‘Tis the season for Christmas to come early to one greatly fortunate Hawaii nonprofit organization, as Ad 2 Honolulu has issued its call for applications for its next Public Service Campaign.

Campaigns have historically been valued at around $1 million worth of marketing, public relations efforts, creative executions and advertising on television and radio, in print and in interactive and outdoor media. Ad 2 also has a track record of national awards for its work.

Community Helping Schools was its most recent client, and founder Kathie Wells gets effusive talking about all that Ad 2 Honolulu has done for the small, grass-roots nonprofit.

"Exceed my expectations? There’s gotta be a stronger word than that," Wells said.

Community Helping Schools accepts donations of school supplies and matches them with schools in need, asking only that the school acknowledge the donor with a thank-you note, preferably written by a student.

Radio public service announcements were scripted from the notes and can be heard, and the TV PSA viewed, on Community Helping Schools’ website.

A simple step by Ad 2 "dramatically increased the amount of volunteer help we have," and the number of schools it serves has grown to 69 from 31, she said.

The nutshell statement crafted to describe the organization is simple but profound, and she recited it reverently: "It takes a pencil to write a story, a book to open minds, a small donation to make a difference."

Wells and her crew formed close bonds with Ad 2 members. "I love them," she said. "Ad 2 absolutely energized this organization to burst forth and grow," but beyond that, "the real importance is what they’ve done for Hawaii’s children."

Interested nonprofits can download the application form online or via Nez Calaro at nezcalaro@gmail.com. The application deadline is July 31.

A gala in memoriam

There was a time you couldn’t pick up a newspaper without reading his name.

J.W.A. "Doc" Buyers was a pre-eminent mover and shaker in Hawaii business, though he was not descended from bewhiskered British gents who arrived on our shores to engage in commerce, nor was he the child of missionaries.

Still, he moved among contemporaries who did have such old-line island roots as their equal and ushered a former Big Five Hawaii company into the modern, post-sugar era by diversifying C. Brewer & Co.’s agricultural interests.

Despite the multiple initials in his name, he was not a traditionally named Chinese businessman, but a Caucasian preacher’s kid from Pennsylvania, raised during the Great Depression.

It was in Pennsylvania that Buyers died in 2006 after battling bladder cancer, dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, and it is in his memory that the Alzheimer’s Association Aloha Chapter will host a gala fundraising dinner July 10 at Hilton Hawaiian Village. Individual tickets are $175 and can be bought online.

Buyers and his daughters established an endowment at the Hawaii Community Foundation to support certain causes, and the first will be a matching grant of $50,000 to launch a fund drive for the Alzheimer’s Association Aloha Chapter.

The gala coincides with the start of the 2010 International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Honolulu July 10 through 15.

Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Advertiser. Reach her by e-mail at erika@staradvertiser.com.