Holiday donations distributed by Helping Hands Hawaii

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

“Every contribution, big or small, helped ensure local families feel seen, supported and cared for this holiday season.”

Kristine Garabiles

The Community Clearinghouse program manager is pictured above

Across the state this year, 550 families and individuals in need will open gifts provided by Helping Hands Hawaii’s annual holiday giving campaign.

Helping Hands Hawaii spearheaded three giving initiatives at 11 sites across Oahu through the Good Neighbor Fund, Adopt A Family and designated Wishing Tree locations. Donors across the island came together to ensure that families and seniors facing hardship in Hawaii could celebrate with joy and dignity.

“Because of their kindness and generosity, 550 families were able to experience cheer and hope during a time of year that can be especially challenging,” said Kristine Garabiles, Community Clearinghouse program manager, in an email. “Every contribution, big or small, helped ensure local families feel seen, supported and cared for this holiday season.”

Those who “adopted” a family took responsibility for their wish list, providing things like household items, toys and clothing, while other donors chose to contribute items listed at Wishing Tree locations.

Some donors made monetary contributions to the Good Neighbor Fund, hosted by Helping Hands Hawaii in collaboration with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and First Hawaiian Bank.

The fundraiser collects donations to help community members cover critical expenses such as rent, utility bills and food. The donations also make providing items such as school supplies, clothing and furniture possible through Helping Hands’ Community Clearinghouse.

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As of this week, Helping Hands Hawaii has raised over $92,000 via the Good Neighbor Fund.

The nonprofit organization works with other social service providers to select recipients of donations for all three of its campaigns, alongside community outreach and a “contact” option on its website helping hands­hawaii.org where people can apply to participate.

Over 75 volunteers joined at the Community Clearinghouse on Dec. 13 to distribute gifts to some of the 525 families who received donations on Oahu.

Sally Pestana, a retired professor of health sciences at Kapiolani Community College, first learned about Helping Hands Hawaii’s giving campaign through her membership at StretchLab, which hosted Wishing Trees at all four of the company’s locations.

After donating items for the gift drive, she decided to volunteer with friends and StretchLab team members at the Community Clearinghouse distribution day.

“It was quite an amazing sight to see,” Pestana said. “It was so organized”

Pestana volunteered from 12:30 to 3 p.m., welcoming families as they arrived to receive their donations, which were wrapped and packaged in large boxes and oversized plastic bags.

“I was very impressed with the generosity of the donors who had contributed to Helping Hands Hawaii,” she said. “There was a lot of donated, beautiful merchandise that went out that day, based on the number of bags and boxes that were hauled out of the warehouse to the individual cars.”

Pestana said recipients were given the opportunity to write a note to Helping Hands Hawaii while their gifts were being loaded into their car.

“I would say easily 90% of the families did that … ,” Pestana said. “The notes were really, really touching. They would give it to me and then I’d put it in a box that was for Helping Hands staff. People were so appreciative. You could tell by what they wrote.”

Many of the recipients showed up with their families, something Pestana said “tugged at the heartstrings.”

“So many of the cars had really small children with them, little ones in car seats, that kind of thing,” she said. “So you knew that it was really going to make a difference for their Christmas, that’s for sure.”

There is no deadline for online contributions to Helping Hands Hawaii’s holiday campaigns, with monetary donations used to help fulfill wish lists for families who weren’t matched with a donor and to ensure that gifts are purchased for everyone in the program, which will carry over into next year’s holiday fundraiser.

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