Washington state serves up solidarity, relief for Maui wildfire victims

The Puget Sound region is home to one of the largest populations of Hawaiians outside of the islands, and many more residents have developed a connection with Hawaii while visiting the islands.

Over the weekend, networks of Hawaiians and supporters, communicating on social media, sprang into action to organize Seattle-area relief efforts.

The death toll continues to rise from hurricane-propelled fires on Maui.

Many people are still missing and thousands have been displaced, especially in and around the historic town of Lahaina, which was almost completely destroyed.

In the wake of the news, Samantha Schlegel quickly found herself driving through Federal Way to gather supplies. She’s originally from Oahu.

"I have a lot of friends that their family homes are gone, and it's been horrible," Schlegel said. "My hula sisters and I, we had practice and we're all just in tears talking about it, hearing the different stories of running. So, we're doing what we can to try to support our friends and ohana back home."

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Through Facebook and Instagram, Schlegel volunteered to be part of a network of drop-off locations for donated items. She said some volunteers were piling things in their homes ahead of their eventual delivery to the airport, where a plane was scheduled to fly the items to Maui on Monday.

You can find a list of donation contacts and locations here.

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have pledged to get the supplies to the island, and private jets carried supplies.

Schlegel said the need is great.

"They're asking for medicine, specifically insulin, Tylenol, Advil," she said. "Just no matter what, you can do something, right? Anything small, even just spreading the word, I think has been so huge to bring awareness and try to get people on board to help."

Puget Sound-area businesses with connections to Hawaii also kicked into gear over the weekend. Places that provide the taste of home for the Hawaiian diaspora became centers for fundraising and donations.

One of those businesses was the Marination restaurant chain. They have three locations: Columbia City, 6th and Virginia, and Ma Kai, on Alki in West Seattle. All weekend they sold “Musubi for Maui” — donating proceeds from the sale of spam musubi to Maui relief organizations.

"I first heard about it from actually my best friend, whose family is there," said co-owner Kamala Saxton. "It just happened so fast. There wasn't a hurricane where you have some morning, a day — this, there was no warning. It just was high, high winds. It was a drought."

Altogether, Marination rolled 3,000 musubi, raising $30,000 for the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Maui Rapid Response Team.

"Whenever I feel like I'm not going to get in the way, or I can actually be helpful, we will all be going back somehow or will be funding someone to go back home to help," she said. "It's what we do and it's who we are."