Once a year, on Earth Day, many stewards of the Maui community come together to clean up their beautiful beaches. This year four women, Monica, Katie, Elizabeth, and Bella, decided to join forces and create a beach cleanup event with an educational twist.
Last year Monica Marrow, the Founder/CEO of What Makes You Feel Beautiful, organized a beach cleanup with Pacific Whale Foundation. Katie Farley, the founder of Little Monk Seal Montessori school, contacted Monica to ask if her school could join in. The two women kept in touch, and Katie even became a supporter of WMYFB.
Last year's beach cleanup was the most successful of the year, thanks to Katie, who brought along her friend Elizabeth Joy, founder and principal of Piaget School of Maui. The three women worked well together, and Monica was delighted to work with them again this year.
For this year's beach cleanup, Monica invited deep sea diver Bella Spagnuolo to give an educational presentation. The four women are excited to work together and create an event that would not only clean up the beach but also educate the youth in their community.
The event will take place on April 22, 2023 at Po’olenalena Beach Park, Kihei from 9-11AM, and it is open to the entire Maui community. Trash kits will be provided by Pacific Whale Foundation, and there will be a hands-on educational activity for the keiki by Bella Spagnuolo.
This free community event welcomes everyone, including friends, family, volunteers, teams, and visitors, to come and celebrate with us as we give back to the earth that holds and sustains us all. The event is an exciting opportunity to come together with the Maui community and make a positive impact on our community and the planet we all call home.
Learn more about the women who believe in the power of community, connections and friendship.
Katie Farley
Founder, Director, and Lead Teacher
Katie became a Montessori enthusiast upon setting foot in a Montessori classroom. It was the search for a perfect preschool for her own child that led her directly to Montessori. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a Communications Degree and spending nearly a decade managing restaurants, she decided to attend the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies and become a certified Primary Teacher. Montessori was already her passion, and now she was trained to make it her career. Throughout the years, Katie served as President of the Parent Committee at Bergamo Academy Montessori in Denver, Colorado and coached youth soccer in Denver area Montessori Schools. In 2012 she moved to Maui and began teaching. She has also run a successful private tutoring business here in Maui, where she taught a range of children ages 5-15 and ability levels ranging from general education to severe learning disabilities. Katie spent some time working within the Hawaii Public School system providing one on one support to disabled students. She now has realized her dream of opening a Montessori school in paradise!
Providing high-quality, authentic Montessori education to the children of Maui.
Our vision is to inspire our Keiki to grow into peaceful, loving, and happy members of the global community by providing a Montessori environment that allows each child to reach his or her full potential. We envision a world where people love learning, trust and help each other and live happy, productive lives. We know that we must nurture the children as a community and give them our best love and care to realize this dream. Our promise is to be life-long teachers to our students and to protect and cherish the Keiki of Hawaii.
Monica Marrow, CEO/Founder
What Makes You Feel Beautiful
Monica is an inspirational advocate in the work of female empowerment, believing that when our own sense of love is fulfilled, we accept, care for, and value ourselves. This then creates positive life outcomes for ourselves and others. She knows this is vitally important because of the negative experiences and messages girls and women encounter about their identities, bodies, and how they show up in the world.
Her core values of self-love, self-care, and inclusivity also make her particularly passionate about reaching girls in the critical stages of their development. She created the F.L.Y. FIRST LOVE YOURSELF program, which offers workshops, classes, support groups, and mentoring to girls aged 13-17. Monica is also a state-certified youth health first aid responder.
Monica's background as a retired licensed cosmetologist and former salon owner of Essential Arts Studio, as well as her work as a professional media red carpet photographer in Atlanta, G.A., have provided her with a unique perspective on the importance of self-care and self-love. She has also worked at Hudson Pride Center in New Jersey as their program’s director, where she gained valuable experience in creating and managing programs that empower marginalized communities. In 2018, Monica moved from White Plains, New York to Hawai'i, where she continues to pursue her passion for empowering girls and women.
She believes that every person deserves to feel beautiful and worthy, regardless of their
background, identity, or circumstances. Through Monica’s work with What Makes You Feel
Beautiful and the F.L.Y. FIRST LOVE YOURSELF program, Monica is making a difference in the lives of girls and women across the country. Her vision is to help create a world of strong, happy, liberated women. A world where self-love is a fundamental part of every woman's life.
What Makes You Feel Beautiful is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is dedicated to empowering girls and women to cultivate self-love at every age and phase of life through education, mentorship, and resources that help them develop self-love, self-esteem and confidence.
