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NOVEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 - 10:30 AM Check-in
Old Spaghetti Factory • Aloha Tower, Honolulu HI
| | Transforming Lives - Strengthening Community | | |
Christmas Work Party
at Assistance League of Hawaii Thrift Shop:
Saturday, November 8 – 1:00-5:00
and Sunday, November 9 – 9:00-4:30
SEE THRIFT SHOP ARTICLE BELOW
| | LOOK BUT DON'T TOUCH: Our Operation Wildlife member volunteers have a new set of displays obtained from the Thrift Shop that is now part of our traveling biofacts. These 4th grade children test their temptation to "not touch" at Lanakila Elementary School. OWL volunteers go to many Hawaii schools. | | |
Transforming Lives Through Volunteerism
100% Volunteer, 100% Heart
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As a 100% volunteer-run nonprofit, Assistance League of Hawaii continues to serve communities across the islands with dedication, compassion, and aloha. Every act of service—large or small—makes a difference in the lives of keiki, families, and adults in need.
Operation School Bell® — Reaching Keiki in Hilo
On October 4, a small but mighty team of Assistance League of Hawaii volunteers joined hands with the Rotary Club of Hilo to bring Operation School Bell® to keiki on the Big Island. Smiles and gratitude filled the room as students received new clothing and essentials, helping the keiki attend school with confidence and pride. Mahalo to the volunteers who made the trip possible and to our community partners, the Rotary Club of Hilo, for their warm collaboration.
OWL Program Expands to Kona Schools
Our Operation Wildlife (OWL) program continues to grow, reaching new schools on the Kona side of the Big Island. Through engaging environmental education and hands-on learning, students explored how small actions can protect Hawai‘i’s fragile ecosystems. The volunteers’ passion and enthusiasm continue to inspire both students and teachers alike!
Delivering Aloha Through Share— O‘ahu Community Outreach
Our devoted drivers have been busy preparing and delivering bags of clothing, household goods, and essential items to partner organizations across O‘ahu. Recent recipients include:
- River of Life Mission
- Kokua Kalihi Valley
- Family Programs Hawai‘i (Foster Children)
- Boys and Girls Clubs of Hawai‘i
Each delivery carries not only the needed supplies, but also a message of hope and aloha from our Assistance League of Hawaii ‘ohana.
Mahalo to Our Tireless Leaders
A heartfelt thank-you to the dedicated leaders this month whose time, guidance, and energy kept our programs thriving: Andrea Cyriacks, Mary Monohon, Gerri Migita, Hazel Sumile, Sherri Sunabe, Marty Kehoe, Bobby Black, and Nancy Sparacino. Many, many silent leaders support and drive Assistance League of Hawaii’s mission forward. Your steadfast commitment ensures that Assistance League of Hawaii continues to uplift lives throughout Oahu, and the Neighbor Islands.
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Membership Meeting November 12 at
Old Spaghetti Factory Restaurant
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Greetings Assistance League of Hawaii Members and Friends,
We enjoyed a great business meeting in October at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse in Waikiki. Many of you provided wonderful feedback about this venue, so we will reserve a spring date for Wolfgang’s again.
Bring your appetites for delicious pasta for the November 12th Assistance League of Hawaii business meeting, which will be at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Arrive at 10:30 a.m. as we will start registration in the patio area outside the restaurant. Entry to the restaurant begins at 11:00am. The set price of $31.00 includes your pasta dish, Ceasar salad, spumoni ice cream, iced tea, tax and tip.
Please select one of the following pasta entrees:
*Rich Meat Sauce
*Combo of Marinara & Mizithra Cheese/Browned Butter
*Clam Sauce
Please RSVP to Lorna Motas by Thursday, November 6 and indicate your entree choice.
Once again thank you to the wonderful Hospitality Committee members who greet you and expedite the registration process. Cheers to Maren Bonnet, Allison Shinn-Yuen and Jamie Tangonan.
Looking forward to seeing you on November 12!
| | Learn the Fine Art of Christmas Tree Decorating at Balsam Hill Studio | | |
Get into the holiday spirit and join us for a tree decorating class at the Balsam Hill Studios, in Ala Moana Center on Sunday, November 16th from 9:00 to 11:00 am. Open to Assistance League guests and friends. Light refreshments will be served.
