Buggins Haʻalilo has volunteered with the Kona Historical Society for 25 years. She told Big Island Now about a set of photographs in its collection. They show her grandmother, who ranched in Kona, and family members who drove cattle from Keauhou Bay, swam them out to waiting ships and shipped them off. Those photos are part of an archive of more than 50,000 images. It sits in the basement of the H.N. Greenwell Store in Kealakekua, a building that has been closed to walk-in visitors since the ground shook on May 22.
The society was founded in 1976 and turns 50 this year. Its board says it needs $200,000 by December 31 to stay open. As this post goes up, about seven weeks remain. That number makes the most sense next to the society's monthly costs, and next to the parts of the society you can still walk into this week.
The goal equals about ten lean months
Laysan Unger, president of the board, told Big Island Now that running the society costs "about $20,000 a month when we are running pretty lean," and that staffing is the biggest expense. At that rate, $200,000 covers roughly ten months. That is the gap between a society that is winding down and one with time to restructure.
Several pressures added up. Unger said the nonprofit never regained its financial footing after it had to close temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. On top of that came "limited memberships, limited donations, and then just less grant money." The society also missed out on a state Grants in Action award. Big Island Now reported that the society usually received this grant every year and used it for administrative and staffing costs. Unger described the grant problem to Hawaii News Now like this: "there are just fewer grants and more applicants." Grant money that does arrive is often limited to narrow purposes. Programs, utilities and staff insurance still have to be paid for somehow.
The society's campaign page says the money is meant to keep it open to the public while it reorganizes. Unger told Big Island Now that the funds would also help bring back the free and low-cost community programming the society has offered for five decades.
The flagship is still closed after the May quake
The earthquake hit the building the society calls its "flagship museum." The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory recorded a magnitude-6.0 earthquake at 9:46 p.m. on Friday, May 22, 2026. It was centered about 7 miles south of Hōnaunau-Nāpōʻopoʻo, at a depth of 14 miles.
The Greenwell Store is set up as a general store from the 1800s, and many of its glass bottles and old wooden boxes fell and broke. Built around 1851, it is Kona's oldest surviving store and one of the oldest stone buildings in Hawaiʻi. It began as a store and post office, later became a warehouse for the Greenwell ranch, and is listed on both the National Register and the Hawaiʻi Register of historic places. Unger said the building is structurally sound, but the quake cracked its walls and the masonry needs repair.
The board has planned an all-day strategy session and work party to clean up the store, with the stated goal of getting it "to a place where we can reopen it to the public." For now, the society's Visit Us page lists the store as "Temporarily Closed (available by appointment)."
So the society's best-known building is the part you can't drop into right now. The parts you can visit are the farm, the oven and the archive. Each one depends heavily on volunteer hours, and volunteer hours are what a lean budget runs out of first.
What runs each week, and what it costs
| Day | Where | What happens | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | Kona Coffee Living History Farm, 82-6199 Mamalahoa Hwy, Captain Cook | Farm open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., last entry 1:15 p.m. | Hawaiʻi residents $15 adult, $5 ages 7–17 |
| Thursday | Society headquarters, 81-6551 Mamalahoa Hwy, Kealakekua | Hands-on bread baking and history from 10 a.m., bread sale early afternoon | $10 per loaf |
| Friday | Kona Coffee Living History Farm | Same hours as Tuesday | Same as Tuesday |
| Friday | Archive, by appointment | Research blocks 9–11 a.m. or 1–3 p.m. | Members $65 first hour, $50 each additional; nonmembers $75 and $60 |
The farm. The society calls the Kona Coffee Living History Farm the only living history coffee farm in the nation. The society announced that the farm would close for October so its interpreters could spend time with their families between the summer rush and the holidays. The posted schedule is Tuesdays and Fridays. Call (808) 323-3222 or email [email protected] before you drive down. Visitors without a resident rate pay $20 per adult and $10 for ages 7 to 17. Children under 7 get in free. Visitors with a valid EBT, SNAP or WIC card pay $3 each for ages 7 and up through Museums for All. The farm is also home to two donkeys, Shizu and Charlie, who come up again below.
The oven. On Thursdays, volunteers teach traditional Portuguese bread baking in a large wood-fired stone oven. Dough rolling and history start at 10 a.m. Loaves go on sale in the early afternoon, around 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Kealakekua headquarters. They sell first come, first served for $10 each, with no reservations, and you can pay by cash or card. Sales run until the bread is gone.
The archive. The society's own pages call it the Jean Greenwell Library and Archive. Unger told Big Island Now that besides the photographs, it holds diaries, journals, letters, family papers, land documents, newspapers and articles covering Kona's history. Visits are by appointment, and you book through the archive request form. Members pay $10 less for each hour of research than nonmembers. For a family with a project like tracing a grandparent's land, that discount offsets part of a membership.
A morning at the oven on Thursday, a visit to the farm on Friday and a Friday archive block are all things you can do this month. They are also the programs Unger listed when she asked for help.
Two hours a week counts
Unger told Hawaii News Now that the board is asking for time as well as money: "if folks have two hours a week, two hours a month, an hour a day, we'd love you to come down and help us run our Portuguese bread oven or keep our museum open and staff with volunteer docents." Staffing is the society's largest cost, and it already depends on volunteers to keep the museums open. That makes a volunteer docent shift one of the more direct ways to help.
Here are the ways to give money, as the society lists them:
- One-time gift: online from $25, through the donate page
- Monthly gift: recurring online from $10 a month
- Check by mail: Kona Historical Society, P.O. Box 398, Captain Cook, HI 96704
- Membership: Student $10, Individual $45, Family $65, Partner $100, Associate $500, Patron $1,000, with a recurring annual option on the membership page
In an October 29 post on the society's new Na Mea Hou page, Unger wrote that the board has been "deeply moved by the overwhelming outpouring of support from our community." The board plans to use the page for regular updates on its priorities and decisions. In the same Big Island Now interview, Unger acknowledged the size of the ask: "It is a really ambitious goal, and we are really empathetic to the fact that we're not the only ones who need community support right now."
The backup plan names the archive and two donkeys
The board is planning for both outcomes. It is drafting a 2026 stabilization plan for the rest of the year and a short-term strategic plan for 2027 to 2029 in case the society stays open. It has also drafted a contingency plan for winding down and preserving the mission. Unger told Big Island Now that its guiding priorities are "protecting our archives and maintaining the health and safety of our two donkeys, Shizu and Charlie."
If the society has to close, it would need a new caretaker for the archive. The board is looking at ways to rehome the collection so it stays available to the community. Hawaii News Now reported that the educational events, mostly for local keiki, would end. Haʻalilo said she often brings preschool-age children to the coffee farm. "These are rich parts of our culture and help connect our students," she told Big Island Now.
If the campaign reaches its goal, part of the money goes to the two sites. The farm needs regular landscaping to stay welcoming, and the Greenwell Store needs its earthquake-cracked masonry repaired. The deadline is December 31, and the society takes questions at (808) 323-3222.
Doug and Kendra Powell run Hawai'i Estates from Kealakekua, the same town as the Greenwell Store. To us, the society's photographs, land documents and old stone walls are part of what makes South Kona feel like home. If you want to know what your own piece of Kona is worth today, start with our Instant Home Valuation, and pick up a loaf on Thursday while you're at it.
