 This is Think Tech Hawai'i, Community Matters Here. Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of Hawai'i in Uniform. I'm your host Calvin Griffin and for those of you who may or may not have seen the program in the past, here in the program we talk about what's happening with the military and veterans community. Hopefully what happens sometimes when you're doing a live program is that things do happen. We had Mr. Mark McCabe who was scheduled to appear with us from the Vietnam Vets Association out of Florida. And he came on last time and talked about a few issues that our military and vets have been discussing. One of the things that we were going to discuss and hopefully we may still have him on the program is what's happening in the military communities as far as certain issues with health. And one of the, those of you who may be familiar with the camp legion, there were some issues about the water out there and the effects on the families and the service members. That's still being addressed and we'll bring you some more information on that. As I mentioned in the future, what we're going to be doing, we're going to be tying into some individuals that have some really pertinent information about what's happening again, not only with the vets and the active duty, but also how it impacts the civilian community also. Because as we mentioned before, with the veterans and the military, a very integral part here in the state of Hawaii, we have roughly about 120,000 vets, give or take, that participate in some form or fashion with the communities. And we're going to be talking with these individuals who are instrumental, and a lot of them I call unsung heroes because they do get involved in a very major way as far as trying to improve the quality of the lives as far as the participation in the political process. And also, but right now we have a guest, local guest right now, Mr. Makaleo, who's with the Angel Network and may I call you Mac? Yes. Good. Welcome to the program and the Angel Network. First, could you tell us a little bit about yourself? Yes. I see that. I'm the founder of the Angel Network charity, Mrs. Ivy Olson. Anybody out there that knows her out here serving the homeless and doing their homework mission. Yeah. We've worked here for over 20 years. Okay. The group that you're with right now is the Angel Network. How extensive is that? We actually serve over almost 700 people a week on a Thursday at Friday Mass. Okay. I know, of course, we're talking about, you know, of course community issues also, but of course, do you have a lot of veterans that come through there and what programs that may be available that they may not be aware of? Yes. Not only do we have the homeless, we have the elderly, veterans, the people around the community that are struggling and don't have to be homeless to come and get food. We can come and get dry foods from our pantry and also perishables from our refrigerators. We also have the Star Free Color Foam, where anybody that's been logged in from, they need to come home. We have each chap that helps out with finding jobs and also bring their resume, they need to get their resume caught up. We have also legal aid from society with people that need to get legal questions answered. That is the third agency that comes down here and also we have the landings and reels, how many people get their food delivered to their homes, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have the whole food bank service that we have there, commodity senior food boxes. Anybody that's over 60 can sign up and get their boxes picked up here. We also have the O'Hana drop piece that's three times a month. They can also get extra clothes. They can get a hot shower here. They can wash the small load of clothes, dry load of clothes. They don't pay for anything. You can come in and get your hygiene gear if they want this. They need any kind of hygiene. Please send to me for your permit. Anything in the nation that come around the area from this site, we have all the materials for the families to come and help yourselves. So I can have a very extensive networking system after anyhow. Just again to tie in with the veterans, what organizations that may help to support or contact with US vets or any other groups out there that you're familiar with that provide certain services? It was the US vets. We used to go down to one of each part of the provision and help the vets out there every year. There was another outfit that came from Church Hill Hospital. I'm not sure what it was called. I don't know how they know the website. It helped the vets. Great. I know like to hear with the spirit of aloha, we have a lot of people like to volunteer and I know that you have quite a few volunteers that come in who are, again, keep stressing the military point. Do you have many active duty people or people associated with the military that try to assist? Right now we're dealing with two organizations, one deal with serving the youth. He's asking one of the sergeants in the military that comes in without their people. Once in a while we may have the time to come in and stop the aloha drop-dates. This is when we serve more than 5 plus 600 people a day. There is also a few other agencies that can actually pick on their names right now when they come in in their own shop and you want to know what we should be coming in on time if they need to come in and help. Okay. Overall, do you have any plans for expansion as far as, again, with the volunteerism or what can people do if they want to go ahead and help to support your efforts? We do have a hunger 19 or 20. I know hunger will walk. All the factories on the islands and it's done down in town coming up in September. And it's an agency thing that everybody, the Hawaii Food Bank, goes on for three days of food, entertainment, and a walk-over. Now a walk-over to town and back on the grass area. It just tends to your famous agency, and that's what I'm trying to call it, somebody said to put it back into the agency to buy food. Okay. All right. There's also Thanksgiving. Anyone out there, they don't have a place to go to eat or don't have a family to move. Always welcome to come to tell everybody to see the great church here in Aina Aina. That's where I serve 30 lunch when it's more like a dinner. We serve, we serve it all style and I have entertainment for the people out here who set up tents and chairs for anybody next to need a hot meal or something to come to the kosher. On Thanksgiving Day every year. All right. Okay. I know that the history of the, we're at the location we're at right now, again, I mean so many fabulous people over here and like I say, a lot of times local history is lost, but could you tell us a little bit more about how the operation out there got set up and I understand there was a couple that donated their home to help establish this entity? The angel that was started off back in the days before I got here, this Ivy Olsen and called it up Olsen, which he was the head pastor here at this church in the Lutheran Church in Aina Aina and he lived in a perishable home over here where we worked out of her house and she basically took all the women's people in, sheltered them, told them to get on their feet and then nurtured them until they got their jobs and let them go. But this place was a stepping stone place where she just put up everybody's house and inside of this church area and then onto her home in Hawaii. All right. Okay. Is she still with us or did she pass? We put her down and she's resting in peace in 2002. She's out in the ocean serving the good wishes. With her husband, which went down a year or two years later, about 2000 went down also. They have a