August 1, 2025 • 51 mins
A child victim to violent vigilante to Victorious SuperHero! It's not a plot of a Hollywood blockbuster it's the story of Jesse Jones, Founder, To The Top Hawaii. Along with his fiery-&-fine bride, Ashlee, we see two ordinary people creating extraordinary change for Hawaii's houseless population. BOOMkaAloha!
What's In It For You? EASY! A chance to HERO UP with easy, entry-level knowledge, parthers & inspiration. They're working-class HI residents who hold down jobs while dedicating personal time & resources to saving 'ohana one meal & one story at a time. "Be the aloha you wish to see in the world," says Jesse. Not just when aloha is easy, but when it's the hard in hostile situations--and too many of us are facing a lot of that nowadays...
Ready to become an Aloha Advocate? Jesse+Ashlee show us it's not the grand gestures but simply making eye contact & saying hello, with genuine aloha. Follow their journey on Instagram @tothetophawaii & discover how you can join their SuperHero & SuperShero Team ALOHA!
IG @DawnOBrienHI
FB Dawn O'Brien HI
www.ChooseAloha.org
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Aloha, welcome to Aloha Alive.
I'm Auntie Dawn and I'm stokedto be here with these two people
that I consider family already.
If you're from the state ofHawaii, or even if you're not,
we have something called hanai,which means we adopt into the
family.
It's super, very natural partof the ohana or family in Hawaii
, and so today I hanai'd thesetwo kids and they're adult kids.
(00:37):
I want to welcome you to Jesseand his wife, ashley Jones.
They're with a localorganization in Hawaii called To
the Top Hawaii, and the thingthat you guys do that is amazing
is you're just a regular,everyday, local couple in the
state of Hawaii and they've gota great story.
But let me get to the bottomline.
They walk out there and theyhelp with houselessness, like
(01:01):
you're just two working peoplein the state of Hawaii with a
kid, but you take donations.
Walk out there.
Welcome to Aloha Live.
Thank you for being Alohaadvocates.
You guys rock really, reallyhard.
Now tell us on your own words.
I know I just introduced it,but what is To the Top Hawaii?
How did it get started?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
To the Top.
Hawaii was just, um, it was aplayoff of my, just my instagram
name from when I was younger,which was to the top, my friend,
and then, um, I don't know, wejust broke it off to to the top
boy, which was something that wecould have used toward, um,
helping others who are goingthrough struggle.
(01:44):
Um, so for us, for me, in myhead, I'm like I'm going through
so much crap already, butthere's always somebody out
there going through somethingworse and to be able to, I guess
, meet them at that point,you're always in a position to
help somebody yeah, and itdoesn't always have to be a
financial thing, it could justbe hi, how are you doing?
You know what I mean.
(02:05):
I hope you have a good day andthat can alter someone's entire
day just by you recognizing,connecting to that person.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's to the top of Hawaii.
We use this slogan a lot.
There are infinite ways to thetop.
I don't ever want to say oneway is the tried and true way
for someone to reach their levelof success.
So that might be for somebodyon the streets that might be
making sure that they get a mealfor their family.
For somebody else that might bea job promotion.
(02:36):
For us.
Our goal is to endhouselessness, at the very least
decrease it.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That's amazing.
Your goal is to endhouselessness.
Hawaii is recorded recently instatistics as having one of the
highest levels of houselessnessin the nation, and I've even
heard and seen you address theissue of uh.
You know, we hear about and Ihelped with a political campaign
in 2014, where we recognizethat they were sending people
(03:05):
here on a one-way ticket.
What was your response to that?
Because I loved your responseto that.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It doesn't matter where you're from.
You're going through something.
You know.
Who am I to close the door onyour face?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
We recently just helped somebody who was here
from the mainland get back hometo his family.
I haven't even put it online oranything.
That was just between me andthis gentleman and he's not able
to take himself even to theairport.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Wow, I had to escort him.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I was like, can you guys please let me walk into the
gate Like wheelchair so to gethim and get him to the gate and
for him to stand up and hug meand be like thank you, I
couldn't have done this withoutyou.
You know, that's why we do it.
So I love this guy.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Jesse, thank you, thank you both.
You know it's, it's thosethings that we live for, right,
because the work that you do,jesse and Ashley, it's I call it
mission impossible.
Most of us, uh, wouldn't evenlook a homeless person or a
houseless person in the eye.
To be honest, like I, I prayer,walk the city a lot on weekends
(04:18):
and there's a lot of houselesspeople here, and one day I felt
really in my heart, convictedLike all I heard was you can't
even say hi, you can't even makeeye contact with that sister or
that brother.
Don, you can do better thanthis.
And you know one of the lifeverses I live by Jesse, and that
(04:39):
when I was watching your storyand watching you as a young
person online, because you guysdo use a lot of social media
almost as a weapon, as you saidrecently, but I see a lot of the
actions and I was so inspiredin my life verse.
One of them is Romans 12, 21,which says do not be overcome by
evil, but overcome the evil bydoing good.
(05:00):
Not by being perfect, not bybeing a professional committee
member On a state or a nationalcampaign Against houselessness,
not by having years ofexperience.
It's just do good here today.
And so when you dropped offthat gentleman and he was able
to stand up from his wheelchair,those are the moments that
really, they're capstone moments.
(05:21):
They're the top of the MaunaRight.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Thank you for doing that the whole, where the
terminal was, where everybodysaw that interaction.
You could just feel it.
Everybody knew something greatjust happened.
He's going home to his familyand the whole terminal just went
quiet.
It was in the moment with us.
We was hugging and I was likeman, I'm glad you're going home
(05:43):
to your family.
We managed to get all hisbelongings together, ship it
over, get in contact with hisbrothers.
It was.
It was just a full circlemoment for him.
He tried to come down here andmake it.
You know it's warmer weatherfrom do you remember um, is it?
I can't remember.
It's maryland or pennsylvania,pennsylvania.
So it was real cold, it'sfreezing over there.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
You know it's hard and he just wanted East Coast.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So it was real cold.
It's freezing over there.
You know it's hard and he justwanted to go someplace where it
was warmer and he had a betterchance.
But it's hard to do it on yourown.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, that hunko story is crazy already.
So we had met him, or Jesse hadmet him at the park in Kapolei
and he just started feeding him.
You know, like every so oftenhe would see him, often he would
see him, and and then I thinkyou asked him what he needed,
right, so he would meet you atthe social security office
building, even if it was weekslater.
he's like, okay, larry, come andmeet me here next week
(06:32):
wednesday at this time, andlarry would be there at that
time, at that time like in hisnicest clothes that he had, and
he was like I'm ready, I'm ready, jesse, for to get a social
security or his benefits andjust something that he couldn't
do.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
He wasn't coherent enough to go and talk to
somebody at a receptionist forthe social security
administration building.
He wasn't coherent enough to goand talk to somebody about
getting his food stamps in orderand there was.
He didn't have that support.
He didn't have a cell phone whocan get a hold of him right he's
on the streets, he's beingkicked out of all these
different camps, it's like it'svery.
But for I seen him, I kind ofknew where his like pace was.
(07:12):
So I just stayed with him and Iknow people think, well, you're
not going to end hunger, um, bygiving him meals.
But it wasn't for me to endhunger it was to build that
connection with him wow and then, all of a sudden, he's like you
know what, uncle, a what?
Is there something you needdeeper than?
wow than just that meal.
He's like.
You know, I could really use mysocial security benefits.
I'm like well meet me at thisbuilding two weeks, uh, 8, 30
(07:37):
I'll.
I'll go in there with you andwe'll get it handled.
Two weeks later, no cell, cellphone, no calendar.
He showed up and it's, like shesaid, his best outfit.
Waited just to be here.
Got his hair combed back.
You know what I mean.
That was cute.
The best he possibly could thebest he possibly could.
He showed up and he met you atthat right.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You were going to take him nine-tenths of the way.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
But he showed up on the one-'s.
All I needed away, but then wecouldn't find him for a while.
So we so we were able to gethis social security benefits in
um instated, and then all of asudden we're like where's larry?
Like we haven't seen him inweeks, and so we kept looking
for him.
And then a month passed, twomonths passed, and they were
like okay, something's going onbecause we haven't heard from
him or seen him in a long time.
And so I, we were in our houseone day.
(08:26):
I'm like, babe, let's make avideo real fast and let's just
see if anybody knows where he isor has seen him yeah, so we
made a video and that video likewithin 24 hours I don't know
how much views it got, but wehad so many comments because we
didn't have a picture of him, wejust had a description of him
and so we're like, okay, this isthe area that he frequents,
(08:48):
this is kind of what he lookslike.
And we had so many comments like, oh, I think I seen him there,
I think I seen him here.
But someone actually reachedout to him and was like no, we
have him at our facility here.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And he was recovering there, so jesse went the next
day to go see him and he waslike in a neck brace and like a
cast in his leg broke some bonesin his leg, yeah, in his neck
um his hand, like he had.
He had a lot of injuries, so hewas like said, he woke up in
the hospital.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So he doesn't really know what happened.
He just he just got run overand he woke up and so we were
able to find him.
I forget what that program was,c4 or c4.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, it's like right by rest stop okay, yeah, well,
thank god yeah, and what I hearin that and and you guys may not
even realize this, becauseyou're right there in the
trenches doing the fighting butthere are times when I've helped
people in the past and and thenI don't get a response and I
actually take it personally,which is kind of one of my
faults, and in that situation Iwould have been like, oh yeah,
(09:54):
well, there's, there's anotherhomeless guy who just flaked out
, and that wasn't Larry.
He was meeting you on that one10th right.
So for him to go missing wasn'tjust him blowing him off.
Yeah it on that one 10th Right.
So for him to go missing wasn'tjust him blowing him off, yeah,
it was, he got hit by a car.
So you extended what I callgrace right.
I mean you put that gravy graceall over that thing and you
(10:14):
went out and reached out to him.
Thank you, and that's what I'mtalking about with.
We are not overcome by evil.
You're not trying to fixhouselessness in one of the
worst houseless States in thenation, hawaii.
You're trying to feed Larry,you're trying to make a
connection so that you learnLarry's name and then you're
able to go visit and say uncle,you need something more than
just this.
Oh yeah, I need my socialsecurity.
So is that something you do aswell?
(10:36):
I mean, who taught you to dogetting their IDs and their
social security?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
We don't know, we figure it out as we go.
We probably do it the hardestway possible because we don't
know what we're doing, honestly,but we just kind of figure it
out as we go.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Because you're not a state agency.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You're not a federal agency.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
You're not social worker trained.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Taking these steps and trying to get people like,
for example, one of the firstpeople we've ever helped.
He needed ID Going there takinghim to get a state ID, like,
for example, one of the firstpeople we've ever helped.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
he needed ID.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That's huge Going there, taking him to get a state
ID on our own and paying out ofpocket and helping him get
through that.
You need ID to get yourbenefits to get into.
You need to prove that yourhouse is by showing
identification sometimes to getinto a shelter.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Can you not see?
You have to prove that yourhouse is to get into shelters.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Wow, so I have to have an address for not having
an address.
Well, not necessarily anaddress, but you need like this
thing from certain organizations.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
So I think ihs can provide, like kiala ho west can
provide it, but it's basically astatement saying that yes, they
verify that you're homeless andso certain shelters like
long-term shelters need thatverification in order for you to
enter that shelter and then toget those letters.
