By: Makayla Dilliner
Community can bring people of all backgrounds together as one. Especially in the close-knit town of Kailua where “everyone knows everyone,” it's not hard to get together on weekends with your loved ones, lend a hand to your neighbor, or simply throw a shaka to people you see on the street. But in 1999 Kalāheo graduate, Danny Casler, took this sense of community and brought it to social media with the well-known account called My Kailua. From his love for music to his passion for Kailua, Casler shared the story of how everything came together.
Casler, who started playing music at Kalāheo with the band National Product, moved to California to continue a career in punk rock. Most notably their hit song Love Me was number one on the charts for several months.
“After high school, we ended up getting signed by a record label and traveled the world. So before My Kailua that was my career for a while. We released an album that did really well even here in Hawaii one of our songs became a hit song. The song is called Love Me and it was on the charts for around 14 weeks at number one. We had something that allowed us to meet more people and travel the world,” he explained.
With what started as a way to bridge the gap between Hawaii and California, Casler started My Kailua in 2013. “I would leave and go on tour and miss Kailua so much. And so I finally thought, how can I connect with people? How can we create a way to connect? Every page I had to do was selling something. I wanted something more, something different. A place where people can come and have a conversation or an argument. We can talk, we can debate,” he said.
Slowly but surely, My Kailua amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across both Instagram and Facebook. After being thanked through a monetary donation, Casler made the decision to turn My Kailua into a space that promotes those within the community. And while that was never part of the plan, it has become something to help both Casler and the Kailua community.
“Now it has a hundred fifty thousand followers between Facebook and Instagram. And now I get to work with businesses, which is amazing. But people had been offering me money from the beginning, but I never felt right accepting money. Only after hearing from people about how much the account helped them grow their business, I knew there was more value in this than just money. It really changed my heart because it wasnʻt just about using my platform to get ahead. Now I actually had people who valued me, who blessed me, and who I was able to give back to in return,” he explained.
For many people, Kailua may mean different things, but for Casler, he wants to keep his platform to showcase those who truly love the small island town.
“I want to be focused on the people that really care about Kailua. I'm very blessed that I get to help out when it comes to legislation, when it comes to protecting and preserving Kailua, when it comes to finding lost pets, and lost bikes— we've even helped to catch a murderer. My account is not for everyone and I am okay with that. I may not appeal to those from the other side of the island or tourists but I don’t have the time to worry about that anyway,” he explained.
Students may want to give back to their community and whether it's the feeling of a lack of presence or voice, Casler made it clear that what matters is consistency and passion. “ Nothing happens overnight. You have to put energy, time and passion into it and then it will grow. There's no reason you can't be successful if you just stick to it. I started with one follower, first my wife and then my dad. Starting with nothing, you have to build onto that. And if you're consistent and if you're passionate, you can keep pushing it forward,” he said.