Ep 49 - Ways To Help Maui Fire Relief in Las Vegas

Tony, Ice, & MoJoe talk about several ways you can help those affected by the Maui wildfire through businesses, events and organizations right here in Las Vegas

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Live from Free months three experience infabulous downtown Las Vegas. It's the podcast
that celebrates our city. This isLiving Las Vegas, coming to you live
on a Thursday here on Freemont Street. He got Mojo from ninety five five
The Bull Ice and Tony from ninetythree one The Mountain. Hello. And
it's been a heavy week as faras seeing what's happened over in Hawaii and

(00:23):
Maui. I was in the lasttwo weeks. Man, Well, no,
it happened last weekend, right lastweek, like last Tuesday during the
week, was it gosh, Yeah, these days just keep running faster and
faster. Yeah, we're running ourreports last Thursday. I think it was
Wednesday that it really started to unfold. And Thursday we were starting to get
some of the story about, youknow, the death toll and the and

(00:45):
the really and nobody was in therereally covering it yet on Thursday the coverage
started to come out last week.So even if you've never been there,
and I've never been on Maui beenI've been to Hawaii, but I've never
been on Maui. Just seeing thatand being able to sort put yourself in
that place and imagine what those peoplemust have been going through as that was
all coming through. I mean,you know, especially in this town with

(01:07):
our connection to Hawaii, it's beenhard. Even though I don't have a
personal connection to it. I don'tknow somebody who has lost or lost loved
ones, but I still feel reallyconnected to it somehow. Sure how that
is. I would say, likemy time that I spent in Oregon,
and I'm sure Mojo, you can, you know, agree on this,
seeing the wildfires that had happened there, and then you see the ones that

(01:30):
happened in California. I mean,like, it doesn't just happen in Hawaii.
But it's it's sad. It's it'ssad because you see what these people
go through. The animals. Iworry about the animals, you know.
And we saw that thing that happenedin California a few years back in the
town of Paradise completely burned to theground, and it was the fault of
the power company in California, andthey ended up having to pay a settlement.

(01:53):
But there's a country artist named NateSmith who was from that town,
and I got to talk to himabout it, and he said, yeah,
they got settlement money. But thetown's wiped off the map. That
seems to be what happened to Lahinahat this point, though there's there's so
many layers to this conversation, theystill don't know what caused it. Let
me let me set it up bythis the we're going to talk about how

(02:15):
Las Vegas is coming to help andyeah, that's what we're gonna get to
on this. So bear with usas we as we kind of set this
up for those who may not knowwhat's happened in the latest on the Lahinah
situation. The road to get inif you've never been to Maui, it's
kind of like a road that goesaround the edge to get into Lahinah,
which is on the far west sideof the island, and there's one road

(02:36):
in around that side to get youto where the airport is kind of sincerely
located on the island, and thatthat road was not even accessible until yesterday
today being Thursday. This was Wednesdayyesterday, So you can imagine what locals
and people who have family there havebeen waiting to hear, like is my
home a total loss? Is itnot? Or my pets? Okay,

(02:58):
did they make it out at whatdoes Just surveying the whole area has been
impossible on the ground because I meana real sure but to get in there
because of that road being shut down, so they just allowed that to happen.
We're finding out more I've heard,and I don't know who they are,
but I've heard horror stories about investorscoming through and trying to offer them

(03:19):
cash to take the land off fromunderneath them, and people's time of need.
It's there's just so many layers tothis, displaced families, lost loved
ones, lost pets. To yourpoint, Tony, it's just I don't
know that there's a worst case scenarioor wondering if they're still there or you
know, hidden in the debris andstuff. And they still haven't even gone
through. I think, was itseventy five percent of the houses I saw

(03:43):
in the news last night they stillhaven't got to yet to see if there's
any bodies that are still needing tobe found. About fifteen thirteen hundred I
think it's what I heard missing still, but it's hard to tell because of
the communications lag and things, whetheror not they are okay and just haven't
been able to notify anybody or theother, which is a worst case scenario.

