NOVEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING 

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 • 10:00 A.M.

Pu‘uhale Elementary School • 345 Pu‘uhale Road

November 2024 Newsletter

Operation School Bell Helps Families in Kapolei.

The Less-Traveled Road to Success

You might be familiar with Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken. If not, a copy of it can be found by clicking here The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. As a nonprofit, completely managed by volunteers, I for one think we have all chosen the less traveled road as described in the poem. It isn’t always easy yet what we do with our time at our chapter has made all the difference for many families in our community.

This month I invite you to attend our luncheon at Pu’uhale Elementary school on November 13 (please see information below). We will be breaking into smaller groups for discussions on how we can best help each other with our mission of “transforming the lives of children and families in our communities through our programs”. This meeting will start earlier than other lunch meetings so please be aware that doors open at 9:30 and we start at 10. The reason being that school releases early on Wednesday and we want to be gone from school property before parents show up to gather their children.

Programs are happening at every turn, and you are invited to help. Many hands make light work and that goes for all our activities for children. We need your help on any level and will discuss those specifics when we meet. Please read through this Newsletter, as there is lots of information on what is happening.

Looking forward to meeting you in person on November 13th for our business meeting.



Recognizing our New Members

and Recruiting for More

Welcome to our newest members; top to bottom row, left to right: Yuhuan Zhang, Maureen Izon, Melinda Wood. Bottom row: Dawn Krause, Joanne Whitaker, Nadine Okazawa

At our October meeting, four enthusiastic new members, Maureen Izon, Melinda Wood, Joanne Whitaker, and Nadine Okazawa were introduced. They were recognized with lei and treated to lunch. Another new member, Lillian Shaw, was not able to attend. It is exciting to see that many of these new members are already participating in various programs and activities!

Since then, we have welcomed two new members:

Yuhuan Zhang - She was a customer in our shop and wanted to join us as a member. She is a full-time art student at UH, but wants to volunteer some of her free time working on various activities, including the Thrift Shop. Her daughter, Kylie Grant, who is a student at Mid-Pac, will also be joining us as a community volunteer during school breaks. 

Dawn Krause - She has accompanied her mother, Shirley Krause, to several meetings and activities, and finally decided to join Assistance League of Hawaii herself! She has done a variety of other volunteer work and has experience with grant-writing.

During this season of Thanksgiving, we are very grateful for such outstanding new members. Please be sure to let us know of any family members or friends who might be looking for a volunteer opportunity. It takes a village to reach out for potential members who have some time to give to such a wonderful non-profit organization like ours!

Strategic Planning is Happening

Aloha! By now you should have received the 2024-2025 Strategic Plan for the Assistance League of Hawaii. Mahalo nui loa to the members of the committee and to all of you who provided valuable input through the March Evaluation process. Your contributions are vital to our success!

We’ve hit the ground running and already achieved three of our objectives:

1. Celebrated Summer’s End in Style: A big mahalo to Jaye Devendra for hosting a fantastic rooftop party! It was the perfect way to wrap up our summer activities.

2. Smaller Meeting Groups: Our November 13th meeting will be held at the Pu'uhale School Library. This venue aligns with your suggestions for a smaller, more intimate setting. Need a ride? Please email me at cathykissel@gmail.com.

3. Sharing Our Stories: We’ve activated and are utilizing our Speaker Presentation Program to spread the word about the important work we do.

We’ve accomplished a lot, but there’s still much to do!

Calling all fashionistas! We’re looking for enthusiastic members to chair or join the Fashion Show Committee. This event has the potential to be a fabulous fundraiser, generating additional resources to support our philanthropic programs. If you’re interested in lending your talents to this exciting project, please reach out!

Thanks again for your terrific support, and Hauʻoli Makahiki Hou! I’m looking forward to a great 2025 with all of you!

Operation School Bell^® - Mahalo For Helping with Shopping Event and Kokua Boxes

Thanks again to everyone who assisted in the October 26 Operation School Bell shopping event at Walmart in Kapolei. 

Maili, Leihoku (who brought us Bentos to thank us for all we do for them throughout the school year!), Kamaile Academy, Aiea, Ka'ala, and Waipahu Elementary Schools all participated. 135 students from these schools attended with each student allowed to spend $75. 

Principals and Counselors shopped for students who were unable to attend due to transportation issues. The students were very excited about their new clothes and shoes; their excitement was contagious! 

We are still busy with T-shirt orders and mailing Kokua Boxes to the neighbor islands. So far, we have had 14 schools requesting funds for their t-shirts with 42 schools not replying. This slow response is normal during this time of year. 

