As many continue to pick up the pieces after Sunday night’s Las Vegas massacre, a group on Maui is looking to show island love and support.
The group Lei of Aloha comes together to sew lei of aloha during tough times.
Volunteers did so after the terrorist attacks in Paris and the shooting in Orlando.
They also wove lei for this weekend’s Paddle for Life event for the Pacific Cancer Foundation.
After what happened in Las Vegas, the group is joining together to sew a one-mile, ti-leaf lei to send to our Ninth Island.
“The Lei of Aloha brings us together to grieve and to heal and to connect and lift our collective spirits, so when we lift one, we lift us all,” said Kahu Alalani Hill. “The Lei of Aloha is about connections, and we sit side by side and we’re weaving this lei. We’re weaving conversation. We’re weaving prayers, and we’re weaving in our sadness and our love. … It’s a deep understanding that we weave every color of the lai and the ti leaf, the ki, of red and yellow and pink and green and dark green, and it symbolizes all people.”
If you’d like to help, there are coordinators on Oahu and Kauai who are also collecting donations.
The phone numbers to call are:
- Maui: Ron Panzo, Lei of Aloha organizer (808) 283-9251
- Oahu: Colleen Nomura (808) 347-3340
- Kauai: Cyrila Pycha (808) 635-4495 (Volunteers are asked to bring pre-woven ti leaf lei to RE/MAX Kauai in the Kauai Village Shopping Center in Kapaa.)