legacy of this place and everyone knows this place from a huge drip shop on the store, which it used to be where we tried it all out just to have food. Okay. I know when we initially talked anyhow, you seem to be a very humble and dedicated individual and I know a lot, I know that, I'm quite sure you don't believe that what we're talking about, like I said, is about you, but could you tell us a little bit more about yourself because it seems like you've been dedicated for the past 20 years to helping out. Is there, what are some of the things that you would like to see or that is only horizon for yourself and for the organization? Well, when I finish up my substance abuse class so that I can get out into the community and maybe into the prison facility and help the young gentlemen and women out there and still suffer from the disease out there and teach them how to be, they can get a second chance in life and get their life on the outside. I've gone from a good past that I haven't. Not a thing to talk about because today I can reach out to people and know how to approach these people who want to get their health at the end because it's a one-stop shop out here. Most times people come out of the classroom and they will be telling them to hang on once they get released and go to the revolving door. This church gives you a lot of avenues. You get back in for a new year of wanting to work and in the future you get, you can do something about it but actually you probably end up working. You have a place to live. There's so much that I've learned from these things. It took me 23 years in an attic and nothing at all. I'm also running pathway houses with pathway houses. This is worldwide also. We start to help all of the inmates that come in and out of the revolving doors and into homes that we have about 35 to 30 houses on the island for women and children. Each of these to see when they come out. They're all structured here. A lot of times people dwell on the negative but as far as with the younger people, do you see more of an influx or more of an interest like say from the younger people who are really trying to get back to the basics and give more? Do you see that developing or how is that going? I see it developing because it's a revolving door in their own families and they see that values and beliefs go over and over and we come in these stories calling and asking them to come in and don't need their time to volunteer just to serve for the world and just watching their hearts move in that motion is wonderful to see that they'll get used. It starts as young without the help of you and there's such good spirit we just don't know where to go. It seems to be a revitalization anyhow because we hear a lot of course on the mainstream news about all the doom and gloom and everything else but I think what keeps this Hawaii and also around the country the spirit of giving back there's a lot of people who are concerned who want to do something that's worthwhile within the communities and they get one recognized and many of them are not looking for recognition and they're really heartening like I said to hear of individuals like yourself who get involved with the communities and try to perpetuate the spirit of aloha and the aloha. Yes, there is one thing that I would like to see happening in the community is how more churches open up and actually give those hot showers around the areas and participate in reaching out we have to be stereotyped when we speak for you don't know how you're feeling until you see the team in their eyes until they walk through the doors you know that they need their help you know that they're not out there just by coincidence they weren't from there but there is a lot of help on the streets there is a lot of help in the community and also ourselves is one of them that makes the world go round so it's all the agencies all the community on the island any island that can participate and help this problem that we have here. I think that's one of the things with all the people who have the giving spirit and don't want to get too much into politics but really to touch on it briefly it seems like sometimes there are certain rules or regulations that's put in place that prevent people who want to really get more involved in the community aspect and prevent it from doing so but again we don't need to get into a dwell on the political part of it right now but there's something that should be addressed by our voters and people out there who want to get rid of some of these things that do hamper the ability for people who want to go ahead and share the Aloha anyhow do you go to any of the other islands or travel around? I do I do not travel I know you're in a working environment like I understand that, I appreciate it I hear the phone ringing anyhow okay what else would you like to touch on that you think is really pertinent to our viewers? I'm cleaning the world today making a living, making a colleague here and there but there's always a small chance that you can put yourself in that spot because I could be standing in that right tomorrow without a job to these agencies that's out there helping out elderly, elderly, more likely and the children that's just suffering out there on the streets anything that you can pull out of your pocket you know to any agency that you know that would want to help that would be nice I'm not just saying that because we're all struggling but when you look at the whole way through back if it wasn't for the whole way through back and people like you doing what you do for the vets you know we can't make this world go round you know every little bit counts everything from about looking down you know we wish we were more like that you know we could be a much better place like I say we're all in this thing together anyhow but one thing I want to touch on also again is the of course there are a lot of elderly people who need assistance but there are a lot of them that are doing pretty well do you get a lot of volunteer interest from some of the more fortunate elderly individuals who want to share their experiences or just to you know to be part of the giving process there's others in the community that just don't have anything to do and they come down and walk through and wonder why the line is so long out here and they come in and find out what we do and then they want to help out in the community and they want to give more to what's going on around this church and this side of the east side of town I think that's one of the things where we're not really a lot of times the dots are not connected a lot of people are not aware of what's going on around them a lot of times you know because they think if they were aware we would get more interest and more participation you know in the you know in the human experience because you know like so we're here together is there anything that you you'd like to touch on that we haven't touched on yet okay is there any contact information you'd like to put out okay I'm sorry there is contact information here at the church this is the Calvary by the sea Lutheran Church 5339 Kalani Anahole Highway 96821 it's located on the Makai side of the highway in the Lutheran Church we are here for services any Thursday or Friday we have to call first we have different times because we have the 400 distribution that goes on three times a month and that starts at 12.30 to about 4 Wednesday starts at probably 10.30 to 2 right okay well, Ms. McEleno Mack thanks a lot like I'll be in touch and we'll do what we can of course to try to get the information out about what your the good works that's being projected out there very much for your time we appreciate it talk to you later okay