Las Vegas’ Support for Maui still overflowing

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Support for Maui continues to trickle into the island from Las Vegas, well over a month after the deadly wildfires. In the first few days after the fire, businesses all across the Valley put a call out for donations. “Everything came to me there, in three days, it didn’t come in boxes, it came in trash bags,” said Jai Alboro, the man who became the go-to person handling donations for Maui families. Alboro is a Lahaina Native, with family who lost homes during the wildfire.

“Every day there were 40 to 50 volunteers that took everything out put them in boxes, labeled them, wrote on them so we know what it was,” said Alboro. Teams of volunteers palletized items while they were prepared to ship out to Maui. A commercial flight helped bring thousands of pounds of Las Vegas donations over to the island. A total of thirteen 40-foot containers were sorted out at a warehouse in central Maui thanks to volunteers and church members of Calvary Chapel. “They are actually doing online orders so you go online, put in your order and they get it all together for you and they get it to you,” said Alboro, who also packed up custom orders for families he knew needed help in West Maui.

One month after the fire, 130 pallets remained in Las Vegas. Shipping options became harder to come by. “Right now the hardest is, we’re so far away, but we have the most support, but now the support we need is to get it there,” said Alboro. The need became more dire when the warehouse holding the donations needed to be cleared in a matter of days. The owner needed to be able to conduct her normal business.

Warehouse Manager Sam Miklosko said his wife heard Alboro’s call for needing a new storage facility while watching FOX5. He said he felt the need to assist. “As soon as I got news of that story, I called the news desk, and I got ahold of Jai and he called me back within 20 minutes,” said Miklosko. Miklosko and Alboro worked together with the help of others to get the donations into the new Henderson warehouse operated by Kelly Spicers. Miklosko said his team will now oversee the loading of containers being shipped to Hawaii.

“The next goal is, we’re going to see what’s low at the hubs, what’s low at the warehouse, and we’ll be able to ask for those donations, so now we can send those down slowly and what they need, not just a whole bulk of things,” said Alboro. He also plans to do social media call-outs for the specific items needed at Maui’s distribution hubs. He asked anyone who would like to help to stay in contact with him through social media. Alboro plans to make those donation call-outs on Instagram under the handle @JaiAlboro.

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