AFTER DEADLINE

By Anne Harpham

The unmistakable signs of the holiday season are all around us. The decorations, the bulging store shelves, the holiday recipes, the gift guides.

For most of us, celebrating the holiday season means spending. And we do spend.

The Census Bureau's Web site reports the nation's Christmas tree farmers received $521 million from sales last year. Department stores reported retail sales of $31 billion in December 2003. Electronic shopping and mail-order sales totaled $14.4 billion in December 2003.

The Census Bureau's site doesn't tally the ways in which Americans give at this time of the year to those who need help, but for many it is an integral part of the season.

For more than half a century, the Advertiser Christmas Fund has been one effort in our community to help make the holidays merrier for those who have little.

And our readers have responded generously throughout those years.

Last year, the Christmas Fund raised more than $147,000, money that went to Helping Hands Hawaii, a social-service agency that has served this community for more than 25 years.

That $147,000 was just a part of the generous outpouring last holiday season.

Readers donated clothing, furniture, toys, household items and more.

Individual monetary donations ranged from $5 to more than $1,000. One reader, our Secret Santa, matched the first $25 of each donation, as he has for more than a decade.

It all adds up to an outpouring of generosity that is the best measure of all in the giving season.

The Christmas Fund, which we kicked off on Thanksgiving Day, follows a standard format each year.

Through daily stories up to Christmas Eve, Advertiser reporter Karen Blakeman will tell readers about particular individuals or families and their needs.

The stories are real, but we do not use real names. It is rare for a newspaper to write about people without identifying them, but in the case of the Christmas Fund, we would counteract the good our readers do by being so generous if we identified people who must turn to others for help.

The basic information for our Christmas Fund stories comes to us from social-service agencies that work with Helping Hands. We rely on the caseworkers for the veracity of the information, although we often talk to the families ourselves to get more information.

We ask Helping Hands and the agencies to try to focus on people who are in need because of circumstances beyond their control, or who need some help while they get themselves back on their feet. We and our readers are particularly touched each year by the needs of children.

But while we are more than happy to ask for gifts of toys for children, we do not ask for frivolous items. In truth, few of those in need ask for what most of us regard as frivolous or luxuries.

In fact, we often are touched by how little some people ask for. An, there are stories that we remember long after they have been published. One was the young couple, a 22-year-old laborer and his 20-year-old wife. They had taken in a 10-year old nephew who needed help and were raising him along with their own daughter. The wife's only dress was the one she wore at her wedding. His work shoes were so battered his wife had already resewn them three times.

They asked only for clothes for the children and educational games and books. The community responded with much more, including those badly needed steel-toed work shoes. Each year, the donors include workplaces that have collected money and school classes that have chipped in to give to others or have held bake sales or other fund-raisers. Many gifts are given in memory of loved ones.

First Hawaiian Bank has graciously helped us for the past several years by collecting Christmas Fund donations at its branches.

Helping Hands compiles for us the donor lists, which we publish the morning after we receive them. We are committed to being fully accountable to donors, so let us know if you do not see your name in a timely fashion. But please, do give Helping Hands time to process the checks and compile the lists.

Anne Harpham is The Advertiser's reader representative. Reach her at aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8033.