There Are a Lot of Good People Out Here In Hawaii

After writing the previous post on Sarah Lunsford, I felt a need to say something good about people to provide some sense of balance.

Today, while driving to the local building supply store to pick up some materials for our church workday, I found the sidewalks and median strips crowded with volunteers collecting money for the Hawaii Food Bank. As people stopped for red lights, the volunteers would "shaka" and hold out poles with a net basket at the end as an encouragement for the people in the cars to toss out some money.

Most every driver of every car I saw gave a "shaka" and a smile back at the volunteers. I rolled down my window and dropped in a dollar. The guy in front of me emptied out a ziplock baggy filled with what looked like around $5 in change. The surprised volunteer watched as the weight dropped the end of his pole to the ground. Everyone laughed.

People in Hawaii are, in general, a fairly happy bunch of easy-going folks who are good neighbors and who have good hearts, willing to give to others when they see a need.

The Hawaii Food Bank is sort of a central collection agency for all donated food stuffs on Oahu. From their facility, groups such as the Salvation Army, River of Life Mission (which our church supports by leading worship and serving dinner), the Institute for Human Services (IHS) and other programs that provide food for the homeless and down-and-out, can take what they need and deposit any extra food that they may have collected on their own.

To Hawaii's credit, even the various food programs cooperate with one another, helping each other by sharing extra food when the other agency is running low.

After seeing all these happy volunteers giving up a perfectly good Saturday morning to raise funds for others, and after seeing the smiling faces of drivers,
happily dropping money into those baskets at the stop lights, I felt like I was seeing a glimpse of of the real Hawaiian paradise....and not just the one created for the tourists down in Waikiki.
How about you?