As the holiday season begins, Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) would like to offer special thanks to all those in the Maui community, statewide, nationally and internationally, who volunteered their skills immediately after the devastating wildfires in August. Together, they are delivering resources and services to aid the affected communities.
“Non-profits, government agencies, other organizations, churches, charities, and individuals continue to address the immediate needs of the people,” said Leslie Wilkins, MEDB President and CEO. “Here at MEDB, along with State Representative Jill Tokuda, we held one of the first events that included FEMA temporary housing support, passport and license recovery, financial assistance, counseling, and everyday essential needs, while also planning for long-term recovery efforts.”
As we celebrate the rich tapestry that makes up this relief effort, Dr. Warren Sparks comes to mind. Sparks commutes from his home on Kauai to Maui providing medical assistance, at no charge, to those most affected by the fires. He is a board-certified emergency medicine and family-practice physician based on Kauai’s south shore. During the Vietnam War, Sparks was a USAF flight surgeon working on international air ambulances and at Native American tribal clinics. He plays the ukulele and dances hula, but most importantly his heart is in serving those of the community who need medical assistance and cannot afford it.
“Since the fire, I knew I would be working on Maui, so I shipped my truck over, with pallets of supplies,” said Sparks. “I work with Maui Medics two times a week and A Cup of Cold Water (ACCW) community care van once a week to aid those with medical concerns. We see people all over the island and help where it is needed.”
Deb Lynch, former president of ACCW, added, “Dr. Sparks is unbelievably generous! Everyone loves him. He has full capabilities for splints and cuts and helps people with their co-pay to get antibiotics if needed. Taking his time with each person, Dr. Sparks lifts their spirits and gives them hope. Deep caring and lovingkindness are a wonderful service and people are so thankful for him.”
Thank you to everyone who has worked continually to help our community recover. We appreciate your consideration and continued support as we navigate through this challenging time together.
Leslie Wilkins, MEDB President & CEO
Known by many as a pillar in the community, Brian Moto was born and raised on Maui. He attended Makawao School, Maui High School (Kahului campus), UH Manoa, the University of Michigan Law School, and Yale Divinity School. He is a member of both the Hawaii and New York bar associations. Presently, Moto is employed as the Special Assistant to the Chancellor of UHMC, where he addresses the range of UHMC educational initiatives related to institutional, county, state, federal, and private-sector interests. Formerly, for eight years, he served as the County of Maui’s chief legal advisor and legal representative, and also as a deputy corporation counsel.
Moto’s community service record is already outstanding; however, he continues to offer his time and skills for the benefit of others. His acts of kindness are an inspiration to all. When asked what moves him to service, he replied, “Short answer is that I often find that I gain a lot more from working with worthwhile causes than I actually contribute. Volunteerism is a net-positive investment. I’ve also learned that basic principles and practices of good governance, organization, and management apply universally, regardless of the particular sector or entity.”
A few of the nonprofits and community organizations that Moto actively supports include the Rotary Club of Maui, Aloha House (Maui Behavioral Health Resources), Maui High School Foundation, Catholic Charities Hawaii, Chaine des Rotisseurs, Ebb and Flow Arts, Paia Mantokuji Mission, Maui’s Sons and Daughters of the Nisei Veterans, and Maui Adult Day Care Centers, among others.
“Presently, my Rotary Club of Maui has received generous donations from Rotary clubs in the U.S. and from Australia, and from individuals for Maui fire relief,” Moto shared. “The Rotary Club of Maui has formed a committee to determine how best to distribute the funds to help those in need, and is working with other Rotary clubs on Maui in this endeavor.”
Service for community and country runs in the family. Moto’s late father, Kaoru, a member of the famous 442 Regimental Combat team, was a highly decorated World War II veteran. In 2000, the Medal of Honor award was presented to the Moto family.
Today, my dad’s Medal of Honor is displayed in the ‘Nisei Soldier Experience’ exhibit at the National Museum of the United States Army.
