 My name is Cheryl Matsuoka, the Executive Director of the Hawai'i Restaurant Association and the Hawai'i Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Mahalo for joining me here on Restaurants of Hawai'i on the ThinkTech platform. Today we're going to be talking about a very heavy subject, and our hearts are very heavy as we think about those who have been affected by the Maui wildfires. Although in the face of this tragedy, we have also witnessed incredible strength and unity in our state. It's heartwarming to see the outpouring of love and support from all corners of our state. And today I'd like to have my guests introduce themselves. I'm honored to have two very special guests who will share with us exactly what is needed today and Maui on the Lahaina front. So first I'd like to have Auntie Blanche. My dear Auntie Blanche was introduced to me by my dear Auntie Peggy. And as soon as the wildfires hit, I was in Auntie Peggy's office and I had an opportunity to speak to Auntie Blanche over the phone. That next morning, Monday morning, I drove to Waimanalo to meet Auntie Blanche and to see how we could support her in her initiative. Auntie Blanche, could you please introduce yourself? Aloha, my name is Blanche McMillan. I am the CEO of the Huyumahi Aina of the Homeless Shelter, Auslan Shelter and the Poor. Mahalo. Mahalo Auntie. And I'd like to now introduce Major Troy, you know, how do I say this? Major, I don't know if you heard the story, but I was introduced to people over at the Salvation Army on the Saturday after the wildfires. I don't know if you heard the story that Naomi even know me at 4am in the morning. The email came through and what she was requesting was take out containers because now this is Saturday, right? So there's been a few days that we've been dealing with the wildfires. Immediately as her request came in for take out containers because everybody right needed to serve food. I was able to get a truckload of take out containers and utensils over to the Salvation Army so that you all could continue all the great work that you do. Major Trimmer, please introduce yourself. Well, thank you. Major Troy Trimmer, I'm the Salvation Army's divisional headquarters here in Hawaii. I'm the division commander for the Hawaiian Pacific Islands Division. So that oversees all of the Hawaiian Islands clear out to Guam, Saipan and beyond. Thank you for joining me. So Major, how has the Salvation Army been affected by the Maui wildfires? Well, first of all, Maui is our family, right? The Salvation Army has been in Maui since 1895. In fact, during the fires, our own operation in Lahina, we've lost everything. Praise God we didn't lose our personnel, but we lost our core building or that's a church for the Salvation Army. We lost our administration. We lost our thrift store. We lost our services to the community that happened there and even lost the parsonage or the Salvation Army quarters. But that very first night, our team made their way over to Kahului and got into the kitchen, even having lost their own homes, got into the kitchen and began preparing meals, which is what the Salvation Army does. So it's impacted us greatly. The most boring or difficult thing right now really is that we've lost the Lahina operation. So we're still efforting trying to get back into the west side. You know, we're looking at every opportunity and options is there, but we're not there. So prior to the fires, you know, the Salvation Army fed on daily basis, our houseless friends provided hygiene kits, did services to Kapuna. And so being primarily focused on our station in Kahului right now, all of our personnel goes over there every day to make sure where all of our services continue and happen. It lays heavy upon the hearts of our people that they're not back in the community in which they had to flee from. So we're really efforting hard to get there. That's probably the biggest impact personally to us as an organization. And then of course, all of the Ohana around all the neighboring islands, Salvation Army is a huge family. And when one part of the family hurts, just like everyone else in Blanche and her team, the rest of us hurt. So that's probably been the most significant manner. And I heard stories, major tremor of even your, your staff losing homes in Lahaina and still work through that. Yeah, they have almost all of our volunteer base and our staff who lost homes there were immediately serving still serve today. We have a fabulous guy we call Uncle Dino who has helped a lot with the Salvation Army over the years and has been helped by the Salvation Army. And when we were with him and Maui just a few weeks ago, he was able to tell me, you know, you know, major, the most pressing thing upon my heart that's been meaningful to me of all the time I've been with the Salvation Army is during this fire to just be able to be with people and to cry with people. And so while they're serving meals, they're taking time to talk story and to be with people who are impacted deeply by this, this tragedy. Thank you for all that you do at empty Blanche. Oh my God, I drove up there on