How SoCal’s Hawaiian Community Leaders Say You Can Best Help Maui

Since last week, Los Angeles college student Dominique Turner has gotten frequent dispatches from Maui, where she grew up.

Her dad works as a hotel cook in Lahaina, where wildfires have killed more than 100 people and leveled the historic town. These days, he’s spending more time outside the kitchen, delivering food to disaster volunteers as the hotel where he works prepares rooms for those in need of shelter.

All this has led Turner to make an appeal.

“It would help if tourists didn't go there at the moment just because Maui is grieving and needs time to heal,” Turner said.

Turner, who studies at Cal State LA, has joined a chorus of Hawaiians asking people to donate to relief efforts rather than visiting Maui.

Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice in Los Feliz, where Turner works, is raising funds to help employees at its shops in Lahaina, two of which have been destroyed by the fires. Patrons can give cash donations at the counter or contribute through a GoFundMe page.

Turner grew up in a Native Hawaiian family in the town of Wailuku. She used to commute about 45 minutes to work at different Ululani's locations in Lahaina. Some of her former co-workers have lost their homes and their belongings, she said. Turner worries that islanders are never going to recover from such a setback.

“The majority of these people that lost their homes, they don't have a lot of money,” Turner said. “A lot of them are working two jobs just to make ends meet. A lot of them don't have savings, with Hawaii already being a place where not even local people can afford to make rent or a mortgage.”

Ululani’s says 75% of the donations will go directly to its employees, while 25% will go to Lahaina organizations assisting families with the greatest needs. The chain said it would expand its operating hours at other locations on Maui to provide work for staff whose shops burned down.

The chain is also encouraging people to give to the larger Maui community through Maui Strong, an emergency fund created in response to the wildfires by the Hawai’i Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has offices in Maui.

Others with ties to Maui have been collecting donations to send, as groups and individuals. California has the nation's second-largest Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population after Hawaii, so it's no surprise to Okinawan-Hawaiian artist Lee Ann "Leebs" Goya that support for Maui has been so strong.

One population hub is in the South Bay, where Goya grew up in Gardena, going to school and church with other kids from Hawaii. Now in her 50s, Goya said they remain close to this day. She said all have been heartbroken by what’s happened in Lahaina, a second home to many of her friends and family.

Just last year Goya was in Lahaina, her late mother's hometown, to spread her ashes. The family home in Lahaina that was shared with her cousins burned down in last week’s fire, she said, along with the homes of many family friends.

Goya said her greatest fear now is that the burned properties will be swept up by predatory investors. 

"I don't know how Lahaina is going to rebuild," Goya said. "I think my worry is the land going into other people's hands and not so much the locals. I know already some of my friends had been approached by investors to buy their business."

Goya said she has felt helpless watching Maui's destruction from the mainland. She has tried to support GoFundMe pages and volunteer for fundraising benefits. She'll also be donating proceeds from self-designed dishcloths she's selling on her website that read “Lahaina, we will lift her up!”

Artist Lee Ann "Leebs" is designing a dishcloth to benefit Lahaina residents.

(

Josie Huang/LAist

)

In Torrance, piles of camping gear, diapers, bottled water and hygiene products have flooded the patio of Aunty Maile’s Hawaiian Restaurant. People have been converging on the restaurant with donations, coming from as far away as San Diego and the Central Coast. Some have ties to Hawaii, but many do not, said restaurant owner Kai Tsukiyama.

“There are literally strangers that are here literally helping sort all the donations,” Tsukiyama said in amazement.

Donated hygiene products and diapers line tables squeezed onto the patio of Aunty Maile's Hawaiian Restaurant in Torrance.

(

Kai Tskuiyama

)

Tsukiyama grew up splitting his time between Southern California and Hawaii. Most of his family lives in Oahu, but Tsukiyama said he feels strong ties to all the islands.

“The Hawaiian community is very close-knit,” Tsukiyama said. “Ohana (the Hawaiian term for ‘family’) and the feeling of aloha (‘fellowship" or "love") is a real thing. It's the community coming together to hold each other up and stand back up after things like this happened.”

Tsukiyama started collecting items for Maui after learning about a donation drive organized locally by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. As of Tuesday, the restaurant had sent over seven truckloads of donations to the union hall in Wilmington.

“Based on what we have here in front of us right now,” Tsukiyama said, “we’ll probably fill another 30 trucks.”

The longshoremen’s union has told the restaurant they don’t have any more container space for donations. Until he can find another way to expediently ship the items to Maui, Tsukiyama has rented five storage units nearby.

The restaurant has updated its Facebook page to say they’re now at “max capacity.”