Volunteer Spotlight Donna Tamashiro

Give Donna Tamashiro a patch of dirt, a few plants, and a pair of gardening gloves, and chances are she will find a way to make something better.

That might mean clearing an overgrown corner of the Imua Discovery Garden, growing Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, preparing a greenhouse for butterflies, or even hand-painting rocks just to make the place a little more colorful.

Retirement seems to suit Donna just fine. Sitting around, however, doesn’t appear to be part of the plan.

Donna began volunteering at the Imua Discovery Garden in April 2026, initially helping prepare the greenhouse for the arrival of butterfly chrysalises. She repotted plants and, with the help of a friend, hand-painted rocks to add a little extra personality to the space. Since then, she has become a familiar presence around the Garden, primarily tackling weeds and overgrown vegetation around the main house.

For Donna, getting her hands dirty, getting involved, and helping out all seem to come naturally.

Born and raised in Ohio, Donna first visited Hawaiʻi in 1985, then returned in 1986 and again in 1987. Apparently Maui’s powers of persuasion worked. When an opportunity arose to work at Hale Makua, she packed up and moved to the island in November 1987 at age 28.

Donna graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Occupational Therapy, a career she discovered almost by accident. She knew she wanted to work in a helping profession and had considered social work and physical therapy. Then a college roommate introduced her to occupational therapy. Curious, Donna spent the following summer volunteering in an OT department at a hospital.

She was hooked.

Over the next 40 years, Donna worked as an occupational therapist in hospitals, home health, skilled and long-term care facilities, public schools, and outpatient clinics. While working primarily with hand and wrist injuries, she pursued an additional professional milestone and became a Certified Hand Therapist in 2007. After retiring from occupational therapy, she spent another two and a half years working as a merchandiser at Home Depot before officially retiring in March 2025.

But Donna’s Maui story extends far beyond her career.

She met her husband, Henry, at a Maui Jaycees meeting in January 1988, just a few months after moving to the island. They married in 1993, and their son, Alec, was born in 1995. Alec’s involvement with the Maui Okinawa Children’s Cultural Day Camp and Okinawan drumming and dance eventually drew the whole family deeper into Maui’s Okinawan community.

Today, Donna volunteers at the Maui Okinawa Cultural Center, doing light landscaping and tending an Okinawan garden she started there. It is filled with Okinawan spinach, purple sweet potatoes, chives, mugwort, bitter melon, and togan. She also has two small greenhouses at home where she grows plants for the Cultural Center’s annual rummage and plant sale.

Yes, there is definitely a gardening theme here.

Donna also helps instruct Okinawan drumming and dance classes, although she admits she hasn’t quite worked up the nerve to perform in public herself.

It’s easy to see why Imua’s core value of cultural generosity through in-person human experiences resonates so strongly with her. During nearly four decades on Maui, Donna has seen people from many different cultures and backgrounds come together to support one another, in good times and especially during difficult ones.

That same sense of community fills her life outside of volunteering. Donna and Henry have a close group of friends who gather for Saturday night potlucks and card games. And in October 2027, they’re planning a particularly special adventure: traveling to Okinawa for a festival held only once every five years.

Nearly 39 years after taking a chance and moving thousands of miles from Ohio to Maui, Donna says it remains the best decision she ever made.

Maui is where she built a career helping others, met her husband, raised her son, found lifelong friends, and became part of a community that welcomed her in.

And maybe Donna’s story is a little like one of the gardens she loves tending. Put down some roots, give them time, share what grows, and you might be surprised by what can blossom.

For Donna, those roots are firmly planted right here on Maui.

As she puts it, “This is going to sound corny, but for me Maui is definitely No Ka Oi.“