You need to be.
It's easier now, but back thenit was harder.
They said that you needed to bea client of that organization.
(11:53):
But I'm like but you're tellingme they need the letter to be
in your organization, but theyhave to be in your organization
to get the letter.
So I don't understand how theyget this letter right.
Right, that's mind blowing, yeah, so, but I they've made it a
lot easier and luckily, likewe've made connections with
these organizations, so now,like we are able to obtain these
letters easier.
(12:13):
But back then we were just likeso what do we do?
How do we get them into?
You know, how do we get theminto programs?
And it was just amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It felt so defeating just to get an id which I just
yesterday I was out buying stuff.
Oh, you need my license, boom.
It's not even a thought for aregular I won't say regular,
normal, I'm sorry, forgive mebut for somebody who's just in
the system and I'm great, here'smy id, no problem.
But I can't imagine lifewithout that id.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
And that's the, the people, the ohana you're helping
right now yeah, I mean imaginegoing to the dmv, like now for
me.
I hate going there and I gottago back like three times because
they're like okay, now you needthis document.
And then I gotta run home andthen I come back.
They're like, okay, now youneed this document.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
You know so I mean, if you don't have a car or you
don't have a license, how areyou going to have time a day?
You?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
don't have a watch you day to have a watch.
They don't have a cell phone.
They don't have access to powerand it was helping these
individuals on their ownindividual basis.
We were able to figure out eachthing how to get the birth
certificate, how to get theSocial Security, the fact that I
didn't have to pay for that IDthere's a program that pays for
IDs for houses, individuals.
(13:21):
So it's just that journey of Imean, like she said, we're doing
it the hard way but we'relearning and we're making the
connections and to find out thatthere's all these other
programs, resources, providersavailable to help us along the
way.
Now that they see we're game,we're in it.
We got our sleeves rolled up,you know, and we're going for it
(13:42):
.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I think people are seeing that we're more serious
and we're getting that support,yeah, and just being in the
trenches, yeah you get to knowpeople and then you tell them
what you're about and they'relike oh, you know you can do
this, or we have these programsavailable, so everything's just
a learning experience.
So we, we I mean still andeveryone's different, right, so
every, every individual needsdifferent things, and so we just
(14:05):
learn.
It's always going to be that'snot a one-size-fits-all.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Well, it's hard for us to build a program when
everyone needs different thingsand you have to approach them
differently.
So it is just kind of case bycase and we just figure it out
with them wow, mahalo.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Thank you so much, both of you.
I just it sounds like you'reclimbing a mountain of humanity
every day.
But then the learning processand then to have help from the
state agencies or the caseworkers or the houseless uh
community saying here's theletter you're gonna need.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
We're gonna make it easier yeah, now how long have
you guys been doing this coupleyears the to the top Hawaii has
been an actual organization forthe last two years, but we've
been doing like this kind ofstuff for years, I mean even way
before we had to the top Hawaii.
We would, uh, we would alwaysgo out and like, make meals and
(14:59):
go feed people, even on vacationsometimes, like we would buy
groceries and whatever we hadleft over.
We would just like makesandwiches and drop it off.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Somebody doesn't have to go hungry tonight yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So I feel like we've been doing this for and jesse.
I mean, it goes even way backwith jesse, like when he was
younger he would take in likehis friends that didn't have
places to stay.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I feel like for jesse, this has been like a
lifelong thing for him to dowhen I had friends who ran away,
who was runaways because theywere just in a poor living
environment, or maybe they justwanted to avoid an area where
there was high in drugs.
So I was like.
I just need a place to stay andget away.
I'm like, yeah, of course, pullup on the couch, you know what?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I mean Keep the house clean, that's it.
Wow, okay, that's it.
Yeah, wow, okay, thank you forthat.
Um, that kind of makes me pivotto the other thing I was going
to ask you about jesse.
I was, um, listening to part ofyour story the other day and
you said, because I want to askwhere this all started, and you
both, you started with that,ashley saying, I think jesse's
been doing this almost his wholelife.
(15:59):
Now can you tell us where thisstarted, why you started doing
what you're doing, jesse?
Because here's one of the linesI wrote down he's been fighting
since elementary until his 20s.
You're now 37 years old, whichmeans you've been fighting for
more than half of your life onthe streets.
I look at you I kind of see kindof a hardcore guy.
I wouldn't normally walk up toa person like you on the street
(16:21):
but because I know you throughour experience together.
You've been fighting for halfof your life, you well, I won't
give away the end of that.
How did you get started, sir?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
And where are you from?
I grew up in Waipou area, amore low income neighborhood,
Pupupui to be more specific.
And if people don't know wherethat is it's right next to ani
ani, my mom being the amazingmom that she is, she wanted to
ensure that I graduated on timeand kind of following my older
(16:52):
brother's footsteps and, uh,we're gonna get you into pro
city high school.
Um, that's where your brotherwent, that's where he graduated.
I was like and she managed todo it using grandma's address
getting to school school.
I graduated on time.
Long story short.
And she got me through that.
She felt like if I was hangingout with the friends and the
environment I was in in Waipahu,I wouldn't have graduated on
(17:13):
time and I would have been inmore trouble than I was already
putting myself in to begin with,from just being bullied, I
guess, at a younger age, fromthe way I sometimes might have
dressed, because I just waswearing the same clothes.
That's all mom could afford.
And I appreciate that she tookcare of the core duties as a
mother.
She made sure the roof wasalways over my head.
(17:35):
She made sure I had three mealsa day.
She made sure I went to school.
She really is the one whotaught me to be grateful for
everything.
Yes, For everything I have.
She raised me and my twobrothers.
She raised three sons on herown.
My dad is still in the pictureand he did what he could and had
(17:56):
done as a father, but it was mymom who, you know, raised and
turned us into who we are, as, Ithink, good sons.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Huge, huge.
Yeah.
I have so much respect, jesseuh, for you saying that about
your mom, and I have a hugeamount of respect for single
parents in general, whetherthat's a single dad or a single
mom, but I have three littlesisters growing up and two of
them became single moms andwatching the absolute struggle.
Right and especially with theirboys and girls are hard too.
(18:28):
But I just much respect andlove to your mom and you can
give her a shout out.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, she watches this Mom.
I'm the favorite, she is, I amreally the favorite, I love it.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
She'll side with her.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
She always got my back.
What do you do to her now?
Oh my gosh, what do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
to her now.
Oh my gosh, you better takecare of that one.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I love it.
She's my girl.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, Love you Mom.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Thank you for what you did in bringing up this
superhero, who then scored asuper shero at his side.
Now, jesse, you grew up and assoon as you said white paw, I
was like okay, dang right, um,scrapers, union, scrapers, block
right there.
Uh, can you tell us?
I think some of it was bullying, some of it, you know, we have
(19:12):
to recognize that there isracism in the state of hawaii.
And so I've heard you say youdon't look samoan, you don't
look tongan right, you don'tlook micronesian, you're an
asian kid growing up in waipahuyeah what happened and um yeah,
what happened.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
It's just because of the way I look.
I didn't have at the timetattoos, I wasn't muscular
whatsoever, any of that.
So a lot of times people wouldcome at me, would run me over,
would.
I can just remember I'm justgoing to recall one event at
elementary where a kid wouldjust come up to me and start
wailing on me for fun, just forfun, and then walk out the
(19:49):
classroom and I wasn't the typeto tattletale, you know.
So I took those hits and I justwent back outside of the
classroom and nobody knew.
So it was being just treatedlike that, like somebody's
punching bag.
Eventually you build I don'tknow almost vengeance, uh,
resent um and I I eventuallylearned how to defend myself and
(20:13):
to the point where, um, I mayhave um lost my way, but I I
hated bullies, like with, withthe deepest, deepest anger for
them.
So it got to the point where Iwould go out and intentionally
look for bullies and cause themthe same pain they caused me.
(20:33):
And along that righteous pathof trying to do something
intentionally good, I did losemy way here and there and there
was just some fights thatshouldn't have happened.
That's how incarcerationhappened.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So you were incarcerated.
What was the sentence?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
uh, 18 months, like um, I think we spoke on it
earlier, but they were trying toslam me for 10 years because of
the severity of and the factthat all three cases happened
like weeks, months apart.
So I got lucky that theyconsolidated it.
I didn't get tried for a second, third offense.
(21:14):
It was like, hey, we didn'teven get a chance to hit you on
that first one, we didn't evenget a chance to hit you on that
second one.
If you get one more, my publicdefender's like if you pick up
one more charge, there's nothingI can do for you.
I'm like I've been fighting mywhole life now and I never got
into any trouble.
So to me I was like what isgoing on?
(21:36):
It was back to, I mean god,that year.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I swear he was getting arrested, like every few
months, like they were pickinghim up to it was.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That was a crazy and how old were you at that time,
Jesse?
I was 23.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So you have to have been like 25 or 26.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Wow so you're in your mid twenties now still fighting
really hard.
I can see where it started in ain a childhood of being bullied
and, like you said, it becamealmost a resilience vengeance
where you then went and startedhunting bullies and picking the
fights.
Yeah, and so, in my estimation,there's a higher power that let
all three of those arrests andthen get balled up together so
(22:14):
you didn't have, as you justsaid, a first violation, a
second offense, a third, becausethey do start snowballing and
getting worse and worse youwould have been serving time
still if that was mainland andyou got first, second, third
offense.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
That's a life sentence.
So I'm just lucky I was inhawaii and that it was
consolidated to only one onesentencing, which was first,
second, third degree assault,unauthorized entry, motor
vehicle, and then, um, was itpromoting a dangerous drug?
I had to.
I had some stuff on me at thetime so now?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
were you two together at the time, at that time?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
it was like kind of we were dating yeah, I think we
were like a year into dating oh,wow so that's why you saw, he
was getting arrested, like everyfew months yeah, I mean we were
together when it would happen,so like when he, because all of
them were from fighting right,so it would be like we were
young back then.
So we were drinking a lot, wewere in town and town is just
never a great environment,especially after two, after 12.
(23:10):
It's never great.
You know everyone's like fueledon alcohol and drugs and you
know how it is like emotions.
So, yeah, so we were there.
I was there for all of it, so Iwasn't surprised when he got
arrested, because I was therewhen all of the incidents
happened now what happened atthat point?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
you get convicted.
They were looking for 10.
You ended up getting 18 months,but you didn't know that when
you got sentenced were you.
Were you still dating at thetime?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
yeah, so we were dating, posted bail, posted bail
many times total like many,many hundred thousand dollars
yeah, I got frequent flyert-shirts I love that we can
laugh about it now, but it is nojoke.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
No, it's not a joke, but you know you can laugh at
your pain yes, once you've beenthrough it, yes but we were
dating and then, um, all hiscourt cases were happening and
then the public defender waslike, okay, this next one is
going to be your sentencing.
So, um, that's when we decidedto get married, because he was
(24:18):
skeptical if I was going to stay.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, I know you chose to marry him right then,
while he's facing a convictionpossibly 10 years.
I knew already from my publicdefender that he's facing a
conviction, possibly 10 years.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I knew already from my public defender that he's
like hey, you're looking atanywhere from a year to 10 years
and they're pushing for that 10.
And knowing that you know, yes,we're dating, yes, we've been
together for a year, at the timeI was like I've said it before,
but she's in her prime and forme to take that away I felt
selfish.
