{"id":182876,"date":"2023-09-05T16:31:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T02:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=182876"},"modified":"2023-09-06T08:22:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T18:22:40","slug":"maunakea-steward-work-above-the-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/05\/maunakea-steward-work-above-the-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo alum grateful for work above the clouds, golf"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Five
Alika Toledo, Jake Otani, Dysen Park, Noah Otani and Ryder Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 9,000 feet up majestic Maunakea is where you\u2019ll find Alika Toledo and his crew on weekdays. The longtime employee of the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Hilo Center for Maunakea Stewardship<\/a> (CMS<\/abbr>) oversees access to the summit through road grading and snow clearing operations, as well as facilities maintenance of the visitor information center and Halep\u014dhaku, a facility at the mid-level elevation on the mauna.<\/p>\n

\"Large
Toledo\u2019s crew maintains the road to summit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It\u2019s a privilege for me to work up here. It\u2019s unique, it\u2019s special, and there\u2019s no other place like it,” said Toledo, who refers to Maunakea as God\u2019s country.<\/p>\n

When Toledo, a 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo alumnus, is not working, his love for a game that jetted him into the spotlight as a young teenager isn\u2019t very far. For the past 11 years, he\u2019s coached the boys golf team at his alma mater, Wai\u0101kea High School. In his senior year in 1984, he won the individual state title leading Wai\u0101kea to the team title. This year, the Wai\u0101kea Warriors won the state high school championship and came in fifth at the PGA<\/abbr> High School Golf National Invitational in Frisco, Texas.<\/p>\n

\"Four
From left: Alika Toledo, Douglas Astrande, Tracy Miyashiro and Aaron Zimmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“My players Dysen Park, Mike Lopez, Noah Otani, Ryder Ng, Jake Otani and Laʻa<\/span> Kaawaloa-Okita all come with very supportive families, which makes coaching so much easier,” Toledo explained. “This team has been successful for a bunch of reasons this year. Their school, their parents and loved ones, their community and their competitiveness and positivity for each other, which is so hard to find nowadays, was key to their success.”<\/p>\n

Two of Toledo\u2019s award-winning players are attending 东精影业<\/abbr> campuses this year. This fall, Lopez began his very first semester at 东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa. Park is studying at 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo on a golf scholarship.<\/p>\n

Thankful for opportunities<\/h2>\n
\"Snow
Toledo\u2019s crew clears snow from the road to the summit to enable safe access<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toledo\u2019s push hard approach he ingrains into his players is the same recipe applied to his very own career. The Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island native has worked for CMS<\/abbr>\u2019 Maunakea Shared Services<\/a> department for nine years.<\/p>\n

Born and raised on the Hilo side of the state\u2019s largest island, Toledo recalls job opportunities that came and eventually faded when sugar plantations closed on Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island. Alika and his wife Lacey share six boys and a daughter together. He is thankful that the arrival of the state\u2019s astronomy sector in the 1960s provided employment opportunities on his island, everything from food services and engineering to native plant restoration.<\/p>\n

Astronomy is responsible for more than 600 jobs on Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island and generates $102 million annually for the island economy, according to a 2019 东精影业<\/abbr> Economic Research Organization report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Toledo expresses his fascination with mysteries astronomers on Maunakea unlock far beyond the Milky Way.<\/p>\n

“We have the best platform in the world to put a telescope, and to have the clearance of the galaxies and of everything else that is out there. Besides bringing in jobs to the island, it’s that special,” said Toledo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Center for Maunakea Stewardship employee Alika Toledo has worked for the Maunakea Shared Services department for nine years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1511,659,14],"class_list":["post-182876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-center-for-maunakea-stewardship","tag-maunakea","tag-uh-hilo","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182876"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182994,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182876\/revisions\/182994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}