2025 Social Impact Report
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Tax season arrives the same way every year, 
quietly at first, then all at once. For many 
Kauaʻi residents, it brings with it a familiar 
knot of stress: forms that are hard to 
understand, deadlines that feel unforgiving, 
and the nagging fear of getting something 
wrong. For families already stretched by 
the cost of living on this island, the added 
expense of professional tax preparation can 
feel like one more thing that's out of reach.
On February 20th, Kalukalu at 1624 offered 
a different experience. In partnership with 
AARP, Kauaʻi FCU opened the doors to 
the entire community, not just members, 
for a free tax preparation day staffed by 
15 trained volunteers. Residents came in, 
sat down with someone who knew what 
they were doing, and walked out with their 
taxes handled. No cost. No confusion. No 
turning anyone away.
That last part matters. This event was 
not a member benefit or a marketing 
opportunity. It was a community service, 
plain and simple, the kind that says we 
see the gaps, and we are going to do 
something about them. Tax preparation 
assistance is one of the most direct forms 
of financial empowerment. A missed 
credit or an unfiled return can cost a family 
hundreds of dollars they should have had. 
Fifteen volunteers showed up on a February 
morning to make sure that doesn't happen 
to their neighbors.
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Image for Kaua‘i Makerspace
FREE TAX SERVICES
WITH AARP 
Kauaʻi Maker's Space, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit 
and partner tenant at Kalukalu at 1624, 
hosted three separate four-day camps 
across the school year breaks, each 
one welcoming a new group of middle 
school-aged students into the world of 
3D printing. Over the course of four days, 
campers didn't just learn a skill — they 
learned a process. How to take an idea, 
translate it into a design, problem-solve 
when something doesn't work, and 
ultimately hold in their hands something 
that didn't exist before they made it.
That experience is rarer than it should 
be. In a world where most of what young 
people interact with was designed 
somewhere else and shipped here, there 
is something genuinely powerful about 
our keiki sitting at a table in Kapaʻa and 
building something with their own hands 
and their own imagination.
For the students who attended, the 
takeaway was simple and lasting: you are 
capable of creating things that matter. 
That is a lesson worth three camps a year.
KAUA‘I MAKERSPACE
KIDS CAMPS

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