Community Day at Camp Erdman

Volunteers participated in the YMCA Community Day at Camp Erdman on Sunday, March 10 that attracted families from all over the island. They engaged guests with literacy activities and also distributed books. Mahalo to Jennifer Holmberg YMCA community Director and 89ner for organizing this wonderful event. Mahalo to Catherine, Cobyn and Madison for your help this day.

Aloha Festival Parade

Volunteers participated in the Aloha Festival Parade. It was a 3.5 mile route from Ala Moana Beach Park through Waikiki to Kapiolani Park. Mahalo to everyone for participating in such a short time: Milton Hee (driver), Auto Buyers Hawaii for lending the convertible car, Roxanne Olayan, Mom and Dad Olayan, Roosevelt High School Key Club and Honor Society Members, Nick Akaka, Nikki, Cobyn and Catherine.

Maui Visit

We visited Maui and met with community members, friends of victims from the Lahaina fire. Mahalo Rosa S., Maria B. Margie, Colleen N. and James Q. for all your time. We appreciate the hard work and commitment to servicing families affected by the fires. We send our prayers of comfort and support to you and the Maui communities. We were also able to get books to Maui children.

RECAP 2022

We find ourselves moving back to familiar spaces, where few programs in continued online virtual reading and where our volunteers returned to the classrooms. MAHALO to Aunty Pat, Aunty Rose, Ms. Sandy, Ms. Olivia and Uncle David for reading kids in Hawaii this year. We appreciate you being part of our Ohana Hawaii Team and we appreciate your commitment to literacy. MAHALO also NY Team: Ms. Linda, Ms. Eileen, Ms. Wendy and Ms. Marie for reading to our kids in WNY. We truly appreciate your commitment to the foundation and to children in Hawaii, New York and around the world. GO! READ

RECAP 2021 Hawaii

The giving continued throughout 2021, to Kaleiopuu EL, Haliewa El, Hauula El, Kapunahala EL and Maunaloa EL. Our volunteers stayed connected and read to over 100 children virtually on Oahu and Molokai. They also reached a broader audience around the world, reading stories for our YouTube Channel O100 GO! READ. Since we started in April 2020, our channel has gotten over 140,000 views.

Our Veteran Volunteer Rose Leong was awarded 2021 Outstanding Older American Award for the City & County of Honolulu.

We continued the support of families with the Festival of Hope for Families with Child & Family Services in October.

Mahalo Nui Loa to all our volunteers Auntie Pat, Rose, Kody, Maile, Bel, Katie, Olivia, Donalyn, Melissa, Catherine, David, Emily, Corina for sharing your stories, Roselily, Kawika and Esmenio for helping with distributions and our partners Child & Family Services, LeJardin Students, Ohana Kokua Club for helping to make this year a success! GO! READ

BOOKS FIND HOME IN WAIPAHU

Kalei’opu’u EL was the recipient of 488 gently used books over 522 new books for grades K to 6. Kalei’opu’u EL is located on the Leeward side of the island of Oahu in Waipahu. It is about a 40 minutes drive from Honolulu. These books will continue to bring the joy or reading and learning at home.

This would not be possible without the help from our friends and partner Ohana Kokua Club members who coordinated a gently used book drive from March 15 through April 30th.

Big Aloha and Mahalo to Mrs. Toni Ramirez Carlos and other staff for being there everyday in the classroom! We appreciate what you do for your children! GO! READ

ROSE LEONG Recipient of Outstanding Older American Award

Ohana100’s very own volunteer Aunty ROSE LEONG was awarded The Outstanding Older American Award for the City and County of Honolulu, for her contributions to literacy in our community. Congratulations Rose! We are so Proud of You!

History of Older Americans Month

When Older Americans Month was established in 1963, only 17 million Americans had reached their 65th birthday. Historically, Older Americans Month has been a time to acknowledge the contributions of past and current older persons to our country. Every president since John F. Kennedy has issued a formal proclamation asking that the entire nation pay tribute in some way to older persons in their communities.

2020 Virtual Reader

During this time of COVID-19, our volunteer readers continue to give back to the community by connecting with children virtually.

HONOLULU, HAWAII. Patricia Munoz “Aunty Pat”, Volunteer: Reading to children via Zoom has been both a little awkward and remarkable. Kristen Eastevedt (Teacher of the Year in her District!) does an impressive job of scheduling and corralling her students for Zoom story time with me. I join ongoing classes twice on the day I visit and Kristen helps facilitate the greetings, names and Q&As afterwards.

Zoom allows the children to get up close to and be curious about the books I'm reading because I am able to fill their home screen with the book pages while I read and am visible on the side bar. I do this by uploading the book I read onto my computer and screen sharing the book pages. If the kids want the pictures/pages bigger or smaller I can accommodate this. To accomplish this I use the feature that you showed me to scan and upload the books onto my desktop! Thank you Catherine

While I miss the person-to-kid interaction and connections that happen in the classroom, I find the level of engagement (by the kids) with the screen encouraging, especially if the child is shy to begin with. So I try to share big colorful books and use make believe ("hey, can you reach in and touch the dragon on the screen?") when I read.

Another down side of Zoom reading is that I only see or engage with a small group of students (3-10) and they are easily distracted by the activity around them @home. But this too has had some plus sides when parents or older siblings get involved.

MESSAGE: From Hauula Elementary- Ms. Kristen Eastvedt -PreK Teacher

This experience has been such a joy for my student's and me! Story time with Aunty Pat is always an anticipated event. The students are very engaged and love her stories and "friends" that she brings along during story time. I teach at a Title 1 school, and the student's have benefitted from the books that are donated. It is such a special time when they receive their very own books from Aunty Pat to keep and share with their families.

During COVID 19 school closures, Aunty Pat has joined our Webex meetings to continue story time. The students are highly engaged as usual! She selects the perfect books that students are interested in. They spark their imagination and students are able to make connections and inferences.

Mahalo nui loa for this amazing program that helps bring books alive to students, even during this pandemic.