Cup-of-Cheer Returns!
Kohala Elementary staff posing for our first event of the year. Mahalo to Principal Hannah Loyola (second from left) for helping!
After a couple of years on hiatus, we are once again working with our original partners to bring back Cup-of-Cheer. The HIDOE complex area, Delta Kappa Gamma Rho Chapter, and Hōkūpaʻa are reunited with the intention to visit all 19 public schools in the Honokaʻa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area. Why? Every person at our schools serves an important role in creating a positive learning environment for students. We think they all deserve recognition and thanks.
Complex Area staff waiting to greet school staff bright and early at Paʻauilo School.
In the 2020-2021 school year, school personnel really needed support. We got together with some of the HIDOE complex area’s Social Emotional Wellness team and a service sorority for active and retired educators. The mission: try to uplift teachers, administrators, and staff by showing up and sharing a little bit of cheer in the form of drinks, sweets, swag, and encouraging messages. Throughout that year of changing campus safety procedures, we did our best to serve over 360 dedicated staff from Hoʻokena to Honokaʻa.
Rachelle Matsumura (Dept. of Education), Sandra Taosaka (Delta Kappa Gamma), and Fern White (Delta Kappa Gamma) at Kohala High’s Cup-of-Cheer.
We’d like to thank all our past and future friends for supporting Cup-of-Cheer events. It has been a lot of fun so far, and there are many more schools to go before classes let out next May!
This year, we are also working alongside local volunteers and sponsors for specific areas. For our first set of events in the Kohala Complex, we received lots of help from Partners in Development Foundation and Hawi Coffee Company. Mahalo nui!
Anyone interested in blessing a specific school can give gifts and appreciative notes to us to pass along to the staff. We also encourage readers to get creative and and get inspired — reach out to your local school and see what you can do to help! Or just do something kind for someone you know. Everyone could use a little bit of kindness.
Contact us if you’d like to donate or volunteer with future Cup-of-Cheer or other service projects!
Want to learn more about our partners?
Visit Delta Kappa Gamma’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dkg.rho.5
Visit Partners in Development Foundation’s website at https://pidf.org/
Visit the Department of Education’s complex area website at https://www.westhawaiicomplexarea.org/
