BRAINERD — This Christmas will be like no other ever experienced in Maui, Hawaii, where many residents no longer have homes to call their own or the company of loved ones they so cherished, let alone a festive tree and decorations.

But one Minnesota native hopes to make the holiday as jolly as it can be, under the circumstances.

Hannah Erickson (Courtesy photo via Forum News Service)

Originally from Crosslake and a 2014 graduate of Pequot Lakes High School, Hannah Erickson moved to Maui five years ago. The coastal town of Lahaina on Maui’s western side is now her home, and it’s struggling.

Wildfires broke out on the island Aug. 8, with flames eventually fanned by Hurricane Dora. At least 100 people died, and most of Lahaina was reduced to ash, just like Erickson’s house.

She was in Minnesota when the fire broke out, helping out at her sister and brother-in-law’s hockey camp in Brainerd. She wasn’t initially sure what the future held for her and her marketing company and was hesitant to go back and take up valuable resources from those with nowhere else to go.

But now she’s back to the place she loves so much.

“I came back because I wanted to help my community,” Erickson said during a phone interview Thursday, Dec. 14. “… I didn’t know exactly how I was gonna help, but I’m so grateful I found a way.”

That way is through Holidays for Lahaina, a nonprofit Erickson established with her friend, Trish, to help their town the best way they knew how.

At Thanksgiving, they raised money and worked with Costco and area restaurants to bring Thanksgiving dinner to families in need. So many locals, Erickson included, have turned to the Red Cross for housing and are living in hotels without kitchens.

Knowing the holidays are already hard for so many without that added burden, they decided to bring Thanksgiving to those who didn’t have the means to make it for themselves. The donations gathered were enough to put together about 300 meal kits, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, rolls, pie and all the holiday staples.

They also worked with restaurants in the area to make about 250 Thanksgiving dinner reservations, thinking of those who didn’t have kitchens to cook their turkeys.

“Everyone was so grateful,” Erickson said. “It was the first initiative, and it was really awesome.”

Christmas cheer

Now that Christmas is around the corner, Holidays for Lahaina is ramping up its efforts to bring some much-needed Christmas cheer to the island.

They’ve got some money left over from the Thanksgiving endeavor and have garnered even more donations both locally and from around the world.

“It blows my mind how generous people are,” Erickson said. “I’m just so grateful for all those people that have donated and have made this possible.”

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The local Ritz-Carlton hotel donated event space for up to 700 people to celebrate Christmas. That gathering, set for Dec. 21, is open specifically to residents who lost their homes in the fires.

“We just wanted to make sure resources were going to the people who need it most,” Erickson said.

Everyone who signed up submitted a Christmas list and can expect a wrapped present at the gathering, which will also include music, a luau, a hot chocolate bar, face painting, cookie decorating, featured speakers and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. A free raffle will give guests the opportunity to win larger prizes, too, like gift cards and fishing charters, all donated by local businesses.

While there are several places offering resources to those who line up for them, Erickson and her group wanted to do something a little different.

“Christmas is really hard for people,” she said. “I feel like we need to bring people together and have it be more of a communal event, not just, ‘Oh, here’s your Christmas gift.’”

Hotel to hotel

Material things aren’t all that people need right now. They need a sense of community and belonging. They need to spend time together and celebrate a happy occasion.

Erickson said her friends and family outside of Hawaii have been generous after she lost all of her possessions, but moving from hotel room to hotel room doesn’t give her much space for a lot of stuff. She has to live minimally until she can find long-term housing, which is proving to be an enormous task.

“I looked at a studio a couple days ago for $3,300,” she said, chastising price-gouging landlords.

The Council of the County of Maui was set to vote Friday, Dec. 15, on a bill that would provide tax relief to property owners who rent to displaced citizens and exempt certain destroyed properties from taxes for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, ensuring those properties would not go into foreclosure.

It’s a start, Erickson said, but offering an incentive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to fix anything.

With so many locals living in hotels, the tourism industry that Lahaina so heavily relies on continues to take a hit. Tourists have been welcomed back to the island since the fires, but it’s not the same as it once was.

“It’s a really interesting dichotomy to be living in a hotel and having tourists staying next to you on vacation,” Erickson said. “It’s just a strange thing for both parties, I’m sure.”

She recognizes the need to keep the industry going to bolster the economy after such a catastrophic event but also cautions tourists against taking valuable Airbnb rooms away from locals who need housing in western Maui.

“And I think if you come to Maui, there’s a million ways to volunteer,” she said. “So if you’re the kind of person that’s like, ‘No, I read Maui needs us to come. I’m gonna go to Maui because Maui needs tourists,’ OK. Come to Maui and be a tourist, but then spend a day volunteering.”

The humane society is one good option to volunteer, she said, as so many people have had to surrender their pets when they went to live in hotels.

“There’s someone you can help anytime you turn around,” Erickson said.

Holidays for Lahaina

And one way to help without physically going to Maui is through Holidays for Lahaina. Anyone in the world can donate to the cause at holidaysforlahaina.com and rest assured their donations are going directly to those affected by the fires. Another $15,000 would allow the nonprofit to open up space for another 300 people at the Christmas gathering, that being the amount the hotel would need to cover operating expenses. They don’t want to turn anyone away but only have so much space.

It’s a project Erickson has poured her heart and soul into since returning to Lahania.

“I’m trying to stay positive,” she said. “The emotions, they ebb and flow out here. Some days are easier than others. Some days feel like your world is ending. On top of that, my entire support system out here is feeling the same thing.”

It’s hard to heal when an entire community is hurting.

Debris clean-up is slow, and communication from government officials has been less than ideal for Erickson and her friends.

Maui is still fragile, people are still suffering and the rebuild is slow.

But Christmas will still come to Lahaina, and for at least one day, the community will stand together and celebrate everything they do have left.

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