Thanks for everything you all do to make all of this possible for our keiki!

Gratefully,

Laurelyn



OWL Visits Hawaii Island Schools and Does On-Site Research For Future Presentations

Operation Wildlife has completed two Neighbor Island visits thus far, and has worked with a total of 8 schools on the Big Island. The most recent trip to Kona was a combined school visit/research trip, with the team having the opportunity to check on four programs that are working on preservation of the environment:

• The Ako‘ako‘a Ridge to Reef Restoration Project, which works on coral reef restoration specifically on the Kona coast.

• Terraformation, a research project focused on plant seeds preservation, rehydration, and replanting using experimental techniques.

• The Kona Coast Abalone Farm Only 5% of the consumed abalone throughout the world is harvested in the wild. The rest is farmed, and the Kona Coast Farm is one of the largest, shipping their products all over the world.

• The Hawaiian Salt Farm Did you know it can take up to 8 weeks for a batch to be produced using their technique of natural evaporation? This is one of just 2 Salt Farms producing for commercial sale here in Hawaii.

The commonality of all these entities? They all use the deep sea water brought up to the surface by the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park. Look for info from this research to pop up on the OWL video!

INSET PHOTO ABOVE: A full "condominium" of 350 abalones still in various growth stages at the Coral Restoration site.

Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Programs “Seams Wonderful”

One of the bright spots for the Share Program is working with Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Programs (Federal Housing High-Rise Apartments). They have classes for resident volunteers to learn sewing. They make clothing and other items for their friends and family and Share is able to donate fabric and sewing materials to their group. They have an instructor who teaches the classes and they call themselves “Seams Wonderful”. We can certainly use more donations to assist this group.

PHOTOS BELOW: Marty Kehoe delivers fabric to the "Seams Wonderful" sewing group in Kalihi Valley. Their programs provide sewing instruction.

We Care Make Donations with Aloha

to Community Organizations

New project chairs have been busy learning about their responsibilities as a We Care project chair and also learning about the needs of their projects. Most projects have now started meeting those needs.

Linda McColgan and Dianne Girard were kind enough to continue to meet the needs of the Domestic Violence Action Center until new project chairs could be found and trained. In August, Linda and Dianne purchased $1,006 in diapers, pull ups, cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items for the women and children living at the DVAC shelter. 

I purchased 30 new backpacks and school supplies for Youth Outreach at a cost of $994. Dianne Girard did a great job of putting together welcome packs for the youth at Kinai “Eha. The welcome packs consisted of bedding, towels, pillows, detergent and personal hygiene items at a cost of $2,277. Also, thank you to Dianne for arranging to have a counselor and resident of Kinai ‘Eha give a presentation at our October Membership Meeting. 

Also in October, Pat Dixon was busy fulfilling the needs of two youth with Hale Kipa who were aging out of foster care and setting up independent living arrangements. Pat purchased $576 worth of household goods to help these youth furnish and get comfortable in their new homes. 

Shirley Krause has been busy contacting Malama Bear partners to assess their bear inventory and future needs. Linda McColgan has been planning and preparing as she takes over responsibility for Lullaby Layettes and plans to have a packing and delivery party soon.

Summon Outreach to Get

Emergency Help

OUTREACH provides one-time emergency assistance for those in urgent need. If you have ideas on how to help young people with an urgent need, please contact Miho Teipel, Outreach Chair, at alohabutterfly888@gmail.com

or give her a call at (808) 342-9151.

Mahalo For Your Thrift Shop Help

A special thanks to the Following Member Volunteers:

Bonnie Trustin, who had the heartfelt task of sorting her beloved books for disposal. The brown bookcase was removed, and the white bookcase was relocated by Electric Room door. It will now hold a more limited selection of books. In its place Jim and Bobby installed the slat wall. Nancy Moyer was also a big help in this endeavor. Thanks to Bobby Black and Jim McClelland for their hard work in installing the slat wall in the “Bluetique” area.

And…a big mahalo to Arden Moore and Patty Rosenberg who helped bring in the “Big Bucks” ($4,444.93) with the Silver Jewelry Sale on Saturday October 26. It took hours of work organizing, repairing, pricing and displaying the beautiful items, and these ladies did a magnificent job!

Lastly, we could use additional hands at our Christmas Work Party this Saturday, November 2 and Sunday, November 3, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Potluck lunch on Sunday. Contact Nancy Sparacino (nsparacino_sms@yahoo.com) for more information or check out our Christmas Work Party mailer.

November 2024 Thrift Shop

Calendar for Cashiers & Rovers

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 October 31.

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