3 nonprofits benefit from bank’s fundraiser

Bank of Hawaii’s 11th annual Live Kokua Community Walk on Saturday raised $110,320 to benefit three nonprofit organizations: Hawaii Literacy, Kids Hurt Too Hawaii and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii. The missions of the nonprofits center around education, youth and environment initiatives. This year’s focus is on local, small nonprofit organizations that serve Hawaii communities.

The bank’s employees selected the walk’s beneficiaries through online voting. Hawaii Literacy provides books, mentors, literacy promotion and skills needed to break cycles of poverty and undereducation in Hawaii. Kids Hurt Too Hawaii provides peer support groups, mentoring programs, education, training, workshops and crisis management services for grieving and traumatized children, teens and their parents. Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii inspires local communities to care for their coastlines through fun, hands-on beach cleanups, educational programs and public-awareness campaigns.

Bank of Hawaii’s annual community walk supports nonprofits unable to conduct their own fundraising walks. From 2007 to 2016, Bank of Hawaii employees raised approximately $1.4 million through its community walk, benefiting 94 organizations.

The Bank of Hawaii Live Kokua Giving Campaign is just one of many community efforts in which Bank of Hawaii participates throughout the year. In 2016 more than 2,500 volunteers donated more than 12,000 hours of their time to 244 community-service projects.