KAPA‘A — Six year-old Victoria Hill, aka Kai, an upcoming second-grader at Kapa‘a Elementary School, won first place in raising $1,653 to help kids with heart problems through the American Heart Association schools program.
In the process, she also raised funds for new playground equipment for her school.
Victoria’s mother, Rachel Secretario-Hill, expressed how she felt about her daughter winning and helping those in need.
“We are all so proud of our Kai,” Secretario-Hill said. “You deserve that medal for first place. It’s true: Be blessed so you can be a blessing to others.”
Secretario-Hill said all the elementary students at the school received packets from their teachers with Finn’s story and how the funds are used.
“It was a fun process,” Secretario-Hill said.”The heart association also provides an app to send thank yous and gives family health tips. This is a nationwide fundraiser that all of the schools around the nation can help support.”
After receiving a flyer with a compelling story on it, Hill was motivated to do something about it.
“On the back of the flyer there was a story about a child named Finn who had been in the hospital and had 14 heart surgeries before he turned 3 years old,” Secretario-Hill said. “Kai felt that wasn’t fair that kids have to be in the hospital, so helping is important. She started her short speech by saying that this is very important, and everyone needs to be a heart hero.”
Hill quickly began asking her family, family friends, and her place of worship, All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa‘a, which helped kick off her cause. Her parents’ company, Secretario Financial, LLC, and another company, Abbott Laboratories, and some other donations. The original goal was to raise $1,000, but she surpassed that with the help of others from around the nation.
“There is an app on the AHA (website) that gives a link to donate, and we uploaded it to my Facebook account,” Secretario-Hill said. “Kai and I do a cooking show, and it is our opportunity to use Facebook as a place to connect with family and friends from all over.”
According to Secretario-Hill, Heidi Tokuda, a teacher at Kapa‘a Elementary School, made a morning announcement at the school that Hill had won first place raising money for the AHA, and that she would be receiving a Heart Hero Medal.
“Her teacher, Ms. Simmons, told everyone to cheer for Kai. It was a special moment,” Secretario-Hill said. “I happened to be at the classroom, her grandma Vikki Secretario was substituting that day, and of course her aunty Tabitha Secretario teaching fourth grade heard it.”
To honor those who helped her, Hill created a “thank you” video on Facebook to share with her Kaua‘i, California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arkansas and Texas contributors.
Her biggest fans, grandparents Nelson and Vikki Secretario of Kapa‘a, are probably the most happy for her. “We are so proud of our granddaughter,” they said.
This article has been edited on June 1, at 9:15 a.m. for accuracy.
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Stephanie Shinno, education and business reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
