Carole Kai Inouye has long been celebrated in Hawaiʻi as a philanthropic force responsible for raising over $20 million for nonprofit organizations and scholarships across the state and as the founder of the Great Aloha Run and Carole Kai Charities.
In 2025, she announced she would be stepping down and that the Great Aloha Run, which used to end at the Aloha Stadium, would run its last race.
After a hiatus, however, the Great Aloha Run has found its second wind.
Carole Kai has passed the baton to Christine Camp of Avalon Group, who told HPR that the beloved race would be returning to Honolulu in February of 2027.
“I was like you when I read the news. It really saddened me … this is such an amazing tradition and such a Hawaiʻi experience to run the Great Aloha Run,” Camp told HPR.
“So I reached out to Carole to see if there was any way that we could keep it alive, and she graciously said that she wanted another woman who could have the leadership and the tenacity like she did.”
The event has been retooled into a 5K race that will take runners through a new route through Downtown Honolulu — or DoHo — while still preserving the run’s original commitment to celebrating Honolulu’s neighborhoods.
“We can't change the fact that the Aloha Stadium is not going to be there, but we can certainly create a situation where the local people can really get together once a year for a great cause as well as to discover their own neighborhood,” Camp explained.
Celebrating community, Kai told HPR, was the original vision that inspired the Great Aloha Run — and it’s one that she holds close to her heart.
“I have to thank my mother because she always told me that, if you're going to live in the community, you have to do for the community,” she said.
“She always instilled in me the fact that I, we, have to do something. God bless my mother.”
The DoHo Great Aloha Run 5K is scheduled to take place on Presidents' Day, Feb. 15th, in 2027. More information about the event can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Sept. 22, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
