Maui wildfire crisis response

Greater Good Charities is committed to long-term support in Maui for the people and pets impacted by the August wildfires, and your support makes this ongoing effort possible.

In the wake of the Maui Wildfires, the team at Greater Good Charities sprung into action to secure resources, align partners, and deploy aid to those impacted – both people and pets – by the disaster.

A long time partnership between Maui Humane Society and Greater Good Charities allowed the two organizations to quickly assess and mobilize a response of donations and supplies for animal welfare needs on the island.

And, Greater Good Charities team members have been on the ground, working with organizations there to evaluate the humanitarian needs and how to best provide aid.

We continue to work with partners to allocate resources and assistance where we see the need. Read below for the latest updates on our efforts.

To date, Greater Good Charities disaster response has funded over 9.5 million meals for Ukrainians via local partners and food banks and is providing more than 31.6 million pet meals to pet parents, animal shelters and stray animals. Since last fall through our Ukraine Crisis Response Kits distributions, we have directly distributed over 900,000 humanitarian meals to families living in recently liberated areas in the East of the country.

As the war continues to rage on for a second year, we are committed to the long-term support of IDPs and Ukrainians at-home in places that are in contested or liberated areas, and we are now expanding our efforts to help the beekeepers of Ukraine. Bees play a critical role in the natural ecosystems and human food production but face threats of significant loss in Ukraine.

Beginning in May, Greater Good Charities will work with partners to help prevent further loss of bee colonies from starvation in Ukraine due to the impact of the war. The initial donation will help feed more than 250 million bees for over a three-month period and provide vital Queen Bees, to local beekeepers in Ukraine.

MOST CURRENT UPDATE

December 06, 2023 UPDATE:

Good Fix Maui: November Clinic

© Greater Good Charities

© Greater Good Charities

This November, Good Fix performed an additional spay/neuter clinic for community pets in Maui. Alongside Maui Humane Society, Hawaii Animal Rescue Foundation (HARF) and Lana'i Cat Sanctuary, the team safely sterilized nearly 600 animals, pushing this incredible program's total to over 55,000 cats and dogs spayed/neutered in communities around the world! Thank you to Boehringer Ingelheim and Southwest Airlines for making this life-saving clinic possible.

© Greater Good Charities

© Greater Good Charities

READ PAST UPDATES

September 14, 2023 UPDATE:

On September 14th, as part of an ongoing effort to support the Maui community impacted by the wildfires, Greater Good Charities, in partnership with the Hawaii Animal Rescue Foundation (HARF), Friends of the Children's Justice Center of Maui and the Department of Education provided and delivered school supplies (notebooks, pens, and pencils) to hundreds of students on their first day of school.

© Greater Good Charities

© Greater Good Charities

Students also received essential health and hygiene products donated by Colgate-Palmolive via our Good Packs. These much-needed products were flown to Maui through Southwest Airlines Cargo.

© Greater Good Charities

© Greater Good Charities

This support helps ensure that students in Maui have everything they need to succeed, despite the recent disaster.

© Greater Good Charities

September 05-08, 2023 UPDATE:

Shortly after the recent devastating wildfires in Maui, our Good Fix team visited Hilo, Hawaii for a free spay/neuter clinic, where we safely sterilized more than 960 owned and community dogs and cats.

20230721_Maui_line_of_surgeries_logo_shirts_©_GGC_Good_Fix copy © Greater Good Charities

Once this clinic was concluded, the team headed to Maui Humane Society to help them catch up on their shelter spay/neuter efforts.

20220610_Maui_Humane_Society_Tent_©Maui_Humane_Society_Maui_Good_Fix copy © Maui Humane Society

Thank you to Aloha Ilio Rescue and Petfix Spay and Neuter for supporting this Good Fix clinic on the ground, and to The John R. Peterson Foundation, Datamars and Boehringer Ingelheim for their sponsorship.

