KAPA‘A — On Tuesday, Kapa‘a resident and parent Chantel Hammond distributed school supplies to 12 kids in need while teaching her own daughter the importance of giving back.
Hammond is no stranger to charity. For the past year, she’s been giving to an organization that benefits orphanages in Uganda. But, after shopping for school supplies for her two children, she decided to redirect some of that money toward people she could help within her own community.
So, she decided to buy school supplies for one family on the island. At the end of the little campaign, 12 students — from grades kindergarten through 12th — were able to get supplies for the upcoming school year.
“I realized how expensive (school supplies) are and how a lot of families were struggling right now with the whole pandemic,” said Hammond, explaining she put out a message on social media to see if anyone else was interested in a local school supply drive. “I got a ton of people who wanted to help.”
Hammond credits her cousin Brooke Hammond and her friend Kai Motooka with helping her get the supplies by shopping for them at Kaua‘i stores.
“Due to unemployment from COVID-19, money has been an issue for a lot of parents out there,” said Brooke Hammond. “So it really felt good that we were able to help families out…giving them one less thing to worry about.”
During the whole process, Chantel Hammond took her daughter, Eliana Pacheco, along for the ride.
“It’s good for people to give back because not everyone is in the same situation,” said Pacheco. “My mom taught me to always give back and always have compassion for people.”
Hammond said out of respect for the families she could only disclose that the distribution of the supplies was coordinated with the families directly in designated locations.
“I already gave it out to some of the families,” said Hammond.
Hammond said she met with three families on Tuesday who and had different circumstances and hardships.
“One (family) just got three foster kids that needed supplies and another is a single mom with four kids,” said Hammond. “She’s unemployed and was having a hard time and school supplies are so expensive.”
Hammond is excited about the outcome of support the community has shown for her and now she feels more confident about how to do it next time.
“Now I know what to do,” said Hammond. “It was a struggle this first time, I got confused with the back to school lists and not having enough supplies available at the stores. At least now I know to do it earlier.”
Hammond continued: “I just wanted to share how important it is especially at this time to help each other. You never know how you can change someone’s life and put them in a better situation.”
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Stephanie Shinno, features and community reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
And if we wanted to help Ms Hammond out how can we get a hold of her? I call people like her agents of the universe. Good work, Ms Hammond!