KAILUA-KONA — After Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas coast last month, members of the Rotary clubs of Kona and Kona Sunrise stepped up and collectively raised more than $2,200 in a span of a couple days to help a community
KAILUA-KONA — After Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas coast last month, members of the Rotary clubs of Kona and Kona Sunrise stepped up and collectively raised more than $2,200 in a span of a couple days to help a community an ocean away.
“Even though we’re thousands of miles away from Texas, we’re all citizens,” said Hermann Heimgartner, president of the Rotary Club of Kona. “And if there’s anything we can do for them, that’s great.”
Heimgartner credits the start of the effort to help with the response effort to Ron Hansen, a Rotary Club member as well as president and chief executive officer of Mokulele Airlines.
Hansen, Heimgartner said, formerly owned a home in Rockport, Texas, a coastal town that suffered a direct hit from Harvey. Heimgartner said Hansen figured he could have an extra plane fly from El Centro, California, to Rockport. In addition to interisland flights throughout Hawaii, Mokulele also has flights between El Centro and Los Angeles, as well as a couple other California locations.
The Rotary Club of Kona contacted a chapter in Rockport, to offer aid, and, in return, that club provided a list of items that they could distribute within their community.
That list included not just mosquito spray, respiratory masks and sunscreen, but also paper goods, diapers and coloring books for children.
The local group also connected with Rotary Club chapters in El Centro and Imperial, California, to get their assistance in the relief effort.
Then, Heimgartner said, members of the Rotary Club of Kona and Kona Sunrise started writing checks to cover the cost of supplies to be sent to Texas.
Within a couple days, they had raised $2,218.
“It came together all very fast,” Heimgartner said.
The Rotary Club of Imperial raised an additional $850 for the effort and El Centro raised $500.
Once the checks were written, members of the club in El Centro went out to buy the supplies and loaded it onto the plane bound for Rockport.
Hansen himself flew the plane and its cargo to Rockport, Heimgartner said.
“We all fall under one banner of service,” Heimgartner said of the joint effort from the various club chapters. “So I think it says a lot about Rotary clubs being able to come together.”
Heimgartner said at this time they aren’t accepting any additional donations for supplies as there currently isn’t another flight planned at this time.
