This Is What 120 Women Can Do!

By Margie VanSwearingen
Wednesday - April 27, 2011 Share

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By Margie VanSwearingen, President
Assistance League of Hawaii

This year Assistance League of Hawaii celebrates 40 years of providing comfort and care to the people of Hawaii. An all-volunteer nonprofit IRS 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to philanthropic programs and education, with special emphasis on children, women, aged, abused and needy, its motto is “Kokua with Aloha.”

A chapter of National Assistance League), ALH was started by women who felt they could apply AL’s “caring and commitment” here in Honolulu. Last year more than 10,000 people in the state benefited from their programs.

With no paid staff, this group of 120 volunteers managed to clothe more than 2,500 public schoolchildren; tutor readers in Hawaii schools; provide more than $8,000 in phone cards to deploying military; provide 5,000 teddy bears to emergency rooms and ambulances to comfort traumatized children; provide clothing and household items for the homeless and those in abuse shelters, and carry an endangered species conservation program to 4,600 fourth-graders on all major islands.

ALH members Elaine Stroka (left) and Pat Sanborn sort clothing as part of Operation School Bell. Photo courtesy Assistance League of Hawaii

The premier program for ALH is Operation School Bell, which provides new clothing for children in public schools. Schools are selected by the DOE Title I list (free and reduced lunch recipients), with the neediest schools contacted first.

The need is always urgent. Counselors provide a shopping list, volunteers shop and deliver the clothing, which the schools distribute according to need. This protects the privacy of the recipients.

Primary funding to do all this comes from ALH’s Thrift Shop at 1505 Young St. Grants, donations and fundraising events also help.

You can assist ALH by shopping at or donating to the thrift shop, or by sending monetary donations to Assistance League, 1505 Young St., Honolulu HI 96826, or becoming a volunteer member.

For more information, see hawaii.assistanceleague.org or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Hawaii charitable organizations may send requests for space in either Proof Positive or the free advertisement below to dchapman@midweek.com.