Wearing a black University of Hawaii football long sleeve t-shirt with green letters, Jahlani Tavai used a portion of his time at the podium on Thursday to raise awareness for the damage caused by wildfires in Maui.
“I’m not sure if everybody saw, but there’s a big fire out there in Maui,” Tavai said. “I’ve had a lot of family and friends who lost their homes in the fires… It’s a big tragedy right now. A lot of people lost their lives and I’m just trying to bring awareness to it.”
The death toll from the fires stands at 53 at the time of publication, making it the second deadliest fire in the United States in a century according to CNN.