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Maui businesses, volunteers step up for fire-displaced residents

By Robert Collias 9 min read

WAILUKU -- Kim Ball lost two houses and a cottage in the Lahaina wildfire, but he and his workforce at Hi-Tech Surf Sports were spearheading efforts to deliver much-needed supplies to shelters around the island on Thursday.

"Yesterday morning when I found out from my son that we had lost both our houses and our cottage where our boys lived, I was kind of in shock," Ball said Thursday via phone from his Kahului Hi-Tech store -- he is the president of the Maui company that has four surf shops on island.

"Our co-workers here took it upon themselves to go on social media and reach out about the food," Ball said. "As far as I know, yesterday they had over 20 truckloads of food and blankets and water that were brought here were dispersed to the shelters and the churches and anybody in need and we're still doing it today. People are coming in and dropping stuff off and people are coming in and grabbing stuff in the front of the store."

Hi-Tech is just one of numerous Maui businesses chipping in to the relief effort in light of the devastating wildfires around the island.

Ball said that the effort is helping him deal with his own losses.

"Totally, because I'm in the same boat," he said. "I feel what those people are feeling. Literally I had the shirt and the shorts that I was wearing and the shoes. For 48 hours I was wearing the same clothes. Kind of being in shock, you don't even realize it, but today I'm wearing my brother's underwear and staying at his house.

"Went to my dentist this morning and they gave me a new toothbrush and went to Kaiser (Permanente) and they got me in to get fit for glasses and contacts because you lose all that stuff and you don't realize it until a couple days later."

Hi-Tech was joined all over the island by local businesses donating their time and manpower. Hana Like Home Market and Kula Country Market asked for volunteers to help collect and distribute donations from Aloha Air Cargo this weekend.

Sparky's Food Company opened at 7 a.m. on Wednesday to start accepting canned goods, snacks and cases of bottled water.

The Dunes at Maui Lani golf course will donate $3 for every round of golf played there in the month of August.

While well-known organizations and businesses may be safe to donate to, State Attorney General Anne Lopez is alerting residents to use caution when choosing where to send their money and donations.

"I know that the people of Hawai'i will come to the aid of our families, neighbors and communities," Lopez said in a news release. "We are already seeing various fundraising efforts being promoted on social media platforms and online. In moments of crisis, we all must be extra vigilant against bad actors who try to take advantage of people's goodwill."

Before making a donation, all donors are urged to keep following tips in mind:

• If you donate, donate to trusted, well-known charities. Beware of scammers who create fake charities during natural disasters. Always verify a charity's legitimacy through its official website. If someone is fundraising on behalf of a charity you are familiar with, the best practice is to donate directly to that charity.

• Verify that the charity is legitimate. Any charity that solicits donations in Hawaii must be registered with the Department of the Attorney General, and its status can be verified on their website.

Charlie Halsey, one of more than 60 employees who work for Ball at Hi-Tech, was helping folks fill a U-Haul truck in front of the Kahului Hi-Tech store on Thursday.

"We've got toiletries, towels, clothes, dog food, personal hygiene supplies, food and drinks, water," Halsey said. "A lot of this stuff we've been sending to the Maui Fire Department and first responders directly. Most of this load is going to King's Cathedral and War Memorial (near) Baldwin. There are more than 500 people being housed at those two places."

Halsey said he was also struck by the outpouring of aloha.

"It really is remarkable, we sent out over 15, 16 trucks full of stuff yesterday," Halsey said. "We had supplies for everybody. We loaded up a couple of Cessnas that went over to the west side, couple of boats from Maalaea Harbor went over to the west side with supplies.

"Most of the shelters are already saying they're full to capacity with supplies, so it's awesome to see the community coming together and bringing everything that people need right now. Yeah, just totally selflessly."

Kathy Shipman was dropping off a couple cases of water and women's toiletries to the U-Haul truck Halsey was overseeing.

