Although I joined the ranks of the Medicare nation only a year ago, I’ve been immersed in Maui’s senior community for nearly 40 years.
In 1985, looking for a job — any job — while waiting for a radio gig to open up, I was hired by Hale Mahaolu as their Personal Care Program director, helping to place home care attendants with elderly clients. I had no training or experience in gerontology or social services; it was just a job I happened into. Little did I know, it would lead to a second career alongside my chosen path in broadcasting and the performing arts.
Through this “temporary” job, I got involved with the Alzheimers Association, Maui Adult Day Care Centers and other kupuna-focused nonprofit organizations. After 10 years with Hale Mahaolu, I spent the next two decades working for Kaunoa Senior Services, a division of the County of Maui’s Department of Housing and Human Concerns.
Thus, for most of my adult life, I’ve had not just one, but two occupations I enjoy and cherish. I am, indeed, doubly blessed. Sometimes, one supports the other, as when I perform or emcee at senior events, or draw on the experiences of my kupuna friends to enhance my storytelling or stage acting. For a long time, though, I felt like I was living two very different identities, simultaneously. That was one of the reasons I chose early retirement from the county. I decided to devote more time and energy to my first passion, performing.
In the eight years since, I’ve volunteered at various senior events and activities in the community, but I’ve missed the regular interaction with Kaunoa seniors and staff. So I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from Ruth Griffith, my former boss at Kaunoa, in late September. She was looking for volunteers to issue reentry passes to Lahaina fire survivors as the burn zone was reopening in increments.
My first day of duty at Lahaina Civic Center was, of course, an emotional roller coaster. Nearly all of my fellow reentry workers, like Ruth, were lifelong Lahaina residents, and most had lost their homes. Just being in the Civic Center brought bittersweet memories, as it had housed Kaunoa’s congregate lunch program, which I supervised, for many years. Our West Maui participants, most of whom were also members of the very active Lahaina-Honolua Senior Citizens Club, were so happy to get “their own center” in 2003, when we opened the brand-new West Maui Senior Center. Sadly, the center was among the structures completely destroyed on Aug. 8.
In October, MEMA opened a second reentry pass location in the lobby of the County Building in Wailuku, and that’s where I’m now stationed, sometimes with one of my favorite Kaunoa friends, Justin Serrano. Justin grew up in Lahaina; his parents’ home, as well as his sister’s home, were also destroyed by the flames.
Last Friday, with the opening of their zone, he accompanied his parents to their property. The photos he texted me were heartbreaking, including one of the remnants of his grandfather’s harmonicas. Only then did I realize that Justin’s grandpa was one of the Lahaina seniors I knew from the old days of our lunch program.
Fred Higuchi, who passed away in 2013, was a member of the Lahaina seniors’ harmonica band which performed often at lunch program events and at Lahaina Cannery Mall in the 1980s and ’90s. Along with Ron Togashi, Minoru Zaan, June Kaaihue, Michie Kosaka and others, Fred also served as an officer of the senior club, led for many years by May Fujiwara. Club members also performed Hawaiian music and hula regularly at Lahaina Harbor, and at events including the annual Maui County Senior Fair.
This year, though it’s the golden anniversary edition, circumstances have caused a relocation and refocus of the Senior Fair. The 50th Maui County Senior Fair will be held at Maui Mall Village this Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Despite a little downsizing, the fair will still feature great entertainment and plenty of information on resources and products for seniors. And while I’m emceeing the event, as I have for the past 20 years or so, I’ll hold my memories of Fred and the hundreds of other kupuna I’ve been blessed to know, in my heart.
* Kathy Collins is a radio personality (The Buzz 107.5 FM and KEWE 97.9 FM/1240 AM), storyteller, actress, emcee and freelance writer whose “Sharing Mana’o” column appears every other Wednesday. Her email address is kcmaui913@gmail.com.
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