Neal Rubin: To get a sense of what happened in Lahaina, imagine Traverse City

Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press
·4 min read
1

Lahaina is 4,436 miles from Detroit, and if you've never been there, it's hard to picture what's missing.

Think of Traverse City, then. That's a suggestion from Mike Busley, who founded Grand Traverse Pie Co. there with his wife 27 years ago and says there's a piece of them now in both Michigan and Maui.

He was speaking from the safety of the Cherry Capital, where he and Denise have been agonizing about last week's fire and trying not to wonder which of their friends they might never see again.

Imagine Division Street, US-31, he said, where it intersects 14th Street and begins a straight sprint 1.2 miles to Grand Traverse Bay. Imagine flames fanning north and east from that corner, wiping out the First Church of the Nazarene and the Park Place Hotel and a mugful of brewpubs and Cherry Republic and the rest of downtown and the marina and all the boats.

That's the destruction in Lahaina, where Front Street is in cinders while Front Street in Traverse City glories in the rush of late tourist season.

Destroyed buildings and homes are pictured in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 11, 2023. A wildfire that left Lahaina in charred ruins has killed at least 55 people, authorities said on August 10, making it one of the deadliest disasters in the US state's history. Brushfires on Maui, fueled by high winds from Hurricane Dora passing to the south of Hawaii, broke out on August 8 and rapidly engulfed Lahaina.

"Where do you even start?" Mike asked.

He and Denise will write a big check soon and some others later, Mike said, and he has some trusted nonprofits to recommend on the island where he and Denise spend four or five months a year. They had been toying with selling their neighborhood house in Kihei, 23 miles south of Lahaina, but the fire snuffed out those thoughts; even if they're only two pairs of feet, they want to be boots on the ground.

In the big picture, though, in rebuilding a place nearly the size and population of 15,000-person Traverse City, what's the first step?

For his part, Mike wakes every morning with "a little internal mantra of thanks and gratitude," he said. The Busleys have two kids, two grandkids and 12 pie shops in Michigan and Indiana, doing well enough that they could visit Lahaina in 2011 and bring the whole family back in March 2012.

That changed everything.

Pies, leis and a canoe

Their daughter Kellee, now 38, loved Hawaii so much she cried all the way home. The next March, her boyfriend proposed on the beach at Kaanapali, north of Lahaina. Come March 2014, she and Ryan Houghtaling were married at Kapalua, a bit farther up the island.

Kellee and Ryan Houghtaling stand in front of Maui Pie, 23 miles south of fire-ravaged Lahaina, Hawaii. The Houghtalings, former Michiganders, live and work in Kihei, which was not crippled by last week's wildfires.
Kellee and Ryan Houghtaling stand in front of Maui Pie, 23 miles south of fire-ravaged Lahaina, Hawaii. The Houghtalings, former Michiganders, live and work in Kihei, which was not crippled by last week's wildfires.

By October of that year, they had moved to Maui and started Maui Pie, renting space in a commercial kitchen. Nine months later they had a storefront in Kihei, more affordable and less tourist-driven than Lahaina, selling most of the Grand Traverse Pie staples along with some local influences like strawberry mango.

The Busleys bought a home with an efficiency above the garage where they could stay while Kellee and Ryan lived year-round and began a family of their own.

"It's a quirky little street," Mike said. "We wanted to be part of the fabric, rather than Condo J in the development."

Artisans in Kihei, Hawaii, craft what will become a mile-long ti leaf lei, a symbol of aloha spirit traditionally shipped to the site of a natural or man-made calamity. It’s a frequent effort; this project was completed in about a week in 2019, four years before nearby Lahaina suffered a catastrophe of its own.
Artisans in Kihei, Hawaii, craft what will become a mile-long ti leaf lei, a symbol of aloha spirit traditionally shipped to the site of a natural or man-made calamity. It’s a frequent effort; this project was completed in about a week in 2019, four years before nearby Lahaina suffered a catastrophe of its own.

The locals tend to live modestly, Denise said, with multiple generations. She tends to be more spiritual than Mike, and when Hawaiians speak of a responsibility to seven generations back and seven forward, “I feel it in my heart.”

When tragedy strikes elsewhere, she said — a natural disaster, a mass shooting — artisans and earnest amateurs will sometimes hand craft a mile-long ti leaf lei, bless it, serenade it with traditional music and airlift it to the site.

Ron Panzo, a restaurateur in Kihei, Hawaii, works on what will become a mile-long lei destined for the site of a disaster in 2019. Panzo coordinates the Lei of Aloha project, designed to spread the aloha spirit in times of trouble. Calamity struck close to his home last week when fire decimated Lahaina, 23 miles north on Maui.
Ron Panzo, a restaurateur in Kihei, Hawaii, works on what will become a mile-long lei destined for the site of a disaster in 2019. Panzo coordinates the Lei of Aloha project, designed to spread the aloha spirit in times of trouble. Calamity struck close to his home last week when fire decimated Lahaina, 23 miles north on Maui.

“They feel like the Earth is a canoe, and we’re all in the canoe together,” she said.

Now they could use an extra oar.

More from Neal Rubin: Southfield animal hospital gives pets taste of chocolate at end of lives

Where help waits

Mike Busley grew up in Lansing, Denise in Portage. They met at Michigan State University and were living near San Diego when they decided to scrap their careers in aerospace and medical sales and raise their children in Michigan.

They opened their first pie shop on Front Street, west of downtown. As their chain prospered, they put a competing Traverse City outlet in the tourist zone so they could employ more people and funnel money directly to favorite charities.

Grand Traverse Pie Co. owners Mike and Denise Busley, who divide their time between Traverse City and Maui, are hoping to spur donations to relief efforts in Lahaina, Hawaii. They are with daughter Kellee Houghtaling and her husband Ryan, whose Maui Pie shop is 23 miles south of Lahaina in Kihei.
Grand Traverse Pie Co. owners Mike and Denise Busley, who divide their time between Traverse City and Maui, are hoping to spur donations to relief efforts in Lahaina, Hawaii. They are with daughter Kellee Houghtaling and her husband Ryan, whose Maui Pie shop is 23 miles south of Lahaina in Kihei.

In that spirit — the aloha spirit, you could say — they're recommending a few destinations for anyone who'd like to lend a hand to Lahaina and the people who live and work there.

MauiNuiStrong.info has tabs for donations, volunteers and specific talents and services. The Hawaii Community Foundation, Maui United Way and Maui Food Bank all earn four stars from the nonprofit evaluator CharityNavigator.org.

Grand Traverse Pie has a slogan, "Warm your heart with pie." There are few things, Mike will tell you, that pie can't make better.

Sometimes, though, it's just not enough.

If just one lottery drawing had gone differently, Neal Rubin might have been at home in Lahaina last week. Reach him at NARubin@freepress.com.

To subscribe to the Free Press at discount rates, click here.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: For a sense of what happened in Lahaina, imagine Traverse City