Marcus Spallek met Chris Maxey as a student at The Lawrenceville School when Marcus joined the wrestling team as a sophomore in 1997. Marcus was one of the 21 pioneer students in the first Island School class from the Spring of 1999. The students of that pioneer semester helped literally lay the groundwork for The Island School, building paths, and even assembling the bunk beds for their first night.
Marcus graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2004 with a BE in Biomedical Engineering and minors in Mathematics and Philosophy. Marcus returned to The Island School in the Fall 0f 2005. He helped build the infrastructure for the Cape Eleuthera Institute, worked as a dive master, helped design and build the first aquaponics system at the Island School, and generally helped out the community. This period coincided with Marcus being in between gigs piloting research submarines with Deep Ocean Expeditions.
When the global economy crashed in 2007-08 and the funding dried up for the global deep ocean submarine piloting gig, Marcus returned home to Hawaii to start his own project. The last five years, Marcus has been developing Aloha Mahi’ai, Hawaii’s soon to be premiere AgriCultural Lodge and Natural Farming Educational Center. They are 90% done with Phase 1 construction. For more information on Aloha Mahi’ai, visit their website: www.alohamahiai.com