Family Assistance in Hawaii

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Interview Transcription

ATTILIO: 
You know, the we were we were we were trying to get a hold of Miko and stuff like that. So he got caught up in some things. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna plan B it and talk about the Laulima giving project because until he can come on until he comes on and if not, we’ve we’ve been involved with the project long enough to like we know what the project is about and what is you know, there’s those people that have that have programs that take care of them. And there’s these people that they need help. They don’t qualify for those programs. They’re like

ADRIENNE: 
in that gap in that Yeah, that’s it’s very easy to get in that gap, especially Hawaii with milk costing like $12 a gallon.

ATTILIO: 
I think it’s Yeah, I think you’d be cheaper drinking gas. Yes, it’d be cheaper to drink, it wouldn’t be too healthy, you wouldn’t live too long to drink gasoline and milk.

ADRIENNE: 
So yeah, it’s easy to be in that gap here in Hawaii. Even if you have like multiple jobs and multiple income workers in the, in the household.

ATTILIO: 
So you know, first of all, go to the you can go to our website, and you can check out the, you know, place the things that we support on our website, just Google Teamlally.com. But it’s the Laulima givingprogram.org And they got all kinds of programs, you know, they have a quote over here we love when love is given love naturally flows back in return in Hawaiian, Aloha, my no Aloha, aku Ha, who may Allah or lay I, when love is given love naturally flows back in return. So they got back to school program.

ADRIENNE: 
You know, if your programs throughout the year, I mean, especially right now, you know, before Christmas, I know that that’s always top of mind, but they have things running throughout the year,

ATTILIO: 
the story of how we came across this was because do we adopt a family? Or was it?

ADRIENNE: 
I don’t remember how we came across one then. No, I mean, I know that Michael wall we know him from, from the radios the radio world. Yeah. And then he moved over to Lolly, and we’re giving project and you know, we were just very open. And we’re, we’re passionate about how passionate he is about this program.

ATTILIO: 
Well, and you know, there’s there we get it, this time of the year you’re getting the envelopes, you know, you get the envelope with a penny in or the dime in it, hey, get back in the stamps, and the greeting cards and you just getting hammered from all kinds of different directions. And I will tell you that, you know, it just picks something I would say a lot of times we got a Mother Teresa, one of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa said is everybody’s swept their front porch, we’d have a cleaner world, which with the point of that is that, you know, giving back and being altruistic starts in our own communities, when we’re when we’re not that you don’t send money to faraway places where they might have a greater need. But it starts with our community. And what we like about this is that the money stays in our community and helps the people in our community and and when it’s helpful for everybody that everybody’s more productive. And then you know, we as a community can give back to those other countries. So it’s all trickle down, and all interconnected. But what else do you know about the Laulima Giving Program? Adrian?

ADRIENNE: 
Well, there’s, there’s, there’s there’s stories, and like that’s one of the things that I find is the most like it just creates that connection, because there’s stories about the families, the kids and just you understand a little bit more about who they are and who you’re helping.

ATTILIO: 
Here’s the thing on their site as a nonprofit loneliness depends solely upon kind, the kind and generous donations from the local business communities it receives no other type of funding. You know, I want to you know, we the what is the most popular radio station on the planet Adrian with Wi Fi FM which stands for what’s in it for me, what’s in it for me, I thought he was like doing a sniff test or something like wiffle? No, it stands for what’s in it for me and he we know human nature, no matter how giving WE ARE WE reciprocate, and we want to get something back in return. And speaking of someone that knows even more about the Laulima grieving program, who’s that Adrian?

ADRIENNE: 
Well, that would be Michael Wong, and I just want to do a quick little intro on him. So he was an educator coach and athletic director advertising sales and now working for a local Christian native Hawaiian nonprofit profit organization. He is currently the Business Development Manager for the Laulima giving program. One of the many programs managed by KK O’Connor family learning centers, thank you okay. Yes, welcome, Michael.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. Welcome Mike.

MICHAEL: 
You’re welcome. Well, thank you so much. What a great what a great introduction. I feel honored I want to meet this person. Hey, you know last

ATTILIO: 
day when you go brush your teeth in the mirror you meet him every morning so so talk about this program we you know, before you came on we were talking about you know, we’ve been involved with you guys for you know, a while now not just like yesterday, so much Mahalo. So we have our perceptions of it. And we feel that we, you know, we talked about it, but I want to, you know, what’s the main mission of the Laulima Giving Program?

