Haumea Hebenstreit Ho
Director of Operations
Haumea joined Kapono Inc. in 2014, and became the Operations Manager overseeing all aspects of logistics, travel, scheduling, rehearsals, tours, and special events. Quickly becoming a valuable member of Kapono Inc. team, she volunteered her time to assist in the start up efforts of the Henry Kapono Foundation (HKF) in 2018. She assisted in donation management during the 2020 COVID ‘We Are Friends’ Grocery Card Initiative. She currently oversees operations and logistics for all HKF event management, while continuing to assist with donation management and accounting.
Born in Rarotonga, Haumea was raised in New Zealand. In the early 1970's her dad built the 1st private radio station in the South Island of New Zealand. Haumea spent her Sunday mornings working by his side as a radio announcer on his Sunday morning children’s show until he left New Zealand in 1976 to go back to Hawaiˈi. At the age of 14 Haumea won a NZ Gold Medal in the women’s 16 and under 3 meter springboard diving category. Born a US citizen, she was extended an invitation to visit the Woodlawn, Texas US Olympic Women diving training camp.
In 1981, Haumea left New Zealand and her mom Johnny Frisbie (a bestselling author and former drum dancer who introduced the Tahitian and Cook Island dance to the islands in early 1950. Her mom had danced in Waikīkī at Don the Beachcomber and the Queen Surf) to visit her dad where she learned that her dad was also a famous TV celebrity in Hawaiˈi as the star of the first TV show that aired in the early 1950's called the "Kini Popo" show.
While visiting her dad in Honolulu, she got a job as a dishwasher at the Don Ho show at the International Market Place. "At the time, I didn’t know who Don Ho was," she said. "When Don found out who my parents were, he took me out of the kitchen and put me on stage as a line hula dancer, and the rest is history. Twenty-five years later we were married." She was Don’s solo hula dancer and eventually vice president of ‘Don Ho Enterprises,’ overseeing his show and his businesses for some 26years.
After his passing in 2007, and taking time to adjust to a new path in life, Jimmy Buffett asked Haumea to join his team as "Aloha Ambassador" from 2008, while taking time to volunteer at several organizations in Hawaiˈi. She joined the Rotary Club of Honolulu at the urging of the Hawaiˈi's first female TV news reporter: Linda Coble, was approached by “The Brady Bunch” actress Maureen McCormick to join Best Buddies Hawaii, in which Haumea became the board chairwoman of the local chapter, she was also on the board of directors for the Bobby Benson Center, and the Director of Operations for the Henry Kapono Foundation.
