Hawaiian Hope is one of the proud sponsors of the 2012 Hawai’i Children and Youth Day, coming up on Sunday October 7th. Last year had an incredible 40,000+ people with over 300 vendor booths, activities, entertainment and rides all FREE for kids. Check out the website!

This year a new event has been added for children to get up and get involved! (Put down the Nintendo, Game boy, PS3, etc. and get some sunlight.) Hawai’i Children and Youth Day now includes a “Fun Run” for kids 17 and younger and is a 1k and 3k run around Kaka’ako park. Visit the Children and Youth Day website to see the Fun Run info and get involved.

Hawaiian Hope is proud to sponsor Hawai’i Children and Youth Day because we believe it embodies all of the positive qualities that we seek in our community. While many people know that one of Hawaiian Hope’s core objectives is to work with and serve the homeless in Hawai’i, people may wonder why we are so interested in sponsoring an event centered around children. It’s really quite simple : “An ounce of prevention is worth ten pounds of cure.” In the long term, building a strong ‘Ohana is one of the best methods of homeless prevention.

Hawai’i Children and Youth Day brings together family to spend a good quality day together in a safe environment. With free activities for families and children, it shows that fun and quality time does not mean spending a lot of money.

The event is an opportunity for families to meet hundreds of organizations in the community that feel just as passionate about helping children achieve the most out of life they can. With important interactive and educational displays such as HPD, it gives parents and children the opportunity to see and talk about making responsible choices, about dangerous drugs and the fallout that can lead to disastrous consequences in life.

Through this event it is also an opportunity for parents, teens and children to find resources that are available to them to help them through difficult, struggling and stressful situations, and hopefully tells a very clear message that – “you are not alone!”

And finally, with some of the interactive activities children may get a taste of the type of careers they would like to pursue in life, like Robotics with the “BrushBot” Workshop, or maybe being a performer like “Brown Bags to Stardom.”

All of these activities, events and resources are designed to bring together and build on the strength of the family and the community, Helping to build One Strong ‘Ohana.

For these and many other reasons, Hawaiian Hope is proud to sponsor this fantastic event and plans to be a sponsor for many years to come. Please join us on Sunday October 7th in Celebrating Hawai’i’s Children and Youth!

About the author: Curtis Kropar is a longtime Honolulu resident and Executive Director of Hawaiian Hope. For more information regarding Hawaiian Hope, the services we offer and and how you can get involved to help, please visit our website at www.HawaiianHope.org. As part of our sponsorship, Hawaiian Hope designed the www.HawaiiCYD.org website and is hosting it on our servers.

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