Posted on: Thursday, January 6, 2005
ADVERTISER CHRISTMAS FUND
Still time to set new record
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Generosity found a home in Hawai'i this holiday season, and The Honolulu Advertiser Christmas Fund numbers show it.
Cash and goods received after Christmas are used to help needy families throughout the year.
Including "Secret Santa" matching contributions, cash donations have exceeded $166,994. Donations for 2003 totaled $147,000, and the record set in 2001 was $181,218.
Donors reached deep.
RCI Construction Group employees, who usually buy gifts for families served by the Christmas Fund and Helping Hands Hawai'i, gave cash this year. Their donation of $3,000 topped the list for every donor except Secret Santa.
To donate, send checks payable to "The Advertiser Christmas Fund" to Helping Hands Hawai'i, P.O. Box 17780, Honolulu, HI 96817.
Monetary donations also may be dropped off at any First Hawaiian Bank branch.
Goods can be donated at the Community Clearinghouse at 2100 N. Nimitz Highway, near Pu'uhale Road. For details, call 440-3804. Secret Santa is our anonymous donor who annually matches the first $25 of every cash donation made to the Christmas Fund through Christmas Day. This year, as Christmas approached and Secret Santa was reminded that the cutoff for matching donations was approaching, the donor said: "Nah, let's keep it going through the end of the year."
That quote was reported by Leslie Kawamoto, assistant to the editor and one of the few people authorized to speak directly to Secret Santa.
Secret Santa's matches totaled $34,886. The extra days at the end of December, combined with the generosity of other donors, racked up an additional $6,800 over last year.
Donors who had time to shop or who were willing to give stuff they had on hand sent a bounty of goods to the Community Clearinghouse for the families.
"One woman got a laptop computer," said Capsun Poe, program manager for Helping Hands Hawai'i. "It was pretty new and came in a carrying case. That one amazed all of us. We almost never get that kind of big-ticket item."
Other families got some pretty nice gifts.
"It made everybody's Christmas a lot happier when we got down there and saw that mountain of stuff for our people," said Holly Holowach, project manager at Weinberg Village Waimanalo, a program that offers temporary housing for families who have lost their homes.
One family had asked for a couch and a table, and got a full living room and dinette set, she said.
Randy Lum, a social service assistant at developmental disabilities division of the Department of Health, said one of the boys in a family his office referred was thrilled with his new bicycle. In fact, the young man insisted upon riding home from the Clearinghouse in the back of an open pickup truck with it — in the rain.
Another DOH family was very thankful for the gift certificates that allowed them to buy new clothes, but didn't get the refrigerator they wanted to replace the old one that is conking out.
"We'll check back later with the Clearinghouse," Lum said. "Maybe they'll get one in."
Holowach at Weinberg Village said families there were extremely grateful for the gifts they received. The staff, however, is hoping that the donations of cash and good won't stop now that the holidays are over.
"Soon new residents will be arriving and we'll be sending them to the Clearinghouse to get everything," she said. "Please don't forget us. We're here all year."
• • •
Recent donations:
Total: $45,976.44
Previous total: $121,018.32 Total: $166,994.76
Cash donations are still coming in for the 2004 fund but have surpassed 2003 donations and are closing in on the record high set in the holiday period after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"We were just too busy to go shopping," explained RCI office manager Nadine Willis.
How to help
