 And welcome to Act the Crossroads. I am your host, Pisha King, and I am so delighted that you came to join us today. Just like we do every week, we try to have guests who are on with us where we have conversations that are real and relevant. This week is no different. We have with us Christina Bush. She is here to discuss her nonprofit organization, the Loha Giving Movement. Christina, welcome to Act the Crossroads. I am so blessed to be here today. Thank you for having me. Thank you. It is totally my pleasure. So, Christina, I recently found out about the Loha Giving Movement and I was so impressed with all of the work that you do right here in our community. I must say, I'm sorry you couldn't make it in the studio today for various reasons, but I'm glad that we have your picture posted and we can hear you loudly clear. We want to jump right in and talk to you about the Loha Giving Movement and what you do here in the community all throughout Hawaii. Thank you. The Loha sort of started the accident. I was working, I'm a licensed therapist and I was running the military division for one of the local colleges here because I'm a vet and they came in one day and said, you know what? We are going to merge our veterans division and so therefore everyone in the military division is laid off and of course I've been working since I've been 14 so I wasn't even sure what laid off meant. So at the lowest point in my life, I started going to the camp and doing what I was trained to do and you know, we talked therapy, helping with resumes, helping with interview clothes, interview skills and before you knew it, we grew and now we have a local community membership of about 21,000. Wow. Local community membership of 21,000 right here in Hawaii? Yes. I'm sure we do have some out of state because we have people that move and some of our people are military and sometimes we get their family members involved and for instance, we found a gentleman named Leon that was missing for 25 years and his family didn't know where he was and we found him under the Roosevelt Bridge there at Roosevelt High School. So his family of course is in the mainland so yeah, we've been all over. So your organization helps in a lot of different ways and to find someone who had been missing for 25 years is incredible and phenomenal. How did you go about doing that? As soon as we saw, if anyone knows what Stone Stuff Hawaii is, it's a page on Facebook, it's a group on Facebook and I just happened to glance and a woman said, you know, this is my uncle and my mom's brother and we haven't seen him for 25 years. Pretty sure he's passed but if anybody has seen him and I thought, I know those eyes, I know those tattoos, looks different, aged a lot in the sun but I recognized him right away. We'd been feeding him for a while so just little things like that. We initially, the group was just me so it was just something actually to help myself to help with my own depression after getting laid off. It was to keep my head above water and quickly just so you can get the backdrop because I know you're very new to Valo Alto. So with $10 to my name and no job, I went and picked up some interview clothes that someone donated and they were stolen out of the back of my car. So I posted on Stone Stuff Hawaii. You know, I'm down, I have no job, I have no money and all I had left to me was helping these people that I grew up in poverty. My childhood was one of penuries so they were home to me. They've always been home to me and the lowest point of my life, I went back home. I went to them. You know how that goes is I was making good money and when my money was gone, my quote unquote friends were gone. But the house first stayed with me and I posted on Stone Stuff Hawaii. You know, all I had left was to help these people and you took that from me to close their God. And I went to sleep and I thought, I'm done. I'm done. I was mad at myself. I was mad at God. I was mad at everybody. I woke up in the morning and there was over a thousand responses. What do you need to do? Don't give up. We'll replace it. What did they take? Don't give up. Keep going, sis. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So that's the thing about that's the thing about Aloha here in Hawaii is that for people who have a legitimate need, there are tons of people who are pouring out from the goodness and kindness of their hearts to give. Now let's go back. Let's backtrack a little bit because I need to first say thank you so much for your service. I recognize that you said you're a veteran and then you turned around and decided to help others. So what year did you begin with that simple act of collecting clothes to help people on interviews? What year was that? I got laid off March 2016. So not long ago. We only became a nonprofit. We had, Volo has started out with $10 for a name and a prayer. And so it costed, it was so costly to become a nonprofit. And you know what really was, I really was doing it with a little bit of selfish motivation because I was so down and I was so depressed and it gave me a purpose. And as I started noticing it started giving others a purpose. So we finally gathered the money this year to become a nonprofit because it was costly. Yes it is. So on Christmas Eve, on Christmas this year, we had on. Sounds like, I'm not sure if you're still there, but sounds like Christmas Eve 2018, Volo Ha Giving Movement became a nonprofit organization. I think we may have lost Christina, but I want to kind of elaborate on that. I think that we'll just go ahead and not have Christina on and we'll just continue our conversation because the beauty is that if in fact you are facing a challenge yourself. And this, you know, Christina's story right there is pretty much