Monday and I saw your facility out there at Mahi, I was impressed. Auntie, while I was there, the Waimanalo healthcare staff was also over there, you know, providing all of the checkups that they need to all of the different things that they need to do for record keeping. So, yes, such a significant leader in our community. It's an honor to meet you, but you know, yes. Yes, and I've seen you the Waimanalo community at Oahu, and now you're on Maui. Can you please share with us what you've been going through in the last four weeks? Actually, when I first started, I got a wake up call, and I never thought Maui would have fired there in Lahainau. And it was, and I got on a phone, just one phone call, made a millions of viewers came over and say, what can I do? Well, how can I help? And what I did, I decided, you know what, it is time for me to help our people in Maui. You know, this amazing thing, what really, really, the people of Hawaii really got together in this special thing that what happened to one of our islands, and we really went and pulled through with each other. It was so unbelievable how touching, how chicken skin it was when people started to come here and started to donate. And then from one thing, it became a 420 pallets of things that we needed. We needed a generator. It just came in one after another. But I didn't know my nephew who lives in Maui had 75 people on his property that came from Napeleway out from Lahainau. And I said, what a blessing. What I did, I got two containers to his home and made sure that our 75 families or people was there to feed them, medical, whatever the babies needed, they had everything. We supplied everything. And because of the love of the people that made what it is today, and that we continue on to bless each and every one of them. And that's why, you know, we had important people that brought things like Augi Tea, we had some big companies like Clementes, we even had our Waimanalo stores that donated a lot of things and brought food to feed all of us. There were hundreds and hundreds of volunteers every single day here. 13 days straight, nonstop. We started from 5 in the morning to 10 at night. And I never stopped anyone from bringing things, even if they come like 11 out the door will always be open for everyone. So that's why we kept on continuing. And people were calling me, how are you going to get things there? It was only simple. I prayed to God, God gave me the containers. I had 15 containers, but total of 17 containers that went to Maui. And then we had families that collected the containers there, plus the mayor's wife, Kaihi, who was the leader of Maui for our containers and her two daughters. They were very amazing. How beautiful it was, how things just falls in place when you do this kind of work. When you see this kind of thing, you just, I mean, it's unbelievable. There's no words that can explain that things can work. I mean, you know, things just work out. And today I continue on in collecting for Maui because when I went there, I went to Kula. Yes, I went to the hubs and whatever. And that's where our stops are going to Kula. And then from there, we went to Kihei. Kihei was another place. That's another hub. And then we have Kio Pilani. I think that was a park and that's where other supplies are going. So I wanted to be one of those for the emergency hubs. Whenever they run out, there will always be things to give out to the people. And this is what I want to do for the whole year or maybe continue on doing what is my job is all about. And I want to make sure that I hope and I pray that I will be one of them that will open up a shelter. Right now, I want to open shelters for homeless and homeless. But today, because of our people of the disaster of the fire, they have nowhere to go. And I want to be there because we do have a lad, but I have to pray on it because it belongs to the state. And I'm trying to see if it can put temporary homes because there's a lot of people that called me that have shelter. I mean, you have homes that it's already made to be put on the land. If I can do 200 houses, I'll be so happy. Let me tell you, I'd be so glad. I want to bring our people home and in a safe environment and a safer place for the family. And that is my goal. And thank you very much. No, thank you, Auntie Blanche. I've been out to your Waimanalo location. And what Auntie Blanche was saying to me, asking me is, you know, if you know anybody who has lumber, Cheryl, I could use lumber. I've been out there. I've seen the farm, Auntie. I've been out there and seen the people and the Waimanalo healthcare system over there. So with their, yes, taking out over there, doing their tests and providing medication and things like that. So thank you, Auntie, for all that you do. Yes. And one more thing you want to tell you about my shelter. Our shelter is not run by the city, state or government. I mean, I'm sorry. It is run by my nonprofit. It's because of the love of the people that brings things into this area and always serving our people. And that's where we continue to build many more homes. And today we have 75 