It's like why would I do thatto her?
(24:48):
I shouldn't drag somebody downwith me for my own crap that I'm
doing.
So.
It's like if you're going toleave for me, in my head it's
going to be heartbreaking for mein there.
I'll probably spin out and losemy shit.
So I was like you can go.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
There's no hard feelings, I respect you and and
whatnot, and, and she's abeautiful woman and she's like
young 20s yes.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And she's like no, I'm here, it doesn't matter if
it's one year or if it's 10years.
And I was like, no, it's okay.
He's like no, let's get married.
And I was like what?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
holy, wow, ashley, even if he got 10 years in
prison.
You were in, I was in.
You're locked and loaded.
You're good to go well, mymentality yeah, what was your
thinking?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I mean, I was 23, so I was young and in love like in
love, you know, and so, but alsoI was there through, like I
said, with all the incidents.
So I didn't think it was fairthat I'm like I'm not gonna
leave because I was part of theproblem too, you know, and like
I'm gonna be there for youbecause we even though I wasn't
the one physically fighting, wewere there together, you know so
(25:59):
, and I just seen I mean notgetting too off subject, but we
were fighting our own demons atthe time but I would see
glimpses of Jesse that I waslike this is the guy or the man
that I want to be with for therest of my life, because I see
the potential, I see the good inhim.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Wow, it wasn't all the time, you know so, because
he was fighting his own demons,but like glimpses of sobriety,
I'm like like, yeah, if this isthe guy I can get all the time,
then, yeah, this is what I'msupposed to be with.
I love that you touched on thatand maybe it was an aside that
you meant to come back into, butI think it's important for us
as an ohana, as people watchingand our aloha alive audience is
(26:42):
an ohana family that and I Ioften speak this to young people
that if you meet someone whohas and it takes a woman who has
vision to see a potential in aman and you saw glimpses you
said that if this man were toremain sober and I see the man
(27:02):
that you believed and that yousaw today sitting right here at
this desk with us, but you hadto have that vision.
And so what I'm saying to theyoung people is there are times,
even if you're young, itdoesn't matter, you're going to
see it and when you invest intothat vision, as you have Ashley.
that's why we have this herositting with us today.
(27:23):
And that's why we have a sherostill sitting with him today,
because you chose each other.
And there is such a good man inthis, because part of what I
saw when I was watching you ondifferent podcasts, jesse, when
I have seen you at the cafeteriadoing rallies or in meetings at
Hono Uli Uli Middle School,where we both serve, when I saw
you speaking to the NanakuliHigh School rally recently, I
(27:46):
see a great man of goodness,just really humble, but you do
superhero acts.
And I saw that quote whereyou've been fighting since you
were in elementary until intoyour 20s and I thought to myself
this man has a supernaturalsense of justice, because you
weren't just fighting to be abully or to be mean or to Lord
(28:08):
it over others, you werefighting for your own life.
In the beginning, you werefighting for others, and now
you're still fighting, jesse, tobring justice to the streets
for those who cannot defendthemselves, the houseless, and
so, um, you quoted Gandhi.
You said right, what is hisquote?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I like to change it up a little bit, but I know it's
be the change you wish to seein the world and be making.
Trying to make it more localverse, I was like be the Aloha
you wish to see in the world.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And, to lead that example, I shove my son into a
lot of these podcasts because Iknow what that struggle is
growing up whether it's a brokenhome or or just some finances,
and that struggle you go throughand he's gonna have to face
those certain demons as well ashe gets older.
So if I don't find a way toaddress that now, then, he's
(28:57):
gonna have to deal with that andI wanted to be able to lead
with that aloha and show himlike, hey, there's another way.
There is another way.
You don't have to do what daddid.
You don't have to grow up rough, rugged or or put yourself
through this mess.
It's like just just listen tothe story, don't walk through
the shoes wow, so that's huge,jesse.
Now I just want him to know hehas options.
You always have a choice andyou don't have to.
(29:19):
You could, and you see whichway that that can lead you.
Or you could also just be akind person and see where that
leads you.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
That's good, and that's the shirt you're wearing.
Be Kind to Everyone, my mombought that for him Her mom,
yeah, that's my favorite shirt.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I love it.
I'm never throwing this away.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I can't remember the story, but I think it has to do
with a girl that has specialneeds and she creates the shirts
and sells them.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yeah, I wish I remember her name.
I've heard that story.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, I don't know her name either, but I have
heard that story and she giveslike a little note when you buy
the shirt.
It's really cute.
Wow, she was so excited to getthat.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Wait, so you're his mom's favorite.
Are you her mom's favorite,then?
Is that the swap that happenedBecause she bought you your
favorite shirt?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
the favorite.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
I'm everyone's favorite, she's the most mvp
favorite daughter um status.
Thank you for saying that andI'm gonna quote you, if that's
okay.
Jesse, be the aloha you wish tosee in the world yes because
this is aloha alive andbasically we're here trying to
share aloha, because theheartbeat of aloha needs to get
(30:21):
stronger and stronger yes andthat's why I was so led to bring
the two of you here, because Iwatch how you literally,
spiritually, physically,financially, walk out aloha
every day, in the darkestvalleys, in the hardest places,
and you're still choosing that.
So, jesse, back to where youwere, a child, going through
those dark valleys by yourself.
(30:43):
And now you're not a child,you're a man with a son, riley,
and you're helping him walkthrough, because that's real.
Every parent wants to see theirchild work.
Their child's going to struggle, they're going to go through
hard times.
Bullying is off the charts,even here in the state of Hawaii
, or, if you're watching fromaround the nation or even
anywhere else, on all pointspossible around the world,
(31:04):
there's bullying.
The nation or even anywhereelse, on all points possible
around the world, there'sbullying, there's meanness,
there's evil.
But when we walk our childrenthrough that and show them how
to be kind and have choices yousaid so much in that one
paragraph then they can makethat choice of.
Because you quote Gandhi, youchanged it to Jesse, and I grew
up idolizing Wonder Woman.
Sorry, I did.
I was a lady of the, a kitty ofthe seventies, a lady of the
(31:27):
eighties, and it was the oldWonder Woman with, like the cape
, which was a big flag Right,but she would say we all have a
superpower.
We can use it for evil or wecan use it for good.
I hope you use it for good.
And so that's kind of whereAuntie Dawn comes in with Choose
Aloha program in the schools isyou have a lot of energy guys.
You can either use it to mobsomebody and be evil or sell
(31:50):
drugs or cheat on tests or usechat GPT.
You know we can do all thosethings or we can choose to
connect, be pure, be true, bepresent, right to make these
choices and those sound sosimple, don't they?
Jesse is, I'm just going to bepresent right now and have a
good conversation with you, giveyou good eye contact.
One of my favorite memories withJesse, um, and there are few, I
(32:14):
don't know you guys super well,but I saw you standing in
possibly the most terrifyingplace on earth, and that wasn't
a physical fight, but it was ata spiritual fight.
It was on stage in front of abunch of nonakuli high school
students, I imagine, and theteachers and I am a speech
(32:34):
teacher by trade, and the numberone fear on earth is not death,
it's public speaking and jessestood in the middle of this.
It was a circular likecourtyard at Nanakuli High
School, and he's speaking to,you know, 100 plus 200, 300 kids
and the teachers, all byyourself.
It's the loneliest, mostimpossible, hardest place to
(32:58):
stand.
And you were trying to impartha, which is the breath of life
in Aloha right, and you weretrying to speak into their
spirit man, their spirit woman.
And there there's almost likethis trembling that happens in
in the atmosphere.
You can feel it right, likewhich way is this going to go?
You're doing your best.
You're like this warrior upthere fighting.
You've got a sharp sword,you're speaking good words,
(33:20):
you're speaking Aloha.
And and then, which way is itgoing to go?
And you stood there valiantly,and they're all waiting, cause
everybody's just in their ownlittle place, right In their own
space.
And I stepped up and I was likewait, we're not done yet.
And then you, you said thankyou, he's wrapping up, he
finished, and he was about tostep off, but he's a very
respectful young man.
(33:41):
And as I went to go, honey, Isaid can I just ask you one more
question?
And you said, oh yeah, noworries, go ahead.
And I stood there with you andand then when you opened your
mouth, you had already landedthe touchdown.
Then you went for the Heisman,then you went for the MVP, then
it's like we won heaven and Isaw you transform in that moment
and I know that the studentsfelt it as well.
(34:04):
So when you talk about helpingyour son, riley, walk through
the difficulties of life, I justthink there's so much goodness
to a father who couldn't do thatfor his child, and I want to
bless you and speak thatblessing over you, because you
may have grown up in a homewhere you didn't have a father,
but you're figuring it out asyou move forward and you're
(34:25):
doing the best you can.
Nobody on earth gets a manual,we don't get a textbook, we
don't get the list that sayshere's how you're going to raise
your son as he's a baby, ashe's a toddler, as he's a
preteen or a teenager.
But, jesse, you're doing thatand I'm so proud of you.
Thank you and I want to thankyou that, even though you didn't
(34:46):
necessarily have a father and Iknow he's still in the picture,
that's totally cool whereverthat is but you're now fathering
a community.
You are a Makua, a father toHawaii, and so stand in that
strength and I hope that thatblessing really sticks with you
when you're walking in the stinkareas right when you're in the
(35:08):
disgusting public bathroomstrying to clean up or when
you're at the night marketsgreeting people.
Thank you for being a father toour Hawaii, thank you.
I got a couple more questionsfor us.
How can we partner with youfolks to become an Aloha
advocate?
I love that you said that.
Thank you for my hat for to thetop Hawaii.
(35:28):
How do we become Alohaadvocates?
Because maybe we're talking tosomebody out there who's
watching and saying, gosh, Idon't have a story like Jesse.
I don't have a bunch of tats,I'm not really muscular.
I don't want to go into likehow Bush area and Eva beach or I
don't want to go out to the Yand I boat Harbor.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
How can I become an aloha advocate and partner with
you guys?
I think aloha advocate is justany, any type of kindness that
you can share with others.
It doesn't have to be endingsome world problem or like going
out and feeding the homeless orhouseless, but it's just little
acts of kindness that you cando every day.
So choosing Aloha, you knowwhen it's not your first choice.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
So that is an Aloha advocate to us?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I say Aloha advocate a lot when I go and I talk to
the kids at schools, sheltersand other community centers, but
I mean, when I just wasreflecting on this the other day
day, I don't really go intodetail what that stands for, at
least from my standpoint, andI've been trying to preach that
more now too, and it's by justsharing the experiences where I
(36:35):
have a chance to advocate forAloha.
And I just want to share anexperience where in the past, if
somebody were to get in my faceand they were confrontational,
I was never one to step downfrom combat.
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
You went back down, you're bigger.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
You're stronger, you're older, it didn't matter.
I had a bone to pick.
Now to advocate for Aloha islike how can I address that same
type of energy with Aloha?
And I use this example of mebeing in a bar and this is after
jail, me being in a bar and aguy comes up to me and he's just
like oh, where are you from?
(37:17):
I was like, oh, west Side.
Oh, I heard you guys can bang,yeah.
And I was like we're all right,we're okay.
And he's looking around the bar.
I can tell he's kind of sizingme up like he wants to throw
down, and I think you were therethat night.
I'm not too sure.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I don't want to mention the bar's name, but um
and then.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
So I was like bro, how about I just buy you?
And the bar is full.
