Hawaiian Heroes
Some of the people I've been lucky enough to meet during my first year on the Big Island
I’ve been reflecting on my first year here in Hilo and thinking about some of the incredible people I’ve gotten to meet and interview for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Working for a paper with a daily deadline can be difficult, especially when it’s a story that really needs time and requires you to fully understand its context. It’s challenging when it’s about the legal system, the medical field, and especially Hawaiian history. But when those stories involve vulnerable moments in someone’s life, it can be the most difficult of all.
There’s a lot of caffeine involved, and sometimes sleepless nights, dreading the emails that inevitably arrive the next morning, telling you about all the mistakes you made (yes, baby lamb IS redundant, a lamb IS already a baby sheep).
But every once in a while, you meet someone who changes your life, who shares their story and wants to tell you what they’ve learned on their journey through life. Their experience becomes your experience, and it can change the way you see things forever.
I’ve been really lucky that people have been patient as I learn the language, kind enough to open their homes and share their stories and meals with me, and even be understanding when I make the inevitable typo.
These are a few of the incredible people I’ve met here, who took the time to talk story, and showed me what the aloha spirit is all about.
I can’t thank them enough.
Mahalo nui loa.
Romel De La Cruz
Romel was born in the Philippines and moved to Hawaii at the age of six. He joined the Peace Corps after hearing Kennedy’s speech and went back to the Philippines for the first time since his childhood.
He met his future wife Jodean during that trip, and together they met Marcos, built homes, and Romel got to reconnect with his home country and heritage. Jodean passed away a few years ago, but Romel kept every letter she sent home to her parents during her time in the Philippines. He shared them all with me and the photos they took along the way.
Romel came home to Hawaii after the Peace Corps, but Jodean wasn’t able to find a job, so she made the difficult choice to move back to Michigan. But they sent letters, worked hard to apply together, and eventually, Jodean accepted a position in Honoka’a, teaching at Romel’s former Elementary school.
Mieko Nagao
Mieko is 96 and from Japan. She spent her life sewing and making art and traditional Japanese dolls.
She moved with her husband to Hawaii from Osaka and together they built their home by hand. Her daughter translated for us as Mieko showed us the different quilts, clothing, masks and art she had made throughout her life, even the couch cloth we were sitting on and the curtains that draped from the windows.
During COVID, Nagao spent her time in quarantine sewing masks on the same sewing machine she taught herself on. She donated all of them for free to her temple, the Puna Hongwangi.
She explained Buddhism in a way I finally understood, saying that she was thankful for her arthritis, because it meant she used everything her hands had to offer to help other people.
Jessica McCullum
Jessica runs Autism Moms of Kona and hosts events like surfing classes and disability-friendly film screenings. She advocates constantly for every kid on the island with neurodiversity and autism.
She was able to convince the Daughters of Hawaii to light up the historic Hulihe'e Palace in Kailua-Kona blue for Autism Awareness day.
It rained that night as the group gathered for the lighting, but the Daughters of Hawaii came up and said it was “Ka’ua pomaika’i,” the blessings of the rain.
Kimo Alameda
Kimo runs the fentanyl task force where he speaks to kids at all Big Island schools about the dangers of fentanyl.
He leads workshops and hosts distribution events where he gives free Narcan to anyone who wants it to help end opioid overdoses.
So far, he’s distributed over 1,000 Narcan packages throughout the community, which have without a doubt saved several lives already.
Dr. Frederick Nitta and Charlene Orcino
Dr Nitta hasn’t accepted a paycheck in seven years. He is the only doctor on the island who accepts every patient regardless of their insurance, or lack thereof.
He is involved in countless lawsuits with HMSA, Hawaii’s totalitarian medical insurance provider, and is one of the only doctors on the island willing to speak out against the inherent corruption to help the people he cares for.
He and Orcino won a major lawsuit at the Hawaii Supreme Court level this year against the insurance giant that prevented Orcino from getting the lifesaving medication she needed after the premature birth of her son Jayson back in 2021.
Haunani Kane
Kane sailed around the world with the Polynesian Voyaging Society as a navigator and scientist using only ancient techniques to guide the trip.
She’s the first Native Hawaiian to receive a post doctorate in geology at UH-Manoa and teaches a blend of science and Hawaiian history at the MEGA Lab in Hilo. Located at the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center museum, she takes the time to talk to any keiki visiting the museum who are interested in science and Hawaiian history.
Louie Taasan and Nathan Foster
Louie and Nathan trained together and both run their own tree trimming businesses on the Big Island.
They got a call one night around 1 a.m. during a major thunderstorm. Their neighbor’s lamb had fallen down a bluff during the rainstorm and precariously landed on a ledge. They responded without hesitation, and repelled down a cliff, risking their own lives to save the (baby) lamb.
They renamed the lamb miracle, and when the family offered to pay, they both refused, saying “you would have done the same for us.”
Eric Wolf
Wolf is a social worker who devotes his time to former prisoners and kids to help with the rehabilitation process and with trauma.
He founded a task force on the island to train other social workers moving to Hawaii, which is one of the most in-demand medical professions throughout the state.
Dr. Scott Grosskreutz
Dr. Grosskreutz is a Big Island radiologist who does more advocacy than anyone to bring doctors to the island and keep them here. He takes them surfing, invites them for dinner, and welcomes them, because he knows how needed they are.
He’s the biggest advocate for ending the General Excise Tax on medical providers, which he believes is the main reason behind the health care shortage throughout the state.
His constant work and dedication has single-handedly saved the medical field from all but disappearing, and he continues to see patients free of charge for early cancer screenings.
Charlene Iboshi, Su-Mi Lee and Bill Sakovich
Iboshi is a former Big Island prosecutor who now serves on the Board of Directors at Hope Services and is the Rotary Club’s Peace Committee chair.
Su-Mi is an associate professor at UH-Hilo and a member of the Peace Unification Advisory Council’s Hawaii Chapter, a Korean non-partisan government agency that aims to promote a democratic and peaceful unification of the two Koreas.
Sakovich is a former Peace Corps member and Big Island swim coach who served in Bandung, Indonesia, and Morocco, teaching swim to local students.
Together, they made it a mission to share everyone’s story on the island by creating a Peace Book that collects Peace Corps experiences and other moments of peace that Hawaii residents have demonstrated.
The book will be kept at the UH-Hilo Library so that students can look back on the experiences and feel inspired. The conversation was so inspiring I (albeit, reluctantly) agreed to help them finish the project.
The experiences here have been challenging at times, but completely rewarding.
These people have all changed my life forever, and they’re only a fraction of the one’s I’ve gotten to meet.
The common connection between them all was their acknowledgement of kuleana, or personal responsibility. It’s always bigger than them, and they were just here to help. They had a calling, and a duty, to develop this reciprocal relationship between the person who is responsible, and the thing which they are responsible for.
Wherever I go and wherever I end up, their stories will stay with me forever, and I’m really grateful for the chance to meet them.
Say hello to someone new, you never know how special they might be.