 This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community Matters here. It's strange, but we're kind of like, hey, hello, hi, and how are you doing? Gordo the Taxi here. Welcome to another exciting and thrilling episode of Hibachi Talk. Please pull up a chair, grab yourself a libation, and join us for a fun-filled 28 minutes. This is going to be a real special show today because not because I don't have a co-host, it's because I have someone who trained me in this business who's going to be my, use my guests. Kayla Rosenfeld is my guest today, and she has a learned background in communications, but we're going to talk a little bit about that, but we're going to talk more about what you're working on with Hibachi. See, I almost said it. Have a tap for humanity. We're going to get all of this stuff straightened around for our viewers. So let's start. I always like to get a little background. You've been on the show before, but that's being said. A little brief background on yourself and, you know, how you got to Hawaii, and where you went to school, where you grew up. Okay. Thank you very much for having me back. When you first had me, it was March this year when I first, when I started my current service at Habitat for Humanity. I got to Habitat for Humanity through a basic job. They were looking for somebody to help them build capacity. They needed somebody to work in the restore to help develop volunteer programs and do a little community outreach, marketing, policy and procedure, and recycling programs. So I have background in all of that communication background. I applied for that position and it turned out to be an AmeriCorps Vista position. Okay. That's your background. Well, one of your backgrounds. The AmeriCorps Vista. It's like the domestic Peace Corps. And I serve for one year in an underserved community in a capacity that the community needs me to serve. So I'm serving in the restore and essentially helping the restore get its name and word out into the public so that people know it's a great place to shop and that when they shop there, they're contributing to a good cause. So restore, it was new or did it take over from someone else? Like was there like another non-profit entity that they absorbed? No, the restore has always been part of the Honolulu Habitat for Humanity brand. And it is a separate revenue generating and public relations tool. Revenue generating in that people donate to the restore, people buy from the restore, and all of the proceeds from the sale of restore items get reinvested back into the mission of building homes, community and hope for habitat families. And that's the key point. So restore's key mission is housing? The Habitat for Humanity key mission is building homes, community and hope. Second to that is putting people in decent and affordable housing. And the restore is a tool to raise money to make that happen. So this is not goodwill. This is not with closing, clothing coming in. This is a lobbing up this question because I know it's not a goodwill type enterprise. So it's related to creating affordable, not necessarily purchase housing, but livable housing. Yes. And I have a restore up in Waimea where I live and I buy materials from them for building my house. I also give them materials back to them, you know donate back to them that I haven't used in my house, rather than store it in the landfill. And that's how the system works. And that's how that, so that's the habitat for humanity restore. So I want to make sure we clarify a couple of things. So I get this, oh, isn't that Habitat? Right, because the names are similar. Yeah. Again, Habitat has a very worthy organization, but they're not Habitat for Humanity restore. Correct. Habitat is drug rehabilitation. And they sell Christmas trees during the holiday season. Okay, that's Habitat. Great worthy organization. Habitat for Humanity is about building affordable homes and building communities where those affordable homes can be built. Okay. So Habitat, the Habitat organization has something called the Restore, which is that tool that I described, the revenue generating and public relations. The Restore is often confused with another business in town called Reuse. Yes. Hawaii. Okay. Yes. We're different. Reuse, Hawaii, also a very commendable organization. They demolish buildings and then they sell the products of those buildings. That's how they earn their money plus donations. Plus donations. We at Habitat for Humanity Restore are all about donations. So you're all about donations of? Gently used and new furniture, home accessories, plumbing materials, plumbing, all that stuff. Roofing materials. I can tell you, I have purchased new materials that have been donated, donated by contractors and such to your organization. And I go in there, oh, I've been looking. So instead of me having to go online and figure it all out, so I make a visit every time I go buy the Restore, I check in to see what they might have. Right. So I actually have some stuff I got to drop off next time I'm up there. But you said it's quality stuff. It is quality. It's gently used, but it is quality. To be functional beyond the time that it leaves the store. Most things are tested before they go out. But what I want to also point out is that everything that's donated, whoever donates, gets a tax write-off on that. And then everything also in the store itself is half the price of what you would find in a regular retail store. Oh, if not. It starts at half, cut it in half, and then it goes down. I know, because I've got light fixture