Island Rotary clubs raise $59,000 for Maui wildfire emergency housing project in Puʻunēnē

An international coalition of Rotary Clubs have donated nearly $60,000 to Project Empower, a nonprofit currently dedicated to helping Maui recover from historic deadly wildfires that displaced thousands of residents.

The funds were raised across Rotary District 5000, which comprises 53 clubs and more than 1,500 members across the Hawaiian Islands, through the Hawaiʻi Rotary District 5000 Foundation.

“When we heard that ʻOhana Hope Village needed storage batteries to help provide the electricity needs of the units, we were happy to help,” says Maui Rotary Area Governor Al Weiland. ”Our Foundation has provided $44,000 to purchase eight Tesla PowerWalls with several additional units donated from the Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunrise.“

The Honolulu Sunrise club combined a $3,000 donation from sister club Niigati Bandai Rotary in Japan, a $2,000 donation from its own nonprofit foundation, and over $10,000 contributed by individual members for a total of $15,000—enough to purchase three additional batteries.

“This proved to be a living example of how professional relationships, an intent to be of service, and an international organization can come together to help those in need,” said Honolulu Sunrise President Jerry Denton, who invoked the global organization’s mission: “Service above self.”

Project Empower and its partners Revolusun and Rising Sun Maui are rallying a diverse group of local organizations to build 88 semi-permanent homes on 10 acres of land at the intersection of the Maui Veterans Highway and the Kūihelani Highway in Puʻunēnē. The ʻOhana Hope Village project, which welcomed its first residents earlier this month, is spearheaded by the nonprofit Family Life Center with site planning and design by Maui architecture firm Hawaiʻi Off-Grid. The housing units will be powered by the sun, supported by top-of-the-line battery storage, and kept cool thanks to climate control systems donated by Daikin, the world’s largest air conditioning company.

Weiland described these first donations as only “the first phase of the Project Empower Battery Project,” and other Rotary clubs are hosting presentations by Project Empower executive director John Cheever in the coming weeks.

“We have been humbled and awed by the collective generosity of our Rotary community and the strength of its amazing network of Hawaiʻi leaders from across the professional and cultural spectrum,” Cheever said. “Every club I’ve spoken with has been eager to join this vital movement to shelter our neighbors and help revitalize the Maui community.”

Weiland notes that the Rotary clubs on Maui have been invested in Maui recovery since the beginning, from helping to deploy mobile StarLink systems for communication to distributing gift cards for food, pharmaceuticals, fuel, and hardware. The statewide Rotary District 5000 Foundation meanwhile funded critical mental health staffing, music therapy, and healthcare services for children—plus supporting the Puʻuhonua o Nēnē shelter that opened in September 2023.