February 25, 2008

Making wishes come true

Thirteen years ago the fates flipped a coin and I found myself living in paradise. It was truely a mixed blessing those first few years. The company that moved me to Hawaii had some financial difficulties and was several months behind on payroll when it finally folded. If I’d still been living “down South” I’d probably have turned to family and friends while I searched for a new job and got back on my feet. I didn’t have the price of a ticket home in my pocket, though, and foolish pride kept me from allowing my family to know that I was facing eviction. The coin was flipped again and came up in my favor. A friend came to my rescue and invited my son and I to live, rent-free, in a shabby-chic, ocean-front cottage that was ususally rented to tourists. Within a couple of months we were in our own place again.

As I leave my home each day and pass the homeless encampments on the beach beside the highway I’m reminded of just how close I came to joining them. It’s heartbreaking to see families who have been squeezed out of the housing market by our high cost of living, though many of the parents have worked all of their lives and continue to work. Each morning they get their children to school, then make their way to jobs that just don’t pay enough to put a roof back over their heads. Many of them put as much as they can from every paycheck into savings that they hope will eventually swell to the point where they’ll have enough for a security deposit, first and last months’ rent. It can take years to accumulate enough - years of doing without things that most of us consider necessities. It’s not possible to see their plight on a daily basis and not want to help. During the recent holiday season I was fortunate enough to become involved a project that was intended to bring shoes to barefoot children in one neighborhood. It’s evolved into so much more.

The The Keiki Slippah Wish Project originated with one woman’s simple wish. Auntie Pupule lives in a public housing project in Honolulu. Back in 2005 she answered a question about Christmas wishes on a local online message board. Her wish was that all of the children in the project could have slippahs - those rubber sandals that most of us here wear year round. The online community started a grassroots effort that made Auntie Pupule’s wish come true. She threw a Christmas party for the keiki (children) and all of them got slippahs and other Christmas gifts. In 2006 they did it again. By the time the 2007 holiday season rolled around the project had gotten some publicity and residents in other housing projects asked if their children could be included. That’s where things stood when I first heard of the The Keiki Slippah Wish Fund and decided to ask my readers if they would help. The results of that one blog post were nothing short of amazing.

A week or so before Christmas I got some astounding news. Contributors to the project had been so generous that there was money left over after the expenses were budgeted for the keiki in the housing projects. The decision was made to use the excess funds to bring slippahs and Christmas cheer to the children living on the beaches in my own community. Why? Because it was contributions from my readers that had put the fund over the top and Auntie Pupule knew that I was an advocate for our local homeless population. I was invited to participate in the rolling Chirstmas party that resulted. We loaded up a truck and visited homeless encampments from one end of the Waianae coast to the other, yet still had slippahs and gifts left over. We ended our day at a newly-opened transitional center that was serving as temporary housing for some of the families who had been living on the beach only a few months before. We were able to provide slippahs, books, clothes, toys and snacks to families who had little or nothing to give their keiki for Christmas. My readers made that happen!

Auntie Pupule has been asked to bring the Keiki Slippah Wish Project to the outer islands next year. She thinks it would be best to teach others what she’s learned and let them manage their own projects in their own communities. I like the way her mind works! I’ll be asking my readers to help again when the 2008 project starts up and I know they will respond. We don’t have to wait for Christmas, though. There are people in dire need living in almost every community year-round. Take a look around you. Find a need or a project that you can help with, then do it. Give your money, your time, your labor and your skills. Think about all of the blessings in your own life, then find a way to pay it forward.

Make a wish … then find a way to make it come true!

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