Counselor volunteering in Lahaina received surprise visit from Oprah
Posted: August 23, 2023
On Wednesday, Aug. 9, one day after devastating wildfires broke out on Maui, Baldwin High teacher Trisha Roy packed up a box of donations and headed to the emergency shelter at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku.
But what was supposed to be a simple drop-off turned into three and a half days of volunteer service.
“The shelter, at that time, there was a lot of confusion,” said Roy. “A lot of community members ended up just taking the lead.”
Roy, a career and technical education teacher, felt compelled to join them. “You literally go in, find where the need is, and you just started helping,” she said.
Roy began by folding clothes and linen, then worked with fellow volunteers to organize all the toiletry donations arriving at the shelter.
That’s when the first wave of evacuees arrived.
“A lot of them just came from Lahaina,” Roy said. “They were dirty. They didn’t have shoes or slippers. They were just looking to take a shower, to try to find something else to wear. So we sent them to get a bag, a blanket, a towel, and then they would come to us and we would get them anything essential — shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, whatever they needed.”
But Roy soon realized different people had different needs. “One of the items that was kind of interesting was hairbrushes. A lot of women were asking for hairbrushes or combs, just to kind of, I guess, give them a sense of normalcy,” she said.
Whenever the shelter ran low or lacked specific items, she turned to social media for help. Her online wish lists were quickly filled.
“A lot of people wanted to help and they wanted to donate things, but they didn’t know what to donate or how they could help,” Roy explained. “My friends went and bought things, or they got things from home, and they would drop it off directly to us, and that way we knew we had it.”
Roy stayed well into the evening and promptly returned in the early morning. She spent three days working at the shelter, and she wasn’t alone. The volunteer roster included many members of the Baldwin High community, from colleagues to students and alumni.
“On Thursday, the coaches rallied some students on the football team, the wrestling team, some basketball players; I believe some cheerleaders also. I shot an email to our staff and was just like, ‘Hey, some of us are going to be down here if you want to come join us,’ and a bunch of the Baldwin staff came down as well to help out,” Roy said. “It really was a community effort down at the gym.”
Occupancy at the gymnasium quickly reached capacity, forcing subsequent evacuees to camp outside. Roy made sure to check on them, going above and beyond to provide some sense of comfort.
Roy said, “There was an old Filipino auntie — she reminded me of my grandma — and I asked her, ‘Auntie, do you need anything?’ And she looked at me and she’s like, ‘I want rice.’ So I went home, and I made her rice.”
While the experience became overwhelming at times, Roy says she’ll never regret the opportunity to support her community in a time of need.
“That’s kind of the innate thing in teachers, right? We always feel like we’ve got to take care of people and help people,” she said. “That’s kind of what you do, regardless of the extra hours or regardless of how tired you are.”
Photos from top left (from top on mobile): 1. Lahaina Gateway distribution site volunteer leaders flank Cynthia Lallo, Office of the Mayor senior executive assistant. 2. Volunteers unload a truck filled with donated clothes; “Clothes were overwhelming,” said site leader and King Kekaulike High counselor Jamie Kovacic. “Sorting took so many people so many hours over multiple days.” 3. Kovacic, right, and Leaf Van Alstine, a social studies and special education teacher at King Kekaulike High School, take a break from volunteering. 4. Two volunteers provide some levity with “Ice, ice, baby” signs. Top featured graphic: Volunteers at Lahaina Gateway pause from their distribution duties to take a group photo; Kovacic poses with Oprah Winfrey after discussing donation needs. All photos courtesy Jamie Kovacic.
Counselor running West Maui distribution site receives high-profile help
When Jamie Kovacic (née Gomer) answered her cell phone on Wednesday, Aug. 16, she never dreamed one of the world’s most influential people would be on the other end.
“I said, ‘Hello?’ and I heard, ‘Hi, Jamie. It’s Oprah,’” Kovacic said.
The counselor at King Kekaulike High had spent the past week running county-sponsored relief distribution sites in West Maui, first at The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, then at Lahaina Gateway.
Kovacic was overseeing up to 150 volunteers daily and coordinating the distribution of 2 million pounds of food at the drive-thru operation in Lahaina when a truck pulled up.
Kovacic was shocked to see media mogul and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey inside. “She had been waiting in a long line of cars; I thought she was just another family in need,” she said.
When Winfrey asked Kovacic what supplies were most needed, Kovacic didn’t hesitate to answer.
“New underwear,” Kovacic said. “It’s an essential, immediate need not many people think to donate. Everything else, you could give us used clothes and wash them, but not underwear.”
When Winfrey called a few days later, she told Kovacic she contacted the president of Hanes and 50,000 pairs of underwear were on the way.
