When the Hawaii High School Athletic Association asked The Advertiser to help raise money for sports programs after severe budget cuts this year, our only hesitation was what our participation would say to other educational programs that were facing shortfalls.

After giving it some thought, and recognizing that some 25,000 public high school students take part in athletic programs, we decided to lend our assistance by publicizing (and coming up with the name for) the "Save our Sports" (SOS) program that has raised more than $655,000 from private donors so far. Our role is to both publicize the fundraising efforts with a number of stories and to print the names of the donors, similar to what we have done with The Advertiser Christmas Fund.

Keith Amemiya, the HHSAA executive director, was expecting a big financial hit to high school sports last year, but state funding came through at the last minute. This year, the programs did not fare so well as state allocations were cut more than 35 percent from the previous year, a drop from $6.7 million to $4.3 million.

Much of that deficit meant cutbacks in supplies, equipment and transportation, and Amemiya realized that the 18 programs that make up high school sports, from football and basketball to soccer and tennis, would be severely curtailed or eliminated outright.

Give Amemiya credit. He is extremely well connected in this town and he set out approaching local corporations in helping the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, the umbrella organization he runs that oversees high school athletics for 95 public and private schools. In the first three weeks, he raised $655,000 of his $1.2 million goal, nearly half of which came from the Clarence Ching Foundation, First Hawaiian Bank, Bank of Hawaii and the GIFT Foundation. Amemiya and his wife gave $30,000 of their own money.

"Besides the large corporate donations, we've received hundreds of donations from the general public as well, ranging from $20 to over $1,000, including several donations from out-of-state visitors who read about our situation in The Advertiser," Amemiya said. "Many have sent heartwarming letters of support along with their donations."

Companies such as Foodland, L&L Drive-In, Murphy's Bar and Grill and Zippy's planned their own fundraising campaigns to help the cause. The funds are distributed according to the same formula that the Department of Education uses based on the size of the sports program.

So far, Moloka'i High School has received $15,000 and Lana'i High School $5,000 in interisland sports transportation costs and $30,000 for Maui Interscholastic League's Friday night football electricity costs. Pearl City High has received $10,000 in donations for football coaching stipends that were turned over to buy supplies and equipment for the team.

The campaign runs through the end of October and at this rate, it looks like HHSAA will meet its goal.

"Enclosed is a small donation to help support the Hawaii High School Athletic Association," wrote Bob Barry of Bob Barry Soccer Clinics in Kane'ohe. "It isn't very much, but I wanted to be able to give something to help offset budget cuts in our public schools. I have had the privilege of being part of Hawai'i high school athletics for over 40 years, and this experience has shaped my life as well as our young athletes in the state."

It's notes like this that keep Amemiya going and our youth sports moving forward.