The first thing Karolyn Freuler of Kapaa thought of during April 15’s catastrophic flooding was that people were going to need food. So Freuler, who owns Kauai Pasta in Kapaa, started cooking.
She hasn’t stopped since.
“God has done amazing things and provided for everything,” she said last week.
So far, the menu has been varied but delicious: enchiladas, a taco bar, barbecue-pulled pork sandwiches.
On Monday, Freuler and a group of volunteers were making Mediterranean chicken and roasted potatoes at Kapaa Missionary Church.
Her first delivery was made to a family from her church, Crossroads Christian Fellowship.
“I took them dinner. I had extra food with me, but I didn’t know where to go,” she said.
So she wandered around, but felt like she was in the way of first responders.
“So I prayed that night and I was like, ‘God, I want to help, but don’t want to be a nuisance.’ I wanted it to be a directed help to those who need it,” Freuler said.
After she prayed, Freuler posted on her restaurant’s Facebook page, saying they wanted to feed first responders, flood victims and volunteers.
Kauai Government Employees Federal Credit Union posted on the page within five minutes offering to help.
That was at about 10 p.m. and from that post, they were able to arrange meals for the first responders during the first week of the flood relief effort.
“That was amazing, because then we knew exactly where it was going. It just all fell into place,” Freuler said.
Later that week, after paying out of pocket for all those meals, Freuler realized she would need some extra funding.
So she made another Facebook post.
“Within five minutes, we had funding,” she said.
A GoFundMe account was created. And when she went shopping last week for supplies, there were gift cards left anonymously on her behalf as donations.
Helping from afar
When the floods began, Mike Baumgartner was busy watching the Weather Channel in Cicero, Indiana, as he usually does. Baumgartner is president and CEO of a relief organization he started called Disaster Assistance COC, in conjunction with the Church of Christ.
Baumgartner said he started the mission, which is located in Lake Jackson, Texas, after he spent time volunteering during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
It was then that he discovered his passion for volunteering and also where his talents would be most helpful.
“I’ve never been much for construction or carpentry,” he said.
So instead, he works on funding and coordinating relief efforts.
He’s not coming to Kauai, because the price of airfare and lodging would cut too deeply into the funds he’s raising for the island.
Baumgartner said he spends a lot of time watching the Weather Channel, and when the flooding began on Kauai, he knew he wanted to help.
“I saw there was a need there,” he said, “so I got on Facebook, to see where there was a need.”
He felt compelled to assist with Kauai’s flood relief effort, because he didn’t think the disaster was getting enough national attention.
Freuler has also been assisted by visitors.
Richard Devine of Sammamish, Wash., who was assisting Freuler in the kitchen last week, said he always goes to Crossroads Christian Fellowship when he and his wife are on Kauai.
On Sunday, after he heard Freuler’s testimony, he knew he wanted to help.
“It’s nice to give back. I worked for AT&T in marketing for 40 years. So this is nice. This is different, peeling the chicken. Karolyn came to the church Sunday morning and gave a talk on the need of assistance in preparing the meals for those that were victims as well as the people that were responding to the victims, helping out,” Devine said. “We all do our part.”
As far as how quickly the funding came in once she asked for it, Freuler said she has no idea how that happened.
By Wednesday of that first week, Freuler was slammed with calls offering help.
“Everyone was reaching out. I don’t even know how the word got out, but everyone knew I was doing this,” she said. “I needed an Instapot — a pressure cooker, it cooks everything really fast — so I posted something on Facebook that I needed extra ones.”
Instantly, Freuler said, she had nearly 30 people message her offering their Instapots.
The response was overwhelming, so again, she prayed.
“Five minutes later, someone showed up at my door. I don’t know them from before. ‘Here you go, we heard you needed these,’” she said.
Every time there was a need, Freuler said, God provided it.
“It was not a coincidence,” Freuler said.
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Bethany Freudenthal, courts, crime and county reporter, can be reached at 652-7891 or bfreudenthal@thegardenisland.com.
San Francisco? I guess not. We are a community of giving. Happy so much. Keep it up.