Question: I read about 11-year-old Mikela Mercier on the Big Island who found and returned $1,000, and I am so impressed with her honesty. I posted a blog saying I think we should have her address or get something set up so anyone who wanted to reward her could send $1. She would possibly end up with enough money to put toward her college education. Such a sweet, honest child deserves to be blessed. I live in upstate New York and my husband and I will be visiting Honolulu this month. Is there some way you can help me make something like this happen?

Answer: Mikela's act is a good example of the adage, “;Virtue is its own reward.”;

Mikela was with her parents, Terry and Jodi Mercier, at the Salvation Army thrift store in Kailua-Kona recently when she found $1,000 in a second-hand Richard Simmons exercise videotape.

Her immediate instinct was to turn the money in to store officials.

“;It's so nice and kind”; of people to want to acknowledge her daughter's honesty, Jodi Mercier said in a telephone interview from Kona.

But what Mikela really would like is for everyone “;to give to people who don't have a place to live or food to eat. ... She's very conscious of children who don't have enough food to eat,”; as well as the elderly struggling to make ends meet, Mercier said.

When Mikela earns money from yard work, she's always asking if she can contribute to the Food Bank, or the Salvation Army at Christmas time, she said.

The Mercier family is by no means wealthy, but “;we're lucky enough,”; she said. “;We're relatively well off compared to most people.”;

Mikela already has been recognized for her actions.

“;She was just thrilled to death when they took her picture at the Salvation Army,”; Mercier said. And when the little girl received a call from a Salvation Army official on Oahu, her reaction was “;my dream has come true,”; she said, chuckling.

Mikela also was recognized by her school, 'O 'Ehuinuikaimalino Hawaiian Immersion School.

“;The school was very sweet and everyone chipped in to give her a $20 gift certificate to Borders and there was a nice article in the paper,”; she said.

NMHC Who?

In Sunday's Kokua Line, someone complained about receiving an automatic telephone call from “;NMHC,”; saying it appeared to have come from the National Multi Housing Council. However, a Kokua Line reader points out that, if you are a state employee or retiree, the call very likely came from the mail-order pharmacy, National Medical Health Card Systems.

The state Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund contracted with NMHC to provide its beneficiaries with pharmacy services beginning in July 2007.

Mahalo

To both the kind-hearted lifeguard at Ala Moana Beach Park, as well as a concerned lady, who, along with my husband and myself, helped move four tiny ducklings from the parking area to the water on Nov. 1. Although the ducklings' fate is unknown, we could only hope that they found their mom. - Diane Hollinger