MICHAEL: 
The main the main mission is to help people who are struggling you know, as we look around and, and our environment here, we’re always find that there’s people who struggle through things that happen in their life that didn’t plan for disease, accidents, spousal abuse, single parenting, loss of employment due to COVID and There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of need out there. And we’re so blessed to have people like you. People like 70 live in Hawaii to listen, different businesses come and just say, You know what I want to help. And so it’s been an amazing experience to watch the generosity of the local communities to help people that they may not even meet. In fact, this morning, I just came from my school, my my, every year, they have a lovely Laulima program assembly, and the Children’s from kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade. They bring they share and I just we just loaded two vans filled with a bag filled with toys, toiletries, wonderful thing. So yes, the community comes together. It’s such a powerful and Diane,

ATTILIO: 
think about it, Michael, what are these kids learning at an early age in the formative years?

MICHAEL: 
Exactly. To get exactly that it’s a blessing to give. Yes.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And they appreciate what you’re being taught. You know, the other thing I was gonna you know, I go ahead, I was gonna say the, the, I do want to give a big shout out to 711 because I saw how big the cheque was literally in size and in number. It was a really large phone check. And were you able to take that into the bank? And did they cash it? Anyway, the

MICHAEL: 
day they transferred it in about two days, all of a sudden, from their bank to our bank, boom,

ATTILIO: 
boom. And so you people out there, you’re like, even if you want Scrooge in your life, give back you know, when you go 711 You’re giving back get the deluxe Spam musubi you thinking like, I just wanna get the cheaper spam OCD get the Deluxe, because they’re gonna take that profit. That’s right. That’s exactly.

ADRIENNE: 
So Michael, with, with Christmas approaching very soon. What is the deadline to get gifts in or money? Like, how, how soon will we need to get five? Yes, in order for the families to be able to benefit in time for Christmas.

MICHAEL: 
The easiest way our adoptive family campaign wraps up this Thursday. And so people can easic that right now all of our families who have been we’ve adopted and adopted have all been adopted as a rural blessed for that. And so people have brought their present nice families. And that’s, yeah, that’s that’s already going on right now. It ends on Thursday, this Thursday at three o’clock, you can always donate to our program because you as you know, people struggled throughout the year, not just Christmas. If you go to our website, Laulima giving program.org/donate You can definitely go through and donate there and receive a tax receipt for your donation. So grateful, lots of needs, and so many generous people,

ATTILIO: 
and I see the buttons $20 $40 $100 You know, all of those buttons added up. 2040 100 That’s $160 that’s what you spent to go to the movies with a refillable popcorn, the sodas and all of that, skip one of those times, do something good for your house, give back to the community and donate hit the hit. I hit the don’t hit the other button. Make it 200

MICHAEL: 
You know what, you know, we’ve you know, Laulima means bringing many hands together to bless others. Yes. And so a $10 or $20 whatever you can support we always are blessed to be able to bless other people who have many times when we when we go to them and share what we can with them they cry. They think I had no idea because you know local style is am okay. On I need help I’m I’ll make it through, it’ll be alright. But when they receive the goodness and the grace of people that they have never met before, I’m about to go down right now to a attorney’s office to pick up they had already donated to a family. And they called me they said we’d like to donate 500 more dollars. And I said I’m on my way. Yes.

ATTILIO: 
Nice. Yeah. And you know, and here’s the deal with it. It’s for the business people out there. You know, I think you have an obligation that is the more successful your businesses that I personally believe in I know Adrian does it you have an obligation to give back to your community because it’s the community that that allowed you that they voted for you with their dollars of spending on your product or service allowed to you to be there and so you got to get back in but putting that aside just from the marketing standpoint is called giving with the giving with the purpose and or or what they call beneficial I forgot what it was benefit or benefit marketing this term was coined by marketing the TOMS Shoes people and Adrian what’s the TOMS Shoes thing

ADRIENNE: 
is if you buy a pair of shoes from toms and they will donate a pair of shoes to someone in need

ATTILIO: 
to someone in need and because they have that for you know or just remember think of the you play yogurt with the pink lids. What was that for? That was for breast candles for breast cancer and those marketing things just really focus people’s attention because Here’s what they know, in the studies when consumers take a look at two businesses, products or services, side by side. And they there’s no discernible difference from the consumer standpoint. Adrian, which is the one they pick 98% of the time,

ADRIENNE: 
the one that’s giving back to the community. BINGO, BINGO, BINGO. Yes. So give back to the Laulima. Giving Program, go to their website and donate now.

ATTILIO: 
Donate now. Donate it on your social media. Yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
And I’m glad that Michael mentioned right before the tax year and get your tax write off and donate. Yeah, do something good.

ATTILIO: 
We have the state of Hawaii and Uncle Sam but this give some

MICHAEL: 
I cannot I cannot tell you how many people said that to me. I rather give to somebody in need and to Uncle Sam eyes. But wait, I’m not going to write him down down.

ADRIENNE: 
for that. We also feel the same way to where I are on the

ATTILIO:
show. We know Willie Nelson or Wesley Snipes. You know, we’re not like, hey, we ain’t paying no taxes. No, we paid just the right.

