After the devastating Maui fire on Aug 8, the McKinley community came together in solidarity for Lahaina by donating. McKinley High School, McKinley Community School for Adults, and McKinley Alumni Association were the main groups involved in the donation project. The donations started on Aug. 10. The student activities coordinator, April Nakamura, estimated around 75 to 100 students donated to the Maui cause and the amount of donations was about six truckloads.
Nakamura and Principal Ron Okamura set in motion the plans for the Maui fire donations after getting an idea from the daughter of the principal at Ka’iulani Elementary. The principal’s daughter works for Aloha Air Cargo and she wanted to send a load of donations in the plane over to Maui. The principal of the elementary school sent out a notice to the principals in the complex area.
The places students could donate varied. In the beginning, people could take their donations to the main office, then they started bringing everything to the Student Activities Center and the hallway outside SAC.
Nakamura said neither she nor anyone that was helping set the donations up had any loved ones on the island. However, the Maui fires affected people even when they did not have any familial connections to the island.
“Personally, I don’t have any ties to Lahaina or even Maui, but I think as with everyone in Hawaii, just hearing about what happened and learning about what took place, it always just eats you up inside,” Nakamura said. “It feels dark. It feels hopeless at times.”
The students were asked to donate camping supplies at first, and then clothing, canned goods and hygiene supplies. Konatsu Udagawa (c/o 2025) donated to the people in Maui.
“I donated T-shirts, shorts, towels, blankets and other stuff they might need,” Udagawa said. “I was looking through the news and social media. You can see videos of houses burned down, people lost and it made me really sad inside and I thought maybe I can help.”
Donald Nguyen (c/o 2025) donated clothes and towels.
“You should do what you can to donate and help, anything to help them survive,” Nguyen said.
