Luke Kayyem has personal ties to Hawaii, and he wanted to do something for the victims of the wildfire that tore through Maui last week claiming dozens of lives.

Kayyem, a resident of Scottsdale and a native of Hawaii, is directly providing aid to the community in Maui, raising almost $30,000 in less than a week, after the state’s deadliest natural disaster in decades.

A high-performance life coach, Kayyem is a third-generation Hawaiian who has personal ties to those affected by the devastating fires in Maui.

The wildfire started last Tuesday, Aug. 8 and has killed at least 89 people and left 4,500 in need of shelter, according to the Associated Press. The most serious blaze swept into Lahaina and destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000.

Kayyem said he understands what Maui residents are dealing with in the aftermath of what has been declared the worst wildfire in the past 100 years.

“It’s a very delicate and fragile place to begin with,” Kayyem said. “And when a catastrophe or natural disaster or some type of extreme challenge like COVID comes, it affects these people a thousand times more than it affects anybody on the mainland because of that isolation."

That fragile nature of his home state spurred Kayyem to take action.

"I felt compelled to immediately take action as quickly as I could and begin to deploy all the things that I know how to do as an entrepreneur and a business owner, which is create awareness, begin the fundraising process, and then ultimately get here with boots on the ground," he said.

Within the first 24 hours after the fire, Kayyem  shipped 1,000 gallons of water, two generators and raised $9,500. His fundraising has since climbed to over $26,675 as of Aug. 14, he’s collected 10,000 gallons of water, secured a $20,000 shipping donation, filled and shipped a container with supplies and had one of his clients with a private plane fly a load of supplies to Maui, according to a press release.

On Aug. 13, Kayyem flew to Maui with a small group called Fathers of the Future to help distribute the supplies and resources. His efforts in Scottsdale and help from the local community allowed him to take with him on his flight 10 suitcases and four large duffel bags filled with supplies such as clothes, linens, baby formula, shower necessities, blankets, toiletries, gloves, flashlights and emergency radios.

American Airlines stepped up to wave checked baggage fees given they were moved by Kayyem’s efforts.

“It’s extremely heartbreaking to see it, but it’s even more heartbreaking to see the people,” Kayyem said. “This is a place that’s founded on aloha, meaning love. There’s not a lot of love right now because of the hurt that people are having. And also because of the bureaucratic red tape that has happened. We’ve done more in a week than some of these multimillion and billion dollar organizations have. And unfortunately, it doesn’t just end with the disaster and the death because there’s a lot of land that is completely gone and the Hawaiian homestead already has very little land to begin with.”

Everything Kayyem has collected is directly distributed to the people in real time as he said they’re asking what’s needed and then buying it. He’s also come to “deliver aloha spirit and do it with ohana, which means family.”

“We are pushers of positivity. And that is something that means a lot to these people right now,” he added.

Kayyem is asking donations to go to individuals making a difference and not large organizations as he said there’s too much money coming in that’s not distributed right away.

Kayyem is continuing fundraising and updating his Instagram @lukekayyem with information from locals. He’s looking ahead for long-term donations for when Maui rebuilds.

To donate go to https://givebutter.com/Py0E6C.

“All the cameras are here right now, but in a week, two weeks, a month and then six months, when people stop vacationing to Maui, when people stop contributing, that’s when we’re going to have to step up even more.”