Now aunties and uncles aresinging karaoke.
There's a live band.
The bar is not even hereanymore.
I don't really care, it'sHibiscus.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Oh wow, this is serious.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
The bar is not even here anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Of course, Jesse says this like I would know all the
bars right?
Speaker 2 (37:54):
No, I'm just joking, but that is serious.
I talked to him.
I'm like how about I just buyyou a beer so we don't ruin
everybody's night, but if youwant to, I'm game.
And he turns, he looks at me,he looks to the crowd, he looks
back to me and he's like I takeon Heineken, that's it.
It's like that.
You know what I mean.
It's like events like that andI know I get tested every single
(38:15):
time, even being in the serviceindustry, and I work at Roy's
Colina and you get tested bycustomers all the time you know,
trying to blame you for everylittle thing, whether it's
because they're late to theirreservation or what, and you to
still address them and treatthem with humanity, love and
respect is like.
Those are just more chances forme to show my character and that
(38:37):
you can still address them withlove, even if they're trying to
bash you and stuff we do online, for example, too.
We're out, we're showing thatwe're feeding people.
You'll have somebody chiming onthe comments.
Be like is that okay withdepartment of health?
And I was like, um, and tostill show them love and that's
just uh.
To advocate for aloha is, Ithink, through our actions and
(39:01):
addressing when people get inyour face, that are you know, am
I making sense yeah, yeah, hugeyeah.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
That is just through simple actions, that's good.
And even specifically to comingalongside with you guys at To
the Top Hawaii, because I justwatched recently some of your
posts.
Well, I watch you guys a lot.
I'm your stalker.
I'm your favorite stalkerauntie, but I saw your videos.
Thank you, ashley.
Talking about how you sort someof the donations and if you
(39:29):
could get some volunteers tocome out.
Maybe two or three volunteers,that's not a lot right?
No, I mean we.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
A lot of the things that we do are sporadic, like we
collaborate with a lot of otherorganizations, so you'll see
mostly jesse everywhere you knoweverywhere.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
That's where I was like wait, he works at roy's.
I know you have a job and youdo to the top, hawaii and our
markets oh my gosh, that's right.
The night market and realestate.
Oh my, so you're a normalregular working couple and then
you do to the top, which isyou're, you're not paid for that
no, that's.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
If anything, we spend more money than we get
donations, luckily from thecommunity, like we'll get um
clothing donations, fooddonations, sometimes monetary
donations, and so whatevermonetary donations we get, to,
like buy food on the days thatwe don't have any sponsors, or
like sometimes, like some of ourfriends on the streets Don't
have clothes or a tent, yeah,they're like, oh, our stuff just
(40:27):
got stolen and we have thatmonetary savings on the side
that we use specifically to aidand help the houseless.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
So I don't put this out there enough, but I go out
in the community at any chance.
I have to try and help anybodyelse's cause.
That's my thank you, becausewhen we reach out for help
almost instantaneously.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I need uncle needs blankets.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Auntie needs diapers.
Somebody will message me thatday, sometimes that within that
hour.
So for me that's a thank you.
So I'll go to the beach clean.
I'll go to the rally.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I'll go to whatever right, and I love that part of
what I see with you folks is youkind of have a hui or a family
of people, like we have kikuafrom pure aloha right, you have
trisha from my sister's keeperdo you?
Have other people you want togive a shout out to, because
that so many.
As you just said, jesse, yougot backup instantaneous.
(41:19):
It's like you are in a fightand you turn around.
I'm not by myself, I got atribe yeah, but this is the
aloha advocate tribe.
Right, we're, uh, we're the ateam, we're the aloha team and
we got your back.
Anybody else you guys want togive a shout out to that?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
make sure we don't forget uh, the list could go on
forever, but um, and I doapologize if I forget anybody,
but I mean jess andreaola forhelping us with connecting us to
providers essentials.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
And her team, her whole team, kika, jeannie,
they're amazing.
They do so much work.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Me and Hawaii, mark he always catches our back when
we need to get a message out.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
He's like I got you, he posts it.
Let's right.
Isaac, from isaac hungry hungryhawaiian.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Hawaii watch uh live um there's kikua hawaii
entrepreneurs hawaii creatorslike they're on us, they're like
oh, you need help.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
And those are titans of ig instagram influencers in
the state of hawaii who usetheir influence for good yeah,
right and they blow it up bigtime and you'll see it on mean
hawaii.
You'll see it on hawaii.
Hhhn right, they do so muchwith you guys yeah it's really
good to see that that heartbeatis strong is you're not fighting
(42:31):
by yourself for all of thesevoiceless, houseless you're.
We're gonna fight with you yesand, like you said, hawaii, we
show up for our own.
We do.
I just thank god for that yesokay now we gave some shout outs
and, as he said, it's kind oflike the putting the pressure on
you right, like at your wedding, where you're like I'm sorry,
mom, I forgot to say your name,but you did it, you got it good.
(42:54):
Um.
So what now?
What?
Um, how can we get involved?
You guys are I want to make aspecification here a non-profit
right To the Top.
Hawaii is a non-profit, so ifwe wanted to make a donation, it
could go there.
Or you guys also do a lot withGoFundMe when you have a cause
I've seen that.
Is that true?
Can you speak to that we have?
(43:15):
I'll take that.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
So sometimes we'll make specific GoFundMes for
certain people, but now we dohave like our own.
It's kind of like a gofundmefor non-profits called zeffy, so
it's a link on our instagramand that's.
If anyone wants to do likemonetary donations, um, zeffy
doesn't charge like a fee.
I think gofundme they chargelike a fee to process it 30.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
so I had a hard time doing gofundmes personally
because I I grew up reallyhumbly poor too, and so if I'm
thinking I have a dollar andyou're taking 30 cents off the
top, that's a big cut, man, yeahso, zephy, if you're a
nonprofit, they don't take anyfunds from it you
Speaker 2 (43:50):
can make a donation to support the website, if you
want to, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
But other than that you can do monetary donations,
clothing donations, householditems, I mean, we take any,
almost anything, you know yeah,except used panties and half no
use underwear no um open fooditems.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
This sweet lady had to go on instagram and she said
it in a gracious way, but auntiedawn's just blunt.
We don't got all day you're notsaying you're used panties or
bibbities bra, you can just tossit if you don't want it, ain't
nobody nobody wants it, yeah, sodon't do it so we can come
alongside and you guys do a lotof interesting events.
You do like movie nights.
(44:33):
I've seen you have the marketnights, which I love.
Support local, always supportlocal right, which is something
that mark always says we tosupport the locals, Otherwise we
won't have locals.
That's why we have such a hugeexodus.
Moving to the continent right,I was told not to say mainland,
because that's not the mainlandright, I was like you're right,
you're right.
(44:53):
So, moving to the continent,we're going to come in for a
landing and this is Aloha Alive.
Thank you so much for my makanayou brought me a beautiful lay.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Thank you, jesse and ashley, thank you for ours to
the top, and you made thisyourself I figure if you guys
didn't shower, you smell good.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Now you know I love you guys so much and I did make
it with lots of aloha.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Thank you, no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
So we're talking about aloha.
What is aloha to you?
Last couple questions what isaloha to you?
Is it a scent, a smell, aflavor, a dish?
And then the second part of itis who is your aloha hero?
Who embodies aloha?
So first we'll start with whatis your favorite scent, smell,
(45:44):
flavor.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
What is.
Aloha, my, what is Aloha to me?
To me, Aloha is a feeling.
So it is a feeling of love, ofcomfort, of accountability.
So sometimes it can be, youknow, harsh but, loving at the
same time.
So to me, I think that's whatit is.
It's like a sense of family,yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
It has to be sometimes a little harsh.
I always say I just said this.
Yesterday I was in Nāmea,hawaii, buying something and the
guy was from Hilo.
I'm from Hilo and I saidremember growing up people used
to say whose child is this?
Speaker 3 (46:24):
And or they would say you get your parents.
Yeah, that's right by anyone.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
You know that, auntie now I my butt is clenching
because I'm about to get thebutt whooping of my life, right
once my parents get found, theymight give me a butt whooping
yeah, but back in the day thatmeant people in our community
cared about us yeah, everyoneheld each other accountable
absolutely, so I love that youbrought that up, ashley yeah,
very good so I think it can bewarm and loving and kind, but
(46:48):
also, you know, it holds youaccountable at the same time.
Yeah aloha is not just a welcomemat, it's a force of fire.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
It's got to be fierce , yeah, otherwise I don't want
people to think aloha is a signof weakness and that's.
That's another reason why wetry to advocate for it.
You know how much strength ittakes for when someone gets in
your face and you just stillshow them love and kindness,
regardless of how they'retreating you.
Yeah, so that that's what we'retrying to imply.
More, because hate is so loud,it's time for Aloha to be just a
(47:19):
little bit louder.
Yeah, in a humblest way.
Yes, I'm not saying go out thereand wreak havoc.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Yeah, I'm saying to show more love.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
That's good, and if we don't, I love that.
You said that Hate is so loud,and we're seeing that in our
nation, where hateful forces arebeing super loud and they're
getting all the attentionbecause that's the way the media
rolls.
They need to sell time and ads,but aloha can be loud too, and
in the absence of hearing theopposite side, then weaker minds
(47:50):
or even just new minds, likelittle kids, will watch that and
think that the hate is the onlything out there.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
No, there's a silent majority that needs to get
unsilent and speak aloha andlive aloha.
So thank you for saying that.
Is there, speak aloha and livealoha.
So thank you for saying that.
Is there an aloha hero or analoha memory that you love
growing up in hawaii, jesse?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
and you can't say manapua pork hash um, not not to
be, um, self self-centered, butum it's.
It's looking myself in themirror and making sure I do that
I would say, like thateight-year-old version of me,
(48:30):
justice, that kid who had hopeand dreams, and not let that go
to waste, making him proud andshowing him that I can be his
hero.
So it's looking at myself andthinking you don't got to be
what the world told you to be.
You can be yourself, you can beauthentic, you can be a genuine
person.
And then also that if you tryand look into the future and at
(48:53):
your 80-year-old self and makethat guy proud too your
80-year-old self, your80-year-old self if both these
guys are proud and you're livingin your present moment, I think
you're in a good zone.
Wow, that that's just.
I mean, isn't that you're?
You're your biggest critic,you're a bit your biggest
advocate, you're your, yourbiggest enemy.
And to, to face off that person, I'm not in, I'm not in a war.
(49:17):
A war with you, I'm not at warwith you.
The person next to me, it'sthat whole comparison as a thief
of joy is like no, if I canjust make things right with
myself, 1% better every day,I'll be okay.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
That's great, and we are not in competition, we're in
completion.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Right, and so I love that.
That.
If I really am being the bestDawn, if you're really being the
best Jesse and you are a greatreally being the best Jesse and
you are a great great Ashleythen we're going to be the
highest aloha we can be for thisworld.
And that is not peer pressure,it's pure pressure and that's
the influence, not infection,it's influence, and we're going
(49:55):
to see a completely differentHawaii.
I'm going to see a totallydifferent US.
I'm going to see a totallydifferent world.
That's huge, jesse.
Thank you guys both so muchonce again.
Ohana, as you're watching today, it's aloha alive, we've got to
the top.
Hawaii, and it's jesse andashley and riley I know riley
(50:15):
would be here for one more theirson.
They're just an amazing ohana.
