COURTESY CONTINENTAL AIRLINES
Dayna Chikamoto and Jeff Moken, Continental Airlines general manager, prepared books for shipment.
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Marshallese get books thanks to isle teen
Iolani junior Dayna Chikamoto gathered up 4,000 books
Dayna Chikamoto was saddened by the news that students in the Marshall Islands lacked learning materials.
She felt compelled to take action and managed to collect more than 4,000 books including fiction, readers, library books and textbooks.
"I called schools around the island at the end of the school year and asked if they could donate any books that they planned to discard," she said.
"I can't imagine not having books to learn about the world," said Dayna, a junior at Iolani School.
"These kids live on an isolated island atoll, they have an American education system, but no books. It's just not right."
Waialua Elementary, Waikiki Elementary, McKinley High, Roosevelt High, Iolani and Saint Louis were among the donors.
Continental Airlines agreed to offer space on its planes to send the books to Majuro, the capital of the Republic of Marshall Islands. More than 214 cases of books were shipped in mid-November.
Jeff Moken, Continental's general manager, praised Dayna's "thoughtfulness and generosity of spirit."
And Dayna doesn't plan to stop here. She will be rounding up more books in the near future. "I just hope I'm helping them get a better education by providing the books."