"Oh, it's awesome to see everyone coming together in the midst of such devastation," Shipman added. "There's a little light for humanity."

Ball was near tears when he talked about his staff and their remarkable efforts, many of them in direct response to his personal situation.

"That makes me want to cry," he said with his voice cracking.

Ball said that his company is also taking money through the nonprofit he founded, the Maui Sports Foundation. They will take checks at the Hi-Tech Kahului location or money can be Venmo'd to @mauisportsfoundation.

"We'll have some funds available for the west side," Ball said. "I live in the community so we'll know who needs help. We'll be able to disperse funds for people that need it. We just launched it and so many people have asked where to donate. I live in the middle of the west side community, we have a nonprofit, we know where it can go."

At War Memorial Gym shelter, Kanani Plunkett Adolpho was busy as the volunteer coordinator on Thursday afternoon.

The shelter below Baldwin High School was nearly a standalone village with food being served, people sleeping on cots and volunteers all over the place helping as needed.

"Since 7 o'clock this morning we've had more than 200 volunteers that were here and are still here right now," Plunkett Adolpho said. "They're all spread out from the pick up and drop off, here in the triage, here at the store, and all over inside.

"We've been prepping them for what they're about to see, what our new normal is for Maui, what Maui is doing for each other, and we're not pointing people to go where the help is, we're walking them to get what they need."

Hannah Matsumoto was serving food in a buffet line to grateful evacuees. As she spoke, Matsumoto became emotional -- she works for the County of Maui Department of Housing and Human Concerns.

"It's just crazy, I just can't imagine -- this interview is the first emotion that I'm showing," she said. "Heartbreak yesterday, you just try to be strong for these families. This is the first time that I'm actually getting emotional."

Mary Kielty, the chief of recreation for the county Department of Parks and Recreation, was directing traffic -- both cars and volunteers -- in the field next to the gym where the drive-thru donation line was flowing well.

"The response is amazing, the response from the community is unbelievable," Kielty said. "We're trying to be organized, be as swift and efficient as possible to get things out to everyone in need."

Kasie Apo Takayama is a senior legislative analyst for the county's Office of Council Services. She was assessing the donation needs at the drop-off area.

"We need a lot of formula, that's a really big one, we've got a lot of babies both coming out of Lahaina, families out there that need assistance," Apo Takayama said. "Pets and pet shelters need assistance. Toiletries and hygiene is a really big one, diapers. Food I think, we're getting a lot of food donated by people all over. Costco is bringing over shipments of formula, so they're really working with us.

"BMW of Maui is working to send some fleets out and distribute wherever needed, so we've got a really good, strong community. We have a lot of people just showing up to volunteer and a lot of businesses reaching out. Boats are just waiting on standby, so we have all these vessels ready to go and take things out and people ready to help sort inventory. We've got the whole county on it basically. We just need supplies to take out."

Christian Apo Takayama is Kasie's husband who works for BMW of Maui as a client advisor.

"Since we got the word what was going on, we have a lot of families, people that work at our store, clients of ours that have been with us for a long time, and just seeing what happened with them we wanted to step in and help in any way we could," Christian Apo Takayama said. "We offered our vehicles, personal and company vehicles to take supplies, shuttle things. We were able to fill up three boatloads that went to Lahaina, so we're just going back and forth between our dealership, which we created with the county as a drop-off and relief location that's located in central."

Christian Apo Takayama said that other BMW dealerships in Kona and Honolulu and BMW of North America have also joined the effort.

"So we've been taking stuff from our location, we've been going Upcountry, delivering at Hannibal Tavares (Community Center), picking up from Heritage Hall drop-off location and just bringing it and taking it wherever it's got to go, just getting manpower and vehicles to do whatever we can," Christian Apo Takayama said. "From what I've seen starting this morning is the amazing thing about Maui -- it doesn't matter where you're from, what your background is, we all can do something to help one another and that's what it's all about."

* Robert Collias can be reached at rcollias@mauinews.com.

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