You can check them out on ig tothe top hawaii and you can also
see them um just all over thecommunity.
You guys have an eventscalendar.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
You post stuff all the time so if you guys are free
, come down support local localmusic local, food local vendors.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Yeah.
So support local, alwayssupport local, and that night
market is huge.
So, again, on instagram you cancatch them to the top hawaii
and you can even come out andvolunteer and help sort things,
whatever it is, or givedonations.
It's going to be a huge help.
So be the aloha you wish to seein the world with to the top
hawaii.
Mahalo and aloha.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Thank you.
Aloha, welcome to Aloha Alive.
I'm Auntie Dawn and I'm stokedto be here with these two people
that I consider family already.
If you're from the state ofHawaii, or even if you're not,
we have something called hanai,which means we adopt into the
family.
It's super, very natural partof the ohana or family in Hawaii
, and so today I hanai'd thesetwo kids and they're adult kids.
(00:37):
I want to welcome you to Jesseand his wife, ashley Jones.
They're with a localorganization in Hawaii called To
the Top Hawaii, and the thingthat you guys do that is amazing
is you're just a regular,everyday, local couple in the
state of Hawaii and they've gota great story.
But let me get to the bottomline.
They walk out there and theyhelp with houselessness, like
(01:01):
you're just two working peoplein the state of Hawaii with a
kid, but you take donations.
Walk out there.
Welcome to Aloha Live.
Thank you for being Alohaadvocates.
You guys rock really, reallyhard.
Now tell us on your own words.
I know I just introduced it,but what is To the Top Hawaii?
How did it get started?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
To the Top.
Hawaii was just, um, it was aplayoff of my, just my instagram
name from when I was younger,which was to the top, my friend,
and then, um, I don't know, wejust broke it off to to the top
boy, which was something that wecould have used toward, um,
helping others who are goingthrough struggle.
(01:44):
Um, so for us, for me, in myhead, I'm like I'm going through
so much crap already, butthere's always somebody out
there going through somethingworse and to be able to, I guess
, meet them at that point,you're always in a position to
help somebody yeah, and itdoesn't always have to be a
financial thing, it could justbe hi, how are you doing?
You know what I mean.
(02:05):
I hope you have a good day andthat can alter someone's entire
day just by you recognizing,connecting to that person.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's to the top of Hawaii.
We use this slogan a lot.
There are infinite ways to thetop.
I don't ever want to say oneway is the tried and true way
for someone to reach their levelof success.
So that might be for somebodyon the streets that might be
making sure that they get a mealfor their family.
For somebody else that might bea job promotion.
(02:36):
For us.
Our goal is to endhouselessness, at the very least
decrease it.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That's amazing.
Your goal is to endhouselessness.
Hawaii is recorded recently instatistics as having one of the
highest levels of houselessnessin the nation, and I've even
heard and seen you address theissue of uh.
You know, we hear about and Ihelped with a political campaign
in 2014, where we recognizethat they were sending people
(03:05):
here on a one-way ticket.
What was your response to that?
Because I loved your responseto that.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It doesn't matter where you're from.
You're going through something.
You know.
Who am I to close the door onyour face?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Come on.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
We recently just helped somebody who was here
from the mainland get back hometo his family.
I haven't even put it online oranything.
That was just between me andthis gentleman and he's not able
to take himself even to theairport.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Wow, I had to escort him.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I was like, can you guys please let me walk into the
gate Like wheelchair so to gethim and get him to the gate and
for him to stand up and hug meand be like thank you, I
couldn't have done this withoutyou.
You know, that's why we do it.
So I love this guy.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Jesse, thank you, thank you both.
You know it's, it's thosethings that we live for, right,
because the work that you do,jesse and Ashley, it's I call it
mission impossible.
Most of us, uh, wouldn't evenlook a homeless person or a
houseless person in the eye.
To be honest, like I, I prayer,walk the city a lot on weekends
(04:18):
and there's a lot of houselesspeople here, and one day I felt
really in my heart, convictedLike all I heard was you can't
even say hi, you can't even makeeye contact with that sister or
that brother.
Don, you can do better thanthis.
And you know one of the lifeverses I live by Jesse, and that
(04:39):
when I was watching your storyand watching you as a young
person online, because you guysdo use a lot of social media
almost as a weapon, as you saidrecently, but I see a lot of the
actions and I was so inspiredin my life verse.
One of them is Romans 12, 21,which says do not be overcome by
evil, but overcome the evil bydoing good.
(05:00):
Not by being perfect, not bybeing a professional committee
member On a state or a nationalcampaign Against houselessness,
not by having years ofexperience.
It's just do good here today.
And so when you dropped offthat gentleman and he was able
to stand up from his wheelchair,those are the moments that
really, they're capstone moments.
(05:21):
They're the top of the MaunaRight.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Thank you for doing that the whole, where the
terminal was, where everybodysaw that interaction.
You could just feel it.
Everybody knew something greatjust happened.
He's going home to his familyand the whole terminal just went
quiet.
It was in the moment with us.
We was hugging and I was likeman, I'm glad you're going home
(05:43):
to your family.
We managed to get all hisbelongings together, ship it
over, get in contact with hisbrothers.
It was.
It was just a full circlemoment for him.
He tried to come down here andmake it.
You know it's warmer weatherfrom do you remember um, is it?
I can't remember.
It's maryland or pennsylvania,pennsylvania.
So it was real cold, it'sfreezing over there.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
You know it's hard and he just wanted East Coast.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So it was real cold.
It's freezing over there.
You know it's hard and he justwanted to go someplace where it
was warmer and he had a betterchance.
But it's hard to do it on yourown.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, that hunko story is crazy already.
So we had met him, or Jesse hadmet him at the park in Kapolei
and he just started feeding him.
You know, like every so oftenhe would see him, often he would
see him, and and then I thinkyou asked him what he needed,
right, so he would meet you atthe social security office
building, even if it was weekslater.
he's like, okay, larry, come andmeet me here next week
(06:32):
wednesday at this time, andlarry would be there at that
time, at that time like in hisnicest clothes that he had, and
he was like I'm ready, I'm ready, jesse, for to get a social
security or his benefits andjust something that he couldn't
do.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
He wasn't coherent enough to go and talk to
somebody at a receptionist forthe social security
administration building.
He wasn't coherent enough to goand talk to somebody about
getting his food stamps in orderand there was.
He didn't have that support.
He didn't have a cell phone whocan get a hold of him right he's
on the streets, he's beingkicked out of all these
different camps, it's like it'svery.
But for I seen him, I kind ofknew where his like pace was.
(07:12):
So I just stayed with him and Iknow people think, well, you're
not going to end hunger, um, bygiving him meals.
But it wasn't for me to endhunger it was to build that
connection with him wow and then, all of a sudden, he's like you
know what, uncle, a what?
Is there something you needdeeper than?
wow than just that meal.
He's like.
You know, I could really use mysocial security benefits.
I'm like well meet me at thisbuilding two weeks, uh, 8, 30
(07:37):
I'll.
I'll go in there with you andwe'll get it handled.
Two weeks later, no cell, cellphone, no calendar.
He showed up and it's, like shesaid, his best outfit.
Waited just to be here.
Got his hair combed back.
You know what I mean.
That was cute.
The best he possibly could thebest he possibly could.
He showed up and he met you atthat right.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You were going to take him nine-tenths of the way.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
But he showed up on the one-'s.
All I needed away, but then wecouldn't find him for a while.
So we so we were able to gethis social security benefits in
um instated, and then all of asudden we're like where's larry?
Like we haven't seen him inweeks, and so we kept looking
for him.
And then a month passed, twomonths passed, and they were
like okay, something's going onbecause we haven't heard from
him or seen him in a long time.
And so I, we were in our houseone day.
(08:26):
I'm like, babe, let's make avideo real fast and let's just
see if anybody knows where he isor has seen him yeah, so we
made a video and that video likewithin 24 hours I don't know
how much views it got, but wehad so many comments because we
didn't have a picture of him, wejust had a description of him
and so we're like, okay, this isthe area that he frequents,
(08:48):
this is kind of what he lookslike.
And we had so many comments like, oh, I think I seen him there,
I think I seen him here.
But someone actually reachedout to him and was like no, we
have him at our facility here.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And he was recovering there, so jesse went the next
day to go see him and he waslike in a neck brace and like a
cast in his leg broke some bonesin his leg, yeah, in his neck
um his hand, like he had.
He had a lot of injuries, so hewas like said, he woke up in
the hospital.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So he doesn't really know what happened.
He just he just got run overand he woke up and so we were
able to find him.
I forget what that program was,c4 or c4.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, it's like right by rest stop okay, yeah, well,
thank god yeah, and what I hearin that and and you guys may not
even realize this, becauseyou're right there in the
trenches doing the fighting butthere are times when I've helped
people in the past and and thenI don't get a response and I
actually take it personally,which is kind of one of my
faults, and in that situation Iwould have been like, oh yeah,
(09:54):
well, there's, there's anotherhomeless guy who just flaked out
, and that wasn't Larry.
He was meeting you on that one10th right.
So for him to go missing wasn'tjust him blowing him off.
Yeah it on that one 10th Right.
So for him to go missing wasn'tjust him blowing him off, yeah,
it was, he got hit by a car.
So you extended what I callgrace right.
I mean you put that gravy graceall over that thing and you
(10:14):
went out and reached out to him.
Thank you, and that's what I'mtalking about with.
We are not overcome by evil.
You're not trying to fixhouselessness in one of the
worst houseless States in thenation, hawaii.
You're trying to feed Larry,you're trying to make a
connection so that you learnLarry's name and then you're
able to go visit and say uncle,you need something more than
just this.
Oh yeah, I need my socialsecurity.
So is that something you do aswell?
(10:36):
I mean, who taught you to dogetting their IDs and their
social security?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
We don't know, we figure it out as we go.
We probably do it the hardestway possible because we don't
know what we're doing, honestly,but we just kind of figure it
out as we go.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Because you're not a state agency.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You're not a federal agency.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
You're not social worker trained.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Taking these steps and trying to get people like,
for example, one of the firstpeople we've ever helped.
He needed ID Going there takinghim to get a state ID, like,
for example, one of the firstpeople we've ever helped.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
he needed ID.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That's huge Going there, taking him to get a state
ID on our own and paying out ofpocket and helping him get
through that.
You need ID to get yourbenefits to get into.
You need to prove that yourhouse is by showing
identification sometimes to getinto a shelter.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Can you not see?
You have to prove that yourhouse is to get into shelters.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Wow, so I have to have an address for not having
an address.
Well, not necessarily anaddress, but you need like this
thing from certain organizations.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
So I think ihs can provide, like kiala ho west can
provide it, but it's basically astatement saying that yes, they
verify that you're homeless andso certain shelters like
long-term shelters need thatverification in order for you to
enter that shelter and then toget those letters.
You need to be.
It's easier now, but back thenit was harder.
They said that you needed to bea client of that organization.
(11:53):
But I'm like but you're tellingme they need the letter to be
in your organization, but theyhave to be in your organization
to get the letter.
So I don't understand how theyget this letter right.
Right, that's mind blowing, yeah, so, but I they've made it a
lot easier and luckily, likewe've made connections with
these organizations, so now,like we are able to obtain these
letters easier.
(12:13):
But back then we were just likeso what do we do?
How do we get them into?
You know, how do we get theminto programs?
