Mahalo Award recipients Barbara and Lee Potts help increase awareness of the importance of community involvement in public education.

LAHAINA – At the Lahaina Complex Tutoring Project’s Awards and Dinner Event on March 28, Barbara and Lee Potts received the prestigious 2018 Mahalo Award from Richard Endsley, president of the tutoring project’s board of directors.

This annual award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to education in our community. In recent years, Mayor Alan Arakawa and wife Ann, as well as Susan Bendon, were Mahalo Award recipients.

Barbara and Lee, owners of Aloha Group Maui/KW Island Living, have dedicated years of service to increase literacy for Lahaina keiki.

Barbara serves as president of the nonprofit People for Educational Equity (PFEE). Barbara has been a volunteer math tutor for sixth-graders for the past six years, and she is a director of the tutoring project’s nonprofit foundation.

The couple both organize highly successful Aina Nalu Fundraiser events. Through their hard work and talent, they and their committees have raised more than $84,000 to support the tutoring project.

As a result, beginning this summer, the project will reach out to professional organizations to provide innovative and real life instructional experiences.

For example, this June, the Maui Science Center, a partner, will provide students with two weeks of exciting summer science camps to be held at Lahaina Intermediate School from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Scholarships for one week of science camp will be provided to selected outstanding students who participated in the project’s grades 3-7 language arts or math programs.