
SYL helps Aloha United Way Book Packing Day
Our SYL members spent their Saturday morning sorting and packing over 5,000 books. In total, 9,200 books will be distributed to over 20 nonprofits throughout Oahu in support of literacy. These books were donated by the generous employees and customers of Barnes & Noble. Many of the books brought us back to memory lane. Some of our favorites as keiki were Where’s Waldo?, Dr. Seuss, Ferdinand the Bull, Good night moon, Where the Wild Things Are and so much more.

United Airlines donated 60,000 pieces of tableware and with the help of 55 volunteers, we packed over 2,000 tableware kits for Hawaii’s homeless community. It was non-stop unpacking boxes, wrapping tableware and packing kits from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. One of the highlights of the packing day was seeing keiki, students, nonprofit organizations and people from various businesses work together to help better our community. This successful service event would not have been possible without the prep help from UPS, Walmart Honolulu, Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resortand Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

SYL Membership Meeting and Book Drive
On September 14, 2017, Society of Young Leaders hosted our membership meeting at Aloha United Way.
SYL members and their guests were able to learn more about who SYL is, what we do, and how you can get involved in making our community better.
At our membership meeting we also collected books for Hawaii Literacy‘s Bookmobile. The Bookmobile travels weekly to provide families on the Wai’anae coast access to books and, ideally, a life-long love of reading and learning.

SYL Volunteering at Access surf

Special Olympics Aukake Classic
The Special Olympics Aukake Classic is a 2-day event where more than 400 Coaches and Athletes from throughout the State participated. Competition includes a multi-division 5-a-side Soccer tournament, Individual Skills Soccer competition, and Traditional and Unified Bocce Doubles competition. SYL members volunteered at the Bocce Ball awards tent where they helped organize and handed out awards to the Athletes. Members had a great time getting to know the athletes and the nonprofit.

It takes a village to raise a child and our “volunteer village” spent a weekend packing school supplies for local youth. In just two hours, more than 1,100 backpacks and bags were filled with more than $25,000 worth in school supply donations. The school supply kits will be distributed through the Hawaii State Department of Education and Aloha United Way nonprofit partners.

SYL Volunteering at the Farm Fair
SYL members volunteered two days at the farm fair. Everyone had a lot of fun at the 55th Annual Farm Fair with @lanimoohawaii. The cow 🐮 piggy bank was a hit with everyone!

SYL members worked with PACT to make this Mother’s Day special for the families of Kuhio Park Terrace. SYL members helped to create Mother’s Day gifts with children ages 7-14

On April 22, 2017, we teamed up with Hawaii Cares to clean and restore KEY Project’s Waihe’e Lo’i. Aunty Shelley and Kaipo shared the history and cultural importance of the lo’i, its significance in the community, and how it helps keiki (children) connect with nature. Before we stepped foot into the lo’i, we introduced ourselves and who we wanted to share this experience with. Aunty Shelley then said a prayer to help strengthen our spirits to Mother Nature.

Society of Young Leaders volunteered at the annual Donor Remembrance Ceremony hosted by Legacy of Life Hawai’i. This ceremony gathers friends and families to remember Hawai’i’s organ, tissue and eye donors One of the highlights of the ceremony is the Monarch Butterfly Release, which allows each family to release a butterfly in remembrance of their loved one. Butterflies are released, symbolizing the release of the spirit and the transforming gift of donation. Thank you Legacy of Life Hawaii for having us.

YMCA Camp Erdman Clean-Up
Our service project for March was to help clean up YMCA Camp Erdman. About 25 SYL members and their friends painted cabins and cleared hiking trails. We had a great time getting to know the staff and volunteers from other organizations.

2016 Annual SYL School Supply Drive
Aloha United Way’s Society of Young Leaders and volunteers from across the island worked together today to prepare over 250 backpacks and over 375 kits of school supplies for local school children. The school supplies were collected during the Society of Young Leader’s Annual School Supply Drive, which took place June 15 to July 25, […]

On July 18th from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, members of the Society of Young Leaders and Life 360 volunteered with the Boys and Girls Club at Barnes and Noble Ala Moana. At the event, Barnes and Nobles donated a portion of their day’s proceeds to the Spalding Boys and Girls Club. The students had a craft table, scavenger hunt, face painting, reading corner, and to end to end the day, a few dance performances choreographed by the very own students. Thank you so much to everyone who came out.

On May 21st from 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM, members of the Society of Young Leaders volunteered with the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association for the Visitor Industry Charity Walk on Oahu. We met at Ala Moana to help with the checking in process.

VOLUNTEERING AT HAWAII FI-DO
SYL volunteered by painting the Hawaii Fi-Do house and landscaping the premises. It was a very rewarding experience to do a small part to help people who are doing such great things for our community. We can only imagine how much positivity these dogs must bring their owners, because in the short amount of time that we spent with the dogs, they already lifted our spirits as you can tell by all the pictures below.