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By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Bank of Hawaii Scholars pitch in for underprivileged students,
unpacking and sorting donated school supplies yesterday at
McKinley High School. Left to right, they are April Abellana,
Kalina Kama, Ashley Reitfors and Vey Okutsu, and
employee Grace Asato.

Needy students get
donated supplies

Star-Bulletin staff

Education for some 25,000 needy Hawaii children got a boost yesterday with at least $86,000 in cash donations and some 150 boxes of rulers, pencils, pens, folders, binders, tablets and other items dropped off at McKinley High School.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a 1942 McKinley graduate, and wife Maggie served as honorary co-chairs of the Ready to Learn campaign. More than 20 businesses, organizations, state employees and the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association took part.

"I'm a graduate of the class of '42, and in those days there were no programs such as this," Inouye said. He recalled the 1942 commencement speaker was a uniformed Army colonel packing a .45 automatic.

"The graduates all had gas masks," Inouye said. "We had to carry that, and in my case I had a steel helmet." He was a Civil Defense volunteer. He estimated 70 percent of male classmates went into service, either as volunteers or draftees.

By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Members of the Honolulu Fire Department run a "bucket
brigade" to unload a vehicle full of donated supplies.

In a nostalgic aside, Inouye pointed out pockmarks from Pearl Harbor Day bullets on the school administration building. "They had a dogfight right above us," he said, and a few pits and scars remain.

Robert Lee, Hawaii Fire Fighters Association president, said all fire stations statewide served as collection points for the donations. Two large truckloads were collected on Oahu and brought to McKinley yesterday. Supplies collected on neighbor islands will be distributed on those islands, he said.

Aloha Airlines handed over a $36,000 check. Its employees raised funds through bake sales and other means, and the airline matched what employees raised.

"This program is run 100 percent by volunteers," said attorney Linda Takayama, program coordinator. It included volunteers from the University of Hawaii system, and Kamehameha Schools people will help out next week at the warehouse, she said. State Farm Insurance came through with donated supplies, Campbell Estate gave $15,000 cash, Hawaiian Electric $25,000 and First Hawaiian Bank $10,000, she said.

"There are many, too many, who are disadvantaged and underprivileged," said Paul LeMahieu, schools superintendent. "No child needs to feel like they're receiving a handout. It just comes to them as a matter of fact."

About 50 Bank of Hawaii Scholars, high school students mentored by bank staff, packed supplies into boxes and stacked them on wooden pallets. The National Guard later transported the goods to the Ready to Learn warehouse at 2100 N. Nimitz Highway for eventual distribution to students in time for fall.