Home Improvement Center launches matching donation drive to help victims of the Maui fires

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The ACE Home Improvement Center in Santa Barbara is collaborating with Direct Relief to help the victims of the Maui fires.

Beginning today the Home Improvement Center will take customer donations directly or take a donation in the form of rounding up a transaction to the next whole dollar.

Owner Gary Simpson says the goal is to match the donations and raise $10,000 in the next week.

That money will go to the non-profit Direct Relief to help with badly needed medical supplies in Lahaina. Many shipments have already arrived.

Asst. Store Manager Raul Quezada was just n Lahaina.  "It was sad you see the aftermath and it's hard to believe that everything you saw is now gone."
He has a  vivid and emotional connection.  "Good people out there, it's probably the best treatment I've ever had anywhere I visited. It's  humbling,  It's just people that didn't have much now have nothing. It's sad, very sad."

Simpson made this fundraising effort an overnight priority and the Home Improvement Center staff implemented it at the start of business.     this store has rallied to help here after tragedies in the past, many times.

Alex Bongaerts is a customer who has traveled to Hawaii, saying  "I've been through it we've never stayed there but It's just devastating, it's heart wrenching."

  As he checked out, Frank Pet said,   "I learned to scuba dive out of Lahaina 25 years ago. Very sad days because I have a visual of what that town looks like and the people there so it's kind of personal for me as well."

Many customers see the force of nature in this fire they feel for the residents and immediately wanted to donate.

Margaret Lazarus also said nature is changing and we need to respond to the impacts and needs.  "Let's hope this doesn't happen again. I know there was some indication from the Dora, the winds from the hurricane.  The fact that places are igniting, it's heat."

Barbara Boyd said from the moment the smoke cleared it was apparent how much history was lost.   "I've been to Lahaina several times and it is so historic. Those things are all gone. The people have no water,  no electricity, no place to live, no food ."

The Home Improvement Center is located on 415 East Gutierrez Street in Santa Barbara.