canisters, brand new, never been used that I was able to purchase for unbelievably great discounted prices. Right. So it's true. We have a sign, so people just know the Habitat for Humanity Restore logo. It'd be good to throw that slide up. That'd be great. Thank you. That'd be a good idea. And then your address, where you're located here in Honolulu. Correct. In Kalihi, 922 Austin Lane, and that's across from Tomashiro Market. There's the Queen Victoria Cahilani School across from Tomashiro Market. We're next door to the school, down a dead-end lane called Austin Lane. You've got to know where you're going to buy that on the street. But the key is you're across from Tomashiro Market. That is the key. And that's the key. And everybody knows where Tomashiro Market is. Exactly. So on your visit to Tomashiro Market, they need to pull by and stop by. And not necessarily all was purchased, but if you've got something, if you're a contractor, you know, plumber, electrician, whatever, and you've got some good materials that others can use, and you don't want to be dumping them in the landfill. Yes. Yeah. Do you know the Restore keeps 125 tons of material out of the landfill every year, just by being a source of donations. 125 tons of material. It's 2,000 pounds in a ton. Exactly. And it's 250,000 pounds just on the Restore. The Honolulu one? The Honolulu one. Just that storefront. Well, I may have one. Just the Honolulu one. No, just the Honolulu one. Whoa, whoa. So I have another picture. So some of the products that you have, you're rating it a non-profit home improvement store, you've got nice furniture. Yeah. I have a picture of that if you can put that up. Yeah. We're going to try and get Dray to throw that one up so we can get a chance to see. So there you go. Look at this stuff. Look at those chairs in the back. Those are never been used. And you know what? Things change every hour. We have new merchandise on the showroom floor because people donate regularly every hour. So we've got people who come in every couple of days, regular customers who come in every couple of days to pick up their stuff, just to see what's there. We also have a donation pickup service that a person can apply for. And those donations arrive on Mondays. So those who know about shopping at the Restore know to come in Tuesday afternoon when the new stuff has showed up. So that's personalized shopping with a good cause behind it. Right. Again, every penny that is earned from sales at the Restore go back into building homes for our partner family. Okay. So now I'm going to throw up another slide, which is a loaded question. So what are the donations that you accept? What would be the donations that have a current? Okay. Furniture, definitely furniture. Building materials, household appliances, household accessories, like you're changing out your dishes, for example. Right. Great. There's the list. Changing out your dishes. And your other dishes are just fine. Maybe there's a crack, a chip or something. That's okay. As long as it's not going to be a health hazard, we're okay with that. So building materials, hardware, electrical, and lighting, we've got all kinds. You know what? I have never seen in my entire life that quantity of light fixture covers. Oh, I had no idea that there were that many fixture covers in this pen. I know. Again, I walk in and I get ideas. I go, that's what I should do in the bathroom. That's how I'll solve that problem. Yeah. So just everything and anything. If you're a do-it-yourself kind of person, this is the place to come. To me, it's more fun than Home Depot and more fun than Los because you never know what you're going to find when you walk in the doors. Exactly. I mean, it's great. So windows, doors, I mean, there's just all kinds of... And we've had a recent couple donations of brand new windows, glass doors, screens. Wow. There's a beautiful pane in there right now, actually. Okay. So now that I'm trying to get all this wrapped around my little tiny brain is that, so you've got all these donations coming in. You've got all these materials going out. But the intent is to provide the housing piece. So how does that work? How does this all fit together? Okay. So as I say, the proceeds from sales at Restore are reinvested back into the housing. Okay. Into the construction and repair of housing because you may have a family, a traditional family home that doesn't need to be razed but the lanai is falling off or Auntie needs a ramp for her wheelchair or something. So we do those kinds of repairs as well. Well, so you have contractors available to you? Well, actually it's our staff, our very small construction staff and the volunteers who participate in the construction program. Okay. So you and I need to talk afterwards because I have an idea because one of the organizations I work with and they've been on the show, St. Francis Healthcare System. Yes. And they provide services to people, seniors that live at home, don't want to go anywhere else. But they need things like a ramp build, a lanai fixed, a leaky faucet. Correct. Those kinds of things. So they're the kind of entity that you should be, I should be put you together. Absolutely. That is my new assignment at the end of this show. Very nice. Very nice. The reason I do this show for a reason is it's kind of cool. Yeah. I get kind of neat stuff. Yeah. So you donate, shop and volunteers. So tell me about volunteers. So the volunteers really are what allows any habitat organization throughout the country. And by the way, we're in 70 countries around the world. We