Angel of Aloha
By Jessica Kirkwood
Kalau Iwaoka will tell you without hesitation that her life’s goal is to be the embodiment of Aloha. And so far she’s good at it—really good. If you passed her on the warm and weathered street of historic Hilo town, it would be hard not to look twice. Iwaoka is a captivating woman, but her organic beauty reaches far deeper than meets the outer eye.
Over fish wraps and an açaí bowl early one afternoon at the quaint Surf Break Cafe, on Kino‘ole Street in Hilo, I asked her to tell me more about her passionate, Aloha-sharing endeavors.
“Remember that dude in The Secret?” she questioned with a kind of child-like innocence. “Well, at the beginning of the movie he makes this wall. I made this scrap book,” she said, sliding a large navy blue book towards me. The first page is splashed with inspirational quotes cut out from magazines and newspapers, along with her own cursive hand.
“I’ve only just started, but my goal is to eventually reach $100,000 in donations. My purpose is to show others what it means to be loved. And that’s what Aloha is all about—living life in love.”
The blue book, which dates back to 2007, reveals how in that year she raised enough money to give away seven brand new keiki bicycles, discounted by the locally-owned Hilo Bike Hub, to those less fortunate. In 2008, she donated 18 $100 grocery certificates for Malama Market, to people residing in the community of Ocean View.
“The first year was about the children, and the second, their providers,” she says.
Last Christmas, Kalau was able to give away five bicycles and 10 $50 grocery gift certificates. Furthermore, she paid off six families’ medical balances— erasing their debt—as well as one child’s bill at the Sylvan Learning Center.
So how did Iwaoka gather enough money for these gifts? What Kalau does is simple, yet deeply profound. “I save 10 percent of the money I earn working throughout the year and dedicate it to my God-fund,” she says with a smile.
Kalau was raised in Alaska and Hawai‘i. After six months in the majestic white North, her father, who was in the Army at the time, was transferred back to their original home in Ewa Beach on the island of O’ahu. Her family would hop back and forth between Hawai’i and Alaska, so Kalau and her brother spent a few months each year living with their grandparents in Hawai’i.
“It was tradition to go back and learn from our grandparents. Our ‘ohana (family) and the ‘aina (land) were such an important part of our upbringing.” She explained that listening to the stories of the kupuna (ancestors) and understanding the mana (spirit) in all life forces are essential parts of the culture.
Kalau’s grandparents also instilled in her an incredible work ethic. “It was kinda like work hard, lay later kine.” And don’t be fooled; these weren’t make your bed, finish your homework and clean the dishes types of lessons. Kalau was shown how to paint, plumb, caulk and grout houses at the age of 5, and was really getting her hands in it by 7. “I really understood my place in the family and why work needs to be done. Kind of like our form of teething,” she giggled. “My grandparents didn’t have us watching ‘Home Improvement,’ they had us doing it!”
Above all, Kalau maintains that her grandparents presented to her the true essence of Aloha, “They taught that every experience in life is a learning process. No matter if the outcome seems bad, the lesson can be positive. As long as you have love attached to it, it’ll be okay.” And to this day, Iwaoka holds their teachings as the foundation of her life’s philosophies.
Why did she choose Hawai‘i Ocean View Estates, the largest subdivision in the United States, as her donation location? “While working as the medical biller for Rick and Vicky Crosby, who own the Ocean View Family Health Clinic, I was having trouble getting a hold of certain families. They had no phone numbers, no physical addresses.” She soon discovered that many of the families were living in community-like compounds, and even farther up the mountain, in old lava tubes.
“Living on the mauka side, families are having to walk miles to the grocery store. So I thought, if I could somehow donate a few bikes, it could at least help a few families out.”
A few weeks after our luncheon, I was invited to follow Iwaoka up Hwy. 11, past Volcano’s lush rainforest canopies, down to the drier, Ocean View area, in anticipation of her third annual, end-of-year give-away. After some meeting and greeting, Iwaoka spoke up, surrounded by community and staff members. “I chose Ocean View because its got my heart. In Hilo, its hard times, but everything is real close. If you want food, there are fruit trees. To me, it’s more hard times here,” she continued. “Waking up in the morning, I have my health, my home, my husband and a job. I just want to give back for all my blessings.”
A patient from the clinic, Theresa, had brought her six-year-old daughter Maya to be fitted for a purple bicycle. Theresa told me, “This is her first bike. She’s so happy.” Standing beside Maya, Kalau suddenly sings, “Look at that smile! You see this smile? My whole year, all the stress from insurance companies, now washed away!”
Alo, meaning presence, and Ha, meaning breath, form the word Aloha, which quite literally means ‘the breath of life.’ And as Kalau put it ever so perfectly, ‘living life in love.’ Aloha is the very life force that connects us all, as both breathing and love are the most powerful things that each human can be conscious of experiencing. Every so often, we encounter people who have very little in their hands, but give of themselves through this breath of life, through love’s heart. Kalau’s greatest gift to us is her life as an angel with a big Aloha heart. ❖
If you are interested in donating to Kalau’s 2010 December giveaway please contact: kalaui5@gmail.com or PO Box 715 Hilo, HI, 96720.
Email Jessica Kirkwood at jkirkwood23@hotmail.com.
