HECO department continues tradition of buying Christmas gifts for ‘adopted’ families
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Employees from Hawaiian Electric Co.’s Energy Delivery Transmission and Distribution Department bought gifts for families they chose through Helping Hands Hawaii’s Adopt A Family program. Russ Lapera, center, of Helping Hands Hawaii got help loading his truck Thursday from HECO employees Karen Yim, left, Dave Kaneko, John Shintaku and Virgil Kong.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
HECO employees Lori Tsujimura, left, and Kathleen Correira carried some big wrapped items Thursday for delivery to families on the Good Neighbor Fund list.
Employees of Hawaiian Electric Co. continued a tradition this year of buying Christmas gifts for families participating in Helping Hands Hawaii’s Adopt A Family program.
Staff at HECO’s Energy Delivery Transmission and Distribution Department, located at HECO’s baseyard on Ward Avenue, bought nearly 40 presents this year for several families based on wish lists the families provided. They bought presents for the two families they adopted and for another family or two chosen by another HECO department.
Jackie Nance, administrative assistant for the director of the department, was one of the primary coordinators for fulfilling the wish lists for HECO.
“I’ll gather the money and I’ll go shopping for all the items on the Christmas wish list,” Nance said. “It’s a lot of shopping.”
She said the presents would go to about 20 people.
Some gifts were donated, but Nance said many gave monetary donations, which she used to buy items on the wish lists.
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Karen Yim, a financial administrator who has worked at HECO for 32 years, said buying gifts is an important reminder to think about families less fortunate.
“We’re all so busy this time of the year, so it’s nice that we can actually think about this, really, as a chance to give back,” Yim said.
After buying the presents, they spent several hours on Tuesday wrapping them.
“We actually started at 10:30 (Tuesday morning) and didn’t finish until 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” Nance said.
Nance started working at HECO in August 2018, and soon learned of the department tradition to participate in the Adopt A Family program.
Yim has participated every year that the department has adopted a family, which she said was at least four years ago.
On Thursday morning, a driver from Helping Hands Hawaii arrived at the baseyard with a truck to pick up the gifts, which were stacked neatly in the department office as if on display.
After taking photos with the gifts, Nance, Yim and most of the others in the office began loading them onto the truck.
Nance said Helping Hands Hawaii will deliver the presents to the families.
Nance and Yim described their experience as volunteers in the Adopt A Family program as a pleasant one. Yim said it was “fun” trying to buy the right gifts.
“I honestly don’t mind giving my time to do the shopping for the Christmas wish list,” Nance said. “Sometimes in my free time I do the shopping as well.”
Nance said providing gifts is important, especially for children.
“At least it shows them that they weren’t forgotten and that somebody still realizes their need is special,” she said. “If you think about it, if somebody asks, ‘What is your most memorable Christmas present?’ It’s usually from their childhood.”
