Approximately 775 families will get Christmas gifts this year thanks to those who supported Helping Hands Hawaii’s Adopt A Family program, either by fulfilling a family’s holiday wish list or by donating money to the Good Neighbor Fund.

Helping Hands partners with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and First Hawaiian Bank to run the annual Good Neighbor Fund campaign to help those struggling with poverty, homelessness and other challenges during the holiday season.

James Li, program manager for Helping Hands Hawaii’s Adopt A Family program, said that because of donors’ generosity, no adopted family will go empty-handed this year.

“We are very much on track to fulfill all the requests,” Li said. “We make it a point to make sure everybody gets something in some way if they are a part of the Adopt A Family program.”

About 400 donors participated in this year’s campaign. They included companies and community groups, so the number of individuals involved is probably higher, Li said.

In addition to “adopting” families in need, donors also contributed money to the Good Neighbor Fund or volunteered their time to help out.

“It’s always great to see this kind of community response in helping out folks that are in need,” said Li. “People are helping out in a more diverse way. Outside of just adopting a family, people have made monetary contributions, people have volunteered their time, or people have conducted drives external to our operation to benefit Adopt a Family.”

Tight timeline

Families in need began applying for the Adopt A Family program in October, and the first donations started arriving in November, he said. That left his team with about a month to get things squared away.

“It’s constant battling with time,” said Li, who got his start with the program by volunteering. “That’s one of the biggest challenges. And it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault; it’s just how the holiday timeline is structured and sort of the logistics involved in operating the program.”

Li says donors were willing to work with the program to get everything together relatively quickly so they could stay on track.

“A lot of wonderful things can happen,” he said. For example, this year, more donors wanted to take out the families for dinner.

The new normal

Until last year, an average of 500 families participated. In 2017, that number jumped to 800. The spike could be credited to the program’s increased outreach effort, but it could also be because more people are in need.

“It was a very unexpected jump, and it was a very huge jump,” said Li, describing it as “the new normal.”

“It definitely speaks to the need, but it’s also speaks to what the social service climate is during the holiday season. If you are in a place where you’re struggling financially or struggling with other difficulties in your life, during the holiday times that struggle is definitely amplified in some way because of the climate of people celebrating and gift-giving.”

Although the window to adopt a family for this holiday season has closed, donors can still give to the Good Neighbor Fund, which will use the funds to fulfill the needs of families who may not have been adopted.

HOW TO DONATE

Approximately 775 families are participating in Adopt A Family this year, and you can help by making a donation to the Good Neighbor Fund.

>> At the bank: Donations accepted at First Hawaiian Bank locations through Dec. 31.

>> Online: HelpingHands Hawaii.org and click on “donate now” button to make a gift via PayPal. Specify “Good Neighbor Fund.”

>> By mail: Send check payable to “Good Neighbor Fund” to Helping Hands Hawaii, 2100 N. Nimitz Highway, Honolulu, HI 96819. Attention: Good Neighbor Fund.

>> Donations of goods: Drop off at the address above.

>> Call: 440-3800