Not long after Super Typhoon Sinlaku tore through the Mariana Islands in April 2026, Sean MacDuff walked into our Kalihi store. He was not shopping for himself. His family and community on Saipan had just lived through one of the strongest storms to hit the islands in years, and he needed batteries to send home.

Bill listened to what Sean had been through, how widespread the damage was, how long the power had been out, and how much an island like Saipan needed exactly what Battery Bill's sells every day. Saipan is an island too, and the scale of what its families were facing was not lost on him. Bill decided that selling Sean a few batteries was not going to be enough. He wanted Battery Bill's to pitch in.

The team put together batteries and portable power stations to send to Saipan. On the ground, that power reached the people who needed it most with the help of Maisie Tenorio and Kathy Ruszala, who took on getting it into the right hands. Kathy works with children with disabilities on Saipan, and for many of those kids, the batteries and generators kept communication devices running when the grid could not. In the middle of a disaster, that kind of power is not a convenience. It is how a child gets to say what they need.

On June 25, Sean came back to the Kalihi store, this time to say thank you in person. He brought a plaque of appreciation from the group on Saipan, along with gifts sent over from the island. It is one thing to help from a distance. It is another to have someone travel back to your counter to say it mattered.

Hawaii and Saipan are both islands that know what it means to wait on a barge for supplies and to lose power for days at a time. When Bill saw a chance to help another island community get through it, he took it. That is the part of this business that never shows up on a receipt.