KEKAHA — Being thankful for being in existence has grown into a community tradition, said Mary Buza-Sims, principal of St. Theresa School in Kekaha. Coming on the heels of the Lawa‘i Cannery Garage Sale held to help fund an educational
KEKAHA — Being thankful for being in existence has grown into a community tradition, said Mary Buza-Sims, principal of St. Theresa School in Kekaha.
Coming on the heels of the Lawa‘i Cannery Garage Sale held to help fund an educational field trip to Washington, D.C., the school’s cafeteria staff was joined Monday by St. Theresa Church parishoners and other community volunteers in preparing Thanksgiving lunch for the community’s seniors, homebound and homeless people.
“This is our fourth year doing this,” Buza-Sims said. “We have more than 320 lunches scheduled to be served for our students, the seniors in the senior housing project, homebound seniors and homeless people at Waimea through Salt Pond.”
Buza-Sims said they also do Thanksgiving lunches for the Hawaiian school in Kekaha where they have the contract to supply lunches.
Students from St. Theresa School put the finishing touches on the meal with Thanksgiving cards, notes and handmade gifts.
“We were so thankful that we are still in existence, we wanted to do a little project for the community,” Buza-Sims said. “After some discussion, a teacher suggested doing a Thanksgiving lunch.”
Buza-Sims said the first year they did it, the project was handled by the school’s staff and students. After that, the senior citizens and other volunteers offered their services.
“We didn’t realize this little project would have so much impact,” Buza-Sims said. “During one year, we had eighth-grade students visiting houses on Elepaio Road. They were met by some seniors who started crying, saying they were so happy someone came to visit them.”
So the serving of Thanksgiving lunch has grown into a tradition: the students create the cards and notes which go into the lunches which are delivered by volunteers, one of whom is Martin Costales, a 1954 alumnus of St. Theresa School.
“Martin and Sophie Castro take the lunches for the homebound seniors,” Buza-Sims said. “Debbie Olores takes the meals to the senior project and makes stops at the Waimea River mouth and at the Salt Pond pavilion for the homeless.”
The effort is spearheaded by the school’s cafeteria staff of Angela Delos Reyes and Wilfred Prado, who started the preparation Sunday evening.
“We used to do everything on Monday morning, but it got too crazy,” Delos Reyes said. “We start Sunday night by cooking the turkey and getting things ready so the volunteers can put everything together Monday morning.”
Buza-Sims said Costco donated 10 turkeys for this effort. This is in addition to the four birds donated for the Lawa‘i Cannery Garage Sale.
“To see the young people learn such an important lesson like outreach and giving is so powerful,” Buza-Sims said. “I believe our students need to learn these types of lessons, and we try to give them that opportunity.”
She said during the recent Veterans Day, students paid $2 each to wear red, white or blue instead of their customary uniforms and the collection was given to a veterans charity.
“During October, the students had a day where they could wear pink,” Buza-Sims said. “They each paid a dollar and the money was turned over to a student’s family which is coping with a family member having cancer.”
Buza-Sims said these lessons are so important and she is gratified when former students come back to her and tell her how it made a difference in their lives.
