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Businesses open hearts and
wallets for hurricane relief

HAWAII businesses are already raising funds to share aloha with Katrina's victims. The e-mails started coming into TheBuzz last week and continue to pour in, though not as violently as the waters of Lake Ponchartrain flooded into New Orleans and surrounding areas.

The e-mails bear no accusatory questions about the sufficiency of the area's disaster preparedness and no scathing vitriol over slow federal aid response.

Rather, they glow with warmth and concern about one of the only places in America that is as unique as Hawaii.

Hawaii retail centers owned or managed by Chicago-based General Growth Properties put up donation centers on Friday for shoppers wanting to give to the American Red Cross.

Sleeves are being rolled up all over the state to put together other efforts that you'll read about throughout the Star-Bulletin in the coming days.

Here are two:

» A KPOI-FM radio station promotion planned for 6 p.m. on Sept. 14 has added a fund-raiser for victims of Katrina and folks in need here at home.

The event centers around the screening of the DVD "Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock" that KPOI Music Director Dave Lawrence scored from the Hendrix estate. "They're going through the vaults ... and every year they put out something really cool," he said.

Station officials felt it would be "impossible to do the event and not try to see if there was a way to help out," he said.

Passes for the screening at Pipeline Cafe are being given away on the air and by station sponsors. Attendees are encouraged to bring cash for the Salvation Army's Katrina relief efforts and canned goods for the Hawaii Foodbank.

"We see the (hurricane coverage) pictures of people hurting but thought, 'let's not forget about the people here who are hurting,'" said Ed Kanoi, KPOI morning guy and operations manager for parent company Visionary Related Entertainment.

» On Oct. 5, Hawaii Restaurant Association member-restaurants will participate in "Dine for America," a nationwide and industrywide effort to help hurricane victims in the Gulf Coast states via the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

"When we learned of the initiative on Friday, we knew without hesitation that we would be participating," said Bill Tobin, Hawaii Restaurant Association president.

The National Restaurant Association urged its members to donate all or part of the day's sales to the fund, or to at least make donation canisters available for customer and employee contributions.

The association's newly designed Web site is up and running with further details at www.hawaiirestaurants.org, or information may be obtained at 944-9105.

New Auntie Pasto's

Restaurateur Ed Wary is a member of the restaurant association and his Auntie Pasto's and Dixie Grill restaurants will take part in the "Dine for America" event, right on the heels of welcoming a new eatery to the family.

The new Auntie Pasto's in Kunia Shopping Center will hold a pre-opening benefit from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 2 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Wary said the restaurant then will open to the public in time for the Oct. 5 effort.

Wary's wife, Tina, has diabetes, hence the choice of charity. The food served that night will be "diabetic-friendly and they're all from our menu," he said.

Seating for the fund-raiser costs $100 per person, a higher dinner price than usual. Wary hopes the restaurant will become "the same kind of Auntie Pasto's we have here at Beretania ... a neighborhood trattoria. We're adopting them and hopefully they'll adopt us."

Applications and interviews for jobs in the new restaurant begin today and the main recruiting will be this weekend, Wary said. Three or four people may transfer to the Kunia Auntie Pasto's from within the company but Wary needs from 70 to 75 employees for the new operation.

The new Auntie Pasto's will initially open for dinner-only for its first week or ten days, then lunch service will be added. After Thanksgiving, Wary plans to offer weekend brunch "that we think is going to blow people away."