Reunion chairman Larry Peralta of Honolulu said the celebration is a way for former residents to renew friendships and pass on their memories of Pu'unene, once a chop-suey mix of two dozen worker camps and one of the island's largest communities. Now the area has largely been abandoned, as the camps were plowed under to make room for sugar cane fields and residents moved into new housing developments in Kahului.

The old school is still in use as administrative offices for Department of Education special education programs, and a handful of other old buildings are used by nonprofit groups.