Over $60,000 in donations were raised on Saturday as part of a presentation of “Defining Courage,” the show mixes performances with documentary footage and gave attendees an opportunity to journey through the legacy of Nisei soldiers and fundraise for people affected by the Maui wildfires.
Event organizers said box office sales of the show, held at El Camino College, amounted to $61,000. Proceeds generated by art and book sales at the event resulted in an estimated $75,000 to $80,000 total raised for the people of Maui.
“I think it’s fabulous that we are able to host this event with this number of community members here on campus,” El Camino President Brenda Thames said.
Thames said over 1,600 community members attended the fundraising, located at the Marsee Auditorium, on Saturday Sept. 9.
Attendees, including some local celebrities, experienced the endeavors of Nisei Soldiers, Americans of Japanese ancestry who served in segregated military units during World War II.
“To see this crowd here, I am just so overwhelmed. It shows the bigness of people’s hearts and of course we all have friends or relatives in Hawaii,” former Star Trek actor and activist George Takei said. “I am so thrilled to see this huge turnout.”
The show was hosted and co-produced by KABC television news anchor David Ono, along with Emmy award-winning producer Jeff MacIntyre, which featured special guests such as Tia Carrere, Daniel Ho, Nick Lee, and Hālau Hula Keali`i O Nālani.
“Broadly, America is all about hiding a lot of these different chapters of different ethnicities, so this seems unique but it really isn’t that unique,” Ono said. “What we need to do is re-explore how we tell our history and the importance of that is to better understand inclusion and inclusivity and what it means to be an American.”
The event was coordinated by El Camino College, the City of Torrance and the producers of “Defining Courage” who wanted to help provide support to those affected by the Maui fires, which ravaged the island earlier this August.
“I first saw this performance in August in Little Tokyo, then I reached out to Jeff MacIntyre and said it would be great to hold this performance in the South Bay, given the large Japanese-American community,” District 1 Torrance Council Member Jon Kaji said. “Then the fires occurred in Maui, a few days later Jeff called me and we thought it would be great to hold a fundraiser to help the Maui victims.”
This left Kaji with the task of locating a venue within the South Bay, so he reached out to Trustee Vice President and Acting President Trisha Murakawa in hopes of securing Marsee Auditorium as the venue for the fundraiser.
“I totally thought it was the perfect place because we have native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander student population, there’s a large population of Japanese-Americans in the South Bay, people who are either from Hawaii, have family from Hawaii, or have some connection to Hawaii,” Murakawa said.
The Hawaiian concept of “Ohana”, or family, was embodied during Saturday’s event with people coming together as a family in order to support one another.
“The world can see what’s happening over there, they lost their land, they lost their culture, their history, their family history,” Murakawa said. “We cannot let those people lose their land and their homes, that’s just wrong.”
To donate:
Those who would like to donate to help the people of Maui affected by the fires can visit the Japanese American National Museum’s donation page and indicate “Maui Strong Fund” in the gift designation section.
