By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Leilani Perkins sees kids running around her neighborhood at all hours of the night, unsupervised, no bed times, no limits, and it troubles her.

"Do they know what time they need to be in the house for school? Do they care?" she wonders.

Perkins sees other things, too. Kids making poor choices. Families suffering because of drug use. Children needing direction.

For the past five years, Perkins has tried to lift up the kids in her high-crime, high-poverty neighborhood, an area known as "the Pupus" in Waipahu, bound by Pupukahi, Pupumomi and Pupupuhi streets makai of Farrington Highway.

She spends 15 to 20 hours a week at the Communities in Schools Alaka'i Malama Academy, helping with homework, running a leadership program and teaching Hawaiian values, such as taking on responsibility rather than living a life of entitlement. Twenty elementary school students and 15 older kids are in her charge.

Perkins herself is a kid. She's 18 and just a few months out of high school. But when the program staff asked her to take on the responsibility of an adult leader, a makua, she readily accepted the kuleana.

"If anything wrong happens, it will come to me because I'm in charge of all of them," she says. "But I also have to make sure the kids are doing what they're supposed to. You can't do it for them.

"It was a big step. A very big step. I'm no longer like their pal. They have to look at me from another perspective. Most of the children I work with, they know me. They're in my neighborhood. They knew me ever since I was a child, but now they're calling me 'auntie,' so it kind of makes me feel old."

Perkins doesn't receive any money or school credit for her time, though she is in college working toward her goal of being an elementary school teacher. She volunteers because she enjoys it and because she grew up in the program.

"I love children," she says.

Mostly, she volunteers because she simply believes it is the right thing to do.

Perkins knows firsthand the positive effects a caring adult and a structured environment can have on a child's life.

"A lot of us have had either parents or friends who have done drugs," Perkins says. "We can learn from their mistakes and make better choices for ourselves."

Earlier this year, Perkins received an Ola Pono award from HMSA for her work in "the Pupus." The Ola Pono award honors individuals and groups doing exceptional work to prevent substance abuse and violence in Hawai'i.

HMSA is looking for more people like Leilani Perkins. Nominations are being accepted for the 2005 awards. Nomination forms can be requested by calling (800) 845-1946 or at www.HMSA.com.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.