(04:03):
And I think the death Cult toldus at ninety nine. I don't
know if it's gone up, soI think it's over one hundred. The
last I saw or I was watchingeight News now because they were doing a
couple of tell I was gonna sayradio thoughts, because who are so used
to doing those with radio? Butyeah, they were doing some telethons tonight
and last night on the news.And not to mention the historical preservation stuff

(04:26):
that all got burned up in thisfire. There's a lot of history in
Lahina. I have been. It'sa beautiful little town and it's just heartbreaking.
That's where I had my honeymoon.Of course the marriage didn't work out,
but that's a whole nother story.It's heartbreaking to see what how much
beauty has been ripped away and justtaken away right from underneath these people with
no notice. I know, Iwant to say I heard that. Not

(04:47):
sure what the initial spark was,but some of the winds from the hurricane
helped ignite the flames to you know, make it become what it was.
There's a lot of speculation on that, and there's video. I've seen of
power line sparking a fire. It'shard to say if that is related to
the whole disaster in the Hinda.But right, there's a lot of question

(05:08):
marks there. Yeah, I feellike question marks. I totally agree.
Like I feel like we're probably gettingsome facts wrong. I feel like there's
a ton of speculation. Obviously,our eyes here on the mainland are drawn
to stories that are out there aboutpeople trying to take advantage of people who
have just lost everything. So look, I mean I don't know, unfortunately,

(05:28):
facts, I don't know very manyfacts. More than one hundred people
died, right, facts, lotsof people lost everything. You know,
if one hundred people died and thousandslost everything, obviously everything we can do
to help. And again I'm infact right in this city, we have
more people of Hawaiian descent than anyother city in America except Honolulu, So

(05:51):
we have a connection. People havealready started to respond because of that connection
in huge ways and in inspiring ways. This is kind of a you know,
we're talking and some of the factswe may be getting right, and
many of them were probably wrong onso bear with us on that. But
really what this podcast about is theinspiring way that people have responded in this

(06:14):
town because that's what we do.That's what's great about this community. It's
it's so interesting. I don't knowif I've ever been in another place like
this that responds the way that wedo. So just countless ways that you
can give right in. The easyways are still there and everybody should be
aware of them. Right the AmericanRed Cross raising money. I read another

(06:35):
article today about Look, I knowyou want to give things, and things
are great and they're going to beneeded, but there's going to be all
kinds of shipping issues as things aretrying to get to this place that was
a port town and now it's inaccessiblealmost. They're very difficult to access.
So things are great, but that'snot what they need the most right now.

(06:55):
They need money. And so whenyou hear like Boyd Gaming gable hundred
thousand dollars, you knew Boyd Gamingwould be one of the first to step
up and say, whatever you need, we're there for you because Boyd Gaming
has such a great We talked aboutthe Vegas connection to Hawaii, but Boyd
Gaming sort of leads that connection.Right. You've got all of the different
things that happen at the cal andat the different Boyd properties that appeal to

(07:19):
people from Hawaii wanted to come herefor vacation. So awesome to hear of
Boyd's immediate donation of one hundred thousanddollars, and Boyd says, look,
if you want to give, there'sways to do that. American Red Cross
is the key one and Boyd isleading something like if you go to the
American Red Cross website, you cansearch up the Boyd part of that and

(07:40):
you can be a part of that. Or you could just give right.
But again, money that's key,and be careful where you put your money.
I know there are some unfortunately,people find opportunity in these situations where
they'll put up fake go fund meansand things like that. I actually found
yesterday and I wish I had itat the moment. An Instagram feed of

(08:00):
every family that has a legit gofund me and they've all been research I
need to find that so that wecan share it. But each one has
a picture of the family and theirQR code to their go fund me,
so that the families who have beendisplaced confirmed and is legit. They have
a way that you can help themor if you have a connection to them,
share their stories. Let's go throughsome of these places that are doing

(08:22):
fund raising here in Las Vegas,because there are a lot, and I'm
sure this list is only going toget longer because like a complete list to
this city knows how to step intoaction in a time of need, and
this is certainly one right now forMaui Raising Keynes, I'll start there.
You gotta eat right, right.Myunt Grace always says you gotta eat yeah,

(08:43):
right, And so you gotta lookRaising Kines. These businesses who do
a portion of their proceeds or youknow, they're they're doing fifteen percent,
ten percent, twenty percent, andthey still have to run their business,
right, The things that cost moneystill cost them money. So they're Raising
Keynes is doing fifteen percent of allall of the profits from the sales at
US restaurants across the US today.That's happening today, right, So if

