Former Warriors coach Don Nelson and his family feeding, providing shelter to Lahaina fire victims

KIHEI, Hawaii - Moving and powerful stories of community, human kindness and the aloha spirit have been emerging from the destruction left by the vicious flames that ravaged parts of Maui last week. Among those who have worked tirelessly to help fire victims, have been former Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson and his family.

Nelson, a longtime Maui resident, has been providing free housing to victims, by opening his many rental properties to those left without shelter. The Hall of Fame NBA coach, who had two stints with the Warriors (1988-1995, 2006-2010), and members of his family have been offering aid in a variety of capacities from preparing meals to providing rides. 

Nelson's daughter, Lee Anderson, founder and executive chef of Sugar Beach Events in Kihei on Maui’s southwest shore, has converted her site into a multipurpose volunteer center to help anyone in need. 

"We turned it into a donation hub and meal kitchen," Anderson told us from her South Carolina home on Tuesday, where she’s been coordinating the volunteer efforts of her team.  

Anderson, who’s scheduled to return to Maui on Sept. 1, said her team has been working nearly around the clock to try and meet the ongoing needs of those whose lives will never be the same. 

"My team is so amazing," Lee said. "Everyone is working 18 hours a day, just to try and bring some comfort to those who are affected."

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She said the grassroots efforts by her team, her family, and community volunteers, have resulted in feeding 1,000 people or more a day.

And her 83-year-old father and 80-year-old step-mother, Joy, who have a home not far from her Sugar Beach venue, have been on site doing what they can.

"Joy was in my kitchen making spam musubi," Lee shared, adding, "That's the one thing about my dad and Joy. They don't just talk the talk, they absolutely walk the walk, so they are going around helping."

Her sister, Chris Fontian, who was visiting from Chicago when the fires broke out, has also been on the ground helping in any capacity she can. 

"Everybody is volunteering," Anderson said. "It has just brought out-- in unfortunate circumstances, brought out the best in people."

And no matter the need, Sugar Beach volunteers have been doing whatever they can to accommodate. 

"Sugar Beach, we’re a hub for phone calls for anything that’s needed. Same with Joy, my stepmom. If one of the organizations she works with says, ‘Hey somebody needs food delivered here. Can you take clothes there?’ And it’s just yes, absolutely. Tell us when and tell us what you need, and we got it. There are no questions asked if you need it, we’re going to do it. We’re going to figure out how to get it done."

SEE ALSO: High risks and lack of warnings in Maui lead to deadliest U.S. wildfire this century

She said it’s an attitude and approach inherent to those in the hospitality industry-- to serve and to care for people.

The executive chef also expressed that while state officials have been urging tourists not to visit the island at this time, the residents of Maui will be the ones suffering if tourism comes to a halt.  

"We need you to come to Maui. Lahaina is closed, but the rest of that island, they have locals that need to work and need to pay bills," she said of the workers who depend on the tourism industry to make their living.  

She said that while parts of the west side have been severely impacted by the fires, the north and south shores have not experienced major issues, and the people need visitors to continue to bring in business and keep the local economy going.

"Think about all the Hawaiians, the local Hawaiians, the culture is so strong," she said. "That's why there is such an outpouring of aloha and love." 

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At her event venue-turned volunteer center, the stories that have been shared have been horrific and heartbreaking. 

"There's the story of a woman running for her life from the flames as she dives into the ocean," Anderson said. 

And then there was an elderly woman who, for some reason, was awoken in the middle of the night and felt she needed to leave her home before she was even alerted of the flames. As she drove off, the fire caught up with her, nearly scorching her car and melting its tires to the road. 

"A pickup truck with three young men pulled her out of her window, put her in their truck and saved her," the chef shared. 

Anderson also shared that workers from Ali’i Nui boat company, which partners with Sugar Beach for events, were using their boats to help save people who had jumped into the ocean. The workers ended up pulling out one of their own, a captain, from the water.

The captain and his wife had fled their home and raced into the water to try and escape the inferno. 

"They didn’t know there was a fire until their house was on fire," she explained. In the end, the captain survived. His wife did not.  

But despite that traumatizing and harrowing experience, "That captain, he was at Sugar Beach feeding people," Anderson shared. "That’s the community that’s been brought together."

When asked how her family and her team were all holding it together, Anderson said, "It is daunting. You have to compartmentalize. You can't think about it because if you start thinking about it, it will make you crumble." 

And that’s why she felt compelled to bring in a therapist on-site this week to work with her team and provide mental and emotional support. 

While her family and her Sugar Beach crew were doing what they could to meet the ongoing and wide-ranging needs of fire victims, Anderson predicted things were going to get even more dire. 

"What's about to start happening, we will start running out of supplies, so it's going to worse before it gets better," she explained. 

And being on an island made accessibility to those supplies challenging. She said, the biggest way people can help right now was to donate money. 

So Sugar Beach has been collecting donations, using the funds to go directly toward fire victims, responding to them with their personal needs in mind, something she said, she didn’t believe government entities were achieving,  

"People are frustrated, and it’s getting tough," she said. "We are a people who know what this community needs."

Anderson also expressed concern that another tropical storm could be headed to the island, which could greatly hamper the already difficult recovery efforts. 

For now, it's been all hands on deck for her, her family and crew. While she’s been working non-stop coordinating the efforts from the mainland, she said once she returns to Maui in the coming days, she’ll be hitting the ground running to join her resolute family and team. 

"It's a marathon. They won't stop, even though they need to take a break, because there are too many stories of suffering and too many stories of horror. They just won’t stop," Anderson said. "This community only wants to help each other." 

Those who want to support fire relief efforts by Sugar Beach can donate here. 

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