Hāmākua Sugar Days Festival 2025
Mahalo to Our Sponsors & Community Partners
The 2025 Hāmākua Sugar Days Festival came to life through the generosity of our sponsors. We thank our Sugar Legacy Sponsors, the Ama OluKai Foundation and CMU & Associates, Inc., whose commitment ensures that this important community tradition continues. We also recognize our Sugar Harvester Sponsors, including Central Pacific Bank and Kualoa Ranch, whose support helped carry this festival forward.
We thank our Sugar Cane Sponsors: Hawaiian Airlines, HFS Federal Credit Union, Honokaʻa Hospital and Skilled Nursing, and HPM Building Supply, along with our Sugar Planter Sponsors: Kuwaye Trucking, Canada France Hawaiʻi Telescope, Hawaiʻi Community Federal Credit Union, Hawaiʻi Johns, Loʻihi Studios, ʻŌuli Farms, and Big Island Candies, as well as those who contribute generous in-kind donations and discounts. Each sponsor played a vital role in creating a celebration filled with culture, learning, and aloha.
We also honor our Community Partners, who went above and beyond to strengthen the festival in countless ways. Their dedication reflected the very best of Hāmākua and showed what happens when neighbors and organizations work together.
When you have an opportunity, please support these sponsors and partners by choosing their services, visiting their businesses, and thanking them for giving back to our community. By standing with them, you also support the mission of the Honokaʻa Heritage Center: to preserve, share, and celebrate the history and community of Hāmākua.
Ama OluKai Foundation
The Ama OluKai Foundation, the nonprofit arm of OluKai, has always carried a deep commitment to giving back to communities across Hawaiʻi. Guided by Hawaiian values of respect, care, responsibility, and aloha, they support grassroots organizations that work to preserve culture, strengthen community, and care for the ʻāina and kai. Their work honors the traditions of kūpuna while helping to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to learn, connect, and thrive.
Like the ama of a canoe that provides balance and support, the Ama OluKai Foundation lifts up communities across our islands in meaningful ways. At the Heritage Center, we are especially grateful to them for being the lead supporter of our Cultural History events throughout the year as part of the Hāmākua Sugar Days Festival. We could not have done it without their generosity, their partnership, and their belief in our mission.
Sugar Legacy Sponsor
CMU & Associates, Inc.
Founded in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, Hilo Fish Company has grown into one of the nation’s most trusted suppliers of fresh and frozen seafood. Proudly family-owned for more than 25 years, the company now sources from over 20 coastal regions around the world, with offices in Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Manila. Yet, no matter how far its reach extends, Hilo Fish remains grounded in the values of island life – hard work, humility, and aloha.
From these roots grew Punahele Jerky Company, created to share favorite pieces of home with the world. Made with aloha on the Big Island, Punahele fish jerkies bring together quality seafood and flavors inspired by local kitchens. The team is always working on new tastes and cuts, but the spirit remains the same – delicious, nourishing food with a deep sense of place.
The company’s story is also connected to Hāmākua through its founder, Charlie Umamoto, who was raised in Pā‘auhau near Honokaʻa. His upbringing in a plantation town shaped the values of hard work, community, and respect for the land and sea that continue to guide Hilo Fish today.