And it was just amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It felt so defeating just to get an id which I just
yesterday I was out buying stuff.
Oh, you need my license, boom.
It's not even a thought for aregular I won't say regular,
normal, I'm sorry, forgive mebut for somebody who's just in
the system and I'm great, here'smy id, no problem.
But I can't imagine lifewithout that id.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
And that's the, the people, the ohana you're helping
right now yeah, I mean imaginegoing to the dmv, like now for
me.
I hate going there and I gottago back like three times because
they're like okay, now you needthis document.
And then I gotta run home andthen I come back.
They're like, okay, now youneed this document.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
You know so I mean, if you don't have a car or you
don't have a license, how areyou going to have time a day?
You?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
don't have a watch you day to have a watch.
They don't have a cell phone.
They don't have access to powerand it was helping these
individuals on their ownindividual basis.
We were able to figure out eachthing how to get the birth
certificate, how to get theSocial Security, the fact that I
didn't have to pay for that IDthere's a program that pays for
IDs for houses, individuals.
(13:21):
So it's just that journey of Imean, like she said, we're doing
it the hard way but we'relearning and we're making the
connections and to find out thatthere's all these other
programs, resources, providersavailable to help us along the
way.
Now that they see we're game,we're in it.
We got our sleeves rolled up,you know, and we're going for it
(13:42):
.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I think people are seeing that we're more serious
and we're getting that support,yeah, and just being in the
trenches, yeah you get to knowpeople and then you tell them
what you're about and they'relike oh, you know you can do
this, or we have these programsavailable, so everything's just
a learning experience.
So we, we I mean still andeveryone's different, right, so
every, every individual needsdifferent things, and so we just
(14:05):
learn.
It's always going to be that'snot a one-size-fits-all.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Well, it's hard for us to build a program when
everyone needs different thingsand you have to approach them
differently.
So it is just kind of case bycase and we just figure it out
with them wow, mahalo.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Thank you so much, both of you.
I just it sounds like you'reclimbing a mountain of humanity
every day.
But then the learning processand then to have help from the
state agencies or the caseworkers or the houseless uh
community saying here's theletter you're gonna need.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
We're gonna make it easier yeah, now how long have
you guys been doing this coupleyears the to the top Hawaii has
been an actual organization forthe last two years, but we've
been doing like this kind ofstuff for years, I mean even way
before we had to the top Hawaii.
We would, uh, we would alwaysgo out and like, make meals and
(14:59):
go feed people, even on vacationsometimes, like we would buy
groceries and whatever we hadleft over.
We would just like makesandwiches and drop it off.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Somebody doesn't have to go hungry tonight yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So I feel like we've been doing this for and jesse.
I mean, it goes even way backwith jesse, like when he was
younger he would take in likehis friends that didn't have
places to stay.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I feel like for jesse, this has been like a
lifelong thing for him to dowhen I had friends who ran away,
who was runaways because theywere just in a poor living
environment, or maybe they justwanted to avoid an area where
there was high in drugs.
So I was like.
I just need a place to stay andget away.
I'm like, yeah, of course, pullup on the couch, you know what?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I mean Keep the house clean, that's it.
Wow, okay, that's it.
Yeah, wow, okay, thank you forthat.
Um, that kind of makes me pivotto the other thing I was going
to ask you about jesse.
I was, um, listening to part ofyour story the other day and
you said, because I want to askwhere this all started, and you
both, you started with that,ashley saying, I think jesse's
been doing this almost his wholelife.
(15:59):
Now can you tell us where thisstarted, why you started doing
what you're doing, jesse?
Because here's one of the linesI wrote down he's been fighting
since elementary until his 20s.
You're now 37 years old, whichmeans you've been fighting for
more than half of your life onthe streets.
I look at you I kind of see kindof a hardcore guy.
I wouldn't normally walk up toa person like you on the street
(16:21):
but because I know you throughour experience together.
You've been fighting for halfof your life, you well, I won't
give away the end of that.
How did you get started, sir?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
And where are you from?
I grew up in Waipou area, amore low income neighborhood,
Pupupui to be more specific.
And if people don't know wherethat is it's right next to ani
ani, my mom being the amazingmom that she is, she wanted to
ensure that I graduated on timeand kind of following my older
(16:52):
brother's footsteps and, uh,we're gonna get you into pro
city high school.
Um, that's where your brotherwent, that's where he graduated.
I was like and she managed todo it using grandma's address
getting to school school.
I graduated on time.
Long story short.
And she got me through that.
She felt like if I was hangingout with the friends and the
environment I was in in Waipahu,I wouldn't have graduated on
(17:13):
time and I would have been inmore trouble than I was already
putting myself in to begin with,from just being bullied, I
guess, at a younger age, fromthe way I sometimes might have
dressed, because I just waswearing the same clothes.
That's all mom could afford.
And I appreciate that she tookcare of the core duties as a
mother.
She made sure the roof wasalways over my head.
(17:35):
She made sure I had three mealsa day.
She made sure I went to school.
She really is the one whotaught me to be grateful for
everything.
Yes, For everything I have.
She raised me and my twobrothers.
She raised three sons on herown.
My dad is still in the pictureand he did what he could and had
(17:56):
done as a father, but it was mymom who, you know, raised and
turned us into who we are, as, Ithink, good sons.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Huge, huge.
Yeah.
I have so much respect, jesseuh, for you saying that about
your mom, and I have a hugeamount of respect for single
parents in general, whetherthat's a single dad or a single
mom, but I have three littlesisters growing up and two of
them became single moms andwatching the absolute struggle.
Right and especially with theirboys and girls are hard too.
(18:28):
But I just much respect andlove to your mom and you can
give her a shout out.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, she watches this Mom.
I'm the favorite, she is, I amreally the favorite, I love it.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
She'll side with her.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
She always got my back.
What do you do to her now?
Oh my gosh, what do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
to her now.
Oh my gosh, you better takecare of that one.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I love it.
She's my girl.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, Love you Mom.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Thank you for what you did in bringing up this
superhero, who then scored asuper shero at his side.
Now, jesse, you grew up and assoon as you said white paw, I
was like okay, dang right, um,scrapers, union, scrapers, block
right there.
Uh, can you tell us?
I think some of it was bullying, some of it, you know, we have
(19:12):
to recognize that there isracism in the state of hawaii.
And so I've heard you say youdon't look samoan, you don't
look tongan right, you don'tlook micronesian, you're an
asian kid growing up in waipahuyeah what happened and um yeah,
what happened.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
It's just because of the way I look.
I didn't have at the timetattoos, I wasn't muscular
whatsoever, any of that.
So a lot of times people wouldcome at me, would run me over,
would.
I can just remember I'm justgoing to recall one event at
elementary where a kid wouldjust come up to me and start
wailing on me for fun, just forfun, and then walk out the
(19:49):
classroom and I wasn't the typeto tattletale, you know.
So I took those hits and I justwent back outside of the
classroom and nobody knew.
So it was being just treatedlike that, like somebody's
punching bag.
Eventually you build I don'tknow almost vengeance, uh,
resent um and I I eventuallylearned how to defend myself and
(20:13):
to the point where, um, I mayhave um lost my way, but I I
hated bullies, like with, withthe deepest, deepest anger for
them.
So it got to the point where Iwould go out and intentionally
look for bullies and cause themthe same pain they caused me.
(20:33):
And along that righteous pathof trying to do something
intentionally good, I did losemy way here and there and there
was just some fights thatshouldn't have happened.
That's how incarcerationhappened.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So you were incarcerated.
What was the sentence?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
uh, 18 months, like um, I think we spoke on it
earlier, but they were trying toslam me for 10 years because of
the severity of and the factthat all three cases happened
like weeks, months apart.
So I got lucky that theyconsolidated it.
I didn't get tried for a second, third offense.
(21:14):
It was like, hey, we didn'teven get a chance to hit you on
that first one, we didn't evenget a chance to hit you on that
second one.
If you get one more, my publicdefender's like if you pick up
one more charge, there's nothingI can do for you.
I'm like I've been fighting mywhole life now and I never got
into any trouble.
So to me I was like what isgoing on?
(21:36):
It was back to, I mean god,that year.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I swear he was getting arrested, like every few
months, like they were pickinghim up to it was.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That was a crazy and how old were you at that time,
Jesse?
I was 23.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So you have to have been like 25 or 26.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Wow so you're in your mid twenties now still fighting
really hard.
I can see where it started in ain a childhood of being bullied
and, like you said, it becamealmost a resilience vengeance
where you then went and startedhunting bullies and picking the
fights.
Yeah, and so, in my estimation,there's a higher power that let
all three of those arrests andthen get balled up together so
(22:14):
you didn't have, as you justsaid, a first violation, a
second offense, a third, becausethey do start snowballing and
getting worse and worse youwould have been serving time
still if that was mainland andyou got first, second, third
offense.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
That's a life sentence.
So I'm just lucky I was inhawaii and that it was
consolidated to only one onesentencing, which was first,
second, third degree assault,unauthorized entry, motor
vehicle, and then, um, was itpromoting a dangerous drug?
I had to.
I had some stuff on me at thetime so now?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
were you two together at the time, at that time?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
it was like kind of we were dating yeah, I think we
were like a year into dating oh,wow so that's why you saw, he
was getting arrested, like everyfew months yeah, I mean we were
together when it would happen,so like when he, because all of
them were from fighting right,so it would be like we were
young back then.
So we were drinking a lot, wewere in town and town is just
never a great environment,especially after two, after 12.
(23:10):
It's never great.
You know everyone's like fueledon alcohol and drugs and you
know how it is like emotions.
So, yeah, so we were there.
I was there for all of it, so Iwasn't surprised when he got
arrested, because I was therewhen all of the incidents
happened now what happened atthat point?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
you get convicted.
They were looking for 10.
You ended up getting 18 months,but you didn't know that when
you got sentenced were you.
Were you still dating at thetime?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
yeah, so we were dating, posted bail, posted bail
many times total like many,many hundred thousand dollars
yeah, I got frequent flyert-shirts I love that we can
laugh about it now, but it is nojoke.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
No, it's not a joke, but you know you can laugh at
your pain yes, once you've beenthrough it, yes but we were
dating and then, um, all hiscourt cases were happening and
then the public defender waslike, okay, this next one is
going to be your sentencing.
So, um, that's when we decidedto get married, because he was
(24:18):
skeptical if I was going to stay.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, I know you chose to marry him right then,
while he's facing a convictionpossibly 10 years.
I knew already from my publicdefender that he's facing a
conviction, possibly 10 years.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I knew already from my public defender that he's
like hey, you're looking atanywhere from a year to 10 years
and they're pushing for that 10.
And knowing that you know, yes,we're dating, yes, we've been
together for a year, at the timeI was like I've said it before,
but she's in her prime and forme to take that away I felt
selfish.
It's like why would I do thatto her?
(24:48):
I shouldn't drag somebody downwith me for my own crap that I'm
doing.
So.
It's like if you're going toleave for me, in my head it's
going to be heartbreaking for mein there.
I'll probably spin out and losemy shit.
So I was like you can go.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
There's no hard feelings, I respect you and and
whatnot, and, and she's abeautiful woman and she's like
young 20s yes.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And she's like no, I'm here, it doesn't matter if
it's one year or if it's 10years.
And I was like, no, it's okay.
He's like no, let's get married.