Please let Mary Li know if you would like to attend this class.
Balsam Hill Studios is also offering a chance for patrons to win an Alpine Fir Christmas tree with a purchase of the red hibiscus benefit ornament (shown above). Contact Mary Li for more details. Click on the blue highlighted text above.
Balsam Hill Studios has partnered with Assistance League of Hawaii to sell this beautiful hibiscus ornament for the holiday season. We receive 20% from the sales of this ornament. The hibiscus ornament is a perfect addition to your Christmas tree during this year.
BALSAM HILLS STUDIO ORNAMENT
| | OSB Shopping Events End for 2025 | | |
We have had an exciting month in the Operation School Bell® program. We had three shopping events in October and have another one on November 1. Thank you to all who helped at any of the OSB shopping events. It’s so much fun seeing the Keiki get new clothes, especially those that have never had new clothes before!
Volunteers are still needed to help with all functions of OSB. There will be more shopping events in 2026. Let Mary Monohon or me know if you are interested in helping.
| | Fourth grade students inspect biofacts and locate the place where the wildlife came from on the map. | |  | The traveling displays have a few new biofacts that do not allow students to touch the items. It can be a test of wits for them to resist the temptation to touch. | | | |
Operation Wildlife’s (OWL) second Neighbor Island trip, also to the Big Island, is now complete. The team experienced a lot of driving, for hours at a time, to get to the different schools on the south end of the Big Island. They started the week at Waikoloa Elementary School and made their way south, around the point, and on to Naalehu and Pahala before their last hurrah drive to the Hilo Airport for the flight home on Friday afternoon.
A new school was introduced to OWL this time and the students thoroughly enjoyed their unique experience! In the photo #1, you can see the children studying the map to see where items came from.
| | Mahalo to Karen and Marty Kahoe | | |
After much thought and consideration, Karen and Marty Kehoe, our dedicated leaders of the Share program, decided to step down from their leadership roles. They expressed that it has become increasingly challenging for them to continue in their positions and they will formally transition by the end of November.
For the past month, Karen, Marty, and I have been in conversation. Both have shared their passion for this program and earnestly prepared for the transition. They have graciously offered to continue supporting the Share program to ensure a smooth transition. Karen will complete the mid-year report and will train her replacement with her duties. Marty will introduce his replacement to the contact person at each agency and accompany the new person on the tour of the facilities.
We are grateful for their commitment, time, and compassion in leading the Share program. Since 2016, they have expanded the program from one organization partner to six large organizations, which they, along with Bobby Black, deliver to on a regular basis. We extend our thanks for all they have contributed to Assistance League of Hawaii, the keiki, and the community we serve.
As Share moves into a new chapter, we welcome members who would like to lend a hand or take part in this meaningful program. Your participation will help continue the legacy of compassion that Karen and Marty have built with such warm hearts. Please contact Gloria McGehee-Koel, Nancy Sparacino, or Hazel Sumile if you are interested in joining the Share team as chairs, sorters, and/or drivers. The work will be easier and fun with a larger team of Share volunteers.
— Gloria McGehee Koel
| | Reward for Passing 5+ Business Cards | | |
At the November business lunch, a drawing will be held for those who have successfully passed out five or more business cards. The selected winner will receive a complimentary January lunch, courtesy of the Marketing team.
More business cards can be found in the Ohana Room, Marketing file drawer. Thank you for your help in promoting our non-profit!
On an unrelated note, member volunteers can now visit the MEMBERS section of our current website without a password login. Much of the material in that section will be transitioning to a new site next year.
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We have two new members. Both members learned about us from Mariann Tesauro, who loves sharing about Assistance League of Hawaii with friends and those she thinks will enjoy becoming members.
Patricia Coughlin:
Patricia has a wealth of skills to offer us - she is familiar with Powerpoint, Excel and has other computer skills. She also has experience with event organizing, and has over 50 years experience working in the travel industry (36 years owning her own travel company). She is enthusiastic about many of our programs, especially those working directly with keiki. Her mentor is Lorna Motas.
