Thanksgiving downpours don’t dampen holiday spirits
Some traditions move forward despite poor weather; others must cancel due to wind
Managing Editor
PUKALANI — Surrounded by clouds of rising steam, Kaipo Thomas pulled pan after pan out of a massive imu on the grounds of Pukalani Nazarene as a time-honored tradition of steaming turkeys for the community continued despite the downpour.
“It’s a once-a-year steam bath,” he said. “Even without the rain you get the steam. The rain adds a little fun.”
Thomas and other volunteers spent Wednesday night packing the imu full of 417 pans of turkeys and other meats and woke up early Thursday morning to pull them out for local families preparing for Thanksgiving feasts.
It was one of the holiday traditions able to move forward amid National Weather Service warnings of strong winds, heavy rains and two north swells coinciding with extreme high tides.
“I was anxious, but for me, I just prayed, I just give ’em to God,” said Associate Pastor Hau‘oli Kalama, calling it a “miracle” that even in rainy Upcountry, the downpours held off for two days while they were preparing the imu and building the fire leading up to Thanksgiving.
“Two days, Tuesday, Wednesday, never rain,” he said. “We stayed here overnight, me and couple of the other braddahs, we wen sleep under the tent, and it didn’t rain, until like 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock it started drizzling. I think that was a God thing, ’cause we were done, you know what I mean? And then it ends with this rain. It’s like, right on. I’m thankful to God for that.”
“But eh, if it rains, we will do it,” he added, pointing out that they’ve put up with even worse storms in previous years.
Keoni Sithar, a member of sister church Kahului Nazarene, said he’s watched the Thanksgiving imu process before, but this was the first time he and his family came to “get dirty.” He and his kids Kimora and Radd were busy along the line of volunteers passing the finished turkeys from the imu to tables under a big tent.
“It just opens up to the community. That’s what church should be, right? They should be helping the community,” said Sithar, who brought a pork butt to steam in the imu.
Preparation for the imu started about six weeks in advance, as church members began collecting kiawe wood, rocks and banana stumps, Senior Pastor Mark Gudmunson said.
“This year it was hard getting the bananas because of the drought,” he said. “But people, the community stepped up. We had to go a lot of places.”
On Sunday after services, the church cleaned out the imu and rebuilt it with wood and rocks.
The fire was lit around 1 p.m. Wednesday and burned for several hours before the turkeys and other meats — which were enclosed in contraptions of aluminum pans, duct tape and the occasional chicken wire — went in the imu around 6 or 7 p.m., carefully stacked to ensure the heat was evenly distributed, Kalama explained.
The meat cooked for about 12 hours before church members and volunteers opened up the steaming imu early Thanksgiving morning.
“There’s nothing like it, right?” Thomas said. “It’s the combining Hawaiian culture with Christian values with a community focus. There’s a lot of work that goes into putting on an imu. … It’s well worth it.”
Thomas’ family was one of the founding members of Pukalani Nazarene more than 30 years ago, and the church began the Thanksgiving imu tradition shortly after. He said it started out small but has grown over the years.
“It’s really been an encouragement. People come, they get encouraged, they get strengthened, they get rejuvenated,” Thomas said. “I mean, everybody who comes here year after year, they really enjoy the work, the camaraderie, the fellowship. That’s for sure why people come back. I mean, the food tastes good for sure.”
Gudmunson estimated that there were about 50 people who helped build the imu, put the turkeys in and take them out.
“So it’s a labor of love from our church to our community,” he said. “We still have Thanksgiving, but once we’re pau here, everyone’s exhausted, and soaked this year.”
The church, however, has seen worse — Gudmunson recalled how one year it rained so hard they had to pump water out of the imu.
Of the 417 pans put in the imu this year, anywhere between 30 to 50 may get donated to people in need or nonprofits in the community,
Gudmunson said.
While weather didn’t stop the church’s annual imu, it did bring the paddling portion of a fundraiser for Maui Food Bank to a halt. Tim Lara, owner of event organizer Hawaiian Paddle Sports, said they made the call to cancel Thursday’s Paddle for Hunger on Wednesday morning after looking at the forecast of strong winds from the north. While “the front kind of stalled out” and didn’t hit until later in the day, Lara said safety was the top concern.
Even with the official event canceled, some people paddled on their own, and others still came by the Kihei Canoe Club to drop off donations of money and canned food.
The Maui Food Bank brought collection bins and a truck and came away with about 315 pounds of food and about $900 in donations just from Thursday morning, Lara said. Combined with previous contributions and Hawaiian Paddle Sports’ planned donation, the fundraiser will likely total about $5,000.
“Everyone that donated in advance, they were making a donation to the food bank,” Lara said. “The fact that they couldn’t paddle, I don’t think takes away from that. The fact that till even this morning people knowing the paddle wasn’t happening and still donated $900 and 300 pounds of food … it shows people just truly want to support the cause.”
Lara said this would have been the first time they had the in-person Paddle for Hunger since 2019. The pandemic canceled the event in 2020, and the next year, unable to have a mass gathering, they instead allowed people to paddle the course at any time. Lara said they hope to hold the event again in 2023.
In the meantime, they’ll be preparing for the Dec. 17 Paddle for Keiki event to collect money and toys for kids in need, in conjunction with Street Bikers United, which holds an annual toy drive.
For more information, visit hawaiianpaddlesports.com/pa ddle-for-keiki/.