people I have here and I have 50 homes. And I brought the old Hawaiian style. If you believe in the land, the land would take care of you. And that's exactly what I do here. And we all work together. There's no one who lives in their house all day, 24 hours. Everybody's outside in the garden. We have garden. We have, we have heads. I mean, people who take care of the kitchen. It's all community kitchen, bathrooms, showers. We do security on our own. We do everything together. And this is where everywhere in this entire Hawaiian islands should bring back that. And we all work together as one. And Auntie was on the midweek cover. Auntie, I want to say, was it like five weeks ago? Was it, it feels like... It was during the time of the fire. It was during the time we were collecting. And we had, I had HON news. I had midweek and then we had our old televised going on at the same time. I had to sneak my body into three different parts. But you know what? Let me tell you something. It all came out beautiful. Everything came out beautiful. Yes. We go out to meet you on Monday and then here it is on Wednesday. You're with my mom. I was like, Hey, I was just with Auntie Blanche. You're right. And then you see me on the midweek. Yes. They wanted to just make a story about it. How fast I moved on this project for Maui. Yes. Because you know, one thing my heart goes to my people. And that's where I'll be always, I will always be there for them. And you know, don't waste any time. Do it. I believe you do it so that things can move. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And major, major trimmer. As we discussed, I have a dear, dear friend, Victor Leonardo. I don't even know. We've probably known each other for 15 plus years and he is a dear, dear friend. And when all this happened, I heard that he flew from Guam straight to Maui, missed me, didn't even come to check in on Yanawao. So what kind of assistance has the Salvation Army been providing since the onset of the Maui wildfires? Well, Cheryl, before we get into that, yeah, I apologize on Victor's behalf. He was out in Maui in Guam for us and he'd been there for three months responding, which is what the Salvation Army does. So we don't just come into disaster and move out quickly. We stay because we're, you know, we're in 134 countries. We're positioned in almost every location in the United States. And so we respond quickly and we stay long, which is what Victor did. So he is a dear friend, which speaks highly of your character as well. He's a great man. And you're right. He was there on the fires the night it happened. I was on the phone with him or, you know, the WhatsApp with him while he was in Guam trying to figure out how to get back. And he was back by Friday morning from Tuesday night when the fires hit. He was back on Friday morning and at the emergency operation centers and then running the state VOAD, which is volunteer organizations active in disaster. So that's the caliber and character of people that we have in Hawaii. And we're so, so pleased and honored to have him as part of the team. And under his leadership as our emergency disaster services director, you know, we've been feeding since day one. Salvation Army is often first to respond or one of the first organizations respond because we're physician so well. And so we've been feeding since day one. We ourselves have been responsible for the delivery of over 90,000 mills. You know, in partnership, we've helped coordinate an additional, you know, there's about 700,000 mills from vetted organizations for volunteers organizations active in disaster. Not to mention all of those other countless hundreds and thousands of mills that have been provided people at the empty here so that, you know, people are being served on a regular basis. So been doing that and then being present with people. We've had the privilege of interviewing over 900 households, taking time and detailed interviews trying to find out what next steps what next needs are just kind of being with them. And then from that, we do something called emotional and spiritual care. And he mentioned earlier that that need came up and she prays, and then God brings the answer right. And so one of the one of the greatest privileges we have is just to be present with people and often those people allow us to pray with them. So we spent, we spent over, you know, multiple hours with with over 2200 of the survivors and just being alongside of them and prayer support and encouragement and just listening to their story, hugging and wrapping arms around them and and just encouraging them through the day. So that's been some of the most significant things we've been doing. Obviously, we continue to feed today and now we're pivoting into additional services which were really blessed to be able to do based upon the 900 family interviews. And those family interviews are going on that numbers continuing to build. But from those 900 we found that this transportation needs, we found that there's, you know, other needs that we can come alongside of additional material assistance. So, so we're giving, you