Laurie Von Hamm:
Laurie was born and raised on Oahu. She went to the University of Hawaii. Laurie has been in sales and lived in both France and Germany. She speaks conversational German! She currently manages several rentals. Laurie has already found several events and programs to be involved in. She attended our most recent OSB Shopping event at Walmart and had a great time as a runner! She will be helping with deliveries to Navian (Hospice), and she is also helping with deliveries of Kokua Clothing Boxes to schools on the west side. Her mentor will eventually be Mary Monohon (after daughter's wedding at the end of November). In the meantime, I will continue to help Laurie get involved in Assistance League of Hawaii activities.
Besides word of mouth to our friends and family, we have also had one very special opportunity to reach out to Delta Kappa Gamma, an international educational society, that held their DKG Hawaii State Fall Forum on October 11th at Windward Community College. Thank you to Linda Andersen for making this possible! We were able to do a break-out session titled "Empowerment through Volunteerism". At the end of our session we gave a packet with information about us to all those who attended the Forum, so this definitely was one important step to helping others to understand what Assistance League of Hawaii is all about.
More opportunities to share about Assistance League of Hawaii are coming up. There will be an informal presentation to members of our neighbor, One Kalakaua, on November 24th. Thanks to our President, Gloria McGehee-Koel, for working with staff at One Kalakaua to turn this idea into reality. At the end of the presentation, residents of One Kalakaua will be given an opportunity to donate items (we will provide rolling bins to help with this). This is in connection with their Give Thanks Week prior to Thanksgiving.
I hope you can all save the date: February 25, 2026 for an Open House in the Thrift Shop from 1-3 pm. It will be an opportunity for invited guests to come and learn more about our programs and shop. More information will be upcoming, but be thinking of friends and acquaintances that you would like to attend. There will be refreshments, videos about our programs, tours of the shop, time for questions and answers about us, and of course, opportunity to show interest in joining us as members.
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| Christmas Work Party and Updated Air Conditioning Coming | | |
You should have received your email invitation to the Christmas Work Party happening the weekend of November 8th and 9th.
We call it a Work Party because we do get all of our huge inventory of holiday merchandise sorted, priced and displayed (That’s the work part.), but we also have lots of fun doing it. (That’s the party part.)
We will again have the help of many students from Farrington High School’s FCCLA Club. We can use your time and talents on Saturday, November 8th, from 1:00-5:00. On Sunday we will begin at 9:00, break at noon for a potluck lunch, and finish up by 4:30. Come for an hour or stay all day. Any help you can give us will make the work go more quickly. If you have not already done so, please let me know if you can join us on either day. Click here: nsparacino_sms@yahoo.com.
We recently had a Thrift Shop Committee Meeting, where we discussed various topics. Among them was the need to raise some of our Thrift Shop prices. Operating costs have risen and other thrift stores charge much higher prices than ours. Beginning November 1st, you will notice new price signs for many of our clothing items, $1.00 more than previously. It was time, folks!
Beginning in November, we will be replacing our very old upstairs air conditioning units. Because accessing the units on the roof with a crane will be involved, we will inform you if there will be any days when the Thrift Shop and/or parking lot will be off limits. The end result will be more reliable and efficient upstairs air conditioning.
As always, we need your help. There are many sit-down jobs needing to be done upstairs on Tuesday-Saturday. For the more energetic, there are donation bins to sort through and merchandise to display on the sales floor. Choose the activity that appeals to you and the day and time you wish to do it. If you have never helped out at the Thrift Shop, fear not! We will provide plenty of training and camaraderie. Just come in when you can, and we will put you to work.
We also need more folks to be Cashiers and Rovers (door greeters) on our open days. Again, ample training will be provided. Remember that our Thrift Shop is our main source of funding for all of our philanthropic programs. Bonus: It is a really fun place to be. Just email Nancy if you want to learn more.
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November 2025 Thrift Shop
Calendar for Cashiers & Rovers
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Thrift Shop Days & Hours:
Tuesday & Thursdays 9:30 am to 1:00 pm
Saturdays 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
| | 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).
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Assistance League of Hawaii
Learn more at our website: www.hawaiiassistanceleague.org
ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF HAWAII
1505 Young Street, Honolulu, HI 96826
Telephone (808)946-1505
Email: alh@hawaiiassistanceleague.org
Editor: Melvin Ah Ching alh@macprohawaii.net
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