Getting Good and Dirty
Volunteering on Vacation—Hawai‘i’s Newest Travel Trend

Shannon Wianecki
Photography by Franco Salmoiraghi | Jason Moore | Forest and Kim Starr Sierra Club’s Hawai‘i Trip Program | Ron Dahlquist
Catching a chopper to Kaho‘olawe.
Before heading to breakfast, I spend a moment watching dark, grey dolphins leap and dive in the clear blue water. Empty, golden Honokanaia Beach stretches out invitingly beneath Kaho‘olawe’s Navy camp, my home for the week. I grab my pack from my bunk, feeling like a superhero—at the very least, a tough-but-sexy character in a James Bond flick—and join the others scarfing down fish and rice in the mess hall. Wow. A private dolphin show and fresh mahi for breakfast? I can hardly believe my luck. Just how did I earn this all-expenses-paid trip to a remote and restricted Hawaiian Island? I simply offered to help.