Mahi Pono crew members, volunteers and donors organize donations dropped off at the old Sears at Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center Tuesday morning. Organizers said so many displaced people arrived looking for necessary supplies, they pivoted from a strictly drop-off site to also a distribution center early in the day. The county donation site moved from War Memorial to old Sears site on Tuesday. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
KAHULUI — Lahaina resident Rey Castillo wiped away tears Tuesday morning as he described losing his home a little more than a week ago.
The retired Ka’anapali Beach Hotel cook and wife Josephine lived in their Wahikuli home for 24 years.
Rey Castillo said the two were packing when police told them they must evacuate immediately.
“We lost everything,” Josephine Castillo said. “Only the clothes that I take, no more nothing else.”
The couple, their children and their families were among those gathering household goods at the newly opened donation site at the Sears parking lot in Queen Ka’ahumanu Center, which is now the central donation site after the county’s donation site at War Memorial closed Monday.
Lahaina resident Rey Castillo wipes away tears Tuesday morning as he describes losing his home to last week’s fast-moving fire.
Donations of nonperishable food, bottled water and hygiene products are being accepted from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday near a vacant unit at the mall at the Kane Street entrance. The new site is a partnership among the county, the state and Mahi Pono. Mahi Pono will provide staff for the facility and work under the leadership of Salvation Army and Feed My Sheep to coordinate food and supplies distribution.
Organizers said Tuesday that so many displaced residents from the fires arrived looking for necessary supplies that they pivoted from serving as strictly a drop-off site to a distribution center as well early in the day.
The announcement of the new site came Monday as Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke announced a coordinated effort to distribute donations for Maui fire victims.
“There has been such an outpour of support, not just from the people of Maui, not just from around the state, but around the world. We felt the federal, the state, the county needed a coordinated effort to take in all the goods and inventory that have been donated. We don’t want to turn anything away,” Luke said in a news release following a news conference Monday at the Maui District Office of the state Department of Accounting and General Services, the site which will be used to store and sort the donations.
She was joined by county, state and federal officials, along with community partners, to announce a coordinated effort to distribute donations for Maui fire victims.
The community partners include Mahi Pono, Maui Economic Opportunity and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, who were at the news conference.
Luke, who has been tasked by Gov. Josh Green to help facilitate essential relief for Maui residents, outlined a plan to intake and deploy Maui fire donations and supplies, which will utilize assistance from the public and community partners to manage, maintain, re-sort and distribute donations and supplies.
Storage and sorting distribution centers are being set up on Oahu.
In the meantime, individuals and groups outside of Maui collecting their own donations are asked to sort their items and coordinate a receiver on Maui, whether a family member, friend or nonprofit organization running a donation drive.
High priority supplies include nonperishable food items, water, hand-washing stations, water totes, outdoor sinks, portable charging devices and stations, batteries, wheelchairs and semi-permanent or permanent tents. At this time, clothes are not a high priority need and are not being taken, according to a news release.
“We just want to thank everyone for taking care of the people of Maui. We wanted to thank everyone for the outpouring support and outpouring aloha,” Luke said in her opening remarks. “This is what happens in our community when people are suffering, when people are hurting, we step up and take care of each other.”
Gene Castillo, Rey and Josephine Castillo’s son, who was also at the donation site at Queen Ka’ahumanu Center, had been hopeful his home and business were OK.
But returning the next day, he found those places destroyed.
“We were just hopeful we would have a home to go to,” he said. “Nothing. There was a dead body right behind my house and one in the middle of the road by my shop.”
His sister, France Mae Castillo, said she wants the world to know Lahaina’s plight.
“I just hope we are heard.”
Volunteers will be needed to assist with donation sorting. Individuals or entities who are interested in volunteering, donating or are in need of supplies should visit
* Staff Writers Robert Collias can be reached at and Matthew Thayer can be reached at .
- Mahi Pono crew members, volunteers and donors organize donations dropped off at the old Sears at Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center Tuesday morning. Organizers said so many displaced people arrived looking for necessary supplies, they pivoted from a strictly drop-off site to also a distribution center early in the day. The county donation site moved from War Memorial to old Sears site on Tuesday. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
- Lahaina resident Rey Castillo wipes away tears Tuesday morning as he describes losing his home to last week’s fast-moving fire.
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