Almost a dozen kindergartners from Kaimuki Christian School visited a senior care home for the first time this week — singing to residents much older than their grandparents, making bracelets and chatting about their families.

Associate Vice Principal Lindon Kanakanui said the seniors “love seeing the little children and love doing the activities with them. Their faces really light up when the children sing to them.” Various classes go to three small care homes in Kaimuki, operated by Manoa Senior Care; 20 visits are scheduled throughout this school year.

For the past five years, Kaimuki Christian, a school that runs from pre-K through 12th grade, has been making community service projects like this a regular part of the curriculum to develop compassion in its students, beginning at the kindergarten level. Three times a month different classes take part in feeding homeless families in Kakaako, Iwilei and the Waianae boat harbor; visiting Leahi Hospital patients; graffiti cleanup; building bicycles for families; or working on beautification projects, among other projects, he said.

Next week they start a partnership with the Hawaiian Humane Society. In October high-schoolers are traveling to Quezon City, Philippines, for the third time to work with a community that has grown around the Payatas municipal junkyard.

On Thursday the kindergartners gave seniors lei and handmade posters in honor of Chinese New Year. Kanakanui said a few of the residents didn’t have the dexterity to string beads for a bracelet, so the children did it for them, conscientiously asking what colors they preferred. That led to the girls comparing manicures and jewelry with the older ladies and hearing about the residents’ grandchildren.

For one bedridden senior, the children went into her room to sing. The woman could only move one arm, “but if someone can clap with one hand, that’s what she does,” Kanakanui said. The kids came away appreciating a generation much older than they’ve ever interacted with, he added.

In other projects, middle-schoolers visit the homeless who congregate in Kakaako and around Nimitz Highway in Iwilei. “A lot of our students, they only know their neighborhood or Kaimuki, where our school is located; they don’t realize that there are people here in Hawaii who live in tents, they live in makeshift houses out of cardboard and plywood. They’re almost oblivious to the fact that many families cannot afford a place to live, even though they have jobs and even though they have families and young children. It’s not that they are lazy or not trying to make a living for themselves; it’s that their circumstances have led them to having to live on the streets or underneath an overpass,” he said.

For new students who haven’t gone out before, “it’s eye-opening, they didn’t know what to expect,” Kanakanui said. “Our older students jump right in,” offering food and water to people on the street. “They’re surprised that there are so many children. … They’re saddened a little bit by their circumstances. They’re happy that they’re able to do even a little bit, even a meal for one day. … Our students look forward to it now. They’re eager to know where we’re going to go next.”

Founded in 1968, Kaimuki Christian graduated its first senior class last year, the same year its new three-story Clarence T.C. Ching Educational Center building opened in the fall. The next phase of expansion will include six classrooms and is set to begin in two years. Visit kaimukichristianschool.org Opens in a new tab.