Lahaina, HI (FOX5) – A vacation tradition for countless families who visit Lahaina can continue once again.
For more than 40 years, parrots with personalities bigger and brighter than their wings used to call the famous Front Street corridor home, perched atop a simple stand greeting visitors from all over the world as they walk by. Families would stop to take photos to take home as keepsakes of their Maui vacation, with birds on each shoulder, as kids held them in their hands, flat on their backs and beaks in the air, letting out the occasional squawk for a candid smile.
The August 2023 fires changed everything for thousands in Lahaina, leaving owners Barrie Matthews and David Vanzo without a home, and without their business.
FOX5 met Matthews, Vanzo and the birds two days after the fire.
“Within 20 minutes, it was on us. It was a scramble. We had to load 15 birds into their carriers, into the cars, we had four dogs to transfer as well. We had a number of cats that we couldn’t take with us,” said Vanzo.
“We were hoping to return, you had it in you’re heart that you were coming back,” Matthews added.
For months, Matthews and Vanzo faced the same struggles hundreds of other fire survivors: lack of affordable housing options.
“We have a difficult situation, we aren’t just simply a couple looking for a place to be, we have a family, which involves a father-in-law who is 94 years old. It also involves 15 birds that are the majority of our kids, livelihood, and family, as well as dogs and cats,” said Vanzo.
Matthews and Vanzo spent months in a friend’s home in Kula that could sell any day. They were more than an hour and half drive each way to where the birds stayed, with hundreds of other fire survivors at the Hyatt Hotel in Ka’anapali. The birds, who thrive off human interaction and attention, were housed in a holding area of the Luau grounds on the hotel’s property. Their stay had a deadline when the hotel needed to resume normal operations of the Luau.
In November, Matthews and Vanzo walked FOX5 through what was left of their property. Matthews picked up pieces of crafting stencils found by a nonprofit group that helped sift through rubble. They showed what was left of the 30-foot aviary that housed the birds behind their home. They pointed out what was supposed to be a fire-proof safe, melted to the floor. The bright greenery of banana trees in their backyard was vibrant against the black and gray of everything else. This is where Matthews and Vanzo believe their 100-year-old tortoise hid from the flames. The tortoise was found a month after the fire down the street, alive.
“Since I saw you last, so many people have stepped forward to help,” said Matthews. That help came in Spring 2024 with a new home for the birds. The South Maui Gardens opened a space for Matthews and Vanzo to build a new aviary for the birds to live in. Vanzo assembled a crew and built the aviary in a matter of two months. Visitors are now able to spend one-on-one time with the animals and see their personalities shine.
“We really enhance their opportunity to build on the memories they’ve had and still accommodate the people that are looking for us,” said Vanzo. “Unlimited amount of pictures, memories made, things like that so its above and beyond what it would have been just in that street setting that we had,” he added.
Matthews and Vanzo say they couldn’t have gotten to where they are without the help of others. “That’s what I want people to know is that out of this horrible tragedy, so much good has come out of it, and it sure is a terrible thing that happened, yeah it almost killed us but the goodness that’s come from people is amazing,” said Matthews.
The new Lahaina Bird Stand now operates through appointments and still only advertises by word of mouth.
You can find them through Facebook here. Matthews and Vanzo are in the process of getting into a home for themselves. They have a GoFundMe page found here.
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