HONOLULU — Helping Hands Hawai‘i and American Savings Bank are partnering for the eighth year to help Hawai‘i’s keiki prepare for school through the Ready to Learn program.
From June 13 to July 15, monetary gifts and donations of school supplies will be accepted at all ASB locations that will support children from low-income and houseless families.
“Our Ready To Learn program has a tradition of supporting the community, and provides kids with free educational kits containing essential school supplies each fall,” said HHH President and CEO Susan Furuta.
“And we couldn’t provide this assistance without business partners like ASB, which are invested in the well-being of keiki throughout the state.”
“We are delighted to continue our ongoing partnership with Helping Hands Hawai‘i to cultivate and prepare students for the future and provide them with supplies and resources to be successful in school,” said Ann Teranishi, president and chief executive officer of ASB.
“We invite the community to join us in improving education for local students by making a donation at any of our locations across the state.”
Donations received through this partnership supplement pre-ordered inventory purchased with donated and grant-awarded funds for students from kindergarten to 12th grade.
The school supply kits contain an array of the most common items found on the state Department of Education’s back-to-school lists. Each kit is valued at approximately $30, and the goal is to distribute 1,000 kits to students.
The items needed to assemble school supply kits are backpacks, erasers, markers of assorted colors, black and blue ballpoint pens, face masks, colored pencils, wide-ruled composition books, folder papers, No. 2 pencils, 24-count crayon packs, four-ounce glue bottles, black permanent markers, dry erase markers, hand sanitizer, two-pocket portfolios, earbuds with microphones, yellow highlighters and USB flash drives.
