Bicycles lean into tables piled high with wrapping paper and ribbon. A dozen women laugh and chat as they cover packages with holiday paper. It’s the first of a three-day wrapping bonanza as members of the Child and Family Service
Bicycles lean into tables piled high with wrapping paper and ribbon. A dozen women laugh and chat as they cover packages with holiday paper.
It’s the first of a three-day wrapping bonanza as members of the Child and Family Service Guild systematically organize gifts. The Kaua‘i Guild is the volunteer arm of CFS.
For the holidays social workers made 250 paper ornaments with a brief description of a client: “David is 8 years-old and his parents are incarcerated. He lives with his aunt and her four children. David would like a soccer ball for Christmas.”
Children were given an alias and case number to protect their privacy and ornaments were distributed among Guild members and local organizations and businesses. These generous Kaua‘i residents purchase the requested gift and drop them off at the CFS office or one of the community outreach houses — Nana’s House in Waimea or Hale Ho‘omalu in Kapa‘a.
Wall to wall on the second floor of the Lihu’e Plantation building are bags overflowing with packages wrapped in red, green and gold paper.
“The rest of the year is not as sexy,” said co-founder of the Guild, Micki Evslin. “Christmas is great but we have the other 11 months of the year with people dying on the vine.”
Members of the Guild organize bi-monthly gift opportunities where the community can supply clients with necessities like diapers, food or monetary assistance year-round. The state’s largest and oldest human services agency, CFS offers programs ranging from guardianship and family preservation to ‘ohana caregiver support and tobacco cessation.
The Guild formed in 2006 when an O‘ahu Guild representative suggested Evslin, Carole Khan and Kathy Richardson begin one on Kaua‘i. The Guilda Girls (as they’ve come to be known) took up the torch with just under a dozen members to launch their first project, the holiday ornaments.
“We didn’t want to have meetings,” Khan said. “We wanted to have projects.”
Operated primarily through e-mail, a themed list is sent to members describing what CFS clients need. To simplify the process of gathering staples they apply a theme to each list: Welcome home baby; clippers and slippers; school supplies or toiletries. The list varies according to needs of clients.
Khan said when they began they approached friends and organizational affiliations for assistance. Since then the mailing list has grown from 10 to 250 with members supplying within the parameter of the theme. For instance when it was toiletries Khan encouraged donating hotel-sized shampoos and soaps.
“Homeless people don’t want a big bottle of shampoo,” Khan said.
Towels are another coveted toiletry item.
“The homeless have no way of keeping towels clean so we have members bring old towels that can be thrown away after use,” she said.
Always appreciated are donations of food, with greatest emphasis on cases of nutritious foods like chile or soups.
Before running out to buy food Khan suggests to “think homeless — they might have a can opener or stove but not much else. Think eat. We assume these people don’t have a refrigerator.”
“All people have to do is drop off a bag of diapers, a bag of rice or bedding and old towels,” Evslin added. “We’re trying to create a vehicle that makes it easy and stress-free to give.”
To join is simply to be on an e-mail list to receive the wish list and then to drop the requested items at Nana’s House in Waimea, Hale Ho‘omalu in Kapa‘a or CFS in Lihu‘e. The Guild holds meetings every other month.
“The informality is what works for us,” Evslin said. “You won’t be asked to chair a fundraiser. We don’t have Robert’s Rules of Orders and we don’t elect officers.”
This holiday season the Guild supplied multiple gifts for 250 children. On these three days in December members wrapped upward of 500 gifts.
“I’m overwhelmed by how the community has responded,” said CFS program administrator, Margaret Smith. “Every year we are impressed by the abundance we are able to gift our families across the island.”
What the Guild hopes to do in 2010 is double membership from 250 to 500.
The Guild’s primary focus is children. CFS helps children who are victims of abuse, living in foster care or residing with biological parents struggling with personal issues that place stress on the children.
“This is not just for any one person. It’s for the children,” Richardson said.
According to Smith the CFS budget was cut by 25 percent in July. Luckily it’s organizations like the Guild reaching into the community for staples CFS can pass on to clients, she said.
“All the Guild is trying to do is get community members in the habit of thinking of residents in need of assistance,” Evslin said. “We want people to have us on the top of their head and have a desire to help in their hearts.”
To join the Guild’s mailing list e-mail ckahn@hawaiian.net or micki@kukui.com.
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com.