(09:05):
you're listening to this on Thursday,August seventeenth, go to Raising Canes today
if you're hungry for some chicken,some bread and Raising Canes sauce. Right,
I'm hungry because it's lunchtime yet today, So this is Russian. Might
we might go to raising canes todayor maybe just eat it all these places.
It's like, really do some eating. And look, I love that

(09:26):
these companies are stepping into action.Even if it's fifteen percent, you know,
that's still something. Support the businessesthat are jumping into this, because,
like I said, you you gotto eat. And I'm finding a
place that's also helping the cause isyou know, two birds in one stone.
Yeah. Yeah. I stopped atWalgreens earlier today to pick up a
prescription and you know when you checkout, they kind of give you an

(09:46):
option like would you like to donate, and it was, you know,
the option to donate to MAUI.So I did. I took it upon
myself to five of their pills.No, no, no, none,
money donation. Of course, itwas a money donation. But shout out
to Walgreens for also on board.Yeah, that's really cool. Let's talk
about this thing at the Container Parkthis weekend. That's kind of cool.
Sunday at three to nine. They'redoing it in partnership with the API Chamber

(10:09):
and the Mahalo Halo Las Vegas.That's happening. It's the ninth Island Love
for Lahinah. It benefits various organizationsaffected by the tragedy, including the Maui
Food Bank, Salvation Army, MauiFire Relief Fund. They're gonna have over
a dozen live entertainers, Hawaiian foodtrunks that right there, some trucks,
price of admission. Hawaiian food isso good, local vendors and Container Park

(10:33):
as a whole vibe in itself.So that's really cool that they're doing that
this weekend. That's Sunday three tonine. If you're around in town,
take advantage of that. Definitely,what an emotional celebration that's going to be
arect because everybody's listening to the musicand feeling this together as a community and
eating food and you know, soI think that that's an interesting place to

(10:54):
do it. Again, a lotof people feel like they've got to be
in, you know, with otherpeople in their community to either grieve or
feel something right, and that'll bea place where that happens. And so
I think it's gonna be a bigcrowd and and lots of ways to give
back. The vendors are all doinga portion of their proceeds and listen,
you're gonna hear music, right,and that makes you feel a certain thing

(11:16):
and then you're gonna just you know, meet other people who have a connection
to Hawaii so into Maui. Sothat's that's the container park. Glad to
hear they're doing that. Yeah,it sounds like a lou out for a
cause. I love that as SilvertonCasino. You guys want to touch on
what they're doing. Listen, Ilove the Silverton there yet I haven't been
there. Food's always good. Theyhave a steakhouster that doesn't ever get discussed

(11:37):
for whatever reason. You know,Silverton's in a place where you get a
lot of locals, but there's outof towners who like the Silverton too,
and this is the vibe and Silvertonis cool and they've got you know,
uh, they've got the Mermaids andthe tank. Oh is that where that?
Okay? Yeah? How are younot? Yea, I know it.
I just didn't know. I knowit's on the Southwest and I've driven
by it. I've never stopped.Oh a fan, it's Silverton, and

(11:58):
especially even more now that they've gotall of their restaurants are doing aid to
Aid to Maui menus and that's allthe way through I think September ninth,
it's one of the early September,so so you have time right the land
out, a little trip to theSilverton which is a great spot, and
they're going to donate the cash equivalentof twelve meals to the Maui Food Bank

(12:20):
from the proceeds from the Aid toMaui menus. That'll go right to the
island community. That's really cool.Yeah, shout out to Silverton. I'm
gonna make it a point to getout there and support that too. Any
vegetarian items on the Aid to Mauimenus. I'm sure. I love that.
Boyd Gaming. You talked about Boyd, Now what is that? Forgive
me for not knowing what is theirconnection? You said they lead the way

(12:43):
with us being the ninth island.What is that connection? Listen? Boyd
has full planes full of Hawaiians thatthey I think there's a name and then
it's on the sheet. Vacations.Hawaii is a part of the Boyd property.
So they have Boyd owns these airplanesthat they do junkets, right,
they do travel between Hawaii and LasVegas and they offer specials all of our

(13:07):
Hawaii stations that are iHeart stations.They come and they go to the cow
and they broadcast live from there.So there's a big connection between Boyd and
Hawaii. So they were one ofthe first to say we're making a big
donation of cash to the American RedCross. So one hundred thousand dollars from
them. Good on you, Boydand the right thing. And I feel
like that example is being there's aripple effect from that because now the Raiders

