One of the main reasons Ilima Vega, a security guard, wants to become a police officer is to be a role model to her three daughters — to be someone who persevered through discouragement and setbacks to make something of herself.

Vega has put her dream on hold because she was too busy working and taking care of her kids earlier this year to complete the paperwork required by the Honolulu Police Department.

For now, she said, "I just wish that during the holidays I could make my children smile, that at least once a year they could get what they always wanted."

The Star-Advertiser’s annual Good Neighbor Fund is raising money to help people through the Adopt-A-Family program of Helping Hands Hawaii. Every Christmas, the program helps hundreds of needy people.

"I still live in Waianae," Vega said. "I still have contact with some of the kids I grew up with, and not all followed a good path. For them to see somebody make it and be a professional and also a single parent, I want to say, ‘Hey lookit, you can make it.’ You can still be a positive, productive person even with the environment I grew up in.

"I want to be a role model. I want my daughters to be able to say, ‘My mom’s a cop,’" Vega said. "I want my daughters to be independent and strong, not necessarily rely on other people to make it through."

Vega has been raising her daughters alone off and on during the past eight years, and also tries to help her aging parents, who are on disability pensions.

Two of her girls have had severe bouts of asthma and needed hospitalization in the past, so her guard goes up every time they come down with a cold.

Vegas said her daughters understand when she explains why she can’t buy them the toys they ask for. Her eldest daughter, 8, has even offered to go to work.

"She’s very, very responsible for her age," Vega said. "I tell her, ‘Don’t worry, be a kid!’ But she puts the world on her shoulders. She’s a good big sister."

Vega said she often has to decide, "Do I put gas in the car so I can go to work or food on the table?

"I do get them what I can, but it breaks my heart that on birthdays and holidays I cannot afford to take them to Chuck E. Cheese" or get them what they really want.

While other kids get electronic gadgets or new bikes, she has to get them clothes, Vega said. "I myself can do without during the holidays, but to see my children smile will be the biggest present I could ever get."

Her 8-year-old daughter loves to read, is a quick learner and a high achiever, so she could use some books and, if possible, an e-reader. Her 7-year-old is shy and not as gifted academically, she said.

"But when she plays soccer, she shines. She loves it," Vega said.

Her youngest daughter "does everything 3-year-olds aren’t supposed to do" and would like a tricycle, she said.

Recent donations