YWCA of Hawaii Island broke ground Thursday on a multimillion dollar renovation of its preschool facilities at the organization’s downtown Hilo campus.

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YWCA of Hawaii Island broke ground Thursday on a multimillion dollar renovation of its preschool facilities at the organization’s downtown Hilo campus.

Kumu Moses Crabbe offered a blessing, and board members plunged golden shovels into a pile of dirt at the site of the project.

Construction work is slated to begin later this month with the demolition of several existing structures including the swimming pool and pool house, playground and the nearly 100-year-old cottage that has long served as a classroom building. It is a project CEO Kathleen McGilvray said has been in the works for years.

“We want to invest in the future of our keiki, and so that is how this started … ,” she said at the groundbreaking ceremony, which was held in the cottage building. “We started to think about how could we make our campus more productive. How can we expand our preschool program and make sure we can sustain it for the next 100 years? In our current facilities, we just simply didn’t think we could. So, we started to talk about making a difference, and so this whole side of the campus will be evolving and changing.”

The aging structures will be replaced with modular classroom facilities that will create more educational space and increase student capacity by 30%, from 90 to 125. The school, which is one of a few nationally accredited developmental preschool programs in the state, is currently at full capacity with additional students on the wait list. The project also includes plans to create outdoor play areas, covered walkways between buildings, and a commercial kitchen.

Funding for the project has come in the form of grants and private donations which so far total about $5.5 million. McGilvray said the total cost of the work is expected to be about $7 million, leaving an approximate $1.5 million gap which she said she hopes will be filled as construction gets underway.

State Sen. Tim Richards, who represents the north part of the island, is on the campaign committee for the project and spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony. In addition to offering quality education for young children, he said the YWCA preschool program also helps support working parents by providing childcare.

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“You can’t put people to work if they have young families, but there’s no place to put the kids,” he said. “So, this is integral into what we can do as we start putting Big Island to work.”

The preschool project is part of YWCA of Hawaii Islands’s $21 million “Building a Bright Future” campaign, which is aimed at strengthening the organization’s core programs: the preschool, family services and sexual assault support.

McGilvray said those services have benefited the East Hawaii community for decades, and the goal of the campaign is to ensure they continue to do so by consolidating operations at its 145 Ululani St. campus. The YWCA currently leases space in other buildings.

“We have been here for generations,” she said. “We have educated generations of children. The preschool program is over 80 years old. Our sex assault program, we support survivors, we’re the only 24-hour, seven-day-a-week rape crisis center on the island. We’ve been doing that for over 40 years.”

The campaign also includes future plans to construct a multipurpose building and 10-unit housing complex for vulnerable women and families. The timeline for the various phases of the campaign is contingent on funding.

During the ceremony, YWCA of Hawaii Island Board of Directors President Beverly Heikes thanked those who have donated so far.

“A project like this does not happen because of one person or one organization, it happens because many people believe in the vision and choose to invest in the future of our community,” she said.

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Email Grace Inez Adams at [email protected]