Originally posted on Jun 30, 202 by KHON2

The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement announced Tuesday, it has raised over $127,000 in less than a week.

The organization launched the donation campaign last week, and matched every dollar donated to the Friends of Iolani Palace.

“It’s so meaningful and everybody’s having a hard time right now,” said Kuhio Lewis, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.

“So the donations that came in, from five dollar donations to $100. Everything added up. So it just shows the aloha spirit that we all share here in Hawaii. It shows that we value and aloha one another and our places and aina. So this is a great effort, and I’m so glad we were able to contribute in someway to the palace.”

The fundraising effort was launched after palace officials revealed the palace was losing nearly $8,000 a day just to keep the lights on.

Nearly all funding was cut as a result of the pandemic.