Save Hawaiʻi's
"Stairway to Heaven"
In August 2021, the Honolulu City Council voted to demolish the iconic Haʻikū Stairs. The vote came despite an overwhelming public outcry to save the Stairs. In the preceding two years, over 5,000 public comments were submitted with more than 90% favoring preservation. A professional public opinion poll in April 2022 confirmed that a clear majority of O‘ahu residents want to save the Stairs not destroy them. The Stairs are a historic World War II monument eligible for the National Historic Register. They offer a unique, world-class hiking experience, treasured for generations. It would be tragic to lose them.
The Friends of Haʻikū Stairs are spearheading the fight to save the Stairs. We filed a lawsuit against the City & County of Honolulu in August 2023 and are pushing to block the demolition on multiple fronts. With your help we will convince City leaders to heed the public will.
Please donate to support our efforts.
Join & Give
Friends of Haʻikū Stairs is an all-volunteer organization with over 13,000 supporters. Join our mission today and show your support for the Stairs with a membership or by donating through one of our donation methods. Funds will support our community outreach work and support ongoing legal efforts to save this historic Windward treasure.
Learn more about how your donations and memberships help us below.
Donate
Donations, of any size, allow us to keep moving forward in our mission to Save the historic Haʻikū Stairs.
Please consider making a donation today.
As a 501(c)(3), all donations are tax deductible.
Checks can be mailed to:
Friends of Haʻikū Stairs
P.O. Box 4715
Kaneohe, HI 96744
United States
Please call (808) 774 3922 or email us info@haikustairs.org with any questions/concerns.
How you help
Expanding outreach:
FHS volunteers have been at farmers markets, hiking trails, and community events sharing information and gathering Hawaiʻi voter signatures. Our petition drive has collected over 10,000 signatures and counting. However, we must expand our public outreach to combat misinformation and rally community support.
Community initiatives:
We are working with the Kāneʻohe Neighborhood Board to engage with residents of Haʻikū Valley who have been negatively affected by trespassing. Our goal is to find shared solutions for effective anti-trespassing measures that will help residents and defuse opposition to the Stairs.
Legal defense:
Our legal team is working on a multifaceted strategy to block the City’s removal efforts, recruiting experts to testify regarding threats to endangered species, assessing the impacts of soil runoff on the downstream watershed, and bolstering our historical preservation defenses.
We are also pushing to compel completion of a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). A new EIS would force the City to reopen debate over the future of the Stairs.
Membership
FHS offers several different types of memberships that allow supporters to become more involved in our mission. Each membership option features varying benefits, but all membership types include these:
(1) Your membership fee helps fund outreach initiatives and legal action to save the Haʻikū Stairs.
(2) Members get invited to FHS meetings and have the opportunity to give input on our strategy.
(3) A robust membership is a strong indicator of high levels of support for saving and reopening the Stairs. Members get early invitation to events that help publicize support for the Stairs.
(4) Displaying your Save Haʻikū Stairs bumper sticker and membership stickers, and/or wearing your FHS T-shirt will provide great talking points with friends, family, coworkers, even strangers!
(5) Members will have priority to participate in our workdays on the Stairs. We maintain liability insurance for this eventuality should the City allow us to reinstate our workdays soon.
(6) Members of FHS will have the opportunity to write to relevant policymakers and/or provide testimony in support of reopening the Haʻikū Stairs.