know, gifts or gift cards to Walmart and other places where people can pick up some of their own things and start to return as crazy as it sounds to a little bit of normalcy in the midst of what is not normal. So, yeah, I've been very active, and it's because of people like Victor Leonardi and others who are, you know, his house, his home is in Maui, as you well know, right? It's that's his home. And when he first got back for several weeks, fortunately, he didn't lose his house of country. But his house just smelled like smoke. He'd go home from from contributing to the disaster response every day and, you know, it just smelled like smoke. But what a faithful man. And just like Anthony, all the people who come around us is really what helps us to actually contribute back to our neighbors on Maui. So, I hope that gave you a little bit of a glance what we're doing. Yes. And thank you so much. The two of you, as I mentioned in the beginning of the show, shows really what is resiliency, even though this tragic incident happened, how people are just banding together. And I'm so sorry to be crying again. I too lost somebody in the Maui fire. Her funeral is this Friday. It was at the bars and she survived the fire, but as of the smoke and she did pass. And so it's very close to me. And thank you to the two of you for what you're doing. And major, you hit on it right there. I get every day from our businesses. You know, we have members and businesses in Lahaina that were affected. And they're looking for money. They're looking for, as you mentioned, the cards and things that they can just like just get some small essential things that they need. That's not being provided through the donations. Are you providing direct donations to those individuals affected by the fire? Yeah, direct services and direct donations in the format of like gift cards. We don't, we don't give away cash. It's a selfish army policy. And often is not beneficial. You know, for many people it is, but it is often not. So we do, we're providing gift cards and food, land certificates and times and Safeway and Walmart American Express, you know, granted us, gave us $35,000 with the gift cards. So that people can use for some of those material assistance. And so yeah, we've been very honored and blessed to be able to contribute in small ways, you know, to people's lives. And as you say, the reality is, is, you know, all those who've been displaced have lost everything, those who are survivors, and not to mention those who've lost their lives, right. And almost everyone who's lost everything is also have a direct and deep connection with somebody who's lost their life. So this is, you know, a gift card's really not a significant issue. But it is an expression of grace and it is an expression of. And, you know, every opportunity we have as, as, you know, residents and family in Ohana in Hawaii to express love, whether it's a small tangible way like a gift card or whether it's a hug or a prayer. You know, I think we need to find ways to do that. And we're very privileged of the Salvation Army that we're trusted to come alongside of people in those type of situations and express the love of so many beyond us. You know, the outpouring and benevolence of the world toward toward Maui has just been incredible and to be able to be trusted as anti is to express part of that grace and love to people is just a rich rich rewarding experience. Yes. And one more thing I want to explain. I had a lot of phone calls. They wanted to send money, but once you with me, I'm not the kind of person would accept the money, but I will try to see where they can send the money. And but most of all was the items. And I'm plus I have my grandson who plays for Arizona Wildcats, the University. They had donated money, but I don't know where it went. But I said just send it to actually the only one that I remember was CNAK and Hawaii Foundation was another one. I think was the one that they wanted to know where they can send the money to. So that's what it was. And, you know, because of being out there out in the mainland, a lot of people heard about Maui, and they really wanted to support. I mean, they're still supporting people still yet trying to send money, but I just given to whoever is available. I mean, who I know that would accept the money and give it to the people. And but my heart goes to the people there. Where can we put them? Where can we, the only thing what I always do, I always pray to the Lord. I said there's only one thing is who can provide for the people. We need shelters for them because there are nowhere they can go and know where they can turn to. And the only way that they can turn to is all of us who believe in the Lord, that we can do it and we can make it happen. Am I correct Salvation Army? You're so well spoken. It's so right. You know, while for a short term people can be in non congregate shelters like the hotels. I mean, ultimately, there's got to be a little bit of availability to regain the dignity of independent living. Yeah. And so the hotel would not be there forever. Yeah, so therefore there. Yes. So