Hale Pa‘ahao (the Old Lahaina Prison) was one of the stops on the “History in Our Backyard” tour.

LAHAINA — On consecutive Saturdays, Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, educators from the West Side were seen walking the streets of Lahaina escorted by members of Lahaina Restoration Foundation.

This is the sixth consecutive year teachers have participated in the “History in Our Backyard” orientation program developed by the foundation.

This program educates new teachers in both public and private West Side schools. In total, this program has reached 154 Lahaina educators.

Sharing Lahaina’s rich culture is the main emphasis of the experience.

Program Committee Chair Andrew Kutsunai, a retired Department of Education teacher with 30-plus years of service, stated, “The purpose of this project initially was to give these educators a sense of the history of the community in which they worked and to become aware of the important role Lahaina has played in the history of Hawaii.

“By focusing on the teachers for this project, it was also hoped they, in return, would influence the youth in their classrooms about the community’s rich heritage.”

Lahaina Restoration Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization founded in 1962 with a mission to restore, maintain and interpret the physical, historical, and cultural legacy of Lahaina, first capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

For more information, contact the Lahaina Restoration Foundation office at 661-3262 or visit www.lahainarestoration.org.