are international. But every state has a habitat, at least one. In Hawaii, we have seven different affiliates. Are they all in every island? Yeah. Every island has one. Hawaii Island has two and Oahu has two. The others have one. So what was the question? Volunteers. Volunteers. So volunteers are necessary to help us do what we want to do because we are a nonprofit organization and we want to run on a really tight budget. It takes as many as 300 volunteers at least to complete a single home build. So that's the home build aspect. And that's in addition to the small construction staff that we have and any kind of people like myself who are AmeriCorps Vista or AmeriCorps who are federally loaned to the program. So the people that are doing the labor are volunteering their time? Yes. The materials are being donated? Mostly. Mostly. You may have to purchase some. The families do contribute $1,000 for materials. Okay. So the families contribute $1,000 for materials. And then this volunteer group helps to move this. Why are we not hearing more about this? I mean, this is why we're doing this show right now. Yeah. We've got to get the word out. Because it's not a handout. I mean, it's not an easy program. You have to apply. You have to demonstrate that you need this program. You have to demonstrate you need housing. For example, you're a family of 10 and you live in a one or two bedroom house. Right. With a half, one half bath. Right. So in our minds, habitat for humanity, affordable, decent housing, might be three bedrooms, maybe four to accommodate the 10. Same gender kids would be in one bedroom. Their gender and the other parents have their own. So it's decent and affordable, but not run over multiple. Owner is, yeah, yeah, owner. Okay. So you have to demonstrate the need for housing. You have to demonstrate financial stability because you do have to come up with $1,000 for material and you also will be paying a mortgage, a monthly mortgage. Okay. That is configured to meet your financial capacity. This is cool stuff. This is very cool stuff. Okay. So we're going to take it. And one more thing. Third thing is you got to be willing to do sweat equity hours. Okay. And you know what? I love that. That's always been one of the things I've always said about the handout society that we have is that you really need to be. And not everybody's willing to do that, which is the challenge. Yeah. And that's the challenge. Well, then we have to educate them that they should. So we're going to do a short break. Yes, sir. We're going to come back and we're going to talk about a couple of things you've got going on, events, fundraising, the 25th of November, some cool things that are happening. Thank you. So Kayla Rosenfeld here. And I call you, you're my marketing guru par excellence. That's the name I give to you. I've learned everything I know about doing this business from Kayla. Anyway, we'll be back in just a minute. We're going to talk about some upcoming fun events. This is Think Tech Hawaii, Raising Public Awareness. The Big Bangs Astronaut. At DiveHeart, we believe that to be true. We say, forget the moon. DiveHeart can help children, adults, and veterans of all abilities escape gravity right here on searchdiveheart.org. And imagine the possibilities in your life. Match day is no ordinary day. The pitch. Hallowed ground for players and supporters alike. Excitement builds. Game plans are made with responsibility in mind. Celebrations are underway. Ready for kickoff. MLS clubs and our supporters rise to the challenge. We make responsible decisions while we cheer on our heroes and toast their success. Elevate your match day experience. If you drink, never drive. This is Think Tech Hawaii, Raising Public Awareness. Greetings, it's me, Angus McTech, the longtime host and star of Hibachi Talk. Think Tech is some point in our community because we bring all kinds of cool ideas and I bring gadgets to the show. So you got to watch it for sure. But for the first time, Think Tech Hawaii is participating in an online web-based fundraising campaign that raised $40,000. Give thanks to Think Tech. We'll run only during the month of November and you can help. Please donate what you can that Think Tech in Hawaii can continue to be public awareness and promote civic engagement through free programming like mine. And I'm a charge. I've already made my donation and it's really hard to get disgust when they make a donation but I already did. Please sit in your tax-deductible contribution by going to this website. Thanks for to thinktech.causebox.com. Say that three times fast. Closing on behalf of the community enriched by Think Tech Hawaii, 30 plus weekly shows. Thank you and we're mahalo for watching Think Tech and your generosity. Let your wing game free wherever you be. Aloha. Hey, aloha. Gordo the Tech star here. Welcome to Hibachi Talk. When Hibachi talks, the world listens. I have Kayla Rosenfeld here. We're talking about habitat for humanity and the restore and creating housing and opportunities for people who are willing to be part of the restoration of their housing and whatever. Part of the community. Part of the community. So I want to, when we left in the first half, we talked about some projects that you've done and is this 78 houses or something? We just finished house number 78 in Kaneohe and the gentleman, he's a single gentleman. It is his first time he's ever owned a home and he's in his late 70s. Whoa, I can deal with that. So Ray, if you've got a slide, I've got a great slide out here. It says the end result. It shows his