Rochan Pinho, shown with his father, Michael, was 10 when he raised thousands of dollars after 9/11 by selling buttons. Now he is starting again, selling a new line with patriotic designs to raise money for care packages for U.S. troops.
Hawaii boy devises
new button driveThe cancer patient plans to buy
goodies for soldiers in Iraq
Rochan Pinho is at it again.
The 13-year-old boy who raised $25,000 for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by selling homemade patriotic buttons is back at his button press, this time to support the troops.
This weekend, Pinho will sell his buttons to raise enough money to buy goodies to fill 100,000 care packages for troops in Iraq. Pinho has more than 1,000 buttons sporting 50 different patriotic designs. He expects to sell them all.
Pinho will set up shop tomorrow in front of Wal-Mart in Kunia from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at Queen's Surf Beach in Waikiki for Sunset on the Beach from 4 to 9 p.m.
It's been two years since Pinho sold his last button. That drive drew international attention and a trip to appear on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" in New York.
Since then, the soft-spoken boy from Kapolei with terminal brain and spine cancer has seen the start of two wars and has come to the conclusion that suffering is relative.
Pinho was diagnosed with cancer when he was 7 years old. He withstood 17 months of radiation and chemotherapy, and was completely paralyzed for a year. He's had 20 screws surgically implanted in his neck and spine to help him hold his head up. In August he'll undergo another operation to fuse portions of his spine together and to remove a few screws that came loose after the last surgery.
But all that is nothing compared with what the soldiers face in Iraq, he said.
"I know what it feels like to be in pain," he said, "but the troops are suffering more than I am."
Pinho kept his opinion on the Iraq war to himself and said that what matters most is not what he thinks, but rather how the soldiers feel.
"I have mixed feelings (about the war)," he said, "but the important thing is that the soldiers are suffering and dying."
Pinho's latest pins, like the first ones, are designed, printed and pressed by him. But this time around, he had to enlist the help of his parents and five siblings to reach his goal of making more than 1,000 buttons.
The family helped him come up with the slogans printed on the buttons, like "Aloha to our troops" and "Let peace follow our troops."
Pinho is undaunted by people who tell him that his goals are too ambitious. They told him that the last time, and he exceeded everyone's expectations. He said he has no reason to think things will turn out differently this time.
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Ribbon sales buy phone
time for GIs in Iraq
A group of women is finding that selling yellow magnetic car ribbons is a popular way to support their loved ones in the 411th Engineer Combat Battalion in Iraq.
But they need to sell more.
On June 18 they sold out 300 ribbons in two hours.
On Saturday, in time for Independence Day, they planned for the high demand and have more than 700 ribbons to sell -- from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in front of Wal-Mart in Mililani.
Members of the 411th Combat Battalion Family Support group are wives of deployed reservists and have been selling the popular magnetized ribbons since May and using the proceeds to purchase phone cards for Hawaii soldiers.
Member Laurie Naumu, whose husband, Spc. Michael Naumu, is in Baghdad, came up with the way for Hawaii soldiers deployed with the 411th to stay in touch with their loved ones back home.
So far, the group has raised enough money to purchase 130 phone cards.
There are 260 Hawaii soldiers deployed with the 411th. Naumu said the group wants to send at least one card for each soldier.
