Iconic Lahaina Bird Stand still struggles to restart its business, months after the wildfire
By Arielle Argel
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LAHAINA, Hawaii (KITV) — During the Lahaina fires, the owners of the iconic Lahaina Bird Stand lost everything, from their business equipment to their homes. They said they are worried they won’t be able to open back up again.
“The opportunity is there to resume work in a limited way, but we have three factors that control whether we can or can’t. One is stable housing for ourselves, stable housing for our birds, and the same location or a location that all three of those things can be together at,” said David Vanzo, one of the owners.
The owners say it costs about $100,000 to replace all of the lost cameras, printers, and packaging equipment, and that would be on top of finding new housing and taking care of their birds.
“Everybody here is underinsured and nobody has enough to rebuild. Nobody,” said Barrie Mathews, the other co-owner.
For just one bird, Vanzo says it costs over $300 a month to properly take care of them and the Lahaina Bird Stand has to take care of 14 of them, without being able to restart their business.
The owners said they tried applying for grants, but they did not qualify for some because their business was a stand, not a physical building.
“It is confusing with the resources that are there, who is eligible for what, who qualifies for what. It is confusing for most people, especially when you’ve just lost so much,” said Leslie Wilkens, president and CEO of Maui Economic Development Branch (MEDB). “There are limited resources and like I’ve said most of those resources are in loans, not grants which is unfortunate.”
Wilkens encourages all affected businesses to reach out to the MEDB, so they can try and help out where they can. She said in the future, she hopes she can advocate for more grants than loans to help more business owners.
While the owners were also able to get help from a few bird organizations, Lea Hollingsworth-Ramsey, the president of the Hawaiian Feathered Friends Network said they can only help so much.
“We’ve been providing food support and sending food there to Maui to help David and Barrie, so they know that their birds have a steady source of food, they don’t have to worry about the money,” said Hollingsworth-Ramsey.
Hollingsworth-Ramsey said the network has also helped with fundraising for new bird cages to be sent to Vanzo and Matthews and hopes to help them find affordable housing for the owners and their birds.
For those who would like to help the Lahaina Bird Stand, you can make monetary donations to their GoFundMe.
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