house. It shows some families that have been able to get, not even restarted. I think they're started. They just needed the extra boost. Exactly, some assistance. And this is since 1988. We have built 78 homes here just on Oahu and that's east of Kunea Road. So Leeward, there's a separate affiliate on the Leeward side of the islands and they do their own numbers. They've done their own numbers as well. Correct, so Honolulu 78. Yeah, so this is great. So now we talked earlier about the donations and going into purchasing and the volunteers and so on, but what about corporations? How can corporations get involved in this? So corporations have a huge role to play. You can contact, for example, a corporation can contact our volunteer coordinator, for example, and you can set up a volunteer day in the restore or you can set up a volunteer day on the construction site. So if you had a construction company and you wanted to do something, you could bring your crew together? You could or a construction company can donate the materials needed for a home. But if you wanted to get out there and get your hands dirty, there are two ways to do that in the restore and on the construction site. And we call them corporate sponsors and there is a corporate fee that is paid to the Hawaii, the Honolulu Habitat Organization, which covers all the expenses and helps us because we are non-profit. This is one of the ways that we earn our money, grants, sponsorships, donations. Okay, and I'm just thinking. In fact, I have a slide that shows some of our corporate sponsors. If you want to bring it up. Yes, Ray, I might be near the... Oh, I'm trying to think where it might be. I had it somewhere. Where did I have that? Where did I have that? All the corporate sponsors. Right here. There it is. Number seven. It's number seven on the slide deck. And we're really proud of the corporate sponsors because they're taking a step outside the box. They really are... Yeah, this is not your typical American heart or all the big, well-recognized players. Exactly. That are out there in the side. Because look at this, you've got Delta airlines. That's their tech ops. Yep. Central Pacific Bank. I do my business banking there. Hawaiian Airlines. Look at this. These are veterans from Ventures United Group 70. I've done work with them. Wow, Home Street Bank? This is kind of cool. These are... And then all of these people who volunteer go home and tell other people what they've done and that's how we spread the word. That's why it's not just money, but it's conversation. It's conversation. And Habitat Restore has not been around... The Restore is five years. Five years. We're celebrating five years on Saturday, in fact. So I love the way this stuff... Transition. You taught me well. So as we transition... So there's some cool stuff happening. So what's happening on Saturday? Okay, so Saturday the Restore celebrates five years of service to the Honolulu community. The Honolulu Habitat affiliate has been around since 1988. Habitat... The Restore started in 2012. So on Saturday we're going to clear out our receiving bay, our donation receiving bay. And we're going to set up information tables. And we have... The city and county is going to be there talking about recycling. There's going to be a booth to make Christmas ornaments for Kapolei Halle, made out of trash, upcycled trash. We're going to have a rain barrel workshop going on. So it's like taking soda syrup barrels. You drill holes in them. One here, one here. And there's a spigot that you can put in. And there's a hose. And the whole idea is that you just put this out in your yard and it's a rain barrel. And you can use it like catchment water. For irrigating your yard... For irrigating your yard, doing your laundry, whatever. And as many of us know on Oahu, your sewer bill is tied to the water consumption you have. And if your sewer bill is high, name one it isn't, it's because you're consuming the water. So if you go to this catchment system, you could reduce your water bill tremendously. Tremendously. I mean, on the big island, we have catchments and stuff like this. But never thought about these barrels. I have to go look at the restores. See if we've got those barrels up there. Yeah, check them out. Check them out. So you can get a ticket to the barrel workshop. It's Saturday from 11 to 12 at our location at 922 Austin Lane. I have, later on the show, there's a link to the event Bright. Right, right. So you can get a ticket to go. It's a free event, but we just want to know how many people are coming. So check that out. You can sign up for the rain barrel workshop there. That cost is $45. That's the only thing that will cost anything. Well, worth it. Again, if you see your water bill. And it's fabulous. And we're doing the pilot project is being launched in Kalihi. And that's why we're one of the sites for it. Wow. Oh, I love this idea. I love this idea. Hope we got barrels in the background. So rainwater barrel workshop going on, information boost about recycling. Pono home is going to be there to talk about greening your home, auditing your home so that you minimize the amount of electrical waste, that kind of thing. And we also have a live auction. Actually, let me rephrase that, an online auction. Right. So that's the other part. So on Saturday, you've got this event that's happening. What's the time frame for that? Saturday will be from 10 to 2. From 10 to 2 on Saturday. Thomas Shearall Market. Cross Thomas Shearall. Cross the road down the lane. Right. It sounds like a song. And we'll have people