Rain fails to dampen spirit of thousands of volunteers
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Thousands of volunteers slogged through rain and mud yesterday for a Make A Difference Day that somehow took on more meaning since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
Make a Difference Day 2001 gave thousands of Hawai'i people, including many who lost jobs since the Sept. 11 attacks, a chance to get their hands dirty and give something back in ways other than money.
Mei Lan Sim, 4, of Kailua, helped plant flowers at Kalaheo High School for yesterday's Make A Difference Day 2001.
Pam Carlton, a senior at Iolani School, packed dozens of cans of corn along a makeshift assembly line as 140 other students and volunteers bustled inside a rain-soaked warehouse of the Hawai'i Foodbank at the Kapalama Military Reservation.
"Sept. 11 made everybody realize that there's such a huge need out there," she said. "Everybody wants to help. Everybody wants to do whatever they can."
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
The 11th annual Make A Difference Day, sponsored by USA Weekend magazine in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation, saw politicians, soldiers, school children and everyday people fan out across the Islands to clean streams and beaches, repair broken-down schools, read to children and do whatever they could to help.
Volunteers unpack donated canned food at the Hawai'i Foodbank as part of Make A Difference Day 2001.
Volunteers came from various sources, including military units of all kinds and a range of community organizations and businesses. Donations poured in from supermarkets and hardware stores.
Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono collected food donations at the Times Supermarket in Waimalu. Representatives from The Advertiser painted and fixed minor damage at the Shriners Hospital for Children. Miss Hawai'i USA Julietta Lighter served lunch to Rotary Club of Honolulu members and soldiers from the 70th Engineer Company at Fort Shafter, who cleared vines and trees from a gully below the Alzheimer's Association.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Deitra Korando drove up to the Institute of Human Services' Women & Families Shelter in Iwilei with a car trunk full of clothes, part of a combined Make A Difference Day project for the Delta Sigma Theta Hawai'i alumnae sorority chapter and the local Lambda Beta Beta chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
Jackie Smalls of Delta Sigma Theta stocks donated shoes at the Single Women and Family Shelter, a part of the Institute for Human Services.
Korando hadn't even figured out where to unpack her load when she was already handing out one of her old size 6 sundresses and a gray double-breasted pantsuit to a client of the women's shelter.
Korando, who is also an Army captain in military intelligence, has volunteered to clean beaches and fix playgrounds for previous Make A Difference Day projects in Hawai'i.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
This year seemed different, she said.
Soldiers from Fort Shafter's 70th Engineer Company haul away bags of tree trimmings and branches at the Alzheimer's Association on 'Alewa Heights.
"There's more of an attitude of 'Let's take care of our community,' " she said, in between unpacking the five car loads of women's and children's clothes the sorority and fraternity had collected for the shelter. "More people have become aware that there are now a lot more people in need."
The work was muddy and hard at the Alzheimer's Association on 'Alewa Heights.
"The weather's bad and we're dirty," said Capt. Armando Hernandez, his face streaked with dirt and his T-shirt soaked through. "Soldiers always like to do hard work. But there's a greater sense of urgency now to serving their community."
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
For many others, yesterday's Make A Difference Day was merely a chance to help out and feel better for doing it.
Jolynn Iriarte made boxes at the Hawai'i Foodbank during Make A Difference Day 2001.
There was no larger, philosophical meaning for volunteers such as Ian Jones, a 14-year-old freshman at Kalaheo High School in Kailua. He was among more than 200 volunteers who painted, cleaned and fixed up their school despite a sometimes driving rain.
Ian took a break from raking a mound of freshly laid mulch and leaned on his pitchfork. "I'm dirty, I'm wet and I smell," he said. "But at least I had fun."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
