On Thursday, July 30, AHL joined Child & Family Service (CFS), community leaders, donors, partners and supporters to celebrate the blessing of CFS’s new East Hawaiʻi Island Community Resource & Counseling Center in Hilo.
The gathering marked an important milestone for CFS and for the individuals and families it serves. The nearly 6,000-square-foot facility provides CFS with a permanent home in Hilo and expands access to provide counseling, family support and resources that help children, individuals and families thrive and build stronger, more resilient futures across Hawaiʻi Island.
Left to right: Brenton Kuipers, Interior Designer; Lisa Rapp, Principal; and Colette Lee, Director of Interior Design, in front of the new Child & Family Service Hilo Community Resource & Counseling Center.
AHL is honored to have served as the interior designers for the new center, working closely with the CFS team to create an approachable, supportive environment for children and families. The design reflects AHL’s philosophy that successful spaces should respond to the people, culture, environment and character of the communities they serve. For this center, that meant drawing organically from Hawaiʻi Island’s landscapes and ocean to create a space that feels connected to its Hilo setting.
AHL collaborated with local artist Kristie Kosmides to bring this sense of place into the center through murals inspired by the island’s natural environment and CFS’s brand colors. One mural depicts a mauna, or mountain, with ʻōhiʻa, a native flowering tree, and Koaʻe kea, the white-tailed tropicbird.
The donor wall carries the same thoughtful approach, featuring native reef fish against an ocean-inspired backdrop and the manaʻo, “Aʻohe hana nui ke alu ʻia / No task is too big when done together.” Together, the artwork creates a welcoming visual identity rooted in Hilo and connected to the community it serves.
The new center also includes a dedication to CFS Board member and Stronger Families Fund® chair Earl Stoner and his late wife, Sandi Osorio Stoner. Earl and Sandi envisioned and launched the effort to create a permanent CFS resource and counseling center in Hilo.
Their vision was carried forward through the work of CFS staff, community partners, donors, supporters and the design team. The dedication acknowledges the beginning of that effort and the shared commitment that brought it to completion.
The blessing provided an opportunity to honor Sandi’s memory, recognize Earl’s continued leadership and welcome the facility as a resource for generations of families in East Hawaiʻi.
For AHL, contributing to the CFS Hilo Community Resource & Counseling Center reflects the firm’s longstanding commitment to using design in service of the community. Through its 1% Program, AHL dedicates time and design expertise to nonprofit and community-focused projects across Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.
This center represents what can happen when an organization’s vision is strengthened by committed partners, community supporters and a shared belief in the power of a welcoming place.
AHL is grateful to have been part of this meaningful project and to celebrate the opening of a new home for Child & Family Service in Hilo.