we're praying along with you for solutions to that and willing to partner with you. If there's any way we can help in solutions to that. We're, we're, we're looking at every option and every open door. The Lord brings so that the people of Mallard can be service. Yeah. So you're so right. Thank you so much. And you know, thank you so much for putting us on the, you know, on this special program. It is an opening for everybody's eyes and it's an opening for everybody's heart to see and hear what we do for the people. Yes. And to get a current situation is why I brought the two of you here because in the beginning, you're right. People were contacting me and saying, you know, one of the football teams, the Raiders, they donated $100. And they contacted on one of our directors and said, where do we put it? And, you know, we give them, of course, you know, because we don't want to be, you know, specific. So we just say these are the top three, right? The Salvation Army, the High Community Foundation, you know, so we give them suggestions as they donate. And I'm happy to hear that major term that you were able to give gift cards, especially to things like gas, you know, people need to get back and forth. It's so important. And, you know, there is no one giving out gas. So gas cards are so dumb. And that's what the show is all about today. So anti-plant, you've been on the front lines from the beginning. You know, after the day after I saw you, you flew out. Yes, I did. Yes. All your time and effort. Right. We've got five minutes left today. What do the people of Maui need? If people are calling me, I'm still asking them to drop off at your Waimanalo location. You know, the necessary items, if they're going to drop something off in Waimanalo and what do the people of Maui need? The Maui need supplies, medical supplies. That is the most important thing that they need right now. They don't need clothing. They just need medical supplies, campers, toiletries, and everything that they need. I'm sorry, but my mind is blank on this one because I have so many things. And they're actually they need your love. That is the most important thing that the people of Maui need. It's our love. They need a cuddle. They need us. They need all of us to be there for them. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. So major trimmer, my last question to you is, you're, you're there out there, your, your staff is out there. What do the people of Maui need and how can they get it to the solution? Well, that's a great question. I mean, obviously it varies. And as we go further along into this disaster, the needs will change. I agree with Auntie that primarily they need the presence of people. They need the presence of people on a Wahoo and Hawaii, and Hawaii, who know them and who love them who are willing to take the extra 15 minutes on the phone and just let them talk through their day and talk through their stories from that. Also understand and realize what needs are. It's very important that we do, you know, the interviews with families and try to find out what their specific needs are. But you're like transportation. Some of those things that return to normalcy are some of the things that we're seeing and that we're needing to help our survivors with. But most, more than anything else, it's the presence of people, both on Maui and those. So we are one Ohana. We are really one credible family. And, you know, you often end up in disaster fatigue. As a disaster goes on, people start to get tired of the reality because it's been forefront forever and ever and ever. So they need a long term commitment from from Auntie and from the Salvation Army and from the government and from all of the nonprofits and private sector people working together that we are going to endure this together and work through to the end. We've been there since 1895. We intend to be there till 2295 or beyond. And then I know that Auntie and others will be right beside us trying to find solutions that are meaningful to Maui. Yes. And along with us in nature and to you know, you, you both have my direct contact. You can always contact and we have a whole industry that wants to help, you know, when the fires first broke out, you know, our members over on Maui, they have the refrigerated trucks. They have the high cube trucks with liveries and Pala Jax. They were sending out all their drivers paying for the gas, paying for their staff to pick up and unload containers of things just to jump into action. As I mentioned, the donation of food, the donation of takeout containers were all needed in the beginning just to get through that period, but we're not out of it yet. We still need continually contribute at the Hawaii Restaurant Associations, the organization unifying, representing and supporting the Hawaii's restaurant and food service industry. To our food service industry and to the state of Hawaii together, we stand as one state demonstrating our resilience and our Loha spirit. We are Hawaii and we are united in Aloha. Thank you very much for joining me today. Thank you. God bless you. Amen. God bless you. Yes. Amen.