Kalaupapa like home for ranger
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
KALAUPAPA — For eight years, Lester De Los Reyes hiked down the steep three-mile trail to his maintenance job at the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, which contains the Hansen's disease settlements of Kalaupapa and Kalawao.
He's still making that daily commute on foot, but now he's doing it as the first Moloka'i-born law enforcement park ranger to work at Kalaupapa.
"Being down on Kalaupapa, it's like we weren't even on Moloka'i. It's a different place," said Lester De Los Reyes.
De Los Reyes, 37, just completed 15 weeks at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where his classmates selected him for the Director's Award as the outstanding member who best represents the standards of integrity, fairness, honesty, compassion and courage.
De Los Reyes was raised on a 40-acre homestead in Ho'olehua, where his family farmed sweet potatoes. As a Boy Scout, he visited Kalaupapa to clean the cemetery as a community service project.
"Being down on Kalaupapa, it's like we weren't even on Moloka'i. It's a different place," he said. "To me it has that mana or power that runs through your skin and your bones. Now I'm working with the park service to preserve and protect the historic sites for my kids and my kids' kids so they can see what it was like."
The Kalaupapa Peninsula on Moloka'i's north shore is best known as the place of forced isolation for people suffering from Hansen's disease, or leprosy, and for Father Damien, who served there for 16 years before his death from the disease in 1889.
A cure for leprosy became available in the 1940s, yet the restrictions weren't lifted until 1969. Kalaupapa is still home to about 40 surviving Hansen's disease patients.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park was established in 1980 and is administered jointly by the National Park Service and several state agencies, including the Department of Health and the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
It's a "gentle community" with very little crime, said Chief Ranger Tim Trainer, who has worked there for 10 years. The biggest law enforcement problem is trespassers. Access to Kalaupapa is restricted to those who make arrangements through authorized tour companies or are guests of residents.
About 10,000 people a year come to the settlement via mule rides, hiking or by plane.
"It's one of those places that's very quiet and at the same time there are people who enter who shouldn't be here," Trainer said. "One time a woman who was on crystal meth wandered in. The minute you think you can relax, that's a mistake."
De Los Reyes was a mechanic at the Ironwood Hills Golf Course before first going to work for the National Park Service doing grounds maintenance and helping with the restoration of some of the settlement's old buildings. But it was working with the community on fire safety and protection that got him interested in training to become a park ranger, he said.
With the help of the park service's employment development plan, he spent several years learning new skills and taking on new duties to get ready to make the next leap in his career. He finished his Georgia training Nov. 22, and when he showed up for work three days later, Kalaupapa residents welcomed him with lei, signs and congratulations.
"He's an asset because he's been on the island his whole life and he knows the people and he knows the customs," Trainer said. "He's able to work with everybody and that's very important."
De Los Reyes lives in Kaunakakai with his wife, Roberta, and three children ages 12 to 16. He said he doesn't mind the daily trek down the 26 switchbacks from topside Moloka'i to the rugged shoreline.
"At least there's no traffic," he said.
