The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, which helps visitors in crisis, is seeking to double its volunteer base to make up for volunteer exits during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to be ready to handle the rise in cases since then.

VASH President and CEO Jessica Lani Rich said the organization’s mission is to share aloha with visitors who have been victims of a crime or other adversities, and to provide follow-up assistance and support in an effort to create a positive memory of their stay in the islands.

Before COVID-19, VASH had about 50 volunteers, but that number has dwindled to about 25. She said volunteers are particularly important to VASH because the nonprofit has just two full-time and seven half-time staff members.

“Our volunteers are very important,” Rich said. “They are the heart and soul of our nonprofit organization in times of need. They do it because they want to help people. They know our visitors are thousands of miles from home.”

Since its inception more than 20 years ago, Rich said VASH has been one of the few programs in the country that works with visitors in crisis, and its services are needed today more than ever as tourism continues rebounding from the pandemic. Through May, VASH already has worked 227 cases dealing with 650 visitors or their friends and families.

“Mostly what we deal with is loss,” Rich said.

Joanie Fujishiro, a VASH volunteer for 16 years, said she highly recommends it, adding it has brought meaning to her in retirement.

Fujishiro said she has many favorite memories from her years of volunteering, but one especially comes to mind.

“I remember two families from Australia had gone online to rent a place and when they got here they found out it was phony baloney, and they had no place to stay,” she said. “We called around and got them into the Waikiki Banyan at a reduced rate. The family was thrilled to death. Even though they had lost a lot of money to those fraud people, they were so grateful that they were able to save their vacation.”

Gretchen and Duane Corbeen, also VASH volunteers for 16 years, said their own travels inspired them to give back.

“We travel so it could be us one day,” Gretchen Corbeen said.

“We’ve had so many cases and you just feel so badly for them,” she said. “One time we had a guy who went down to the beach in Waikiki, and the hotel had told him not to leave things where people could see them, so he buried his belongings. Later, he either couldn’t remember where he put them or they were stolen.”

In these types of cases, “we try to find out if they need to get identification or money or credit cards. We have gift certificates to make sure everyone is fed,” Corbeen said.

Some of the most memorable cases have been those involving medical emergencies, where VASH has provided support to people with lingering medical issues, sometimes for months, she said.

Robert Gentry, who has volunteered for 18 years, said it was a natural progression after his years in public service as the mayor of Laguna Beach, Calif., and on the Laguna Beach City Council. He moved to Hawaii and fell in love with the Hawaiian culture and the aloha spirit.

“We didn’t have anything like this in Laguna Beach, and we don’t know of any place in the country that has a program like this. It’s very unique, very meaningful and very culturally based. We aren’t doing it for money or fame — we aren’t doing it for anything but aloha.”

Gentry said his experiences in public service in Laguna Beach and his time as associate dean of students at the University of California Irvine helped prepare him to work some of VASH’s most traumatic cases, and those memories linger.

“All of the cases come to mind because of their impact on the visitor and the visitor’s family, especially the cases that involve serious illness or death. It happens more often than we would think,” he said. “All of the cases are very special and very powerful.”

Rich said volunteers are needed to do everything from office work, such as answering phones and writing letters, to planning special events, making floral bouquets and meeting visitors to help solve problems out in the field. Most volunteers help visitors deal with events such as theft or lost items, she said; however, a few have been trained to respond to medical incidents. She said only four VASH responders deal with severe tragedies, which requires a high level of training.

VASH is sponsoring a free volunteer training session from 9 a.m. to noon July 22 at the Hawai‘i Convention Center. The deadline to register is 4 p.m. July 17. To register, email VASH at info@visitoralohasocietyofhawaii.org or call 808-926-8274.

Volunteers will be trained to deal with Oahu visitors who need assistance in times of emergency. Volunteers who speak Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, German or Spanish are needed to help international visitors.

Rich said VASH currently has many dedicated volunteers like Fujishiro, the Corbeens and Gentry. But the rise in cases since the pandemic necessitates broadening its volunteer base, especially before the holiday season brings additional visitor traffic.

“Since COVID-19, we have really picked up. Usually Sundays and the weekends are busiest times for us. That’s why we are doing the volunteer training, especially in preparation for the holidays,” she said. “We don’t want to wait until the holidays when there is an increase in snowbirds that come to Hawaii.”