Brian Moto, Special Assistant to the Chancellor of UHMC
Native Hawaiian and raised on Maui, Matt Jachowski, is a proud Maui High School graduate. When the August fires happened, he and his wife Veronica immediately knew they wanted to house fire survivors. However, finding a family proved more difficult than they expected. It was challenging for them to connect with a displaced family who wanted to live where the Jachowskis are located, near an elementary school.
“At the same time, my sister, Holly Badr-El-Din, was working with the Maui Rapid Response Housing Team, where they were pouring over spreadsheets and trying to manually connect displaced families and landlords,” Jachowski explained. “As a software developer, I knew there was a better way, so I started building a website to automatically connect landlords and homeowners to displaced families whose housing requests aligned with the homes being offered.”
He recalled, “Two months after the fire, I finally released the Maui Hale Match website, mauihalematch.org, with the support of Maui Rapid Response. Immediately, fire survivors started making housing requests. For example, on the Maui Hale Match website, displaced fire survivors input the type of housing they need, their situation, and what they can afford. Property owners and landlords input what type of housing they can offer and any other pertinent information. When there is a match, the person looking for the housing and person offering the housing are each notified about the other through email, hopefully resulting in a lease.”
Maui has many empty second homes and short-term rentals, nearly 19,000 units in West Maui and South Maui combined. Jachowski says this is far more than enough to immediately house the 3,000+ displaced families. Most of the families requesting housing want to stay on Maui, but a small number are open to housing on other islands. Homeowners statewide are encouraged to sign up and see whether they can help.
Jachowski added, “I am asking the community to spread the word about those affected by the fires who still need long-term housing and stability. My hope is that more of our second-home and short-term rental owners will open up their hearts and homes.”
I hope to make it easier for displaced fire survivors to connect with homeowners and landlords that have available units they can afford.
Matt Jachowski
For the past 30 years, Maui resident Louis Coulombe has built a reputation for Lahaina’s beachfront restaurant, Pacific’o on the Beach. While there are no words for the amount of loss and tragedy that continues to unfold in Lahaina, few people on island are aware of Coulombe’s crop-diversified, sustainable O’o Farm. Offering meals prepared on-site by the farm chef along with daily farm tours at 3,500 feet above sea level, O’o Farm’s 8.5 acres are situated on pristine Kula land, sustainably maintained and naturally cultivated with a no-till approach. In 2000, surfing buddies turned successful restaurateurs, Coulombe and Stephan Bel-Robert purchased the upcountry land that had only a citrus orchard and a few coffee trees. Today, O’o Farm includes Hawaiian coffee and fruit trees, rows of lettuce and garden vegetables, and green houses with flavorful tomatoes, herbs, flowers, a gift shop, and more.
“To grow locally on an island is one of the most sustainable things you can do,” said Coulombe. “If you operate a restaurant and can recycle food waste in the farm compost—even better. If you can follow crop diversification and organic methods—even better. If you can share what you do with the community and visitors, I think it contributes to the sustainable front.”
During the covid pandemic, and recently the Maui wildfires, community members picked up boxes of produce from the farm. O’o Farm supplies Maui Food Bank, and numerous restaurants and chefs around the island. O’o Farm Chef and Farm Manager Daniel Eskelsen said,“It’s my joy to be able to pass along the fruits of our labor. We like to share our farming methods with our guests and explain how we grow, harvest, and roast coffee at the highest elevation in the state. Our guests also learn about how our free-range farm chickens help us remove invasive grass and fertilize along drip lines in the trees.”
Mainland tour and lunch participants Grant and Pat Lucas from Texas shared their O’o Farm experience. “The amount of knowledge and our freshest seed-to-cup and farm-to-table meal was unmatched. With the bi-coastal views and quiet charm of farm life, this was a priceless experience. We’ll be back!”
Here at O’o Farm and Pacific’o, students may apply for internships receiving full college credits. Volunteers who want to learn about sustainable farming should also contact us.
Daniel Eskelsen, O’o Farm Chef and Farm Manager
The County of Maui Volunteer Center joins with over 100 nonprofits to mobilize volunteers for those affected by the Maui wildfires. Many people are searching for ways to assist the community right now. Below is a short list of some of the current opportunities within the Center’s partner agencies. Volunteer opportunities will continue to arise over the coming months as help, recovery and healing are all needed.