any could be anyone's story, right? She had a wonderful job and then she was laid off and let go. And she just became so depressed that she decided to give. And I think that speaks to her spirit, but so many others. And I think when you fall on hard times and you fall into depression, the number one thing that you can do in that you probably need to do is reach beyond yourself, reach beyond your current circumstances and give. And that's exactly what she did. So we're going to cut to break in a few minutes in a minute and about 30 seconds. But I just wanted to continue that thought and say, when you are faced with unique challenges, reach beyond where you are and do your best to give. And when you do, you might find your actual life purpose right there. And it might come to your realization that that crossroad that you faced was not intended to hurt you. It actually led you to where you need to be. So we will be right back on At the Crossroads with Christina Bush and we're going to talk more about this beautiful, beautiful nonprofit, the Loa giving movement right here at the Crossroads. Aloha. Aloha. This is Winston Welch. I am your host of Out and About, where every other week, Mondays at three, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation and world, and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. So I'll see you every other week here at three o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Hey, Aloha. My name is Andrew Lening. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii live from the studios. I'll bring you guests. I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe, your co-workers safe, your family safe, to keep our community safe. We want to teach you about those things in our industry that may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me because security matters. Aloha. Aloha and welcome back to At the Crossroads. We're here with the Aloha Giving Movement founder Christina Bush. Christina, welcome back to the Crossroads. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. We've had an exciting show already. So we left off with Christmas Eve 2018. You started the Aloha Giving Movement. You officially became a non-profit organization. Is that right? Yes, that is right. That's correct. And so ever since you've been on a mission, so what have been some of the other things that you have accomplished while heading this non-profit organization? We do yearly back to school events. This will be our third one coming up. And we do Christmas drives every year. Every year we collect a lot, probably five or six thousand toys that we give out throughout the island. We have certain things we do. We do Mother's Day events. We have certain things that we do every year. And then we have little things that we do on the side, like we have something called positive pranks, where if we find a family that's really neat that we hear about, we find out what's going on, what their needs are, and we show up at their door with everything that we'll try to make it everything that we need. If we can, we try. Wow, that sounds amazing. You know, we hear a lot about pranks nowadays. Some go well, some don't go so well, but I love the idea of positive pranks. So I will definitely be on the lookout for those. Where can we find out more information about your organization? Do you have a website? Yes, we do. It's called theloha.org. Okay. So it's just uh-huh. I tell everybody it's just theloha with the v in front of it, theloha.org. I love that. Now, may I ask, where did that come from? Where did that name come from? Oh, sure. Well, where the name came from was when we were on Stone Stuff Hawaii and it was just we were getting message after message. Michael Kitchens, who is the founder of Stone Stuff Hawaii, can you make a page? Because it's kind of a lot and it keeps going back and forth on my page. So I'm going to make a page where we don't have a name. And someone said to me, you should put together value and love. That's what we want for these people, right? Value and love. So we took the v from value and we put it with theloha love. Oh my goodness. It doesn't get any more special than that. I love it, theloha for value and love. I love this. This is such a feel good story. So do you ever have a need? So when we go to theloha.org, we can find out more information about what your needs are and upcoming events and if you need volunteers and others to get involved. Okay. So now I understand you do the positive pranks. I love that. I just love pranks or anything that makes me laugh and feel good. So I'd love to find out more about that. But then also this back to school drive. We're coming up on the end of the school year now, but I noticed that you have a back to school drive starting up already. Tell me more about that. We do. We do. And the reason why is because it keeps getting bigger and bigger. So we do two parts to our back to school drive. We tried to do one or two pop-up events. Last year we did a pop-up event right across the street from the wide night bloat harbor because we knew there was a need there. And sometimes we show up in camp for housing, which is down I think in Honolulu or Kalihi. But this year we're adding on three title one schools. And let me tell you when we stopped by these schools last year, what stuck in my mind was there was a set of brothers. It was two brothers and each had one slipper. That's how bad the situation was. And these schools don't even put out school lists most of the time because they know that they can't be filled financially be filled. So these schools that we're going to provide for this year is Kalihi Uka Elementary, Palo Alto Elementary and Dole Middle School. Gotcha. All right. So you've heard it here. Hopefully