Pictured: Admirers view the Angel Tree in JABSOM’s Main Lobby.
The Gold Humanism Honor Society has placed a Gratitude Tree in the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) medical school lobby, complete with paper and ribbons for you to decorate it by noting what you are grateful for this holiday season. And the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) MD student Family Medicine Interest Group and Hawaiʻi H.O.M.E. Project are sponsoring an Angel Tree, also in the Medical Education Building (MEB) Lobby, where you can help provide Christmas gifts for homeless keiki.
The Gold Humanism Honor Society Tree
“Please take a little study break, come by, enjoy the Christmas lights, write on an ornament and read about what our JABSOM ʻOhana is grateful for,” says MD senior Celina Hayashi of Maui, a Gold Humanism Honor Society member. It’s a stress breaker for sure to take a time out to just remember all the good things in our lives.
In light of your gratitude, Hayashi added, please consider giving to those who may not have as much through the Angel Tree Project across the lobby from the Humanism Tree and make a child’s wish come true!
The Angel Tree
The Angel Tree Project provides the children at the Onelauena and Onemalu Shelters in Kalaeloa, Paiʻolu Kaiaulu Shelter in Waiʻanae, IHS Women’s and Children’s Shelter, the Family Assessment Center in Kakaʻako, and the kids living at the Waiʻanae Boat Harbor encampment with Christmas gifts this holiday season. The volunteers also are supplying gifts for some of the kids to give their parents and are making goodie bags for unsheltered families (food, hygiene products, and emergency supplies like first-aid kits, flashlights, blankets, etc).
Please consider choosing one or more children to provide a gift for. Write your information on the slip attached to the ornament and drop it into the box located next to the tree.
The gifts should be new and worth around $20-$30. The unwrapped gifts should be returned to the 3rd floor lobby area outside OME/OSA/NHCOE by Wednesday, December 12.
If you are located at a site outside of Kaka’ako, you can contact Dr. Jill Omori and H.O.M.E. (The Homeless Outreach and Medical Education Project) can pick an ornament for you and also arrange to pick up your donation from you.
If you don’t have time to shop and would like to just donate money instead, the Angel Project is also accepting monetary donations and will take care of the shopping for you!! You can make a donation via check or Venmo (@Hawaii-HOMEProject). Checks can be made payable to: Hawaiʻi HOME Project. You can send monetary donations to:
Angel Tree Project
c/o Jill Omori
651 Ilalo Street, MEB-OME
Honolulu, HI 96813
The Angel Tree project volunteers are also collecting donations of wrapping paper (can be partially used), boxes, gift bags, ribbons, and tissue paper. These items can be dropped off to the bin near the security desk in the MEB lobby.