Students at Hawaii Baptist Academy blasted past their fundraising goal and collected a record $12,717.14 to support Ho‘ola na Pua, which works to prevent sexual exploitation of minors and help them recover.

“We were shooting for about $5,000, but we raised way more than that,” said Megan Yamauchi, a junior who co-chaired the National Honor Society fundraising committee with classmate Maia Kawelo.

“A lot of people in Hawaii don’t realize that we have sex trafficking here,” Yamauchi said. “They think it happens in Third World countries, in other places. I think by choosing this organization, we got to tell our students that it does happen here and get them motivated to donate.”

The bulk of the funds came during Spirit Week, when each grade competed to see who could raise the most. Donations ranged from leftover coins to checks worth hundreds of dollars, with the average around $20. There are 662 students in grades seven through 12 at the school in Nuuanu.

The previous record for a Spirit Week fundraiser was more than $9,000, according to Lynne Nakano, National Honor Society adviser. In recent years HBA students had raised money for other organizations fighting child trafficking, including Zoe International and the International Justice Mission.

“We wanted to support Ho‘ola na Pua this year because it’s a local organization,” Kawelo said. “We could actually see where the money was going and help give back to our communities. This is actually the most that we’ve ever raised for Spirit Week. That was exciting for us personally.”

The fundraising committee also included sophomores Kasen Wong, Katelyn Higashiya and Marcus Mau.

Tammy Bitanga, community outreach coordinator for Ho‘ola na Pua, said Hawaii Baptist Academy’s donation is the largest her organization has received from an individual school.

“It shows the students’ hearts and that they want to make a change in their community,” she said. “And we really appreciate that.”