Po’okela Award (To Strive For Excellence)
Meet a Po’okela recipient, John Murphree, a waiter in Café Hanalei Restaurant.

In 2001, John founded a project he felt was necessary to preserve the beaches of Kauai that he loved so much. Volunteering his time, he established the “Hanalei Beach Clean-Up,” which follows the annual Fourth of July celebrations that bring large crowds of beachgoers to the shores for barbeques and parties. “I brought the idea up to the management and they agreed to sponsor it,” he explained. “Then we spent all day on July 5th cleaning up the trash and debris left on the beach from the night before.” Four years later, many employees and neighborhood residents join John in what has become a July tradition. They not only keep the beaches safe for visitors by removing fireworks and debris from the sand, they also form friendships and bonds while working together to preserve their beautiful Kauai shoreline.  John’s affectionate nickname at the Café Hanelei is “Recycling Guy.”  A fellow employee explains: “Every month he takes out loads of plastic to be recycled, containers which would otherwise have been thrown away.” He also recycles cooking oil, which through a special process is converted to fuel for the tour boats of Na Pali Eco Adventures. Even restaurant food scraps are saved and given to local farmers as pig feed. John’s concern for the environment and preserving our resources for the next generation are evident in his many selfless actions.