And I was like what?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
holy, wow, ashley, even if he got 10 years in
prison.
You were in, I was in.
You're locked and loaded.
You're good to go well, mymentality yeah, what was your
thinking?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I mean, I was 23, so I was young and in love like in
love, you know, and so, but alsoI was there through, like I
said, with all the incidents.
So I didn't think it was fairthat I'm like I'm not gonna
leave because I was part of theproblem too, you know, and like
I'm gonna be there for youbecause we even though I wasn't
the one physically fighting, wewere there together, you know so
(25:59):
, and I just seen I mean notgetting too off subject, but we
were fighting our own demons atthe time but I would see
glimpses of Jesse that I waslike this is the guy or the man
that I want to be with for therest of my life, because I see
the potential, I see the good inhim.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Wow, it wasn't all the time, you know so, because
he was fighting his own demons,but like glimpses of sobriety,
I'm like like, yeah, if this isthe guy I can get all the time,
then, yeah, this is what I'msupposed to be with.
I love that you touched on thatand maybe it was an aside that
you meant to come back into, butI think it's important for us
as an ohana, as people watchingand our aloha alive audience is
(26:42):
an ohana family that and I Ioften speak this to young people
that if you meet someone whohas and it takes a woman who has
vision to see a potential in aman and you saw glimpses you
said that if this man were toremain sober and I see the man
(27:02):
that you believed and that yousaw today sitting right here at
this desk with us, but you hadto have that vision.
And so what I'm saying to theyoung people is there are times,
even if you're young, itdoesn't matter, you're going to
see it and when you invest intothat vision, as you have Ashley.
that's why we have this herositting with us today.
(27:23):
And that's why we have a sherostill sitting with him today,
because you chose each other.
And there is such a good man inthis, because part of what I
saw when I was watching you ondifferent podcasts, jesse, when
I have seen you at the cafeteriadoing rallies or in meetings at
Hono Uli Uli Middle School,where we both serve, when I saw
you speaking to the NanakuliHigh School rally recently, I
(27:46):
see a great man of goodness,just really humble, but you do
superhero acts.
And I saw that quote whereyou've been fighting since you
were in elementary until intoyour 20s and I thought to myself
this man has a supernaturalsense of justice, because you
weren't just fighting to be abully or to be mean or to Lord
(28:08):
it over others, you werefighting for your own life.
In the beginning, you werefighting for others, and now
you're still fighting, jesse, tobring justice to the streets
for those who cannot defendthemselves, the houseless, and
so, um, you quoted Gandhi.
You said right, what is hisquote?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I like to change it up a little bit, but I know it's
be the change you wish to seein the world and be making.
Trying to make it more localverse, I was like be the Aloha
you wish to see in the world.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And, to lead that example, I shove my son into a
lot of these podcasts because Iknow what that struggle is
growing up whether it's a brokenhome or or just some finances,
and that struggle you go throughand he's gonna have to face
those certain demons as well ashe gets older.
So if I don't find a way toaddress that now, then, he's
(28:57):
gonna have to deal with that andI wanted to be able to lead
with that aloha and show himlike, hey, there's another way.
There is another way.
You don't have to do what daddid.
You don't have to grow up rough, rugged or or put yourself
through this mess.
It's like just just listen tothe story, don't walk through
the shoes wow, so that's huge,jesse.
Now I just want him to know hehas options.
You always have a choice andyou don't have to.
(29:19):
You could, and you see whichway that that can lead you.
Or you could also just be akind person and see where that
leads you.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
That's good, and that's the shirt you're wearing.
Be Kind to Everyone, my mombought that for him Her mom,
yeah, that's my favorite shirt.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I love it.
I'm never throwing this away.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I can't remember the story, but I think it has to do
with a girl that has specialneeds and she creates the shirts
and sells them.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yeah, I wish I remember her name.
I've heard that story.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, I don't know her name either, but I have
heard that story and she giveslike a little note when you buy
the shirt.
It's really cute.
Wow, she was so excited to getthat.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Wait, so you're his mom's favorite.
Are you her mom's favorite,then?
Is that the swap that happenedBecause she bought you your
favorite shirt?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
the favorite.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
I'm everyone's favorite, she's the most mvp
favorite daughter um status.
Thank you for saying that andI'm gonna quote you, if that's
okay.
Jesse, be the aloha you wish tosee in the world yes because
this is aloha alive andbasically we're here trying to
share aloha, because theheartbeat of aloha needs to get
(30:21):
stronger and stronger yes andthat's why I was so led to bring
the two of you here, because Iwatch how you literally,
spiritually, physically,financially, walk out aloha
every day, in the darkestvalleys, in the hardest places,
and you're still choosing that.
So, jesse, back to where youwere, a child, going through
those dark valleys by yourself.
(30:43):
And now you're not a child,you're a man with a son, riley,
and you're helping him walkthrough, because that's real.
Every parent wants to see theirchild work.
Their child's going to struggle, they're going to go through
hard times.
Bullying is off the charts,even here in the state of Hawaii
, or, if you're watching fromaround the nation or even
anywhere else, on all pointspossible around the world,
(31:04):
there's bullying.
The nation or even anywhereelse, on all points possible
around the world, there'sbullying, there's meanness,
there's evil.
But when we walk our childrenthrough that and show them how
to be kind and have choices yousaid so much in that one
paragraph then they can makethat choice of.
Because you quote Gandhi, youchanged it to Jesse, and I grew
up idolizing Wonder Woman.
Sorry, I did.
I was a lady of the, a kitty ofthe seventies, a lady of the
(31:27):
eighties, and it was the oldWonder Woman with, like the cape
, which was a big flag Right,but she would say we all have a
superpower.
We can use it for evil or wecan use it for good.
I hope you use it for good.
And so that's kind of whereAuntie Dawn comes in with Choose
Aloha program in the schools isyou have a lot of energy guys.
You can either use it to mobsomebody and be evil or sell
(31:50):
drugs or cheat on tests or usechat GPT.
You know we can do all thosethings or we can choose to
connect, be pure, be true, bepresent, right to make these
choices and those sound sosimple, don't they?
Jesse is, I'm just going to bepresent right now and have a
good conversation with you, giveyou good eye contact.
One of my favorite memories withJesse, um, and there are few, I
(32:14):
don't know you guys super well,but I saw you standing in
possibly the most terrifyingplace on earth, and that wasn't
a physical fight, but it was ata spiritual fight.
It was on stage in front of abunch of nonakuli high school
students, I imagine, and theteachers and I am a speech
(32:34):
teacher by trade, and the numberone fear on earth is not death,
it's public speaking and jessestood in the middle of this.
It was a circular likecourtyard at Nanakuli High
School, and he's speaking to,you know, 100 plus 200, 300 kids
and the teachers, all byyourself.
It's the loneliest, mostimpossible, hardest place to
(32:58):
stand.
And you were trying to impartha, which is the breath of life
in Aloha right, and you weretrying to speak into their
spirit man, their spirit woman.
And there there's almost likethis trembling that happens in
in the atmosphere.
You can feel it right, likewhich way is this going to go?
You're doing your best.
You're like this warrior upthere fighting.
You've got a sharp sword,you're speaking good words,
(33:20):
you're speaking Aloha.
And and then, which way is itgoing to go?
And you stood there valiantly,and they're all waiting, cause
everybody's just in their ownlittle place, right In their own
space.
And I stepped up and I was likewait, we're not done yet.
And then you, you said thankyou, he's wrapping up, he
finished, and he was about tostep off, but he's a very
respectful young man.
(33:41):
And as I went to go, honey, Isaid can I just ask you one more
question?
And you said, oh yeah, noworries, go ahead.
And I stood there with you andand then when you opened your
mouth, you had already landedthe touchdown.
Then you went for the Heisman,then you went for the MVP, then
it's like we won heaven and Isaw you transform in that moment
and I know that the studentsfelt it as well.
(34:04):
So when you talk about helpingyour son, riley, walk through
the difficulties of life, I justthink there's so much goodness
to a father who couldn't do thatfor his child, and I want to
bless you and speak thatblessing over you, because you
may have grown up in a homewhere you didn't have a father,
but you're figuring it out asyou move forward and you're
(34:25):
doing the best you can.
Nobody on earth gets a manual,we don't get a textbook, we
don't get the list that sayshere's how you're going to raise
your son as he's a baby, ashe's a toddler, as he's a
preteen or a teenager.
But, jesse, you're doing thatand I'm so proud of you.
Thank you and I want to thankyou that, even though you didn't
(34:46):
necessarily have a father and Iknow he's still in the picture,
that's totally cool whereverthat is but you're now fathering
a community.
You are a Makua, a father toHawaii, and so stand in that
strength and I hope that thatblessing really sticks with you
when you're walking in the stinkareas right when you're in the
(35:08):
disgusting public bathroomstrying to clean up or when
you're at the night marketsgreeting people.
Thank you for being a father toour Hawaii, thank you.
I got a couple more questionsfor us.
How can we partner with youfolks to become an Aloha
advocate?
I love that you said that.
Thank you for my hat for to thetop Hawaii.
(35:28):
How do we become Alohaadvocates?
Because maybe we're talking tosomebody out there who's
watching and saying, gosh, Idon't have a story like Jesse.
I don't have a bunch of tats,I'm not really muscular.
I don't want to go into likehow Bush area and Eva beach or I
don't want to go out to the Yand I boat Harbor.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
How can I become an aloha advocate and partner with
you guys?
I think aloha advocate is justany, any type of kindness that
you can share with others.
It doesn't have to be endingsome world problem or like going
out and feeding the homeless orhouseless, but it's just little
acts of kindness that you cando every day.
So choosing Aloha, you knowwhen it's not your first choice.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
So that is an Aloha advocate to us?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I say Aloha advocate a lot when I go and I talk to
the kids at schools, sheltersand other community centers, but
I mean, when I just wasreflecting on this the other day
day, I don't really go intodetail what that stands for, at
least from my standpoint, andI've been trying to preach that
more now too, and it's by justsharing the experiences where I
(36:35):
have a chance to advocate forAloha.
And I just want to share anexperience where in the past, if
somebody were to get in my faceand they were confrontational,
I was never one to step downfrom combat.
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
You went back down, you're bigger.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
You're stronger, you're older, it didn't matter.
I had a bone to pick.
Now to advocate for Aloha islike how can I address that same
type of energy with Aloha?
And I use this example of mebeing in a bar and this is after
jail, me being in a bar and aguy comes up to me and he's just
like oh, where are you from?
(37:17):
I was like, oh, west Side.
Oh, I heard you guys can bang,yeah.
And I was like we're all right,we're okay.
And he's looking around the bar.
I can tell he's kind of sizingme up like he wants to throw
down, and I think you were therethat night.
I'm not too sure.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I don't want to mention the bar's name, but um
and then.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
So I was like bro, how about I just buy you?
And the bar is full.
Now aunties and uncles aresinging karaoke.
There's a live band.
The bar is not even hereanymore.
I don't really care, it'sHibiscus.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Oh wow, this is serious.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
The bar is not even here anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Of course, Jesse says this like I would know all the
bars right?
Speaker 2 (37:54):
No, I'm just joking, but that is serious.
I talked to him.
I'm like how about I just buyyou a beer so we don't ruin
everybody's night, but if youwant to, I'm game.
And he turns, he looks at me,he looks to the crowd, he looks
back to me and he's like I takeon Heineken, that's it.