(13:28):
have also done that. Not onlyone hundred thousand dollars donation to the Hawaiian
community, Hawaii Community Foundation, Raidersemployees also putting care packages together to ship
to the islands. And you mighthave saw Saturday they have these t shirts
to say Ninth Island that they waron Saturday, now wearing this week is
ahead. I read that wrong.I apologize. Those are going to be

(13:52):
for sale. One hundred percent ofthose proceeds going to be donated to Hawaii
Community Foundations, Maui Strong Resilience Fund. That's I think there's going to be
look again, weird talking about Idon't know if it's a one tenth of
the number of different things that aregoing on in this community, but over
the next few weeks and months.The other thing that you know, we
all need to keep in mind isthat the first amount, the first wave

(14:16):
of donations, they all happen whenwithin that first week, But this is
an effort that's going to take yearsfor them to rebuild, and it's going
to need years worth of funding froma lot of the different places that fund
these things, including government assistance andthose kinds of things. So while we're
all trying to give right now,I think a lot of this stuff will
emerge over the next weeks and monthsto help out. That's a good point,

(14:37):
and we'll try to shine a lighton all the places, you know,
being a light and helping this communityin Maui when their time of need
too. One of the first placesand this is, you know, something
that's already happened, but you'd expectthat these folks will continue to have ways
for you to donate. And thishas been an inspiring story to read.
The Ninth Island Cava Lounge in thesouthwest part of the valley did a donation

(14:58):
drive immediately last week and they immediatelyhad all kinds of people bringing all of
these donations, so they had fourtrucks full of donations that are on their
way to Maui. They're experiencing someof those transportation hiccups that are natural when
you know it's difficult to get there. But sixty two palettes that included water
and clothes and shoes and other essentialsupplies. But that's just indicative of what

(15:20):
happens in this community. You tellus what you need, we're there with
those donations, and they and peoplefrom every walk stepped up immediately and they
brought those donations out to Ninth IslandCabba Lounge. I guess there's a connection
between the ownership and Lahinah, andso that person is there now and trying
to facilitate the delivery of these itemsthat was that have already been donated.

(15:41):
But my guess is they're going tocontinue to take donations. Well, if
your business is doing something or yousaw a way that they're doing some fundraising,
because, like like Tony said,there are some hiccups and getting items
to Lahinah at the moment, somoney monetary donations are the best way to
go through reputable sources like the RedCross, but in the Salvation Army is
another one. But if you ifyou've seen a business doing something, make

(16:04):
us aware of it, let usknow so we can echo that on the
podcast and get the word out.You can easily tap the talkback mike if
you're listening to this episode on thefree iHeart radio app that little microphone.
Just tell us and send us theinformation that way and we'll get it.
Maybe play your voice on the podcastand also dm us on the socials.
We're on threads, Instagram, andTwitter at Living LV Pod. We'll continue

(16:29):
I'm speaking for you, Ice,We'll continue to share some of these through
as we see them, right,yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah,
yeah, So those are the bestways to get us the information and let
us know so that we can youknow, relay the information to our legions
of fans here. We appreciate everyweek tapping in. And by the way,
if you are listening to this onThursday and you're thinking of raising games
right now like Tony and I andare doing, thank you for being.

(16:49):
We need to come up with aname for the people who listen on the
Yeah, for sure, like dayone ers or feel like it's already been
taken. Day one now is definitelyit feels like a golden Night's reference.
Are you on purpose trying to notdo that? Actually, that's one that
wasn't but that's what we'll said righton that stage. Can we use that.

(17:14):
Let's think about it. Okay,we'll think about it. We'll come
up with a name. Come up, but if you do listen, that
should it should resonate and have somethingto do with the name of the podcast.
We'll think about it. What's ourname? Living, Living Las Vegas
potis l pods, cast Heads,Castaways, I'm the Living Las Vegas.
Maybe we want brainstorm on this episode. But we appreciate you listening on the

(17:37):
day these episodes drop because some ofthe information is timely and as you can
see as most people are making adetour right now as they listen to raising
canes to help out and and andget some dinner while they're at it.
So we'll share more of these andget at us on social media and let
us know a Living LV pod aswe continue to find ways to help those
affected it with heavy hearts over inMaui right now. Our thoughts and prayers

(17:59):
continue to be with them, andwe'll continue to share ways you can help
right here. And thank you bythe way in advance,