Giving at Christmas

I've never realized how many organizations exist in order to help struggling families meet their needs and to also celebrate Christmas.  It's really great to see how many people come together during the holiday season to help brighten up a family's Christmas. Some of the more widely known programs are: the Laulima Giving Program in Hawaii, Toys for Tots, Make a Wish Foundation, Salvation Army's Angel Tree, and My Two Front Teeth.

 

The Laulima Program "is a partnership between KHON 2 and the Keiki O Ka Aina Family Learning centers and it helps Hawaii's struggling families and individuals by providing life's basic necessities, year round emergency assistance and a brighter holiday season."  

The Toys for Tots "objectives are to help less fortunate children throughout the United States experience the joy of Christmas; to play an active role in the development of one of our nation’s most valuable resources – our children; to unite all members of local communities in a common cause for three months each year during the annual toy collection and distribution campaign; and to contribute to better communities in the future."

The Make a Wish Foundation "has enriched the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions through its wish-granting work. The Foundation's mission reflects the life-changing impact that a Make-A-Wish^® experience has on children, families, referral sources, donors, sponsors and entire communities"

Salvation Army's Angel Tree program "is a charity that provides new clothes, toys, and other gifts for needy children for Christmas. Paper angels are attached to Christmas trees that are located in malls, stores, and other locations. The paper angel contains the first name, age, and gender of the child. You can choose one or more of the angels from the tree and purchase age appropriate gifts and clothes for the child. Return the purchased gifts back to where you adopted the angel and the parents of the child will pick up the items to give to them on Christmas day."

My Two Front Teeth's "vision is to reduce the pain of poverty and help strengthen the bonds of society by bringing simplicity, efficiency, and personalization to the charitable gift-giving process, encouraging everyone to experience the incredible power and joy of giving." 

My Hawaii

With the prospect of moving to the mainland, I've come to appreciate home.  It's rough to live here but this is home to me and will always be home.  The clear blue skies, the cool Kona winds, fresh air, clean drinking water and the clear ocean and its beaches will be just among the few things that I will miss dearly.  I'll miss going to my favorite beach: Lani Kai.  The most gorgeous beach on the island I think.  When I was young, my family used to go almost every Sunday when everyone was home.  We would spend the morning to about 12 there then either head back home or go visit Grandpa & Grandma in Kailua.  I think that was when my family was the closest.  Now, we're still close but we're all busy with a bunch of different things that it kind of makes it hard to have family time.  And I will of course miss them the most.  Moving to Texas will be a huge step for me especially considering no one in my family will be there; only my boyfriend's family.  They're great and all but it's just not the same.  Good thing there's Skype.

Allan Jay Kellogg Jr.

While interning for KSSK this semester I got to attend a show that featured a special guest: Allan Kellogg Jr. 1973 Medal of Honor recipient. This is his story taken from the Commemorative Medal of Honor Society's website, "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a platoon sergeant with Company G, in connection with combat operations against the enemy on the night of 11 March 1970. Under the leadership of G/Sgt. Kellogg, a small unit from Company G was evacuating a fallen comrade when the unit came under a heavy volume of small arms and automatic weapons fire from a numerically superior enemy force occupying well-concealed emplacements in the surrounding jungle. During the ensuing fierce engagement, an enemy soldier managed to maneuver through the dense foliage to a position near the marines, and hurled a hand grenade into their midst which glanced off the chest of G/Sgt. Kellogg. Quick to act, he forced the grenade into the mud in which he was standing, threw himself over the lethal weapon and absorbed the full effects of its detonation with his body thereby preventing serious injury or possible death to several of his fellow marines. Although suffering multiple injuries to his chest and his right shoulder and arm, G/Sgt. Kellogg resolutely continued to direct the efforts of his men until all were able to maneuver to the relative safety of the company perimeter. By his heroic and decisive action in risking his life to save the lives of his comrades, G/Sgt. Kellogg reflected the highest credit upon himself and upheld the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service." 

Graduation!!

After 6 years I'll finally be graduating. I can hardly believe it.  I've dreamed about this since I started at HPU.  I actually would've been done earlier had I changed my degree plan earlier instead of waiting as long as I did.  I had originally gone into HPU studying for a computer science degree but then about 75% of the way through the program, I decided to change my major to web design thinking that I would still graduate on time since the courses were about the same.  Yeah...that didn't quite work out.  When I changed majors the school had decided to put the multimedia program as part of the communications dept. leaving me to have to back track about a year and half.  I tried speaking to my counselor to waive a couple of the lower divisions courses but she said that some of those classes were necessary to get a better understanding of the specific topics of communications. Ugh.. alright fine.  So now here I am 6 years later hoping to god that I passed all my classes so I don't have to come back.

Election Ballot Shortage

After this past general election there were many people who had gone to their respective polls just to find out that there were no more ballots to give out.  I couldn't believe this because all throughout the week before November 6th everyone was saying that everyday it's been really busy with voters coming in at all times of the day and the many absentee ballots coming in as well.  If they noticed that the voting lines were always long wouldn't they think that they should probably arrange to have more than the usual number of ballots available at each voting location?  I would think that would be the logical thing to do, but apparently no followed through with that task and now many people were unable to cast their vote.  I wonder, if those people had been able to vote would the results be different?  Though come to think of it, I think the only close-ish race was the Mayor's seat.  The Senate seat between Lingle and Hirono was a total land slide which I was completely surprised.  I thought that Lingle would've at least been close but I guess not.  Just goes to show how many people are loyal to Mazie Hirono.

Random Shooting sprees

I was watching the news last night and found out that yesterday there was another, what appeared to be, random shooting at a shopping mall in Portland,Oregon.  There was also word that there was a possibility that the shooter was coming to Hawaii for either school or vacation.  When they said that I instantly felt my blood run cold.  Where and why are these random shootings suddenly taking place? It seems as if it started after the Batman, the Dark Knight Rises premiere and it's just been gradually becoming more and more frequent.  I think the last case was an attempted shooting at a Twilight, Breaking Dawn part 2 premiere.  I'm worried that some people are taking the action scenes in movies too seriously and think that they can do the same thing without being held responsible.  If this keeps I'll be too afraid to be anywhere near a major public area like a park or mall or theater.

Hurrican Sandy

Hurricane Sandy ripped through the East coast early November.  According to the New York Times, Hurricane Sandy,  "killed more than 100 people, destroyed whole communities in coastal New York and New Jersey, left tens of thousands homeless, crippled mass transit, triggered paralyzing gas shortages, inflicted billions of dollars in infrastructure damage and cut power to more than 8 million homes, some of which remained dark for weeks." It was probably the worst time for hurricane to come through because of the elections coming up.  Though it was probably the best opportunity to get votes for the presidential election.  I guess the candidates thought it was either a make or break moment for them.  If they showed genuine concern of the people in the places hit the hardest then they would more than likely win their votes.