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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, November 30, 2007

ADVERTISER CHRISTMAS FUND
Single mom focused on future

 • 
Help our neighbors in need

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

HOW TO DONATE

Send checks, payable to "The Advertiser Christmas Fund," to Helping Hands Hawai'i, P.O. Box 17780, Honolulu, HI 96817. Helping Hands will accept credit card donations by telephone, 440-3831. Monetary donations may also be dropped off at any First Hawaiian Bank branch or The Advertiser's cashier desk.

To donate online, go to honoluluadvertiser.com and click on the Christmas Fund icon. Monetary donations help operate Community Clearinghouse programs year-round.

The Advertiser's "Secret Santa" will match the first $25 of every donation to the fund. The anonymous philanthropist last year pitched in $32,600.

Material goods may be taken to the Community Clearinghouse, 2100 N. Nimitz Highway, near Pu'uhale Road. For large-item pickup and additional information, call 440-3804.

Donations may be made to particular families, but please specify the family. The money will be given in the form of a Wal-Mart, Kmart or Longs gift certificate.

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AT UH GAME

University of Hawai'i football fans can contribute to The Advertiser Christmas Fund on Saturday at Aloha Stadium.

Advertiser staffers and KGMB TV's Ramsay Wharton and Grace Lee will be at the stadium turnstiles from 3 to 7 p.m. to collect donations for the Christmas fund. Cash, checks and credit-card payments will be accepted.

The Advertiser has collected donations during the holiday season to help needy families and individuals in Hawai'i for more than 50 years. The Christmas Fund is a joint effort of the Advertiser, Helping Hands Hawai'i and KGMB.

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Rebuilding a life after drug addiction and homelessness is by no means easy, but one 28-year-old single mother is determined to do it.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, lived on the beach for a few years and was hooked on drugs. When she learned she was pregnant, she was ready for a change.

In a stroke of good fortune, help came her way. A woman who had been in a similar situation approached her on the beach and asked her if she needed help. The pregnant woman accepted the offer and checked into a halfway home.

"I just had enough," she said. "I wanted to turn things around and make a change."

The woman has been drug-free for nearly five years now and lives in public housing with her 4-year-old daughter. She earned her high school diploma, recently got a job as a saleswoman and has plans to further her education.

But even though she's made considerable strides, the young mother is still struggling to make ends meet. She makes minimum wage, which makes it difficult to buy much else after paying for rent and food.

It hurts that she can't give her daughter more.

"I don't know how much it affects her, but it really bothers me that I can't get her the stuff that she asks for," she said. "Her underwear is too small, and I can't just go get (new ones). I have to budget for that."

But she's determined to improve things for herself and her daughter. She has set more goals for herself, including getting vocational training to become an office administrator. She eventually wants to earn a bachelor's degree in business management and run her own business.

She said that even though her life has been hard, she makes no excuses and is thankful to have been given a second chance.

"I don't feel like my life has ever really been easy, but at the same time, I know that we make choices," she said. "And we always have the opportunity to make a better choice.

"It's rough sometimes, but I'm grateful."

The family's needs include a sofa — mother and daughter have to sit on the living-room floor — and a washing machine. They haul their laundry on a bus to wash their clothes at a laundromat.

The woman also said she would "love" for her daughter to have some toys and clothes this Christmas, and that she would appreciate a computer to help with her schooling and enhance her computer skills for a better job.

The woman's 4-year-old daughter wears girls' size 7/8 clothes and a size 1 shoes. The woman wears size 8 pants, M-L shirt/dress and 8 1/2 shoes.

RECENT DONATIONS TO THE CHRISTMAS FUND

Mrs. Wong, in memory of Edwin S.N. Wong — $1,000
Carol Ann & Philip Au, in memory of Kitty Shen — $300
Tom & Kathy MacDonald — $250
Maxx Mudd — $200
Mozes Mudd — $200
Sylvia & Blake Brown — $100
Ignacio Cariaga — $100
Donald — $100
Clara L. Foo — $100
Mark & Susan Hanson — $100
Darryll J.G. Lum, in memory of Dorothy Shea — $100
Elaine & Raymond Sakai — $100
Barbara Thelen — $100
Roland Tokairin, in memory of Yeiko Tokairin — $100
Gabriel & Lynette Amaral — $75
Julie Elliott — $50
Constance McQuillan — $50
Yvonne Nakata — $50
Nashville Boot Co. — $50
Lynn Rogers — $50
B.J. & Chuck Schrader — $50
Cheryl To — $50
Charles A. Allen — $25
Gerald Endo — $25
Fawn & James Gibson — $25
Florence & Richard Okamoto — $25
Ruth Rand — $25
Constance Wheeler — $25
Shizue & Russell Watanabe — $20
Zee Oshiro — $10
Anonymous in memory of Florence Kaya — $100
Anonymous — $25
Anonymous — $25
Total — $3,605
Previous total — $17,538.64
Total to date — $21,143.64

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.