Jackie Rey’s shared holiday cheer with KHS

By Carolyn Lucas-Zenk, Community Engagement Manager

Last December, Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill owners Paul Streiter and Angela Rey held a special holiday pupu party Dec. 16 for Kona Historical Society employees at the Jackie Rey’s on Kuakini Highway and sponsored the entire function.

Jackie Rey’s is family-owned business founded in 2004 with the values of aloha and giving back to the community. Streiter decided to throw the Society employees a party because he believes in the nonprofit’s mission to collect, preserve and share Kona’s stories.

“I’ve always enjoyed studying history because I think it’s a barometer for the future in that history often repeats itself and there is so much to glean from it,” Streiter said. “It’s fun to imagine what Ali’i Drive looked like 100 years ago or even imagining Kona before the first traffic lights emerged. How did people commute, purchase groceries, communicate with the mainland, etc.? These types of questions are endless, and the answers are fun to know. Without historians and organizations like the Kona Historical Society, these answers get lost. That’s why Angela and I think it’s important to support the Kona Historical Society. Keep on keeping on and mahalo for all you do.”

To say thanks for his generous donation, Kona Historical Society gifted him two historic photos, including a circa 1938 photo of the Gomes family who used the area where Jackie Rey’s is located as pastureland, and a copy of a record showing a Native Hawaiian man Kaupena purchased the land from the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1855. These items are from Kona Historical Society’s Jean Greenwell Library & Archives.