LIHU‘E — At 9 a.m. on Thursday, activity at the Matson and Young Brothers piers halted, and the workers filed out of their respective buildings onto the yards.
Over at the parking lot of the Anchor Cove Shopping Center, horns blared for a minute.
“It’s the one year anniversary of when wildfires hit Maui,” said Patrick Ono, the manager of Matson at Nawiliwili Harbor. “We’re stopping work for a minute to demonstrate solidarity for Maui.”
Checking with the Office of the Mayor, there were no island-wide observances scheduled beyond Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami delivering a video message to the people of Maui.
“We didn’t do anything for Maui Strong,” said Phil Worwa, a shuttle bus driver for Anchor Cove, who is also known as Santa in Paradise. “At least we all honked our horns at 9 a.m. for Maui Strong. I don’t have anything to wear other than to promote Christmas.”
Down the way, employees at the Duke’s at Kalapaki Beach restaurant were decked out in special Maui Strong T-shirts.
Billy Farias, a 27-year employee at Duke’s, said while he has no direct relatives who were impacted by the tragic wildfires, he does know several of the employees of Kimo’s, one of the restaurants that burned in Lahaina.
“We all know each other in the T S Restaurant family,” Farias said. “What happened at Kimo’s is just like family.”
To commemorate the Lahaina Wildfire Anniversary, the T S Restaurants staff, including Duke’s, and Keoki’s Paradise on Kaua‘i, and staff across Hawai‘i and California, will wear a red “Kimo’s Strong” T-shirt to commemorate the company’s first restaurant that was unfortunately lost during the catastrophic event.
The T-shirts are Lahaina red, honoring the resilience of the Maui community and in memory of all that was lost. The restaurants will be selling the limited edition T-shirts with all proceeds going to the Legacy of Aloha Foundation.
Farias noted that at Duke’s, he was down to just XL sizes and just two stacks of -Tshirts remaining as the lunch hour crowd peaked at Kalapaki Beach.
T S Restaurants also noted that with the help of Sysco, a restaurant food supplier, the Hula Grill Ka‘anapali on Maui will provide free kalua pork bento to Lahaina residents and T S employees while supplies last.
Visitors and residents not affected by the fires may purchase the bento for a $10 donation with all proceeds being presented to the Legacy of Aloha Foundation-Maui Fire Relief.
Since Aug. 8, 2023, the T S Restaurants’ Legacy of Aloha Foundation has granted more than $2 million to more than 350 T S Restaurants and the Maui Brewing Company Restaurant employees, who lost their homes or were displaced as a result of the fires.
On a long road to recovery, the community still needs support, T S Restaurants said. To find out more, or to support T S Restaurants’ Maui ‘ohana, contributions can be made online at www.tsrestaurants.com/legacy-of-aloha/.
Founded in 1977, T S Restaurants is a small, family-owned company known for its 13 restaurants on spectacular ocean-front sites in California and Hawai‘i, including two on Kaua‘i — Duke’s Kaua‘i at Kalapaki Beach and Keoki’s Paradise in the Po‘ipu Shopping Center.