Maui Strong Fund: Administered by the Hawaii Community Foundation, the fund provides financial resources to support the immediate and long-term recovery needs for residents affected by the wildfires. See www.mauinuistrong.info for information on how to donate or volunteer to assist. For additional information, call 808-270-7285.
Maui United Way: MUW plans to continue providing monetary grants to each resident with a home or business in the burn zones. Those who want to donate should go to mauiunitedway.org or call 808-244-8787 to volunteer.
Maui Food Bank: The sign-up form is on the website: mauifoodbank.org. Scroll down and click ‘Emergency Volunteer Sign-Up’. Non-perishable food donations can be dropped off daily from 6:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. to the Maui Food Bank Store at 90 Amala Place, Kahului.
Hawaii Red Cross: Register online as a Hawaii Red Cross Volunteer or streamline the application by visiting their office at 95 Mahalani Street, Conference Room # 3, Building 5, Wailuku.
Na Hoaloha: Volunteers provide escorted transportation for seniors who need to go to medical appointments, grocery shopping, and more. To volunteer, call 808-249-2545.
Our Kupuna: Join them in making a difference in the Our Kupuna Volunteer Program. For more information, go to http://www.ourkupuna.com/volunteer .
Maui Humane Society: To volunteer or donate, go to info@mauihumanesociety.org or call 808-877-3680.
Maui Rescue Mission: Offering a mobile resource center for those struggling with homelessness. Recently, donors and volunteers delivered 100 fire relief bags to those displaced by the fire. Contact them at info@mauirescuemission.org or call 808-727-9008
MEDB’s ‘ohana continues to hold all those affected by the Maui fires in our thoughts and prayers as we work collectively to serve our community’s recovery and renewal.
Leslie Wilkins, MEDB President & CEO
MEDB stands with our community in shock and profound grief at the enormity of the catastrophe on Maui’s West Side and Upcountry. Like so many on our island, we have been personally touched with loss and trauma that too many others have shared.
The eyes of the world are focused on Maui – our predicament remains on the front pages of the international media, whether print or digital. Like many others here, we at MEDB have received messages from the global community of support, empathy and compassion. We would like to assure our community that we will strive in the weeks and months ahead to serve at the forefront of our community’s recovery and renewal. To all who have suffered loss, we express our deepest and heartfelt sympathy.
Providing everything the community has come to expect from it, the popular Maui County Farm Bureau Maui AgFest & 4-H Livestock Fair was held in June 2023. The event, to raise awareness about Maui agriculture, brought together ag industry and supporters to share what each group does for the collective good of ag in the County. Agriculture’s vital role in the economy and lifestyle of Maui was showcased by the Legacy Breakfast honoring longtime farmers, the fresh produce and vendors, food trucks, live local entertainment, a keiki zone, cooking classes, an educational tent, farmers market, the Grand Taste, and last but certainly not least, the Maui 4-H Livestock Show and Auction.
“The 4-H’ers were keen to talk about their program while showcasing their animals,” said Nancy Ooki, Assistant Extension Agent 4-H Youth Development, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii. “They’re proud to exhibit their healthy and groomed livestock animals including cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, and more. Managing and raising livestock is a must-have opportunity for our keiki.”
Maui 4-H Livestock offers two types of projects: Market and Breeding. Market projects in beef cattle, sheep, and swine entails the 4-H member raising, feeding and finishing an animal to proper market weight for harvest. Breeding projects allow the 4-H member to raise cattle and goats as breeding stock. At the final show, an expert judge evaluates the livestock for their potential as either breeding or market animals, provides a critique for each animal in the class, and compares the form of the animal with the purpose it is intended to serve.
Landon Lung, Carden Academy 7th grader, shared, “My brother and I enjoy raising animals and being members of 4-H. We attend 4-H meetings and our whole family is involved. We learn about agriculture, how to take care of the animals, and how animals can help us care for our land and environment. Our 4-H Pledge is ‘My HEAD to clearer thinking; My HEART to greater loyalty; My HANDS to larger service; and My HEALTH to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.’”
