When Boyd Gaming executives learned of the deadly Maui wildfires last week, they felt it was a personal call to help the victims.
“This is not just some abstract thing we hear about in the news,” says David Strow, the company’s vice president of corporate communications. “Many of our team members call this place (Hawaii) home or have family there, or have lifelong clients who are from there.”
That connection prompted the operators of the California hotel-casino, Fremont hotel-casino, Main Street Station and several other local casinos to donate $100,000 to the American Red Cross last week to help relief efforts for the wildfires that killed more than 100 people, becoming the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than a century.
The company also asks its employees to consider Hawaiian foundations and other relief initiatives in its ongoing charitable giving campaign.
The Cal, as it’s known, has long been a draw for Hawaiian tourists since it opened in 1975. Its founder, Sam Boyd, lived on Oahu when he was younger, Strow explained, and marketed the establishment among Hawaiian travel agencies.
Currently, Strow said travelers from Hawaii make up about 75 percent of Cal’s business and two-thirds of Boyd’s downtown business overall.
“Without Hawaii, there is no Boyd Gaming,” he said. “If they didn’t come to California, that property wouldn’t have been successful and everything that came after it. It’s no exaggeration to say that Hawaii is our heart and soul.”
