Ever since Chelsie Evans’ 24-year-old son, Maui firefighter Tre’ Evans-Dumaran, was killed responding to flooding in Kihei, she has struggled each day to find a way to tap into her maternal instinct to continue caring for him.
Evans-Dumaran died Feb. 4, 2023, after spending days in a coma from injuries he suffered when he was swept into a storm drain and carried out to the ocean. His mother, who serves as executive director of the nonprofit Hawaiian Community Assets, or HCA, has kept his memory alive by using her organizing and leadership skills to establish the Live Like Tre’ Foundation.
The foundation is focused on Evans-Dumaran’s penchant for “small acts of kindness” and since 2024 has given gift cards to people at gas stations and Christmas presents to homeless families. Recently, the foundation partnered with HCA to financially support more than 12 families of first responders who lost their homes in the 2023 Lahaina wildfire that killed 102 people and left 12,000 homeless.
The foundation gives Evans space and time to do “what Tre’ would have wanted,” especially for his firefighter ohana, while showing her 13- and 17-year-old daughters that her love never falters.
“I don’t stop being his mom — that will be forever,” she said. “And it’s important for me to show (my daughters) that I will also always fight for them. This is what that looks like.”
Evans is one of Hawaii’s mighty moms and maternal figures whose unwavering love for their children, especially those who have died or are suffering, has served as a call to action. They are conducting educational outreach, creating new nonprofits and advocating for legislation, rules and policies that are ultimately benefiting Hawaii’s broader community.
During the 2025 legislative session that ended May 2, lawmakers heard a handful of bills written and fought for by mothers, some of whom lost their own children to drowning, gun violence, agricultural crimes and vehicle crashes.
Jessamy Town Hornor
Testifying, writing and advocating for bills is an exhaustive process for anyone, said Jessamy Town Hornor, co-founder of the Hawai‘i Water Safety Coalition. But mothers who are grieving and advocating on behalf of their late children carry an extra burden that takes its toll, she said.
Hornor, whose 6-year-old daughter, Mina, and husband Mark drowned at the Makapuu tide pools in 2016, has committed the last decade to advocating for drowning prevention education and policies on a state, national and global level.
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Last year, Hornor and the Hawai‘i Water Safety Coalition were instrumental in getting two bills passed, one designating May 15 as Water Safety Day in Hawaii and another allowing the issuance of special license plates in Hawaii to commemorate Duke Kahanamoku and raise funds for the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation and water safety.
This year the coalition also released the first Hawaii Water Safety Plan and was instrumental in getting a bill passed that requires the counties to implement safety regulations for stormwater retention and detention ponds.
Hornor said bereaved family members who testify help increase a bill’s chances for success.
“The legislators see so many bills and so many community members and family advocates, yet it’s important to make that in-person connection and communicate the real-life impact of a single law,” she said. “Every single data point that we see is a lifetime of hurt for me and my family and the community.”
Hornor said “there’s a cost” to sharing stories of loss, especially in person. Getting involved, though, “has been a way for me to metabolize the pain and try to make sure that other families don’t go through what I have and what my family has.”
Geri Pinnow
Geri Pinnow, mom of 25-year-old Luke Pinnow, knows the feeling all too well.
More than a decade ago, when Luke Pinnow was a teenager, she drove him and his younger sister to the state Capitol, where they spent afternoons doing homework on the benches of conference rooms. While they studied, Geri Pinnow testified for laws that would require Hawaii insurance to cover treatment and therapies for children with autism.
Pinnow, a retired elementary school teacher, spent school nights in bed with a pen writing out her testimony that told “pieces of Luke’s life” on paper, sometimes crying as she relived the pain and experiences he had gone through. She also grieves, she said, for what Luke’s life could have been if not for his Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis at age 3.
Bills she advocated for failed legislative session after session for three years before finally reaching the governor’s office in 2015. And now, 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Act 235, nicknamed “Luke’s Law” after Geri Pinnow’s son.
Much has happened over the past 10 years — Luke Pinnow started a job as a courtesy clerk at an Ewa Safeway, Geri Pinnow’s daughter enrolled in a Boston college and her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. But she said she sleeps better at night knowing that sharing her son’s story contributed to Hawaii’s access to autism therapies today.
“As a mom, you’d do anything for your kids,” Pinnow said.
Kalei Salcedo
Kalei Salcedo keeps a collection of laminated orange visitor wristbands as mementos from the past legislative sessions when she and her ohana were instrumental in getting a bill passed in honor of her late nephew that would protect ranchers from hunters and poachers.
Salcedo was moved during the session when lawmakers chose to add a line to Senate Bill 1249 so that it would be known as “Duke’s Law,” for her late nephew Cranston “Duke” Pia, who was fatally shot in February 2024 while protecting his cattle in Makaha from hunting dogs.
Since 2020, Salcedo, along with husband Austin, Pia’s immediate family, community members and fellow ranchers in West Oahu, has advocated for the state to protect ranchers from hunters and poachers who have, among other incidents, trespassed, stolen ulu (breadfruit) from their property and killed livestock.
Pia was part of those efforts, and three days before he was killed, he told Salcedo, “Aunty, I’m not worried about me, I’m worried about my mom. If I’m not around, watch over my mom.”
Now, Salcedo said, she’s “just an aunty keeping her promise.”
“You cannot heal that pain, but you can keep the memory on,” she said of Pia, who was “like a son” to her.
The Salcedos spent the past year drafting bills and driving from Makaha to the state Capitol, sometimes daily, to advocate for the cause. Each time she testified, Salcedo brought a photo of Pia for lawmakers to see.
“By carrying this picture, it gives me the mana, the strength, to continue and keeping the fight and, at the same time, my promise to him,” she said. “I did not just lose a nephew, I lost a son.”
The bill, which passed final reading, would crack down on agricultural crimes, increase penalties for violations and establish a state task force through the Department of Law Enforcement to protect rural agricultural areas that are vulnerable to armed trespassers.
While the Salcedos are thrilled that the bill has been sent on to the governor, they’re anxious for its implementation. Until then, Salcedo said she is reminded of her nephew through his love for pickled mango and his generous spirit.
“He dedicated himself to the community,” she said. “That’s what we want to continue.”
