Hawaii’s Plantation Village has pivoted to relying on virtual school tours for a large part of its income as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

School tours cost schools $3 per student regardless of whether conducted virtually or in-person. When the coronavirus forced the Waipahu attraction to close in March 2020, the outdoor museum had to adjust quickly in order to retain the source of income.

“The schools weren’t in session,” said Evelyn Ahlo, Plantation Village’s executive director. “They were doing distance learning. So we needed to … reach out to our schools and the teachers to see if this could be part of the lesson.”

The site, which spotlights Hawaii’s plantation history from 1850 to 1950, includes a museum, botanical gardens and more than 25 restored or replicated buildings from the era. Exhibits explain how Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Korean, Okinawan, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese and Filipino cultures influenced plantation life.

While the tally of school tours has dropped by half since the pandemic’s onset, these tours are still among the largest source of income — second to tourist visits, Ahlo said.

Laurie Flores, a fourth grade teacher at Hauula Elementary School, has taken her pre-pandemic classes to the Plantation Village for in-person tours. She also has taken part in the virtual school tour and commends the virtual tour’s creator, Michi Lacar. “She did a masterful job,” Flores said. “She talks very slowly and the camera pans to each part of the house. So they actually see more on the video than they would in person.”

Along with the virtual tour, teachers also are provided worksheets for students to complete. Additionally, teacher and student participants get a ticket to visit Plantation Village in person with a friend or family member.

While impressed with the virtual tour, Flores maintains there are some in-person experiences that it simply cannot replicate. “It’s just like you’re stepping into another world,” she said.

Among the features that excite kids, Flores said, is a walk through a short tunnel lined with sheet metal. Just beyond the “tunnel of time” is the start of a walkway leading to a row of restored and replicated structures including homes, bathhouses, cookhouses and kitchens, each room stocked with donated items from the plantation era. For example, one structure was modeled after a Chinese kitchen, whereas another was modeled after a Japanese communal bathhouse.

In other areas, kids can dress up in traditional Korean attire or try on the head of a Chinese lion dance costume.

Although the in-person tour offers a hands-on experience, the virtual tour also has its benefits, Flores said. “Instead of giving you one long virtual tour that was an hour and a half … they did each culture in segments,” Flores said. “So every day we would do a different culture.”

The virtual tour presents archived footage of things ranging from a cane fire to an old Sears catalog, said Lacar, the virtual tour’s creator.

The virtual tour’s production was challenging and took four months to complete, she said. “We didn’t have the equipment to make it easy,” Lacar said, noting that for the majority of the recordings she used a smartphone.

Lacar edited her smartphone footage using the free software that came with her HP computer. She narrated the tour herself for students in preschool to fourth grade.

The virtual tour was completed in October 2020, two months before the Plantation Village reopened to the public. It was distributed by way of a link that would give teachers access to the video for two weeks.

The virtual tour covers Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese and Filipino cultures. Lacar said she plans to create additional segments to include all eight cultures represented at the plantation.

Flores calls the Plantation Village a “hidden gem,” asserting that the experience especially helps children in Hawaii to better understand how the site’s 100-year history has affected various cultures.

“All these other cultures had great impacts on Hawaii,” Flores said. “Who we are today is a representation of each one of the sacrifices that these families made.”

For more information about Plantation Village, visit hawaiiplantationvillage.org.

IF YOU GO

Hawaii’s Plantation Village, located at 94-695 Waipahu St. in Waipahu, has resumed on-site tours with COVID-19 requirements. Call 808-677-0110.