20230720_Maui_Tortie_Kitten_in_crate_©_GGC_Good_Fix copy

© Greater Good Charities

© Maui Humane Society

September 01, 2023 UPDATE:

Shortly after the wildfires, our team was the ground in Lahaina, as part of a Search & Rescue effort to find animals in the "burn scar" - the area where the fires left very little standing.

Other groups we worked alongside include Animal Search and Rescue /Animal Incident Management and Maui Humane Society, each group leading a different part of the effort, but all united in one mission: finding and helping animals in need, while recovering those who sadly didn’t make it.

It was difficult, heart wrenching work but finding a pet and reuniting them with their family made it worth it. Finn was one of those success stories.

IMG_0164.heic © Maui Humane Society

We found Finn sitting in a sandy driveway about four houses away from where his house once stood. By his demeanor, we guessed he had a family looking for him….and we were right.

We brought Finn to Maui Humane Society, where he was scanned for a chip. Fortunately, the chip led us to his owner, Danielle, who rushed to be reunited with her beloved cat. Read the full story here.

August 18, 2023 UPDATE:

Early on August 18th, our Good Flight in partnership with Southwest Airlines and Lucky Dog Animal Rescue took off with 136 shelter pets from Maui Humane Society (MHS) on board and headed for the Pacific Northwest.

8-18-flight-1 © Greater Good Charities

The flight landed safely in Portland, where Oregon Humane Society was ready and waiting to take in and find homes for 92 of the pets.

8-18-flight-4 © Greater Good Charities

For the other 44, the journey wasn't quite over yet. Thanks to Ameriflight, LLC, we flew these dogs and cats on to shelters in the Bay Area. This portion of the transport was generously sponsored by Sheba, Pedigree US and PEDIGREE Foundation, Mars Petcare US, Miranda Lambert's MuttNation, Purina, Tito's Handmade Vodka and Royal Canin.

Once safely on the ground in the Bay Area, the last pets on this life-saving Good Flight were taken in by Berkeley Humane, Marin Humane, Animal Rescue Foundation, East Bay SPCA, Tri City Animal Shelter and Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter (FAAS). In no time, all 136 will be adopted into loving homes.

© Greater Good Charities

August 17, 2023 UPDATE:

Greater Good Charities partnered with Southwest Airlines and Lucky Dog Animal Rescue to transport critical supplies into Maui and evacuate over 130 Maui Humane Society (MHS) shelter pets to safety.

A Southwest Airlines 737 departed from Oakland, CA, on August 17th carrying humanitarian supplies and additional GGC support team members. They unloaded the supplies on the ground in Maui and helped MHS finish preparing the pets who would be evacuated, all of whom had been in the shelter before the fires. This would free up critical space for the influx of injured and displaced pets.

August 09-16, 2023 UPDATE:

When catastrophic wildfires fueled by strong winds swept across Maui in early August 2023, Greater Good Charities mobilized rapidly in response to the need.

We sent initial funding to partners on the ground to assess damage and provide solutions to aid in the island's long-term recovery. As our partners at Maui Humane Society (MHS) worked to take in and care for burned and displaced pets, Greater Good Charities bolstered these efforts by providing cash and veterinary supplies, including vaccines donated by Boehringer Ingelheim.

Within days, GGC Disaster Response Team had boots on the ground in Maui. They brought Good Packs full of essential supplies and pet food, prepped and transported thanks in part to the swift response of the Food Bank of El Dorado County.

Our team on the ground helped MHS staff ensure space within the shelter to place pets overnight before our emergency evacuation flight from Maui to the West Coast so they could be loaded and transported on time.

Greater Good Charities’ disaster response team monitors global crises year-round. When we identify a disaster, we reach out to partners on the ground, including our thousands of partners around the globe. We maintain a disaster fund and caches of product around the U.S., which allows for us to provide immediate relief in the form of cash and product grants when possible. In the case of natural disasters, our programs are sometimes activated in advance to do things like fly pets out of harm’s way or move humanitarian and pet supplies in. When we respond to disaster, we take into account the longevity of the event, and make sure we reserve resources when needed.