Kathy Collins, Hedy Udarbe honored as Kupuna Advocates at luncheon

More than 450 Maui seniors gathered Saturday for the 53^rd Kupuna Aloha Luncheon to meet old friends, partake of a hotel-style lunch buffet, take home some prize drawings and honor Kupuna Advocates of the Year Kathy Collins and Hedy Udarbe.

“Our kūpuna carry the knowledge. They carry the spirit and the cultural continuity of our island,” said Mayor Richard Bissen at the luncheon. “It is our kuleana to ensure that they are honored and included and most importantly, protected.”

The annual event, held in the Grand Wailea Ballroom, was hosted by the Maui County Planning & Coordinating Council (P&CC) and produced by Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc. The P&CC is an organization of leaders of Maui County’s senior clubs under MEO’s umbrella of services.

The cost for the event and meals is paid for by the senior clubs, through fundraisers, the attendees and funds raised through advertising tables. The Grand Wailea also provides the venue and the buffet at affordable rates.

MEO buses transported about 300 kūpuna to and from the event, a service provided under MEO’s Maui County Human Services Transportation grant.   

The Kupuna Aloha Luncheon began more than five decades ago through the effort of MEO Executive Director and former Speaker of the House Joe Souki, current MEO CEO Debbie Cabebe told the crowd. He organized area councils or “ku clubs” to enable residents to voice their opinions on issues and offer solutions. The ku clubs evolved into the senior clubs – which currently total 1,650 members.

A highlight of the luncheon was honoring of the Kupuna Advocates of the Year, who received certificates from the state Legislature, presented by state Sen. Troy Hashimoto and Reps. Kyle Yamashita and Tyson Miyake, and congratulatory remarks provided by Maui County Council Members Yuki Lei Sugimura and Tasha Kama, both past honorees of the award.

Collins is well known in the community as a radio personality; storyteller; theater, film and TV actor; and emcee of many community events, including the Kupuna Aloha Luncheon and Maui County Senior Fair. In fact, Collins revived her alter ego, Tita, for the gathering, telling the Japanese fable “Issun-boshi” in pidgin.

Much of her life was spent working at Hale Mahaolu, offering information on home personal care and other services and financial assistance, and Kaunoa Senior Services, where she ran the congregate meal program and planned events and activities for kūpuna. She also was involved in organizing the Maui Branch Office of the Alzheimer’s Association Hawaiʻi and the annual Memory Walk fundraiser.

Collins dedicated the award to her mother, Yaemi Shibasaki Yogi, who passed at age 99 in May.

“She was my biggest supporter and influence,” she told the gathering. “It’s because of my mom that I am here today. . . . She’s the one who has inspired me through her example of volunteerism and compassion and just pure aloha.”

Her mom would often ask Collins to join her at volunteer activities, including her two decades with Maui Adult Day Care Center.

“I humbly accept this honor on her behalf,” Collins said, noting that her son and his family, who flew in from Michigan for Mrs. Yogi’s funeral earlier this month, and her aunties and cousins were in the audience.

Udarbe is currently the president of the 55-year-old Lahaina Honolua Senior Citizens Club, one of the oldest and influential senior clubs in the county. Taking over as president last year from Arleen Gerbig, a past Kupuna Advocate of the Year, Udarbe has been working to restore the club that lost one member to the 2023 wildfires and had more than 40 others lose their homes.

An immigrant from the Philippines, Udarbe worked at Clinical Laboratories for 50 years and oversaw the company’s 13 clinics on Maui, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island and Kauaʻi. She moved to Maui with her family in 2016 after retiring.

She is a member of the P&CC and volunteers at Binhi at Ani and the gift shop at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church.

Udarbe used her remarks to rally kūpuna.

“Let us continue to uplift one another, continue to recognize our kūpuna’s wisdom and experiences,” she said. “They are the treasure of our heritage.”

“We spend most of our lives catering for our family and for others,” she continued. “It’s time that we spend our time for ourselves. Starting today, when you go out that door, do something that makes you smile, something that makes your heart sing. Do something wonderful because you are wonderful.”

Keynote speaker US Rep. Jill Tokuda took aim at federal-budget cutting, which threatens MEO’s Community Service Block Grant, senior employment and low income energy program funding.

“I am so grateful that we have angels amongst us like MEO,” she said. “And I know it’s a scary time Debbie (Cabebe). I am scared too.”

“But we are going to fight and get through this together, because entities like MEO, senior clubs, organizations . . . make us a stronger state and a stronger community, and that’s why we have to make sure that MEO and every senior entity and organization out there continues to exist.”

“That is what we are fighting for.”