Ray Catania is a Hawaii treasure. He has been a rare, shining light of genuine aloha for decades, even as billionaire interests quickly devour the real Hawaii.

Ray is now in the midst of a medical crisis.

On October 24, Ray was airlifted from his home island of Kauai to Straub Medical Center on Oahu after collapsing with enormous pain in his spine. It was soon determined that he had an abscess on his upper spine and staph in his spinal fluid. After three days, the abscess ballooned to triple the size it had been when he checked in. Emergency neurosurgery, which lasted from midnight to 5 a.m., was performed to drain the abscess. After the surgery removed an enormity of pus, Ray feels better but is still in much pain, with an occasional fever. If the surgery had not been performed, Ray would have become a paraplegic.

Brother Ray was always there for us. Now it’s time for us to be there for him. His path to recovery is expected to take a while — eight weeks in bed on an antibiotic IV. He’s still got the staph infection. Because he hasn’t been able to work, he’s already fallen behind in bills. His wife, Brenie, has had to continue her work as a room cleaner at a Kauai hotel while he remains on Oahu. He will need help with his quickly accruing expenses now and for the next eight weeks while he heals.

Whenever there’s a battle for the rights of Hawaii’s everyday people, you can always bet that Ray will be there, on the streets, in the union halls, or at the Capitol, tirelessly defending the well-being of Hawaii’s children, kupuna, the disabled, and all working people, including nurses, teachers, hotel employees, and many others. He has made a difference both in state policy and also in touching the hearts of everyone he meets. And of course, he was even at the last No Kings Day on October 18 in Lihue. Let’s get Ray back in the saddle again!

Ray never earned very much in his career with the State of Hawaii, first as a nurse’s aide at Mahelona Hospital and then helping with child welfare with the Dept. of Health and Human Services. This was all apart from his organizing, mentoring, and advocating for labor within the Democratic Party. All that was more than a full-time job unto itself, though all unpaid. As a result, he has had to continue laboring after retiring from the State. He’s now 75 and has been working as a caregiver for disabled folks on Kauai who cannot afford fancy high-priced nurses.

Please donate what you can afford to Ray’s recovery. Brother Ray richly deserves “pay-back” for all the decades of aloha he has poured into keeping Hawaii livable for everyday people — while never, ever expecting a dime.

If you are one of the many who has a story about how Ray made a difference in your life, please share that memory along with your donation. Let’s honor Ray with our stories and financial contributions to help him through this crisis.