we can get more people involved so that you can get what you need. I think I read that you needed like 500 packs of pencils and crayons. Talk to us about what some of those supplies are. You know what? We take everything and anything because we have a middle school and the elementary school that we're providing for. And the needs are such different. And I know that sounds like a lot, but we way surpassed that last year. Really? The thing that you're unique about Palo Alto is because we've kept it a group on Facebook instead of a page. It just doesn't enable us to put in our two cents. It enables the community to have some responsibility for this success. And it enables, yeah. So we not only have like last year we had Office Mac donated crayons and stuff, but not only places like Office Mac, we have an individual donor pop up with 30 backpacks. So it gives the responsibility back to the community. So it's not just us hounding these businesses. So we have individual donors that really give. I love this. So how are you getting the word out to these sponsors and donors? Aside from the page, is there anything else that you're doing? How are people finding out? Yes, we have, okay, so we are on Facebook and of course, we're big on Instagram. And then we've already have, I think, nine or 10 businesses so far that we're going to put below how back to school boxes and people can donate and drop their donation right in the box crayons. I love that. Back to scissors or anything. So businesses can get involved by simply putting a box in their place of business at their store. I've seen those like at a store front as soon as you walk in, you see it right there. And you can simply buy the products while you're in the store and drop them in the box. So businesses can get involved by having those boxes at their locations. And then individuals can get involved in a number of ways by both collecting and making personal donations as well as supplying the supplies to those boxes in those businesses. Is that right? I love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. So now I want to make sure that everyone knows that this is something that is so good and so helpful for our community. It's important to make sure that we are involved in doing this. But I want to know about you. Did you get a different job? How did you go? What has happened since the layoff for you personally? Okay. So, you know, just quickly, I know we don't have a lot of time. I went job after job and for some reason with four degrees and a license, I wasn't having success and I didn't realize that God had different plans for me. I didn't realize and I was so frustrated at life and myself. I remember sitting in Cali Mahala parking lot in the rain after my interview, I kind of left knowing I didn't get the position. And I thought, God, why? Why? Why? And it took me a lot of time to realize that I need to focus on what I need to do, something that are always meant to be answered so quickly. And so I ended up getting a job. I'm what's called the acronym is NCLAC. I'm a military life counselor now. I work in Aliamano Middle School as a military therapist. And it allows me to also run this group because the hours are fantastic. So, I'm also able, so it took me two or three years to get to this point where acceptance and looking back and saying, okay, this is why this all happened to me. Right. But I'm finally getting there. Yeah. I'm so happy for you. You know, that hindsight is 2020. You think sometimes when you're in the midst of it that it's the worst thing that could happen to you, especially at the time that it happens. But then somewhere along the line, you feel like you're meandering, but you really find your true purpose and your higher calling. So, I'm happy for you that you found it. And I'm certain that as a licensed therapist, you kind of share it made it easier for you and richer for you to share your story or with others who had a similar story. Have you found that to be the case? Yeah. I, you know, I have, I stumble upon people that are down on their luck or things aren't going their way. And I try to share that story because I was really feeling down. I was feeling low. I was feeling cheated in life. I was feeling, you know, and I was looking around and it seemed like everybody was getting these good positions. And I just felt like what, you know, why? And, you know, when I realized that maybe, just maybe, I was given that experience to work as a teacher. And I mean, to teach that as a traditional teacher, but, you know, what else can I use it for other than to help others, you know, right? Right. What other can I do? Yeah. I'm so happy for you. You know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And so for you to be so brave as to share that you were down and depressed and that giving was a way out of those feelings. And it helped you find your calling. I think that's important for people to know this month. Wouldn't you agree? I would. I would agree. And just to know that there is a tomorrow. And there is a tomorrow. And even though it doesn't seem like it, I remember the first Christmas. It was me and two friends. And we went to Hal Bush, which is in Evo Beach. And about 15 people showed up. And our last Christmas event, there was probably 500 kids. So God is certainly good. Oh my goodness. So in less than four years, you've gone or three years, you've gone from 15 to 500. I love it. You know, it's not always about the numbers because even though your participants grew in that manner, you started and you started initially with just yourself and some clothes in the back of your car, but then you went to three people during Christmas time and you gave in that way. That's incredible. So that goes to show you