What's up at Assistance League of Hawaii?

Strategic Planning Meeting Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Starts at 10:30 AM via the Zoom app. See you online!

Assistance League of Hawaii - March 2021

Transforming Lives - Strengthening Community

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HAPPY MARCH! Springtime is in the air, and Assistant League of Hawaii is marching on with expanded Thrift Shop hours on Satrudays and our annual Strategic Planning meeting scheduled for March 10. Details and more below in the newsletter!

Forward March!

March has arrived. It seems hard to believe that COVID-19 was overtaking our lives a year ago this month. Hopefully, most of our members are on their way to vaccinations. Our numbers on Oahu seem to be coming down and with good safety practices we can move into the next tier and ease some of the social restrictions.

The Thrift Shop has been busy and thanks to all that make that happen. The upstairs and downstairs volunteers keep the store brimming with merchandise and so welcoming. Opening on Thursdays will be the next move and if any of you feel comfortable to work, Nancy Sparacino will be asking for volunteers.

As far as programs, please look at We Care in this newsletter. Jane Winslow and her tribe have many opportunities to help in the community. Some in person, but some are just purchasing items and dropping them off, keeping that social distance possible. If interested, there are details in Jane’s We Care article.

This month it is important for all of us to gather for the Strategic Planning meeting on March 10. Please refer to Helen Taufa'asau’s detailed article in this newsletter for more information, as we are changing things up this year so that everyone can participate! It is important to get everyone’s viewpoint this year so please mark your calendars and join us.

Members are the heart and soul of our Assistance League. No one person can do it alone. We need all our talents to make our chapter work. Thank you for all you do.

Countdown to Our Annual Strategic Planning Meetings,

Look for Your Zoom Invitation

When: Wednesday, March 10, 2021, 10:30 AM

What: Our Annual Evaluation Meeting - A Yearly Tradition!

Where: Zoom Meeting With Break-out Sessions

It will be a perfect theme for our Zoom get-together because St. Patrick's Day is traditionally a time to encourage folks to gather and celebrate - for Assistance League Hawaii we will be celebrating our bond of volunteerism and how we are continuing to get the job done! Hopefully, it will be a much-needed pick-me-up! This can be a time to boost our morale, be with friends and fellow volunteers, encourage camaraderie and team-work (even though we are socially-distanced).

By the time you read this in our newsletter, you may have already received all the details about the meeting, but hope you will have fun now getting ready for our Zoom gathering and yearly evaluation!

Get Your Green On

You can do any or all of the following to be fully prepared for the meeting:

Wear something green.
Bring something green to the meeting.
Show us the green in the room.
Show us your virtual green background.

This should be a time to share our successes during 2020 - we have so much to be proud of!

We are all very lucky to be members of Assistance League Hawaii.

Member Volunteers Are Busy

Keeping We Care Active

Member volunteers in the We Care program ahave been keeping busy this past few months bringing help and joy to the many clients they service. We Care could always use more volunteers to help us.

Here is what recently happened with WeCare.

Domestic Violence Action Center - Mary Kay Junk purchased and delivered: 200 Adult and 150 Youth one-way bus passes plus 4 boxes of #5 diapers and 6 boxes of #6 diapers to the Center.

Hale Kipa - Pat Dixon purchased and delivered various household items for two clients aging out of the Foster Care System.

Lullaby Layettes - Mary Kay Junk will be hosting a Lullaby Layette packing of 250 layettes on March 15 from 9:30 to 11:30 am at her home (461 Iliwahi Loop, Kailua). The layettes will be delivered to Castle, Kapiolani, and Kaiser Hospitals, where they will be given to mothers with newborns. Please call Mary Kay at 254-2607 if you can help. Refreshments will be served.

Malama Bears - Jane Winslow ordered 300 Malama Bears which are scheduled to be delivered to The Thrift Shop next month where they will be repacked for delivery to client organizations. Jane will provide further information when help is needed for repacking.

Welcome Our Two Newest Members

We are so happy to welcome Joyce Fojas and Lisa Nay as new members to Assistance League of Hawaii. Joyce was introduced to Assistance League of Hawaii through member volunteer Shirley Rebello. Both are expats from Britain.

Joyce was very involved with KHON TV’s Action Line before the COVID-19 pandemic. She brings her expertise to help us advocate for our children and families.

Lisa comes to Hawaii as a military spouse who has a resume full of retail and marketing experience. She is a social media maven and is excited to help us broaden our reach to the community about our services.

Presenting a Sustainable Hawaii

to Our School Children

This year due to COVID-19 restrictions, Assistance League of Hawaii’s Marketing Team created and produced an educational slide show presentation for Action Week.

The slide show helped distance learning students as well as those doing face-to-face, in-class instruction to equally learn what they can do to help Hawaii’s environment. The presentation focused on sustaining Hawaii’s environment to save the endangered endemic animals and plants from going extinct.

Letters were sent to schools with agreements with Assistance League of Hawaii around the State inviting them to connect to our website for the slide presentation “Sustaining Hawaii’s Environment for Your Future”. We also selected a book, “What a Waste” to give to schools that participated and returned surveys to us. There are also supporting worksheets and evaluations for teachers to use in their classes.

The video was uploaded onto YouTube and embedded to a specially created Assistance League Hawaii webpage. It was made available for viewing starting February 15. It will be available for public viewing through the end of the school year.

Go to our home page at Assistance League of Hawaii for the link to the presentation and supplementary materials.

Thrift Shop Extends Saturday Hours

Starting on March 6, The Thrift Shop will be extending Saturday hours from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm, requiring two shifts for worker volunteers. The Thrift Shop has been operating two days a week for the past few months, opening on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Thursday openings from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. may be added starting in April. Thanks to all of you who stepped up to cover the second shift on Saturday. The work calendar is posted below this article.

This time of year donations usually decline. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the decline in donations appears to be worse this year. We get a lot of clothing but are always in need of housewares, linens, small appliances and other items in good condition. Please encourage your friends and relatives to donate. You all know the proceeds support the worthy causes of Assistance League of Hawaii.

Donations are taken by the public on Tuesdays and Saturdays, generally from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. or whenever the donation bins get filled up.

Remember that large donations of furniture need to be checked out by Nancy Sparacino, Peggy Monell, Margie VanSwearingen or myself before we can accept them.

March 2021 Thrift Shop Calendar

Please Note New Thrift Shop Hours on Saturdays

Strategic Planning Meeting on Wednesday, March 12 | Starts 10:30 AM

This is a virtual meeting using the Zoom conferencing app.

Your Monthly Service Hours

Thank you for your diligence in submitting your service hours every month. It is very important for National Assistance League use and to demonstrate the good work that we do to our donors. Please send your hours to me at the end of every month so I can enter them onto the spreadsheet. Only the total is necessary. For those of you who worked during the summer and forgot to give them to me, please include those. Let me know if you need assistance in submitting the hours.

Thank you, Vicki Fay - Telephone (808) 282-0878. Your hours can also be sent by email to: vandwfay@mac.com

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Once you have Assistance League of Hawaii registered with your Amazon Smile account, every time you shop at Amazon that .5% of your purchases help us! Mahalo.

Assistance League of Hawaii

Learn more at our website: www.hawaii.assistanceleague.org

ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF HAWAII, 1505 Young Street, Honolulu, HI 96826

Telephone (808)946-1505 • Email: althrift281@gmail.com

Newsletter Editor: Melvin Ah Ching assistanceleaguehimarketing@gmail.com