there. Oh, yeah. It signs out on the street. So it's something to seriously consider on Saturday. Hey, Christmas isn't that far away. And then, but now you've got this auction that's happening, which is kind of cool. It is. That I was on the site yesterday. Yeah. So tell me about the auction. So the auction is through Bidding Owl. It's the first time I've done an online auction. I've done, you know, real in person auctions. And it's kind of cool. So everything that's in there has been donated to the restores. So we took the cream of the crop of everything that's been donated. There's some magnificent artwork in there. Yeah. There's some artwork there that Steve Powers, and he is an artist who will be there on Saturday to talk about his work. The Weiland. There's an autographed Weiland there. Everything from Weiland is autographed and everything from Steve Powers is autographed. There's all autographed. Right. So that's all. So those are the really high-end stuff. And, you know, high-end stuff was starting biz at 25 dollars, valued at close to 500 dollars was starting biz at 25. So I'm just telling you, from a Christmas present perspective, you can go in and pick up something for your family that's pretty magnificent. It is. I mean, there's little things in there. There's cultural artifacts. There's some Hawai'iana stuff. There's vintage luggage. There's this light fixture. Oh, yeah. Those beautiful. Yeah. Oh, just those great light fixture stuff and so on. So it's a great, great opportunity to get there. Now, when does the auction end? The auction closes at 1.30 Hawaii time on the 25th, Saturday or 25th. So, and if I go to the re-store, those auction items are there? They are there now. Everything's there. And we ask that if you're going to bid on something and you win it, that you come get it. Yeah, that you come get it. Yeah. That's only fair. That's only fair. Or you can donate it to me. Or you can just donate it back to us. Or donate it back. There you go. That happens. I'm bidding on something right now, so hopefully I'll get it. Cool. I might have to come by on Saturday at 1.35 and just make sure I have it. Please do. Okay. So what else is happening? So this is really cool. I mean, I want to talk a little bit. You'll get a couple of minutes left. Okay. I'll just talk a little bit about you because this is a great program and so on. And you've just spent so much of your life in this community, doing community related things from your days at Hawaii Public Radio to, you know, Wild Rose Productions. Communications. Communications and what you do in this space. But, you know, this particular gig doesn't last forever. It does not. It comes to a close on March 7th, 2018. So on March 7th, 2018, and you've always do these, you do these amazing things that don't pay a lot, that contribute a lot to the community. Yeah. So as of the beginning of March, you're back out looking for a new project. I am. I need to take forward. So I want to, I'm just going to promote you. Thank you. Promote you and say, you know, I've worked with Kayla for decades and I'm going to be starting to see if I got a couple of ideas that we can talk about. But if you ever want, if anyone out there watching this wants to talk to Kayla, you can just go to the website. My contact information is there. Wild Rose Communications. It's all there. And then, and again, I promise you the background and depth is amazing. On your, what you've done in this community, what you've done in this community for many people in this community. Last message you want to get out regarding what's happening with this event and such. To bring everything to a close. Yes. In terms of what I'm doing now and what I've done to get me to this point. I just want to say I've had an opportunity, some really exciting different things. And this particular job at the Honolulu Habitat has been really enlightening. I mean, I've covered Kalihi as a reporter and as a news director. But I'm in the community now. And I feel really grateful that I've had the opportunity to learn more about my community firsthand. And it is a cool community. It's a wonderful community. That is the working class community of this kind of this island. Taste of Kalihi and all the things that have gone in. It's just awesome. The fear that that's going to become a kakaako. Yeah. I can't tell you the fear I have about that because where are those people going to go? That is the working class of this island. Right. And I feel really honored to have been welcomed into it and be able to make a difference in that community with something like this. And to be in a position that I can invite you, the listener, anybody who is part of this community to come and be part of that family. It makes a huge difference. That's right. And the Habitat Restore is a really cool spot to go to. It is. I mean, it's a great drop by every Saturday. On your way to Costco. There you go. We're right around the corner from Costco. We're right around the corner. We're right around the corner. Yep. Anyway, Kayla, it's been just a pleasure having you on the show. A pleasure of Gordon. Always. It's always, always. We usually give autograph solo cups, but you got one already. I do. So I can't give you a second one. That's fine. Plus, I just got off an airplane. I didn't have my cups with me. So anyway, I want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Please enjoy your family and friends. Give everybody a hug more than once. And like we say at the end of your show, and I forgot to give you the heads up, how you doing? How you doing?