City Mill donates $10K to Palama Settlement for preservation project

City mill has donated $10,000 to Palama Settlement to help with the large-scale preservation and digitization of media documenting the social service agency’s history.

Photos, newspaper articles, reports, oral histories and other documents are being included in the preservation project.

“We are pleased to support this wonderful project which will help preserve the extraordinary collection of history and memories in the Kalihi-Palama area,” said Steven Ai, president and CEO of City Mill, in a statement. “From its start 125 years ago, Palama Settlement has chronicled the people, culture and events that has exemplified the spirit and community of this area. This project will ensure that its photo and document collections will now be preserved digitally for current and future generations to see.”

Palama Settlement was established in 1896 and is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. It describes itself as a nonprofit, community-based social service agency that serves the Kalihi and Palama neighborhood. It offers educational, recreational, cultural, social health and community-building programs for people of all age groups.

“When we first opened the archives, Steven Ai was among the first to visit and was impressed with all the photos and documents that had been preserved for more than 100 years,” said Paula Rath, trustee emeritus for the Palama Settlement Board of Trustees, in a statement. “Since City Mill has experienced three fires during their storied history, he expressed concern for the welfare of the archives and the importance of digitizing our thousands of photos and documents. At that moment, he promised that the David C. Ai Charitable Trust would help enable our digitization.”