HANAPEPE — People in the central and eastern sides of the island will have an opportunity to help, too. Kuulei Martins was among a group of people assisting Thomas Lebanon Saturday at Hanapepe Stadium collect non-perishable food and other supplies
HANAPEPE — People in the central and eastern sides of the island will have an opportunity to help, too.
Kuulei Martins was among a group of people assisting Thomas Lebanon Saturday at Hanapepe Stadium collect non-perishable food and other supplies to send to people on the Big Island impacted by Tropical Storm Iselle.
“We went through Hurricane Iniki,” Lebanon said. “I never forgot the feeling which came over me when we received all of the help in recovering from the damage. This is our turn to give back.”
Martins said the effort to help was born of Lebanon’s thought of doing something to donate to the recovery efforts in Puna, which was hit the hardest.
“Thomas had the idea,” said Martins. “We couldn’t let him do everything by himself so we jumped in to help. When he found out no one was coordinating an effort to help the Big Island residents, he said he would do it.”
Lebanon said he contacted Big Island mayor Billy Kenoi, and was referred to Kenoi’s “right hand man” in coordinating the effort.
“The mayor’s office knows something is coming,” Martins said. “When the word went out, people were very generous. We have a truck, and our mayor offered to help coordinate getting the materials to the Big Island.”
People responded with armloads of goods, including bottled water, canned goods, and other household items, bringing them to the stadium entrance during the preseason football game between Hawaii Preparatory Academy and Waimea High School.
“I have three cases of bottled water,” said Patty Kaiakapu who lives in the neighborhood. “I can bring those.”
Darryl Kua and his wife Liz showed up with bottled water and bags of rice.
“I didn’t know they had a football game,” Darryl said. “We just came to drop off supplies after seeing it on Facebook. I’m glad there are people from our church here as well.”
The effort was coordinated between Lebanon, his friends, the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation and Waimea High School.
“We’ll be having more collections so people in the central and eastern parts of the island are able to be part of the effort,” Martins said. “We just have to coordinate everything.”