that no matter how great or small, if your purpose or your mission or your intent is really good, it can blossom. Right? Yes, none of this gets paid. And I think that the reason why Polo has been successful is I know at some point, like I'm still paying storage out of my pocket, out of my paycheck. It's a struggle. But we don't really ask for money. We ask for crayons and pencils and interview clothes. And it just seems to make life a lot easier. And nobody's getting paid. Nobody's getting anything from it. We had a gentleman about a year ago and someone had donated $100 and he said, I want this $100 to go to somebody that you think is going to get their act together, go to rehab, really pull this out. And we found a gentleman. He was in Halbo. She was going into rehab and I said this $100 was donated for this specific reason. That was over a year ago. Oh, well over a year ago. I saw him about five months ago. Didn't recognize him, gained weight, clean and sober, got his beard cut off. He said, do you remember me? And I said hardly because there's so many. And he said, I got a job. I got cleaning. Guess what? I got that $100 in my pocket. You give it to the next person. Oh, that's what I love. Pay it forward. Pay it forward. I love that. I'm so glad to know about your organization. I am hopeful that our viewers and listeners will go to Veloha Giving Movement and check it out on Facebook and then Veloha.org. I love what you're doing. Thank you so much for reaching beyond your circumstances to give to so many others. You know, I'm so blessed to be on here because I've heard such incredible things about you. It was such an honor to even for you to let us come on, you know, as a group. Thank you. You know what? I think we have the same intent too. So thank you for your compliment, but I really think we just have the same intent of helping as many people as we can in any way that we can. And so I, as I always do, I always do these shows that make me feel so good and I volunteer my services. So as a former human resources director, I have plenty skills when it comes to interviewing. So I'd love to come and teach a class with you all, of course free of charge during my own time when it's convenient for you just to help because I know what it's like and I believe that to who much is given, much is required. And so if you can give after hearing about having lost your job and being down, certainly I can give and plenty others just of our time, our talents and our resources. So with that, I'm going to give you an opportunity for some parting words and we will close out our show today. You know, it was just such an honor to meet you and you know, if there is anybody out there listening that feels like things just aren't getting better, the only thing I can really say is hang on because I promise you that new day is going to come. It took me, took me three, four, five months. But after we, after we made the Voloja page on Facebook, that was first. I would literally go to sleep at night and I would wake up and it would be 1000 members, 2000 members, 3000 to the point where that group was not mine anymore. It was a higher power. That group wasn't mine anymore. And so just hang on because that purpose that you have, it's going to display itself just me time. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Christina. I cannot thank you enough. You know, it was a struggle to get you on the show today. And I think a lot of times it's always darkest before the dawn. And so I think part of our struggle with getting you on was because there was something that you needed to say. And so your words today were just hang on. The sun always comes up, always rises in the morning, right? And so if, if our listeners and anyone hearing this who has heard Christina's story, please believe her, just hang on. It gets better. It's all you have to do. It gets better. And there are wonderful people in the world like Christina and her team and so many others who want to help, who are licensed and qualified to help based on their credentials, but also based on their experience. You don't always need certification and education to teach you or to make you qualified. Sometimes your experience, your life qualifies you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's really real. That is, that is so true. And I never, I used to work in a battle shelter and a woman got up one day and she was, she from Alabama, country as it could be, and maybe got to the fifth grade. And she's, and I, you know, they sent me to all these PhD meetings and it's not, this woman stood up and I never, never forgot her words. She said to me, you know what, domestic violence is like Thanksgiving dinner. You're the only one that knows when you're full. And I said, you preach it, baby, because I go to all these meetings and no one has told me that. No one. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Like Thanksgiving dinner, no one knows when you're full. I love that. That's very true. Very real. And again, like you said, it didn't take, it didn't take years of education for her to figure that out. That's life talking right there. Christina, thank you so much. Thank you for coming and joining us. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome and thank you. Continue doing what you're doing. And again, viewers, tune into valoha.org where you can find out how you can help because it's more than just crayons and pencils and papers. You're going to make a difference in someone's life in ways that you may never know. I love to say it like this. Learn how to plant trees under whose shade you may never benefit from. Thank you so much for joining us today at the Crossroads. I am your host, Keisha King, and we'll see you next time. Aloha.