Healthy living, science, and citizenship are incorporated into projects other than livestock throughout the year. 4-H special-interest programs focus on specific topic areas that teach experientially.
Nancy Ooki
Assistant Extension Agent 4-H Youth Development, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii
“Poetry,” as the late Maui resident W.S. Merwin said, “is a way of looking at the world for the first time.” These oft-quoted words have come alive again for Sonnet Kekilia Coggins, Executive Director of The Merwin Conservancy. In recent days she has come to think of The Conservancy as a poem, a space distinct and discrete in form, elusive and inexhaustible in content. The Merwin Conservancy inspires innovation in the arts and sciences by advancing the ideas of W.S. Merwin and his palm forest── as fearless and graceful examples of the power of imagination and renewal. “It is a place of agency, evolution, and possibilities beyond its own imagining,” Coggins said. “A walk here in this poetic place, particularly in the company of the writers, artists, and scientists who come to dwell here for a time, is most certainly a way of looking at the world anew.”
The Green Room Series, offering sparking conversations about language, nature, and imagination, are back in-person at the Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center in Makawao after a long hiatus. Thanks in part to funding from the Hawaii Council for the Humanities, The Conservancy also produced a virtual walk through W.S. Merwin’s palm garden. Moreover, the garden is now open again once a month to the public. The Conservancy has hosted creative writing classes from UH and looks forward to hosting Maui County school groups again.
“We are happy to share the experience of this place across the islands, the continent, and the world,” Coggins noted. “As we are mid-way through 2023, I look back at the first full year of The Artists in Residency Program. It has been such a great way to continue the vibrant creative life of the house and garden that Merwin created here. It is not only for writers, but all kinds of people who, like Merwin, can see beyond the present moment and see into things that are possible. The imagination is an essential key to solve problems and envision new ways for the future, so it is natural that this program supports the people who do that across all aspects of the arts and sciences.”
We are grateful to all our special guests. May this place open the world around you, ahead of you, and under your feet.
Sonnet Kekilia Coggins, Executive Director, W.S. Merwin Conservancy
Sean Na’auao, multiple time winner of the prestigious Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award, is the concert headliner on Friday, June 30 at The Shops at Wailea. The live performance will take place from 5:30-7pm to benefit Hospice Maui, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing care to local families experiencing a bereavement state. Na’auao, a multi-talented performer, is one of Hawaii’s most beloved artists. A singer, musician, producer and composer, he started his professional musical career following high school, as part of Mana‘o Company. His solo career started with two releases, “Giving Something Back” and “Hawaiian Living,” in the mid-1990s.
“I always remember where I came from and keep to my roots,” Na’auao said. “Life is about learning and celebrating wisdom through experiences and kupuna. I find inspiration through my ancestors, while perpetuating the Hawaiian music for all generations. Hospice Maui provides an extraordinary service in our community and I am happy to perform a concert to benefit them. It’s truly about giving something back.”
Diana Whitt, General Manager and Vice President for Property Management of The Festival Companies, said, “We are excited that the one-and-only Sean Na‘auao will help us celebrate the start of summer with an incredible performance. We also want to invite our guests to meet the Hospice Maui team and learn how together, we can continue to make a difference in our community.”
At the concert, guests will have the opportunity to learn more about Hospice Maui, the variety of resources they offer, and ways to give back to the organization; including Hospice Maui Hale and palliative and bereavement support. The Hospice Maui team will also discuss community outreach opportunities where interested guests can receive educational support, be part of the discussion on how to provide compassionate care through volunteering, or make a donation.
“We are so grateful for the support of our community, the inspiring dedication of our entire Hospice Maui team, and The Shops at Wailea for being a trusted platform for us to share our efforts,” said Melanie Dwyer, CEO of Hospice Maui. “Together, we will continue to provide compassionate, high quality hospice and palliative care services to those in need.”
I dedicate my music to the people of Hawaii with the hope that it can inspire a love of their origin and roots. Let’s support Hospice Maui together.
Sean Na’auao, Multi-Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award Winner
