 I'm Wendy Lowe, and I am your friend as we journey to take your health back. We are filming live from Think Tech Hawaii in the Plaza building right here in downtown, and we're so excited. Every other week, I should say, we bring to you a different message, a different message of health. And what should we do to get better quality of life through better quality of health? And so today, we're going to talk about exploring a service-oriented lifestyle. And it's so exciting because this is exactly how I've lived my life from a very young age, and I've kind of met my match here as I introduce to you, Danisha Lin Honda. Welcome, Danisha. Thanks for having me. Yes. So Danisha is a student and a graduate of the University of Hawaii, and she says, I asked her in what, and she said in English and Chinese, and I'm like, wow, they taught you English there, and she said, yes, they did. And so, and I want to just say that she's our newly crowned Miss Hawaii Chinese JCs 2019. So welcome aboard, Danisha. So we want the island, the state, the world to know, what is, who is Danisha? Right. So Danisha is born and raised from Waipahu and went to Pro City High School. I actually went to Taiwan for a few years, you know, back in elementary school. So going back into a high school that didn't really teach Chinese, I had to make the decision to either lose the language or just to go all out to major in it and to really make the most of it. So I decided to major in Chinese, did the Chinese flyship program, graduated. And now here I am, I'm Miss Chinese JCs, and I'm running for Miss Hawaii in June of next year. Wow. In fact, that's pretty much how and why we met. Yeah. I mean, I just simply asked you, can you speak Chinese? And you said you did, and you told me about all your travels, and I'm like, wow, you should be the gal that represents Hawaii to the world, to China, and the rest of it. So I was so excited to just learn more and more about you. So that explains, you shared us your high school, your educational background, but I want to know what is service-oriented lifestyle, and how does that service volunteerism help you throughout your career and in your life? Right. So service in my own life, as you saw on the slide earlier, I was the title holder. I also did a lot of programs when I was a scholar abroad and locally. And what I realized was that service during my time, both in China and that picture down on the bottom right is in Malaysia, actually. Those were all projects that we work on pro bono, and that, I thought, gave this life, my life, the most meaning, and doing service throughout this entire time never gets, never gets old. It never does. You never get tired of it. And there's always need in this world. And doing service projects, volunteering your time, doesn't take a lot of money. And it takes so much, it takes so much hearts and so much effort, but you get so much more out of it. Exactly. And so any time you work with your heart and through your heart, it's effortless, because you're doing what you want to do. So whether you're working in your community, in your state, or in a country, or none of the country, it's because you're doing it because you love it. And that's the powerful part about what we're doing. And I love it that you're only, how old are you, 20? 24. And you've got what it takes to be a great leader and a great volunteer. And we need to cultivate more of you within your peers and grow this volunteerism. I love it. So how do you tie service and volunteering to your current goals? Right. So in the career of my life, I've been a part of a lot of service clubs in school, going into college. And it's been a huge part of my life. And one of my goals, at least at the moment, is to run for Miss Hawaii. And it's an even greater stage out there. To have the crown doesn't mean to just wear it to appearances and just to make like, you know, make like you're pretty and you're there, and that's all you have to do. No, it's so much more. And the great thing about Miss Hawaii is that it provides that greater reach so you can go out there and expand your networks and to contribute to an even greater population. Exactly. You know, I actually started my volunteerism career at the age of 30 when I started with my business. And I started at a very young age and everyone would say, why are you doing it so early? Most people wait until they're retired and they say, oh, I'll start volunteering then. But what happens is you're going to miss out all those years of getting with the community and the world because you set a goal of waiting until you retired. So I didn't have that thought. I said, I'm going to start as you did as young as I could and just continue to give back and give back. And it grew back to me exponentially. Great. Right? And you don't have to start off with a lot of money. I come from a single income family from Waipio. And when you first start off, you don't have to donate a lot. People who go into philanthropy usually do that within their later stages of life. When you're young and when you have the energy and the time and the drive, that's when you go out and volunteer and you make the most out of it while at the same time getting to know other people who may or may not be able to help you later in your life. As, like you said, develop professionally with your business or even with your education, your jobs, or