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Hawaii’s Honsador Lumber is once again helping students across the islands return to school prepared for learning and confident in their abilities to positively impact their communities through two programs: High School Heroes and Backpack for Kids.
These programs reflect Honsador Lumber’s long-term community focus in both its business practices and philanthropic ventures.
The High School Heroes program awards five students with a $1,500 scholarship every term in addition to a $250 donation to a non-profit of the winners’ choice. The winners are local students who give back to their community, whether in the form of mentoring other students, tutoring, or volunteering in the community while maintaining their scholastic performance.
At the end of each year, one statewide recipient is chosen and receives a $5,000 scholarship. Within only three years, the program has expanded rapidly as the stories of students taking on substantial projects to better their communities have nearly doubled.
“In the first wave of the program, we reached out to schools to tell them about the opportunity and school counsellors nominated their students,” remarked Dawna Williams of Honsador Lumber’s Marketing Department. “Now, we’re seeing students nominate other kids or parents nominate their kids.”
The 2024 $5,000 scholarship winner, Carter Bozich, not only achieved an excellent GPA; he also participated in his school’s swim and golf clubs. Bozich also volunteered during the devastating Maui wildfires, handing out blankets and water and providing emotional support as people arrived to take shelter at his school. Carter told the Honsador team he intends to attend college.
Another 2024 High School Heroes winner, Brennan Yamaguchi, worked with the local government to enact an ordinance that required epilepsy and seizure awareness in swimming pools and sports centers. In addition to his advocacy, he was also on the varsity baseball team and worked with youth groups in the community.
To further empower the next generation of high school heroes, Honsador Lumber’s Island branches support the Backpack for Kids program. The program allows the company and the team to ensure all children have the supplies they need to succeed in education.
In August 2022, Honsador Lumber distributed 500 fully loaded backpacks to schools across the state to help support families struggling with the cost of returning to school. This program has continued to grow, and in 2024, the team donated 1500 backpacks full of pencils, crayons, notebooks, and other supplies reaching children across the islands.
About Honsador Lumber: Honsador Lumber began as Honolulu Sash and Door in 1935 and was a founding force in the earliest days of Hawaii’s construction industry. During the 1960s, Honsador expanded operations, refocused the business and changed their name from Honolulu Sash and Door to Honsador Lumber. Honsador Lumber’s vision since the 1990s was to become the largest supplier of lumber panel and building material products across the Hawaiian Islands. In October 2017, Honsador Lumber was purchased by Doman Building Materials, who is committed to diversifying and growing Honsador Lumber’s services and offerings to the community and industries who have continued to support them. and wood products across the Hawaiian Islands. Honsador provides their customers key building materials and created a package home concept that would keep them ahead of the competition. Honsador Lumber ships untreated lumber, panel and engineered wood products from the mainland and treats all wood on the island at their own treatment facility, Honolulu Wood Treating, allowing Honsador to apply Hawaii code approved treatment to product while supporting local community staffing before shipping their product to vendors across the islands. Today, Honsador Lumber operates seven seventeen locations across all of Hawaii including 6 lumber yards, 1 door shop, 3 truss plants, 1 treated wood facility.
