KALOKO — Christmas, complete with Santa Claus, came to The Homes at Ulu Wini Saturday, when volunteers with the Kaloko Lions Club brought more than 200 gifts for the community’s youngest residents.
“I love what they do with this community,” Mark Talia, a resident at Ulu Wini, said of those who make events like Saturday possible. “We have a lot of cleanups, and I feel like they always try to give back to the community.”
More than 225 children live at Ulu Wini, a low-income rental and transitional housing complex, said Toni Symons, program director at Ulu Wini.
The effort to provide gifts for the youth of Ulu Wini, which Symons called the “Ulu Wini Ornament Project” kicked off in November, when youth decorated ornaments during an after-school program and listed items they might like for Christmas.
The Kaloko Lions Club, a branch of the Kailua-Kona Lions Club, then put the word out to the wider community, offering them the opportunity to buy gifts for the kids.
“So they were just tremendous,” Symons said of the Kaloko Lions Club.
In addition to the gift-giving, the event also invited Ulu Wini residents out for a barbecue lunch as well as pictures with Santa.
Kaloko Lions Club member and volunteer Diandra Dickinson said the response to their callout for support from the community came practically immediately. Every ornament, she said, was adopted within a matter of days.
“I think, especially here when we’re an island, we kind of realize we’re dependent on each other,” Dickinson said. “And they have that ohana mentality that we all kind of take care of each other.”
As a result, she said, people can connect to the mission, because they’ve either been there themselves or know somebody who has.
“People can relate,” she said, “and people want to help.”
The Lions Club’s event was one of several exciting events planned for the weekend, Symons said.
Saturday night, she said, members of the youth group at St. Michael the Archangel Church would be bringing dinner as well as new blankets for the children. And today, she said, representatives from Mercy Worldwide will be distributing toys to kids.
“When we have these activities — because everybody’s doing their own thing,” she said, “and everybody’s either trying to work, raise their children, get their kids to school, make it to the next paycheck, have food.”
“So I think when we have these activities,” she continued, “it really brings out our neighbors, and they get to know our neighbors.”
Ulu Wini, Symons said, is a “microcosm of our community,” referencing the diversity of residents who live in the neighborhood.
“This represents our community,” she said, “these are the people that live in our community as a whole.”
In addition to providing a present for every single child who made an ornament, Dickinson said, the organization also collected additional gifts for families who moved into Ulu Wini after planning kicked off in November.
And having an event like this where a child can look forward to receiving a gift, she said, can make a big difference.
“These kids are so excited, and I think it’s something that they will remember as they get older and pay it forward as they get older,” she said. “I think it’s something that they’ll definitely remember forever.”
Yoly Falcon, a resident at Ulu Wini, said the event meant a lot for the families, saying it’s a “dream come true” for many children given that not every family has the opportunity to buy Christmas gifts.
“So this means a lot to the kids. Just to get that one gift and to be part of an event means a lot to them,” she said. “To be part of something means a lot to them. It means like you bring the heaven down to them.”
Seeing her kids and other kids get excited and happy, she said, makes her happy as well.
Falcon said it also means a lot to see the staff of Ulu Wini supporting and hosting events like this for the community’s residents, saying it demonstrates that their dedication to the community is more than just a job for them.
“They care. They’re not just only staff that works here, but people that care — kind of like family,” she said. “They make things happen for our children here in the community.”
Wait til those smiling children get 13 units filled with homeless for the New Year!