ADRIENNE:
So Michael, earlier, while we’re waiting for you to come on, we were mentioning that we did it. We felt like some one of the differences that that alone Lima program has is the stories that you guys provide different stories from the children and the families and that like creates a digital connection. So maybe you could share a story or two with our listeners? Yes,

MICHAEL: 
of course, of course. And if you want to see more of the vignettes that our media partner K Joanne does, if you go to K H O N, the number 2k, two and two.com/laulima, you’ll see some of the vignettes that Kathy menino has produced for us letting the whole state know of of situations that are going on right now. And people as they struggle, most of the times you’ll find people who are struggling with a loss of hope, they’ve given up the COVID situation has just discouraged them to the to the nth degree. And they don’t know what to do they lose a job. They cannot work. They can’t make make their ends meet. And these are people who are conscientious people, they take care of their family. And so because of that, we’ve been able to help and read about so many people who have gone through very tough times. And all they want made them all is it can I just have a present for my child? Yeah, can I just have some socks and some slippers or some blankets for my kupuna those kinds of things touch our hearts as you know, when we collect donations, we don’t ask for iPads or iPhones or anything like that. We want people that, that things that people really need and as you know, toys for the kids, obviously. In fact, next week, I’m going to go to the Kahala Hotel and Resort. They have given us to staycations to add our telephone that we got to sell and so like what we did with with your donation of the cruise last year, thank you so much for them. And also your cash donation to thank you to both of you. Give them another five.

ADRIENNE: 
Yes.

ATTILIO: 
Give you guys another cruise another

ADRIENNE: 
cruise.

MICHAEL: 
You get a cruise

ATTILIO: 
cruise, we’re gonna this donation drive.

MICHAEL: 
And so they’re gonna give us 75 presidents that they collected internally. Nice Yoli Barbara and his team they’re just saw kind of to our program that we’re so blessed.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And the thing to keep in mind too, is that you guys do this program all year long. This is not a holiday thing and people all year long. You need help all year long. So let’s not forget and yes they

ADRIENNE: 
do, Michael, like what time of year is there the most need? Because I know like this time of year is kind of Top of Mind. And then throughout the rest of the year people aren’t not necessarily thinking about it. Yeah. So when is it like the most that you guys need?

MICHAEL: 
You know, that’s? That’s a good question. Depending on like, for example, the summer months of June and July we’re at the local Walmart’s asking shoppers to help with school supplies donations, because that’s top of mind for the students coming up. And when we can our executive director feels that if the students don’t have the correct supplies, they’re not they can’t be successful. Yeah, so our job is to help them and also the teachers who many times reach for their own wallets, if the school is not able to purchase and so they want to take care of the kids and so we do that. And then we found that that during the Christmas season tends to be a time when people really notice it. You know, some people have said to us, we didn’t know we were four because we just thought this is how it was

ATTILIO: 
and yeah I always thought that our kids weren’t eating pancakes at the end of the month and Simon was just something we celebrated in my house

MICHAEL: 
it’s at the end of that paycheck month right you’re thinking oh why is this rice show you and ketchup Wow, that sounds great. Yeah, you know hey, there my friend

ATTILIO: 
Welcome to show you kind of watery. We stretch you know that you know and it people can relate to that story. You know people are more we are you know we call it having more month than money. We You know that feeling? I personally felt it too. Yeah. Yeah, we got about two minutes left on the show. Is there anything that you want to share? Any final thing that you want to share with our listener?

MICHAEL: 
Well, we we we just would like to ask people to go to our website we had redone. Yeah, this website is colorful, it’s got new. We had a new person come on board. Her name is Mila. Yeah. And she has just taken this, this task on with pictures, videos. And so Laulima day, which is the third the telethon, which was the follow on the fix a lot of opportunities to give, but you know, we just reach out and ask people if, if they if they can, we have people who will match them? Yeah. So it doubles their donation. And so we’re just so if we just want to stay top of mind to remind the people that there’s people out there who are hurting. There’s Katie out there who are suffering. And if we can help them, you know that that’s what we’ll do. And thanks to people like Team Lally. Just been so kind to us. Thank you so much.

ATTILIO: 
Feels good to give it guys. All right. Yeah. Well, thank you.

ADRIENNE: 
Thank you, Michael, for for coming back on the show.

ATTILIO: 
to have you back again.

MICHAEL: 
My pleasure. My pleasure. You guys are the best. If I didn’t love my job. I’d want to be a Realtor with you.

ADRIENNE: 
That’s a five star review. Right. Yeah. And you know what we are hiring. So thank you for mentioning that. Thanks, Michael. Thank

ATTILIO: 
you, Michael.

MICHAEL: 
All right. God bless you. Merry Christmas.

ADRIENNE: 
Merry Christmas.

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