Keiki Fest 2026

The Keiki Fest 2026 attracted roughly 1,200 people to Molokai Community Health Center April 25. Organized by the Molokai Community Action Team in partnership with the Molokai Child Abuse Prevention Pathways, the event celebrated Molokai’s keiki with free food, bicycle giveaways and an array of fun and educational activities. Photo by Léo Azambuja

By Léo Azambuja

The Keiki Fest 2026 last weekend offered a fun and safe venue for hundreds of families to celebrate their children while educating them on child-abuse prevention topics such as setting boundaries, consent and identifying trusted adults. 

April is national Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse and Neglect Month. 

“We want to bring awareness to that by having a festival for our keiki, bringing in resources so that the families get to know them,” event co-organizer Tylor Tanaka said, adding the activities and resources were all catered to the children. “Today is absolutely free. Get free food, free prizes. It’s free to register.”

The Keiki Fest 2026 brought approximately 1,200 people to Molokai Community Health Center April 25. The event is put together by the Molokai Community Action Team under the fiscal sponsorship of the Molokai Child Abuse Prevention Pathways.

Event lead organizer Titi Hernandez, prevention educator and community organizer at MCAPP, said the Keiki Fest has been held since 2018.

“We wanted to put on an event for our community where families could come and celebrate their keiki,” Hernandez said. Because organizers work with prevention education, they wanted to take a step away from the negative parts of their job. “That’s why we switched it to just-come-and-have-fun. It’s the time to celebrate with your keiki.”

And celebrate and have fun they did. There were more free chili dogs, chili bowls and chili nachos than the crowd could eat. Over 50 free bicycles were given away to children, and a 50-inch TV was raffled. Twenty-six vendors promoted many fun activities, such as races, games, arts and a spirited watermelon eating contest. A hard-fought firetruck-pull challenge had the crowd cheering loudly for all the five-person teams.

The staff at Krank Cycles came from Maui to make sure at least 50 kids had free wheels. Owner Aaron “Moose” Reichert said someone gave him a bicycle when he was a young inner-city child.

“It was the best piece of freedom I’ve ever gotten, more than a car, first apartment, girlfriend,” Reichert said. “It still stays with me today when I get on a bike. So, I just want to give that to another kid as it was given to me.”

Photo by Léo Azambuja

Krank Cycles donated 21 new bicycles plus another 30 recycled ones. Two of them were electric bikes. They also offered free bike repairs.

This year’s Easter might have been a few weeks ago, but there were a good number of keiki running around with customized bunny masks. At the Molokai Public Library tent, branch manager Mia Langer Ritte was helping kids to color their own bunny masks and put them on. 

The hardest part of the watermelon eating contest was preventing the kids from taking a bite on their watermelon slice before the start of the contest. You couldn’t blame the kids; it was a hot day. After a couple rounds of kids devouring watermelon, the adults joined the fun and had their own watermelon eating contest.

A misting tent was a popular spot, with a lot of people stopping to cool off. Hernandez said the Keiki Fest was held at the Health Center last year for the first time, and the heat was very strong.

“So we decided to put something up so people can go underneath and get cool,” Hernandez said of the misting tent. 

A handful of teams entered the firetruck-pulling challenge, and each team donated $100 toward the Molokai Special Olympics. The fastest team to pull the firetruck was the Suli ʻOhana.

Event organizers honored Paul Tonnessen, executive director of the Friends of the Children’s Justice Center of Maui, who has fundraised for many years to help children on Molokai and Maui. Tonnessen is retiring this year and relocating to the mainland.

“He’s really our friend and someone who cares about our island. He doesn’t only give for Keiki Fest,” Hernandez told the crowd at the event. “He gives for everything, for the kids that need gifts for Christmas, he gives to the schools for uniforms, for Makahiki, he does so much.”

Tanaka read a Hawaii State Senate proclamation to Tonnessen, put together by state Sen. Lynn DeCoite, recognizing his “outstanding achievement and dedication” to the community.

Hernandez said MCAPP was founded in 2011, and she started working there that same year. While doing prevention-education in all the schools on the island, she has noticed how the community has evolved since then.

“We kind of opened communication lines where kids are feeling a little bit more comfortable to say something,” she said, adding the kids are more proactive to help their friends. “Before we came to the island, there was no education about that.”

The Molokai Community Action Team is a group of community members who work to protect the future of the island’s children through education, awareness and action. They partner with MCAPP to deliver critical messages and education to families across Molokai. 

Visit www.molokaicapp.org or MCAT’s Facebook page for more information.