Honolulu-based Pacific Marine & Supply Co. celebrated its 80th anniversary last week with an $80,000 donation to Palama Settlement to help build preschool classrooms as part of the state’s Ready Keiki initiative.

“CVS has been a trusted partner and trusted health partner for every resident living in Hawaii,” Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said at a news conference Wednesday. “I’m just so thankful for the investment that CVS has made to ensure that people in the state of Hawaii have housing and child care needs, not just for the current, present time, but for the future.”

A blessing was held Wednesday for new community centers and a new Bezos Academy preschool at the Kaiaulu o Kuku’ia, affordable housing project in Lahaina.

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke joined developer Ikaika ‘Ohana and Bezos Academy for a blessing ceremony commemorating the new preschool at the site of affordable rentals for 200 families, which is still under construction.

An estimated 200 affordable rentals are under construction in Lahaina as part of the Kaiāulu o Kūku′ia project, which includes Hawaiʻi’s very first Bezos Academy preschool.

“What does this community need more than anything else? Affordable housing and childcare,” said Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke who spoke at the project’s blessing event in West Maui on Wednesday morning.

A Native Hawaiian blessing marked the beginning of construction for new affordable housing and a tuition-free preschool on Maui.

“I can’t think of anyone more needing affordable housing and childcare in West Maui right now,” Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said.

Oo sticks, wielded by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, Mayor Rick Blangiardi and an assortment of bankers, developers and other local officials, broke ground Tuesday on a $199 million affordable rental project offering two on-site preschools in Kapolei.