I have been fortunate enough to visit Maui many times.  I have walked the streets of Lahaina.  I have purchased shirts and necklaces and other memorabilia from the shops.  I have eaten in the restaurants.  I feel some of the loss and suffering and confusion of the people who live there, and who work there.  I stare at the pictures of ashes where homes, businesses, churches, and historical buildings once stood.  I am saddened by what I see.  I cannot imagine how it is to have lost my home, all my possessions, and my business or place I worked to earn money to pay my bills, live a little and save a little; suddenly, in just a few hours, wiped away by a terrible inferno.  Neighbors lost their lives and many others lost their pets. Everything residents enjoyed about living in Lahaina changed in just a few hours.  People from all walks of life are suddenly left with little or nothing.  Having been in Lahaina several times, I feel like Ohana, like family - it's the way Hawaiians make you feel.

The road to recovery in Lahaina will be long and arduous, filled with uncertainty, disappointment, and stressful challenges of deciding how to get back to where they were before August 8, 2023.  Over 50% of the people in Lahaina rented their living quarters.  How many will be without Renters Insurance, meaning an insurance company will not reimburse their loss of property?  More than 1,500 people in Lahaina were living below the poverty level before the fire - how will they recover their possessions or the roof over their heads?  Where will they cook their next meal?  What will they sit on to eat or drink? What will they wear tomorrow or the next day?  Where will they wash their clothes, if they have any left?  Where will they sleep?  How will they stay comfortable in a tropical climate that can be quite warm and humid?  Where can they stay out of the rain or hot sun?  How will they buy anything - and where can they go to buy it?  Where do they bring their groceries or anything else?  They are refugees in their own hometown.  I cannot imagine being faced with these overwhelming conditions, and the fear and uncertainty that must fill their hearts and minds.

Whether it is a destructive fire in Lahaina, an earthquake in Syria, or a war in Ukraine, people suffer.  And I struggle with, "What can I do to help?"  A donation to some relief fund hardly feels like I did enough.  Yes, if a million people do the same thing, and the federal and state governments play nice with each other, then some relief comes, but it is never fast enough or vast enough.  More than 3,000 structures were exposed to the heat and flames, damaged by it, or completely destroyed in an area of less than 10 square miles of natural beauty from the seaside to gentle rolling mountains.  The sites and sounds of Lahaina are now almost unbearable.  Whether or not I am a direct relative of an inhabitant of Hawaii is immaterial - they are people, they are Ohana to me.

Perhaps what I can do is help my family define their dreams, goals, and entrepreneurial spirit to help them focus on their future rather than their current difficult moments, to know that they can again establish their lives in Lahaina, finding and creating the options and opportunities they need to make that happen.  Many have lost everything - except their human spirit.  They will rise from the ashes as long as they apply their spirit to their future.  It would be incredibly humbling to have the opportunity to communicate with residents of Lahaina using the tools of the Internet so I can work with them on comfort and inspiration in their journey forward.

I invite any Lahaina resident who this disaster has impacted to reach out to me, and if I can offer solace or inspiration, I would be glad to do so.  If other people wish to join in this effort, I invite you also to contact me.  We all have gifts and talents, and we may not know how to make them available to others, but it is worthy of discussing to see if we can find creative ways to help others beyond what money can do.  

If a monetary donation is what you have in mind, here are some organizations to help the people in Lahaina and other stricken areas of Maui:

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