Our vision is a world where all girls and women feel confident, empowered, and safe in their own skin, and where self-love is celebrated and embraced as an essential part of personal well-being and growth.
Core Values:
Self-Love: We believe that self-love is the foundation of personal growth, that every person has the potential to cultivate it and that cultivating self-love is essential to building confidence and resilience.
Inclusivity: We embrace diversity and recognize that everyone has unique experiences and perspectives that should be respected and celebrated regardless of age, race, gender, size or background.
Empowerment: We are committed to empowering girls and women to take charge of their lives, make informed decisions, and reach their full potential.
Education: We believe that education is key to personal growth and development, and we strive to provide girls and women with the tools they need to cultivate self-love and confidence.
Community: We believe in the power of community and support networks to create lasting change, and we strive to build a community of girls and women who can uplift and inspire each other.
Elizabeth Joy Founder, Director
Piaget School of Maui
Elizabeth Joy earned her B.A. in Child Development from New College of California, (San Francisco, CA) & M.A. in Educational Leadership from Patten University, (Oakland, CA). She has held a number of leadership positions in Early Childhood Education including directorship of a non-profit preschool in San Francisco, California. She has also served as a District Preschool Director managing several preschool facilities for a corporate private-school organization in Northern California.
Also, Mrs. Joy has worked in the capacity as a Behavioral Intervention Support Specialist & Behavioral Consultant with the State of Hawai’i - Department of Education and held a national certificate as a Registered Behavior Technician/Therapist.
PIAGET SCHOOL OF MAUI — Established 2007
(pee-uh-zhay)
Montessori-Inspired EduCare
for Babies & Toddlers
Our Mission
We strive to provide the best support in establishing your child’s educational foundation through discovery, curiosity and imagination.
We are a professional group of EduCare (education + childcare) providers deeply inspired by Jean Piaget (1896-1980), a Swiss Psychologist, postmodern thinker and leading authority in Child Psychology. Great effort is put forth in aligning Dr. Piaget’s pedagogy, honoring the child’s sensorimotor (sociological model) and pre-operational (biological model) phases of development. Other influences in our curriculum include pedagogies from Magda Gerber (American, 1910-2007), Maria Montessori (Italian, 1870-1952) and The Reggio-Emilia Approach by Loris Malaguzzi (Italian, 1920-1994), among other world-renowned child development authorities.
We are committed towards quality education from a multiple-intellectual awareness and sense of self through developing artistic expression. We have a profound love-interest in multicultural child development art literacy. We practice art literature through authentic non-stereo-typical self-reflection, community-responsiveness, and personal history as core elements. We believe if children are authentically engaged through their own interests, children thrive.
At Piaget School of Maui our sustained reading curriculum is expertly focused on pre-reading for the youngest students in our care.
Sustained Reading consists of at least 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted reading and allows young toddlers to observe and absorb the structure and sound of language. Young children exposed to consistent reading gain verbal and auditory skills far beyond their age group peers.
Our Sustained Reading program also establishes in the child the deep subconscious connection to written and spoken language.
Early learning through pre-reading involves exposure to tone, voice and cadence and is the most incredible gift a young child can receive — and we are honored to share this fundamental concept with our youngest growing minds.
Bella Spagnuolo, Deep Sea Diver - Raised on the Big Island and having spent over half her life in Hawaii, Bella has had a deep appreciation for the ocean from a very young age. From snorkeling at four years old to now being an avid scuba and free-diver, a huge portion of her life has been spent exploring the deep sea. She is a naturalist and an ocean steward, spreading knowledge of marine life and the importance of protecting their habitat over the last 20 years. Bella has volunteered for Pacific Whale Foundation and Hawaii Land Trust aiding with both reef clean ups and shoreline restoration, as well as having a background in youth education. Her goal is to spread awareness within the community and spark curiosity for all ages, encouraging them to make efforts to care for our fragile ecosystems in Hawaii.
The four women, Monica, Katie, Elizabeth, and Bella, came together to create a community awareness event that is both educational and fun. They hope that this event inspires others to come together and give back to the earth that holds and sustains us all.
Don't forget to bring eco-safe sunscreen, gloves and any necessary beach gear. Let's celebrate Earth Day and create awareness about the importance of environmental conservation. Join us for this inspiring event and make a difference in our world. #EarthDay #BeachCleanup #CommunityEvent #Maui #WhatMakesYouFeelBeautiful #LittleMonkSealMontessorischool #PiagetSchoolofMaui
Wow, you are awesome! <3