By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Ma'ili-born Wendy Loh blends entrepreneurship and community service into her life through chocolate candies.

"I'll never make a million dollars doing what I do," said the 42-year-old owner of Kona Paradise Candies Corp. "But the richness I get from accessibility to the community is more valuable to me."

The former Wendy Ho, a Maryknoll High graduate, has been making and selling chocolate candies out of a two-story building at 128 S. School St. since 1990, when the business she and her former husband started in Kona 13 years ago moved to O'ahu. Loh employs four people full time and one part-timer; the business grossed about $500,000 last year.

"We make enough to pay our ladies and bills," she said. "If I had a rich husband to take care of the bills, I would be out in the community daily doing what I do now."

A single parent of two daughters, ages 15 and 12, Loh somehow finds time to be a businesswoman and super volunteer.

As a director, co-chairwoman, board member or volunteer worker, she has been actively involved with organizing the Hawai'i State Prayer Breakfast and fund-raisers for Hawai'i Forest Industry Association, American Heart Association HeartWalk, Charlie Wedemeyer Foundation, Pacific Gateway Center, River of Life Mission, Jackie Chan Foundation, Tzu Chi Foundation Hawai'i, Miss Hawai'i USA and Miss Hawai'i Teen USA, and Hawai'i Foodbank.

Wendy Loh, right, owner of Kona Paradise Candies, wants to be an example for others to do community service. Among her projects: providing 100 wheelchairs to people around the world by this time next year. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Since 1994, Loh has helped raise nearly $5 million for charities by hustling donations and organizing fund-raisers. She estimates half of the total amount are solicited contributions. For example, as co-chairwoman of the Foodbank's hotel coalition, Loh meets regularly with 25 hotels who support the cause.

"I never just take," Loh said. "When they give to me, I'll find a way, directly or indirectly, to give back to them."

Fifty percent of her volunteer effort is dedicated to support American Heart Association fund-raisers in Hawai'i, Loh said. The local association sponsored her life-saving 1963 ventricular septal-defect surgery performed here by renowned heart surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard. Loh's family could not afford to send her to San Francisco for the surgery.

"She's a Christian but has raised money for Buddhist organizations," said Suzanne Maurer, an elementary Christian education teacher at Kamehameha Schools. She met Loh four years ago through her work as co-producer of the nearly completed "Courage to Live" TV documentary on Charlie and Lucy Wedemeyer. "Wendy's not limited. If there's a need, she's there.

"To me, God is doing something very special through her. This is a woman who had heart surgery as a child yet is not frail today. Wendy is a beautiful example of Christ doing miraculous work through a person."

One of Loh's "chocolate ministry" projects focuses on providing wheelchairs to people worldwide who cannot afford them.

It started last year, about a month after Sept. 11.

"I heard this voice (in my head) saying, 'Wendy, you got to make a lot of money,' " she said. "I remember thinking, 'Why? I'm comfortable.' The answer was, 'Because I gave you the ability to raise money.' "

Everything became clear to Loh in February when she read about a Tzu Chi Foundation project to provide wheelchairs to people. She had already struck a deal in January with Los Angeles-based businessman and philanthropist Michael Kim, whom she had met at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, to market his nut snack in Hawai'i for charity. But at the time, she did not have a specific project in mind.

"My goal is to provide 100 wheelchairs to people around the world by this time next year," she said. "It's very doable. I called Mike and told him what I wanted to do and he told (me) he'd buy the first 50 wheelchairs."

Loh briefly put the project on hold in March to concentrate on staging the Hawai'i State Prayer Breakfast, which 1,400 people attended. The keynote speaker was former Hyundai Motors CEO Doug Mazza, the executive director of Agoura Hills, Calif.-based "Joni and Friends," the 22-year-old international disability outreach ministry of Joni Eareckson Tada.

She later learned that Mazza heads a Joni and Friends' project called "Wheels for the World," which has provided 14,000 new and refurbished wheelchairs to people. "Don't even say it's a coincidence," said Loh, who is working with Mazza's group. "It's part of a spiritual plan."

Heavenly Paradise, a sister company of Kona Paradise Candies created for charity, is marketing Kim's nut snacks under the name "Crunch-Stations." Fund-raising groups can earn $2.50 from each $5 6-ounce bag sold, Loh said.

"It costs us $2.25 to produce it so we make 25 cents off each bag, which will go toward buying a wheelchair," she said. "If a group sells 40 cases (40 bags are in each case), we'll buy a refurbished wheelchair for $400 in their name."

Loh wants to be an example for others to do community service.

"If I take care of you, all I ask is that you take care of the next person when you can," she said. "If I can do a (community service) project, others can, too. If we plant a lot of little seeds, (we) can make the whole world blossom."

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.