up, I always had like an appreciation for the outdoors and nature in general. And when I was starting to look at colleges, I found UH Manoa and I really fell in love with the program, the NREM program here. And I applied, I came here and it's just my appreciation for nature is just like skyrocketed since I've come here and studied. Terrific. And where are you in school? Junior, sophomore, what's your prognosis for graduation? I actually just started my senior year, so I'm looking to graduate this spring. Okay. And then what would you graduate school or are you going to try to get Cassandra's job away from her? What's the plan for after that? Well, if Cassandra's job opens up, maybe, but I'm looking at graduate school right now. Okay. That's good. Get that over with. That's my advice. Okay. Cassandra, kind of the same question to you. A lot of volunteer organizations will really pour on the goodies and the events and all kinds of stuff for their volunteers. But you seem to be able to get people to do this just for the pure love of doing it. Now, how does that happen? I'm lucky. No, no. I mean, I initially, my volunteers who, before the dozen program, if you did 20 hours, you'd get a free shirt. Now I have stickers. Sometimes I'll have water bottles. I would like to treat my volunteers to like meals, but I'm on a very strict budget. So that's kind of out there. But working with the state, there's a lot of red tape, and I would like to shower my volunteers with stuff like the Waikiki Aquarium does with their spring events and everything, but it's just not quite in the budget right now. Well, it's something to look forward to. I mean, the Aquarium does an excellent job of bringing in a lot of people and, you know, giving them some, they're not, most people, I don't do it for the rewards, but the rewards are sort of icing on the cake. And I'm sure, you know, I hope that someday you get to the point where you can give Abigail a little icing on that cake. Well, you know, this has been totally interesting to me. I didn't know about the program to begin with. So I've learned a lot, and I now know that Diamond Head is not a volcanic crater. It's a vent. So this has been great. Let me give you each a minute or two to say something, you know, to encourage people to join up or whatever you like. And we'll thank you for your time and for all the work you do out at Diamond Head. Cassandra, let's start with you. Volunteering gives you a great sense of self and place. And that in itself is a really good reward. And I mean, that's how I honestly got started. So volunteering, it just makes you feel better. It gives you the good, happy hormones. So go out and find your place. I hear you there. Thank you. And Abigail, what would you say to people who might kind of be thinking about doing this kind of thing? I would say that it really does give you those happy hormones. It makes me feel so much better. And especially for students like me, spending a day in class, you know, staring at a screen, and then being able to go to Diamond Head and go look at the beautiful ocean and the beautiful views and talk to people, get those happy hormones. It's very refreshing, very rewarding. Right. That is terrific. Thank you both. I really, I enjoy this tremendously. You're both, you know, you're both very jolly people. And that's great. I'm going to end up here, as we often do, with a little inspirational quote about volunteering. Get Michael to put it up on the screen. Quote from Martin Luther King, who basically says, you know, what's life about if you're not doing something that's helping other people, or in this case, helping nature, helping your surroundings and helping the, you know, the, the, I know that we all depend on in some, you know, some way, the, the plants and the animals and the locations. So with that, I want to thank you both. You've been great. And, you know, keep, keep on getting out there in the sun. I think that's, you know, whatever floats your, your boat, I guess I'm not going to be volunteering. That's what I'm trying to tell you, but I'm very, very impressed with you and Sandra, with you putting this whole program together. It's really terrific. And you deserve all of our thanks and, and congratulations. And so I will say to all our, my, my two regular viewers, we'll be back in a couple of weeks with some more volunteers. And if you have the slightest inspiration to find out what a bellyache looks like, I suggest for Saturday morning of the month you show up at Diamond Head and you pick some bellyache or contact Cassandra about being a volunteer. It is so rewarding and so important to do. Thank you again. And thank you to everyone who's paying attention. Aloha.