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Donations keep
‘aloha’ stickers alive

Question: About five years ago, we took my son's baseball team to Cooperstown, N.Y. You were kind enough to give me the address to obtain "Live Aloha" bumper stickers. This year, we are taking a volleyball team to Louisville, Ky., for the Junior Olympics, and I am once again asking your help in obtaining those stickers. Can you help again?

Answer: You can get "Live Aloha" bumper stickers simply by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Live Aloha, 165 Waokanaka Place, Honolulu 96817.

They are free, but donations are welcomed to cover the cost of printing. Checks can be made out to "Live Aloha." They are then given to the Hawaii Community Foundation to administer.

But even if you don't enclose a donation, you'll be able to receive a sticker (or more), said Robbie Alm, spokesman for the informal group -- with no official name -- behind the "Live Aloha" movement.

"We've been getting steady donations, and every time we do a reprint, there's money" enough to cover costs, he said.

Alm explained the origins of the grass-roots movement eight years ago ("Kokua Line," June 4, 1997): "A group of us thought people ought to take more personal responsibility" for making Hawaii a better place, he said, "agreeing to do certain things themselves with less reliance on government or outsiders."

Alm, a senior vice president of communications for Hawaiian Electric, also said back then that the group was made up of a variety of people "who don't share much in terms of political allegiances or anything else, but just sort of came together over this."

Since the stickers, imprinted with an ohia lehua blossom designed by Big Island artist/designer Sig Zane, were first offered nearly 10 years ago, they have had multiple reprintings. "We probably are well in access of 600,000 out now," Alm said last week.

A "tremendous" number of requests come from out of state, especially from people who have moved away from Hawaii, he said.

"They come back for a vacation and then see (a bumper sticker), track it down and say, 'We need to live aloha here in Montana or New Mexico or Iowa, and can you send me 20 for my church group?'" Alm said.

With the sticker comes a card explaining the "Live Aloha" philosophy and presenting 12 examples of "living aloha" -- simple acts of courtesy and caring to help make Hawaii a better place, such as holding the elevator door or picking up litter.

As in the book and movie, the idea is to "Pay It Forward" -- local style.

Mahalo

Belatedly to the young couple who called 911 and made sure this elderly lady was all right after I had an accident at King and Kaheka streets. Mahalo also to police Officer J. Rabago and his fellow officer for bringing me home, as well as to the paramedics who checked me out. May God reward them for their good deeds. I am fine now. -- Dolores N. Miyamoto

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