Help for Jimmy and Jules Garrison

In 2009, my friends Jimmy and Jules Garrison purchased a beautiful piece of land on Pohoiki road on the Big Island of Hawaii. Over the years, they planted hundreds of trees and created a home for themselves and their animals; over a hundred chickens, four loving dogs and three cats.  

On Saturday May 19, 2018, a river of lava from the recent Leilani eruption covered their land and home.



Jules was at home fixing dinner and Jimmy was in town running an errand when Bill Hanson, CERT Coordinator at Hawai’i Civil Defense, called him. They had become friends because Jimmy becomes friends with everyone. Jimmy’s the guy who is always helping others. He’s the type of friend everyone wants to have.

Lava had began flowing rapidly toward Jimmy’s house. Evacuation was urgent. There was no time. He called Jules and told her to get out, now.

Of course, police had closed access to his neighborhood by the time he got back. Jimmy’s cats were still at his house so he hit the gas and drove right over the police cones. He then broke through a 2nd barricade. The cops chased him all the way to his gate, which he locked behind him.

Neighbors saw him break through and began calling, “Please, my animals are still there. Can you rescue them?”

He soon drove back to the gate with a zoo of pets in the back of his truck, including a stray chicken. “Let me give those people their pets first and then you can do whatever you want with me,” he informed the officers. They let him go.

Within one hour Jimmy and Jules lost everything. In the following days Jules has continued to find work, because they still have bills to pay, and Jimmy has been helping the National Guard and Hawai’i Civil Defense evacuate others.

“I haven’t asked for help since I was 18.”

It’s not in Jimmy’s nature to ask for help. It’s in his nature to give it.

True to form, Jimmy didn’t ask his loved ones to set-up this crowdfunding page either. But we have.  I am Dana, and I know Jimmy both personally and professionally — he has been working with me for the past year, building my dream house in lower Puna.  Two days before the flow took his house, Jimmy was helping me move my building materials out of harm’s way. 

Jimmy is a contractor and has lost all of his tools. He needs $5,000 in tools just to get back to work.  Jules is a housecleaner, and the vacation rental business in Lower Puna is at a standstill, so she has been working all across the island (which costs a lot of gas, and time).

They are staying at a rental they own in Ainaloa that is in disrepair. They will need at least $2,500 to repair the catchment tank (the liner is missing and currently there are plants growing out of the sides of the tank), and at least $2,000 to fix the electrical (half the outlets are not functioning). They have no furnishings and few personal belongings. 

They’re starting over. You know, in between continuing to help and care for their neighbors and the people they used to employ.

Please help us give back to a family that has given, and continues to give, so very much to so many others. Mahalo nui loa.