Based on that definition, kina‘ole is reflected in abundance in the 57 individuals and organizations being recognized today during a ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Director’s Community Leadership Awards (DCLA) honor those who are meeting a need, answering a call to serve, and working to make communities safer and stronger.

“You’ve identified some of the toughest problems that are out there,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told the awardees, who gathered with friends, coworkers, and family to be honored by the FBI community. “And you haven’t waited for someone else to fix them.”

That is exactly what happened with Bags of Love, Inc., a non-profit based in Eugene, Oregon, that began when founder Di Barrong learned from a foster parent that children often enter the system with nothing—sometimes not even a toothbrush or a change of clothes. As Wray said, she didn’t wait for someone else to solve the problem. In 2008, she started bundling gently used children’s clothing in homemade bags in a bedroom of her home.

The effort has grown to serve more and more children every year. With a skeleton staff but an army of volunteers and a deep well of community support, the organization provided 2,200 homemade bags filled with toys, a blanket or quilt, books, clothes, school supplies, toiletries, and other necessities to children in poverty or crisis in 2018. “We are about to make our fourth move to a bigger warehouse,” said Executive Director Becky Stenzel, who accepted the award on behalf of the group.

She said much of the organization’s growth comes from better awareness among local agencies about the services they provide. Bags of Love also works with the FBI in connection with investigations that involve children who will need to be moved into temporary care.

In the Boston area, Deeqo Jibril also didn’t hesitate to step up and step outside the roles traditional to Somali women to help her neighbors. Jibril created the Somali Community and Cultural Association to encircle new Somali immigrants with programs that support both community integration and cultural preservation.