KAPAA — Tents were flying outside Garden Isle Courier Tuesday as the Kapaa Rotary Club and Kauai Economic Opportunity unloaded 20 of them into pickups.
“Each of the tents sleeps up to 8 people, so that’s about 160 people who will benefit,” said Rotarian Ron Mabry. “These will go to families whose homes have been destroyed.”
The tents come from Disaster Aid USA and are paid for by the Kapaa Rotary Club Foundation. The UPS Foundation supplied free freight from Baltimore to Lihue.
KEO will be deploying the tents and are currently developing a process to decide who gets them based on need.
“This is for flood victims and to assist people to get back onto their property,” said Andrew Denny, KEO member who is taking the lead on tent distribution.
He said KEO is still working out the details and is looking for families that need the tents.
Meanwhile, nearly 500 pairs of rubber boots have been donated to help with flood relief through local business Lace It Up Kauai, and the last 180 of that is still sitting in their shop.
“We’re checking to see who is still in need and dealing with individual families,” said Sheleah Masi, whose family owns the business.
The boots arrived on Kauai May 18, and this bunch were brought to the island by partnering with Kapaa Rotary Club, Medeiros Consulting, Aloha Cowgirl and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho.
“Mainly they’ve been going out to the Keapena area and some to Koloa,” Masi said.
She continued: “Now the North Shore has said they’re OK (on boots). We’re waiting on contacts in Anahola, Kealia and Koloa. If everybody is OK, then we’ll give them back to the Rotary.”
Bringing the boots on-island is expensive, Masi said, so stockpiling will help keep enough rubber boots on the island.
After the April floods, Lace it Up distributed 250 boots and then another 100 once their next shipment came in. This next 180 boosts the total of boots to 530.
“We’re thankful to be part of making sure everyone is taken care of,” Masi said.
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Jessica Else, environmental reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
