JANUARY REGULAR MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

Wednesday, January 15, 2025 • 11:00 A.M.

Natsunoya Tea House, 1935 Makanani Drive, Honolulu

January 2025 Newsletter

Assistance League of Hawaii member volunteers Constantine and Robert Fox graciously served us a wonderful holiday lunch at our annual Christmas Party held at their residence on December 11. They are master chefs and hosts who served everyone with finesse and flair. Members who attended the party had a great time. More photos below and larger ones at this link. Clicking on the photo above will also get you to the same link.

New Paint and More for 2025

Happy New Year 2025! Our chapter is starting out with a new coat of paint inside the Thrift Shop. It is Ku’ulei Pai’s vision, and the plan was executed by many hands – Jim, Nancy, Margie, Andrea and Ellen to name a few. Come check out our fresh new look.

With the new year, I want to encourage everyone to dig deep and volunteer to make a difference – small or large. There are many ways you can help from home or at the Thrift Shop. Just ask. We have many programs that can use help by making phone calls. Let us hear from you soon.

Please check out our lunch meeting date – January 15 at Natusnoya’s Tea House. We love Natsunoya for the ambiance and food. It is getting expensive, but our meeting lunches average out, so please try to come and hear about all that is happening.

Check out the Programs section for information on how you can help Operation Wildlife with their school field trips, or Operation School Bell with an In-Store Shopping event for Windward schools at the end of this month. We want you to help us help the keiki. Here is your chance.

In February we will be having Games after our meeting. If someone would like to help Hospitality with the Games planning and execution, please let us know. It was always fun (and work) so please help us make it a successful February meeting.

Hope to see you at the shop this week or next.



Assistance League of Hawaii member volunteers at last month's Christmas Party at the Fox residence in Manoa. We discuss business at our monthly lunch meetings but do find opportunities to also have fun. More photos at this link, or by clicking the photo above.

Welcome New Member Fred Pablo

We welcome our newest member, Fred Pablo. He learned about our Thrift Shop from one of our members, his neighbor Nancy Moyer, and came into our store to donate some items. He was very impressed to learn about Assistance League Hawaii’s mission to help Hawaii’s keiki and communities in need and enthusiastically asked, “What can I do to help?”

He remembered his own childhood and how grateful he was for his parents’ hard work in raising him and wants to contribute to Assistance League of Hawaii by helping to bring smiles to the youth we serve. 

Fred lived and worked for many years abroad and returned to Hawaii, where he worked in state government (Budget Director on Maui and then Director at the State Dept. of Taxation) Introduce yourself to Fred at your first opportunity and he will share his varied background and experiences. We look forward to seeing him a lot in the new year; he seems interested in working upstairs and wants to explore several of our programs!

Word of mouth seems to be one of the best ways to find new members. Always be sure to mention Assistance League of Hawaii to your friends, work contacts, neighbors and family. We have two potential members who heard about us through social contacts. Be proud of what we do and share our experiences with others. Let’s make this one of our New Year’s Resolutions - Let others know about us!

Mark Your Calendar for March Strategic Planning

Happy New Year from The Strategic Planning Committee! Our annual evaluation meetings will take place on Wednesday March 12. Please mark your calendar. Additional information to follow.

In-Store Shopping Events Slated for

Windward Oahu and Hilo Schools

Happy New year! We are starting 2025 with another Operation School Bell^® In-Store Shopping event on January 25th at the Ke'eaumoku Walmart for three windward schools: Kahalu'u, Pope and Waimanalo Schools. Hopefully you will be able to join us. Let Gerri Migita or Mary Monohon know if you can help. We’d love to have you.

In February, we’re going to the Hilo Walmart, on The Big Island, to serve a few schools there. The Rotary Club will help us with that event. We’re really excited about that as it will be the first time we will have gone to Hilo.

We still have only 40% of our 56 schools responding to invitations to our t-shirt program, so we’ll start calling the schools after the holidays.

Photo inset: Our Operation School Bell Literacy Services project helps students gain insight and interest in reading.

Have a great year and thanks for all you do for Operation School Bell!

Operation School Bell Literacy program volunteer Maureen Izon gets school age children immersed in the wonder of learning through the program's oral reading sessions. Youngsters readily soak up new ideas and stories.

OWL Teams on the Move —

From School to School

Operation Wildlife (OWL) teams have been moving along this year, having visited 25 schools by the time Christmas break rolled around. Of these, 12 schools completed their evaluations and data collections and turned them in online.

Seven schools reported that 100% of their students, who set a goal, met it at the end of 2 weeks! That means that a total of 146 students in those 7 schools pledged to do something for their environment for 2 weeks, then went ahead and did it! They set goals such as:

• Recycle and reuse plastic
• Reuse recycled items for crafts
• Pick up trash at every park and beach I go to
• Turn off the water when I brush my teeth

In addition, in the other 5 schools that turned in their data, 89 more students achieved their goals within the 2 weeks!

