A Moment in our History: A Community Campaign

Our 1925 capital campaign for the creation of Laniākea was a massive operation with more than 350 people getting involved to raise the funds we needed. The goal of $350,000 was to build a brand-new headquarters in Honolulu that would support everything we were doing at that time.

The campaign of 1925 made it possible for us to create our much bigger and more prominent home —Laniākea.

The general chairman of the drive was then state senator Lawrence M. Judd, who later became the seventh Territorial Governor of Hawai'i. Speaking to a local newspaper, Mr. Judd said this campaign represented what he called “a four-year obligation” referring to earlier fund-raising plans for YWCA that existed around 1921. The paper said the reason for the postponement of that campaign was “at the request of community leaders because of immediate emergencies and the need of the Queen’s hospital annex.”

Mr. Judd sought support for the campaign citing our accomplishments in the community. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin: January 31, 1925)

The official launch of the campaign announced. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, February 10, 1925)

Business, community and church leaders across town offered support for a successful completion of the campaign. Endorsements appeared in the newspaper starting in January of 1925, prior to the official launch of the campaign in February. In the endorsement below by Clarence H. Cooke of Bank of Hawaii, Mr. Cooke said the creation of Laniākea “is a sound business, a duty and privilege to help make possible a new Y.W.C.A. plant.”

Endorsements of our campaign continued to appear in the local newspapers prior to the official launch of the campaign in February 1925 including those from Bank of Hawaii President Clarence H. Cooke and first lady Mrs. Wallace R. Farrington. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin: January 19, 1925 and Honolulu Star-Bulletin: January 13, 1925)

Features of the new building include a modern swimming pool, a fully equipped gym, a games room and “adequate rest rooms.”

Thanks to the extensive preparation and early endorsement strategies ahead of the campaign, we raised a total of $392,597 – exceeding the original goal of $350,000. We accomplished this in less than one week, ahead of the original schedule. Mrs. A. L. Andrews, then board president thanked the community for the support – “We want something that will be a credit to the community.”

The campaign concluded with success. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin: April 3, 1925)

-Noriko Namiki, YWCA O‘ahu CEO