That exchange was just one of many acts of giving Kovacic witnessed while on the ground in the aftermath of the area’s devastating wildfire.
“I’m noticing the strength and resilience of our community, both in the volunteers and the people coming by and thanking us. We even have volunteers who lost everything in the fire. Everybody’s stepping up and showing up and being full of love,” she said.
In addition to distributing supplies via drive-thru to 1,000 vehicles each day, Kovacic coordinated community outreach and distribution to West Maui residents who were unable, or unwilling, to leave their homes.
“We’re loading up flatbed trucks and sending them out to Nāpili, Honokōwai, all the pods that were popping up north of Lahaina,” Kovacic said. “People who weren’t able to come out. People whose houses didn’t burn down but on either side of them, it’s all burned and they’re afraid to leave their house. We even took hand trucks and walked into areas to deliver supplies. We had a whole community outreach team serving the hardest-hit communities.
“It’s all a coordinated effort — fire, county, the mayor, they’re the ones coordinating,” Kovacic added, “and the 150 people (at the distribution site) serving everyone, and setting up the stations, and unloading the trucks, driving the forklift, and giving love to the people and supporting each other are all local volunteers.”
Working 10-plus-hour days, Kovacic drew inspiration from her community, including her family, friends, and colleagues. She credits the many King Kekaulike High educators who joined her in the volunteer effort, from her husband, Petar, an auto shop teacher, to Emilia DeCastro, a teacher from Colombia who translated for non-English-speaking and undocumented families.
“We need to be here on the front lines. This could be any of us. We have friends we know who’ve lost everything in Lahaina. I think everybody has some connections to Lahaina, a friend, a family member who lost something,” said Kovacic, who lives in Pukalani in Upcountry Maui.
After undergoing repairs and cleanup due to wind-related damage, King Kekaulike High reopened to staff this Monday and welcomed students Wednesday and Thursday. As Kovacic transitions back to a somewhat “normal” routine, the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association head faculty representative says her time in West Maui reinforced an important lesson.
“Hawaiʻi is like no other place on earth,” Kovacic said. “Hawaiʻi is so special in the way that ʻohana and aloha come first. And it’s not just people saying that, but it’s people showing up every day, all day, to meet people’s needs.”
She’ll also never forget cutting off one of the island’s most high-profile residents in their first interaction.
Kovacic was so busy at the distribution site “that I told her, ‘I gotta go.’ I’m like, ‘Oh no! I told Oprah, I gotta go!’ Who says that? Me, apparently,” she said with a chuckle.
Maui High community rallies to house, support evacuees in Kahului
When flames forced the emergency shelter at Kīhei Community Center to close, Maui High School in Kahului opened its campus to evacuees late Tuesday, Aug. 8.
Maui High outreach counselor Nadine Gushi-Lo arrived early the next morning, donations in hand, and went straight to work, joining many of her colleagues.
“It was still a little chaotic because systems were getting in place with the (American) Red Cross and our school, and I just started helping in the food area,” Gushi-Lo said. “There was another group of Maui High volunteers across by the band room, so as people were donating, they would get it and they would organize it in the band room.
“A lot of us just stayed until dinner was done, and we set up snacks and drinks, because there was a constant flow of new people coming in, people getting bused in,” she said. “People (volunteers) just chose to stay. I don’t even think they thought about it. I had to literally tell them, ‘Please go home,’ because I knew they were coming back tomorrow.”
In addition to food and shelter, Gushi-Lo says volunteers filled another vital need, providing comfort and support.
“It was pretty emotional. People were coming in and there were some burn victims and people who lost their houses. Even my daughter and some of the alumni that came, they were consoling people, because at that point, we were still setting up the shelter,” Gushi-Lo said. “They were just hugging people and letting them talk about what they were feeling. It was pretty difficult.”
Gushi-Lo returned every day to spearhead food distribution for evacuees and volunteers. When the shelter closed and the campus transitioned back into a school, she packed up the remaining food and drove to the new shelter at the South Maui Community Park gymnasium in Kīhei to ensure volunteers there had dinner.
During their final days staffing the emergency shelter, Gushi-Lo said Maui High employees also prepared to welcome students, help them adjust through crisis and loss, and offer some sense of normalcy for “victims who have experienced what we’ve gone through.”
The school officially reopened for staff on Monday, Aug. 14, and welcomed students on Wednesday, Aug. 16, which included youth from families displaced by the fires.
It’s a fitting example of a school and those who proudly represent it doing what they do best: creating a community of safety and support for all who need it.
Reflecting on the experience, Gushi-Lo said, “I felt like Maui High really rose to the occasion, and there were people from other schools who came to help just because they live in the area. It just became one big ʻohana.”