A contingent of Kauaians is in the Big Apple carrying 350 Kaua’i gift packages for firefighters and families. They are also bringing a proclamation from Mayor Maryanne Kusaka they hope to hand-deliver to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The
A contingent of Kauaians is in the Big Apple carrying 350 Kaua’i gift packages for firefighters and families.
They are also bringing a proclamation from Mayor Maryanne Kusaka they hope to hand-deliver to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The contingent plans to visit Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center’s twin towers used to stand.
The gift boxes are called Aloha Pax and contain Kaua’i-made products like coffee, jams and jellies, honey, cookies and other goodies. Aloha Pax are also making their way around the world as gifts to service men and women sent by well-wishers, mostly from Kaua’i.
Jose Bulatao, Jr., president of Kauai Senior Centers, Inc.; John Hoff, president of the Kaua’i chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons; Ron and Ann Agor and Edwin Esteban, left Thursday for a week in New York, and plan on delivering the Aloha Pax to New York City’s fire department headquarters.
Firefighters were to distribute the packages, intended to go to fire stations impacted by the events on and after Sept. 11, and to families of firefighters, Port Authority officers and police officers who died trying to save others, said Bulatao.
The Aloha Pax (www.alohapax.org) project is the brainchild of Hoff, and the idea of sending care packages to active-duty military personnel was embraced by Kauai Senior Centers, Inc.
Over 100 packages have been sent out, when mothers, wives and other friends and relatives of service men and women stationed abroad called asking for their sons, husbands and other loved ones to get the gifts of aloha, Bulatao continued.
Senior citizens, Boy Scouts, Junior ROTC students, housewives with babies in tow, and veterans of several wars all turned out to help pack the gift boxes, and senior citizens added their own gifts of hand-crafted yarn leis and note cards.
Bulatao said he’s especially appreciative of the effort of the island’s senior citizens, “who have gone the extra mile to do whatever they can to help others. It’s our turn to extend that helpful hand, and do so with aloha and with a willing spirit,” he said.
The people of Kaua’i, young and old, have been “overwhelmingly supportive” of the Aloha Pax idea, he continued.
The group of volunteers is still trying to work out some of the details of getting the packages into the hands of military personnel abroad in light of increased security concerns, he noted.
While the nature of the visit is mostly somber in nature, the contingent also hoped to play tourists in New York, taking in a Broadway show or two and spending some time and money shopping and sightseeing as well.
While Kauai Senior Centers put up some of its own money for the purchase of goodies to go inside the boxes, organizers are still soliciting donations of money to help send out even more boxes.
The Kauai Fire Department donated $200 to the cause.
Besides the Web site, anyone interested can see the Web site, call Bulatao, 337-9135, or e-mail him at mrb@hawaiian.net.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
