Thursday, November 24, 2011

Pilot Bobby Hill and his Cessna 172: Sweet as pie for Lanai, Hawaii. Fresh desserts a treat for island residents, a boost for girls softball.

Bobby Hill, a pilot and Maui Police Department lieutenant, has his Cessna 172 packed with custard pies that he flew Tuesday from Maui to Lanai for Thanksgiving.
Photo Credit:  BOBBY HILL 
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With help from a Maui pilot, a Lanai boat captain and a Wailuku bakery, many Lanai residents are giving thanks for pies on their Thanksgiving tables today.

And the Lanai PONO Girls Softball organization will be selling those pies as a fundraiser and expect to bring in more than $5,000 to help pay for league and registration fees and transportation costs.

"It's going to be a sellout," said Lanai resident Rochelle Kalehuawehe, the teams' financial officer. Her husband, Scott, is head coach for the organization, which has grown to include 62 players and five teams since the couple started it three years ago.

After selling about about 500 pumpkin, custard and apple pies in its first pie fundraiser last Thanksgiving, the group more than doubled its order to 1,100 this year. Four Sisters Bakery donated extra pies, which Kalehuawehe expected would be quickly sold.

"Up until yesterday, my husband was getting phone calls," she said Wednesday, just hours before the pie distribution was to begin in Lanai City. "Even today, the emails are flying through. People are still asking. It's so lucky we have those extra pies."

With just two main grocery stores and a Four Seasons Resort bakery on the island, it's not easy to buy a freshly baked Thanksgiving pie on Lanai, Kalehuawehe said. In the past, most residents have made their own pies or bought frozen ones, she said.

But after getting a taste of the pies last Thanksgiving, residents began asking in August whether the fundraiser would be repeated this year.

Last year, pilot Bobby Hill volunteered to deliver the pies, making three trips in a Cessna 172 single-engine plane. He is one of three members of the Maui Skyhawks corporation, which owns the plane.

Hill said he was happy to volunteer again this year, flying two round trips from Kahului to Lanai on Tuesday afternoon to deliver 450 pies that were packed into reusable shopping bags filling the plane. Each flight segment took 12 to 25 minutes.

"It was a little windy," Hill said. "I was a little worried that the pies would get thrown around, but it went really well.

"It's a nice way to serve, to give to your community," said Hill, who spent little more than a year on Lanai as its police lieutenant. "I was just one piece in this thing."

The other 650-plus pies went by charter boat from Lahaina to Lanai, thanks to Lanai resident and boat captain Jason Allen.

Six Lanai residents started packing the pies at 8 a.m. Tuesday at Four Sisters Bakery before they were delivered to Lahaina Harbor in a truck donated by Akina Aloha Tours. The bakery owners donated 30 to 40 extra pies of each type, helping fill the last-minute demand, Kalehuawehe said.

"It is such a huge effort," she said.

Early on, she began saving boxes that the pies could be packed into.

Both Allen and Hill donated their services, with Hill only asking for some deer meat, Kalehuawehe said.

"He's such a blessing," she said. "He already told us he wants to do it again next year."

The Thanksgiving pie sale and a softball tournament held in October are the biggest fundraisers for Lanai PONO Girls Softball, which was started under Maui-based nonprofit All Pono Organization. Jon and Maile Viela started the Maui organization in honor of their son, Pono, who died in an all-terrain vehicle accident in 2004.

The teams play eight games on Maui, with annual expenses estimated at $15,000 to $18,000, Kalehuawehe said.

"We got so big so fast," she said. "We need the funding."

Scott Kalehuawehe thanked parents and coaches for their hard work in making Lanai PONO Softball successful. "Also to the Lanai community for their continued support and contribution to the girls," he said. "Without the community, businesses and other nonprofit organizations on Lanai, Lanai PONO Girls Softball will not have the success that they have today."
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Article and photo:
http://www.mauinews.com

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