It's like that.
You know what I mean.
It's like events like that andI know I get tested every single
(38:15):
time, even being in the serviceindustry, and I work at Roy's
Colina and you get tested bycustomers all the time you know,
trying to blame you for everylittle thing, whether it's
because they're late to theirreservation or what, and you to
still address them and treatthem with humanity, love and
respect is like.
Those are just more chances forme to show my character and that
(38:37):
you can still address them withlove, even if they're trying to
bash you and stuff we do online, for example, too.
We're out, we're showing thatwe're feeding people.
You'll have somebody chiming onthe comments.
Be like is that okay withdepartment of health?
And I was like, um, and tostill show them love and that's
just uh.
To advocate for aloha is, Ithink, through our actions and
(39:01):
addressing when people get inyour face, that are you know, am
I making sense yeah, yeah, hugeyeah.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
That is just through simple actions, that's good.
And even specifically to comingalongside with you guys at To
the Top Hawaii, because I justwatched recently some of your
posts.
Well, I watch you guys a lot.
I'm your stalker.
I'm your favorite stalkerauntie, but I saw your videos.
Thank you, ashley.
Talking about how you sort someof the donations and if you
(39:29):
could get some volunteers tocome out.
Maybe two or three volunteers,that's not a lot right?
No, I mean we.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
A lot of the things that we do are sporadic, like we
collaborate with a lot of otherorganizations, so you'll see
mostly jesse everywhere you knoweverywhere.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
That's where I was like wait, he works at roy's.
I know you have a job and youdo to the top, hawaii and our
markets oh my gosh, that's right.
The night market and realestate.
Oh my, so you're a normalregular working couple and then
you do to the top, which isyou're, you're not paid for that
no, that's.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
If anything, we spend more money than we get
donations, luckily from thecommunity, like we'll get um
clothing donations, fooddonations, sometimes monetary
donations, and so whatevermonetary donations we get, to,
like buy food on the days thatwe don't have any sponsors, or
like sometimes, like some of ourfriends on the streets Don't
have clothes or a tent, yeah,they're like, oh, our stuff just
(40:27):
got stolen and we have thatmonetary savings on the side
that we use specifically to aidand help the houseless.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
So I don't put this out there enough, but I go out
in the community at any chance.
I have to try and help anybodyelse's cause.
That's my thank you, becausewhen we reach out for help
almost instantaneously.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I need uncle needs blankets.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Auntie needs diapers.
Somebody will message me thatday, sometimes that within that
hour.
So for me that's a thank you.
So I'll go to the beach clean.
I'll go to the rally.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I'll go to whatever right, and I love that part of
what I see with you folks is youkind of have a hui or a family
of people, like we have kikuafrom pure aloha right, you have
trisha from my sister's keeperdo you?
Have other people you want togive a shout out to, because
that so many.
As you just said, jesse, yougot backup instantaneous.
(41:19):
It's like you are in a fightand you turn around.
I'm not by myself, I got atribe yeah, but this is the
aloha advocate tribe.
Right, we're, uh, we're the ateam, we're the aloha team and
we got your back.
Anybody else you guys want togive a shout out to that?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
make sure we don't forget uh, the list could go on
forever, but um, and I doapologize if I forget anybody,
but I mean jess andreaola forhelping us with connecting us to
providers essentials.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
And her team, her whole team, kika, jeannie,
they're amazing.
They do so much work.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Me and Hawaii, mark he always catches our back when
we need to get a message out.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
He's like I got you, he posts it.
Let's right.
Isaac, from isaac hungry hungryhawaiian.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Hawaii watch uh live um there's kikua hawaii
entrepreneurs hawaii creatorslike they're on us, they're like
oh, you need help.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
And those are titans of ig instagram influencers in
the state of hawaii who usetheir influence for good yeah,
right and they blow it up bigtime and you'll see it on mean
hawaii.
You'll see it on hawaii.
Hhhn right, they do so muchwith you guys yeah it's really
good to see that that heartbeatis strong is you're not fighting
(42:31):
by yourself for all of thesevoiceless, houseless you're.
We're gonna fight with you yesand, like you said, hawaii, we
show up for our own.
We do.
I just thank god for that yesokay now we gave some shout outs
and, as he said, it's kind oflike the putting the pressure on
you right, like at your wedding, where you're like I'm sorry,
mom, I forgot to say your name,but you did it, you got it good.
(42:54):
Um.
So what now?
What?
Um, how can we get involved?
You guys are I want to make aspecification here a non-profit
right To the Top.
Hawaii is a non-profit, so ifwe wanted to make a donation, it
could go there.
Or you guys also do a lot withGoFundMe when you have a cause
I've seen that.
Is that true?
Can you speak to that we have?
(43:15):
I'll take that.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
So sometimes we'll make specific GoFundMes for
certain people, but now we dohave like our own.
It's kind of like a gofundmefor non-profits called zeffy, so
it's a link on our instagramand that's.
If anyone wants to do likemonetary donations, um, zeffy
doesn't charge like a fee.
I think gofundme they chargelike a fee to process it 30.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
so I had a hard time doing gofundmes personally
because I I grew up reallyhumbly poor too, and so if I'm
thinking I have a dollar andyou're taking 30 cents off the
top, that's a big cut, man, yeahso, zephy, if you're a
nonprofit, they don't take anyfunds from it you
Speaker 2 (43:50):
can make a donation to support the website, if you
want to, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
But other than that you can do monetary donations,
clothing donations, householditems, I mean, we take any,
almost anything, you know yeah,except used panties and half no
use underwear no um open fooditems.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
This sweet lady had to go on instagram and she said
it in a gracious way, but auntiedawn's just blunt.
We don't got all day you're notsaying you're used panties or
bibbities bra, you can just tossit if you don't want it, ain't
nobody nobody wants it, yeah, sodon't do it so we can come
alongside and you guys do a lotof interesting events.
You do like movie nights.
(44:33):
I've seen you have the marketnights, which I love.
Support local, always supportlocal right, which is something
that mark always says we tosupport the locals, Otherwise we
won't have locals.
That's why we have such a hugeexodus.
Moving to the continent right,I was told not to say mainland,
because that's not the mainlandright, I was like you're right,
you're right.
(44:53):
So, moving to the continent,we're going to come in for a
landing and this is Aloha Alive.
Thank you so much for my makanayou brought me a beautiful lay.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Thank you, jesse and ashley, thank you for ours to
the top, and you made thisyourself I figure if you guys
didn't shower, you smell good.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Now you know I love you guys so much and I did make
it with lots of aloha.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Thank you, no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
So we're talking about aloha.
What is aloha to you?
Last couple questions what isaloha to you?
Is it a scent, a smell, aflavor, a dish?
And then the second part of itis who is your aloha hero?
Who embodies aloha?
So first we'll start with whatis your favorite scent, smell,
(45:44):
flavor.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
What is.
Aloha, my, what is Aloha to me?
To me, Aloha is a feeling.
So it is a feeling of love, ofcomfort, of accountability.
So sometimes it can be, youknow, harsh but, loving at the
same time.
So to me, I think that's whatit is.
It's like a sense of family,yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
It has to be sometimes a little harsh.
I always say I just said this.
Yesterday I was in Nāmea,hawaii, buying something and the
guy was from Hilo.
I'm from Hilo and I saidremember growing up people used
to say whose child is this?
Speaker 3 (46:24):
And or they would say you get your parents.
Yeah, that's right by anyone.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
You know that, auntie now I my butt is clenching
because I'm about to get thebutt whooping of my life, right
once my parents get found, theymight give me a butt whooping
yeah, but back in the day thatmeant people in our community
cared about us yeah, everyoneheld each other accountable
absolutely, so I love that youbrought that up, ashley yeah,
very good so I think it can bewarm and loving and kind, but
(46:48):
also, you know, it holds youaccountable at the same time.
Yeah aloha is not just a welcomemat, it's a force of fire.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
It's got to be fierce , yeah, otherwise I don't want
people to think aloha is a signof weakness and that's.
That's another reason why wetry to advocate for it.
You know how much strength ittakes for when someone gets in
your face and you just stillshow them love and kindness,
regardless of how they'retreating you.
Yeah, so that that's what we'retrying to imply.
More, because hate is so loud,it's time for Aloha to be just a
(47:19):
little bit louder.
Yeah, in a humblest way.
Yes, I'm not saying go out thereand wreak havoc.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Yeah, I'm saying to show more love.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
That's good, and if we don't, I love that.
You said that Hate is so loud,and we're seeing that in our
nation, where hateful forces arebeing super loud and they're
getting all the attentionbecause that's the way the media
rolls.
They need to sell time and ads,but aloha can be loud too, and
in the absence of hearing theopposite side, then weaker minds
(47:50):
or even just new minds, likelittle kids, will watch that and
think that the hate is the onlything out there.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
No, there's a silent majority that needs to get
unsilent and speak aloha andlive aloha.
So thank you for saying that.
Is there, speak aloha and livealoha.
So thank you for saying that.
Is there an aloha hero or analoha memory that you love
growing up in hawaii, jesse?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
and you can't say manapua pork hash um, not not to
be, um, self self-centered, butum it's.
It's looking myself in themirror and making sure I do that
I would say, like thateight-year-old version of me,
(48:30):
justice, that kid who had hopeand dreams, and not let that go
to waste, making him proud andshowing him that I can be his
hero.
So it's looking at myself andthinking you don't got to be
what the world told you to be.
You can be yourself, you can beauthentic, you can be a genuine
person.
And then also that if you tryand look into the future and at
(48:53):
your 80-year-old self and makethat guy proud too your
80-year-old self, your80-year-old self if both these
guys are proud and you're livingin your present moment, I think
you're in a good zone.
Wow, that that's just.
I mean, isn't that you're?
You're your biggest critic,you're a bit your biggest
advocate, you're your, yourbiggest enemy.
And to, to face off that person, I'm not in, I'm not in a war.
(49:17):
A war with you, I'm not at warwith you.
The person next to me, it'sthat whole comparison as a thief
of joy is like no, if I canjust make things right with
myself, 1% better every day,I'll be okay.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
That's great, and we are not in competition, we're in
completion.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Right, and so I love that.
That.
If I really am being the bestDawn, if you're really being the
best Jesse and you are a greatreally being the best Jesse and
you are a great great Ashleythen we're going to be the
highest aloha we can be for thisworld.
And that is not peer pressure,it's pure pressure and that's
the influence, not infection,it's influence, and we're going
(49:55):
to see a completely differentHawaii.
I'm going to see a totallydifferent US.
I'm going to see a totallydifferent world.
That's huge, jesse.
Thank you guys both so muchonce again.
Ohana, as you're watching today, it's aloha alive, we've got to
the top.
Hawaii, and it's jesse andashley and riley I know riley
(50:15):
would be here for one more theirson.
They're just an amazing ohana.
You can check them out on ig tothe top hawaii and you can also
see them um just all over thecommunity.
You guys have an eventscalendar.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
You post stuff all the time so if you guys are free
, come down support local localmusic local, food local vendors.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Yeah.
So support local, alwayssupport local, and that night
market is huge.
So, again, on instagram you cancatch them to the top hawaii
and you can even come out andvolunteer and help sort things,
whatever it is, or givedonations.
It's going to be a huge help.
So be the aloha you wish to seein the world with to the top
hawaii.
Mahalo and aloha.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.