More schools are set to receive their OWL visits in the upcoming months and we hope to receive even more data as the program keeps on rolling. If anyone is interested in finding out more about the program, contact Hazel Sumile to find out where/when the next presentations will be held in your neighborhood, and maybe you can come see. Mahalo for your continued support!

Students listen intently to video presentation put on by OWL volunteers at this public school. You can make a difference by becoming an OWL volunteer. More information about Operation Wildlife can be found here.

Surplus Clothes From Dollar Sale "Shared"

The bins for SHARE have been well stocked lately!!!! Thanks to the Dollar Clothing Sale at the Thrift Shop and a lot of hard work on the part of Share volunteers, a lot of men’s and women’s clothing was delivered to various agencies.

Since I am on a roll....wanted to update you on what we do with Knives. One of our Share partners, Helping Hands Hawaii (HHH), takes them all the time and gives them to needy families that come in monthly for one year to get what they need. The other items for HHH are coffee mugs and L and XL men’s and women’s clothing.

Donations of kitchen knives are “hit and miss” and lately it has been more “miss”. If you have knives you don’t need anymore, please bring them in!

I enjoy working with HHH and have learned a lot about their operation. Knife blades are cleaned and the wooden handles get refinished. All are sharpened before being donated.

Some of the really nice German, French, Swiss and Japanese large kitchen knives are donated to the local Fire Departments in and around Hawaii Kai. Bobby Black has also delivered some to local fire fighters in Waianae, where he worked for many years.

We are all on the same team. We are working to raise money to assist at-risk school students and their families in Hawaii. Thank you for bringing in your unneeded knives for others to use.

Christmas Elves Kept Busy with

the We Care Program

The We Care Christmas Elves were very busy in December. We started out with a call from Hale Kipa to help “Honesty”, a foster child aging out of foster care, set up her new studio apartment as she transitions to independent living. Honesty selected what she needed on Walmart.com and Linda Tsark was able to make those purchases. Assistance League of Hawaii purchased dishes, pots & pans, towels, bedding, a fabric dresser and cleaning supplies at a cost of $425 to help Honesty in becoming an independent adult. 

We Care also received a call from Youth Outreach to assist them with their Annual Holiday Party. They were planning to host approximately 100 homeless youth for a holiday meal on December 24th and wanted to be able to give each of them a new backpack filled with hygiene items, socks, snacks and canned goods. Linda Tsark and her husband purchased the hygiene items, socks, snacks and canned goods at a cost of $1,796 and delivered them on December 16th. 

Sandy Tamashiro reached out to Ho’omalu, the emergency shelter run by Family Programs Hawaii, and asked how Assistance League of Hawaii could brighten the holidays for their children. They asked for underclothes, Play-Doh, puzzles and craft supplies for the children and food items to fill their pantry at a cost of $590. Sandy and her son delivered the goods on December 14th and were humbled by how much the staff appreciated our donations. 

And lastly, Susan Bauer has been busy exploring options for expanding our Domestic Violence services next year to other DV agencies that may be in need of our assistance.

The Christmas Spirit of giving is alive and well at Assistance League of Hawaii. WE Care!

We Care member volunteers distributed household items to Honesty, who transitioned to adult housing. Food items were also delivered to other people in need (photo inset at the top right).

Thrift Shop Sales Floor

Updated With New Paint Job

2024 turned out to be a good year for the Thrift Shop. Monthly earnings were strong, and new volunteers were trained downstairs and upstairs. Displays were changed with the addition of slat wall, thanks to Ku’ulei Pai. When you return to the Shop in 2025 you will notice that the downstairs walls were painted and it seems to shine. 

We were officially closed over the holidays but many members (Nancy, Margie, Mary, Andrea, Shirley, Gloria, Carol, Ellen and others) were there to help clear the walls to prepare for the painter and then put everything back in place. It was a big but successful job, and we are so fortunate to have members who stepped up when help was needed. 

Mahalo to all of those who helped downstairs and upstairs. Let’s look forward to a splendid 2025. 

Photo inset: A Likelike School teacher and a counselor from Leihoku School delivered baked goods and some cute ornaments made by the children for us. They wanted to let us know how much they appreciate our services. Andrea Cyriacks and Margie Van Swearingen received the items at the Thrift Shop.

January 2025 Thrift Shop

Calendar for Cashiers & Rovers

Thrift Shop Days & Hours:

Tuesday & Thursdays 9:30 am to 1:00 pm

Saturdays 9:30 am to 3:00 pm

Login to our Members Page on the website to view another copy of the current Thrift Shop Calendar.

Submit Your Service Hours

Turn in your monthly service hours to: alhservicehours@gmail.com Enter your first name, last name and the hours you worked (please do not enter any text – just numerical hours). An email for this was sent out on December 31. Mailer Link

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