Jerry “Pito” Javier and Cindy Paulos have released the inspiring, heartfelt song x“Soaring On.” From a place of love and inspiration, they wish to remember Maui’s unsung hero, Tre Evans-Dumaran. The album also features artist George Kahumoku on guitar.

To mark the tragic passing of Maui firefighter Tre Evans-Dumaran, Jerry “Pito” Javier and Cindy Paulos have released the inspiring, heartfelt song “Soaring On.” Responding to heavy flooding in Kihei, Evans-Dumaran died on February 2023 after being trapped in a storm drain and swept out to sea. The moving tribute explores grief while serving as a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit.

A Nā Hōkū Hanohano nominated artist, Paulos felt moved to compose a poem to honor Evans-Dumaran and contacted Wailea based firefighter Javier to help create “Soaring On.” “I wrote a poem and I sent it to Pito,” Paulos explained. “He worked for 7 or 8 months getting it better and better. Part of the words of the song relate to what Tre’s mother said in the hospital. At one point she finally said, ‘no more negotiations, it’s more than any heart can bear.’ We put that in the song.”

“Cindy wrote the poem a few days after everybody had heard the news that Tre had lost his battle because he had fought for almost a week,” Javier said. “She said, ‘Pito I wrote this poem about Tre and I think it wants to be a song.’ I’m not a professional musician, so it took me a little while.”

Working on the song was obviously a pretty emotional experience for him. “I was just thinking the time span between when Tre passed and the Lahaina fires is basically the same time span as when the Lahaina fires happened to now. As a department and as his friends and his brothers, when the fires happened, we were already kind of in the middle of our own stages of grief, the grief process which the whole of Maui is going through. So it was emotional. It continues to be, and now it’s a whole year. It feels like it was yesterday.”

A firefighter for 22 years, Javier was featured in the Maui Strong fundraiser in September, talking about the impact of the Maui fires and performing with his son Aiden, their original song “We Are Whole.” He released the album “Feels Like the First Time” in 2007.

When the August fires began Upcountry, Javier headed to Olinda. “I work at the Wailea station and we were sent straight to Olinda, and it was crazy,” he recalled. “I have never seen anything like that in my 22 years, as far as fire behavior goes. We thought at that time that we were fighting the worst fire that Maui had ever had. The next day is when we found out (about Lahaina) and we were as blown away as everyone else were.”

Hoping folks find comfort in “Soaring On,” he said, “Tre left us too early, but while he was here, he thrived at serving others. We hope that compels others to live the same.” Instrumentalists on the song include Rock Hendricks on sax, Gilbert Emata on keyboards and Kris Thomas on drums. Any profits will go to the Live Like Tre Foundation (LivelikeTre.org).

It will be featured on Paulos’ new album “Aloha Forever,” dedicated to Maui’s firefighters, which will include spoken poetry and lyric songs. “We all feel like we have to do whatever we can do because it’s such a tragedy,” said Paulos. “You have to do something. I wrote a poem that I asked Pito to record called ‘After the Fires.” There was another poem I wrote called ‘A Garland for the Ashes.’ The title comes from the Bible.” It features George Kahumoku, Jr. on guitar.

Among other songs, Paulos composed one for breast cancer awareness called “It Takes a Miracle.” “I wrote a song for Nona Brown, who’s the president of the San Francisco chapter of the Grammy’s,” she noted. “Nona had a total mastectomy and she survived it.”

Maui musicians Marty Dread and Dr. Nat (Nathan Ehrlich) are featured on “Yes You Can, joined by Kalama Intermediate School students. And Anthony Pfluke sings on the children’s song “Believe,” which was co-composed by Benny Uyetake and features Jim Kimo West on guitar and a chorus by some Kalama students.

An author, composer and radio host, Paulos previously released 14 CDs. She was nominated for a Hōkū Award in 2021 for Compilation of the Year for “Practicing Aloha: Songs of Cindy Paulos.” Her other Hōkū nominations include “Ave Maria, Queen of Angels,” for Religious Album in 2017, and Female Vocalist of the Year in 2019, for “Peace, Music, and Poems.” She expects “Aloha Forever” to be released in the next few weeks.

Jerry “Pito” Javier and Cindy Paulos have released the inspiring, heartfelt song x“Soaring On.” From a place of love and inspiration, they wish to remember Maui’s unsung hero, Tre Evans-Dumaran. The album also features artist George Kahumoku on guitar.

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