SCOUTS' HONOR
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Holiday trip funds
sought for soldiers
Isle woman trying to bring guardsmen
home for Christmas
Ame Frey can't spend the holidays with her husband, a Kaneohe-based Marine on duty in Iraq. But she's made it possible for two Iraq-bound citizen soldiers who are training on the mainland to come home for Christmas.
And she's working to help 32 other members of Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Brigade -- headed to Iraq in January -- who also can't afford the holiday trip back to the islands from Texas, where they have been training for about three weeks.
Frey, a mother of two, said she started the effort last month after learning that Hawaii's citizen soldiers training at Fort Bliss before their Iraq deployment would be able to spend the holidays with family but had to buy the plane tickets back to the islands themselves.
She said she knew some of the soldiers wouldn't be able to afford the air fare.
"I have no idea who any of these families are," Frey said. "My heart just went out to them, and I felt like I needed to do something."
Frey started asking for donations to pay for the plane tickets, and spread the word about her project. She told her mother-in-law in Pennsylvania and her mother in Florida.
"I e-mailed Oprah Winfrey like 300 times," she said, with a laugh. "I was just basically trying to find some way to get these guys home."
She also contacted 29th Brigade members and their spouses in Hawaii to get a count of how many soldiers need help. So far, she's got 33 names on her list.
But she's sure more will come in.
"It's so important," she said. "There's no guarantee these guys are coming home (from Iraq). I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't try. I have to try."
The two tickets she's been able to get so far were both purchased with donated air miles.
Pearl City resident Hisao Yoshimura, 77, gave his 70,000 air miles -- the accumulation of 14 round trips to the West Coast -- to buy a ticket for a 19-year-old Waianae woman who had never been away from home.
"I was a soldier myself once," said Yoshimura, a World War II veteran.
The 19-year-old joined the National Guard to pay for college and was devastated that she wouldn't be able to spend the holidays with family, said her mother, who asked that their names be withheld for security reasons.
"The best feeling," Frey said, "was when I called this girl's family to say, 'Your girl's coming home' -- and to have them cry."
Another ticket was for a 44-year-old soldier whose family moved to Hawaii from American Samoa in July.
"My children kept asking me, 'Is Daddy coming home for Christmas?' What was I to say when I wasn't sure?" asked the soldier's wife, Poima, who declined to give her last name.
"I feel so fortunate that we're able to have him home. ... My children and I will have a great Christmas. But I feel for those who will not able to share the kind of joy we will."
Frey said she has set up a bank account for donations. To give to the fund, send a check to any Bank of Hawaii made out to the Home for the Holidays account.
For more information, call Frey at 235-6832.
Also, the Honolulu Community Concert Band will put on a benefit concert Nov. 7 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the McKinley High School auditorium. Admission is free, and donations can be made at the door. Go to the band's Web site, members. aol.com/hccb1, for more information.