emotionally, you know, with your family. And it just provides such a great community to be around you. That's exactly. You hit it on the nose right there on Union Wide Weight. Just do it now. And whatever you do, I mean, it certainly comes back. And I was sharing with you earlier, even in the economy when it dips, my business continued to thrive because of the fact that I sat on different boards with different powerful heads of companies. And when they needed what I had, which was chocolates and gifts, they would come back to me and support me because we sat on the table, they're thick and thin. And so they really wanted to make sure that they kept us thriving financially so that we could continue giving back. So it works so hand in hand. And you know, the fact that you have a banner and a crown to your name, it also opens up another door. So that's the exciting part as the slide will show. As a reigning Miss Chinese JC 2019, I think that this is so incredible. And so it's only been a couple of months up to date. So tell us a little bit about what have you done thus far? So this picture on the left actually was my first service project ever as Miss Chinese JC's. And that happens literally a kidney knot the weekend after I got crowned. So I have no idea how or why this came to be, but the community put me to work. And they're such a great need. And even as a quote unquote beauty queen or a pageant title holder, it's not about the beauty or the grace or it is about that for competition. But when you're out in the community, people really place a lot of value on just you being present and involved. And I can attest to that because I remember one day I called and say, hey, we're gonna meet later and I asked you where'd you come from? And you said you were just reading to kids. I mean, so yeah, they have no way to judge or to tell, but they can see your heart and that you actually care and you love them. And so what was that like? So it was really great. I'm very thankful to one of my friends, Nikki Miller or Miss Miller as the students call her. She's a teacher at Kahala Elementary and she actually knows a lot of pageant related information because it's one of her interests. And after she found out that I was crowned, she invited me over and she was like, Denise, should you have to read to my kids, they'll love you. And at first I was like, oh my goodness, children. Not ready for that life yet, but you know what? One of the things that I'm pushing for my platform that I'm working on is diversity and inclusion. And part of that is to raise literacy rates among kids, not only in Kahala, but also out in Waianae, on the West side, and even in other states that have relatively low literacy rates. Not that ours is low, but it's always good to start from there as a kid. So you know what? I told her I would love to come and read to her. And I think I was in a red cocktail dress and everyone was like, you're a princess. Oh my gosh. And I was like, wow. Yeah, it was really great. We all know that volunteering in the community, it's a feel good, it makes you look good and you're doing good, but how does it relate to being healthier, being involved in the community? Right, right. So of course, everyone knows that volunteering in the community makes your environment, your surroundings better than it used to be. And what people don't really know is that it actually has a lot of health benefits for you personally when you get involved in placing yourself into a larger setting. So not only does research show, I mean like there's Harvard studies that say, you know, as you age, people who do a lot of community service tend to have lower high blood pressure, lower rates of diabetes. And what I think is that science aside, being involved in the community as a community social centered species where we're social animals, we thrive among others. Just being with other people helps so much in the long term. It keeps you active and as we chat later on, we'll have some things that we'll touch upon that help us personally with our mental health, with our professional growth, and with tying the things that we're passionate about into something that we can put forth tangibly. You know, I can attest to that and the one factor as well is by being involved with any organization, whether it be American Heart, American Diabetes, the Miss Hawaii Girls, whatever the opportunity is, you're going to learn something. And so you said how it relates to heart or health. For myself, being on board with American Diabetes, I understand how we can protect ourselves, how we can work on prevention, and what we can do about it. It's all about education. And so learning all of that while I'm educating the community, I'm learning. And so by learning, I'm more aware. And so it helps me. So yes, because I'm involved with that, I'm going to watch my blood sugars, I'm going to watch my intake for heart, my cholesterol. Everything I do is because of what I learned while I was volunteering. Right, exactly. And where else would you learn a lot of these pieces of information from if you don't volunteer? For me personally, if I don't have cancer, or if I don't have any heart related diseases, I would never participate as a participant. And the only way I would learn about this as this ignorant bystander or this naive outsider would be so that I can learn as a volunteer. And that's where I get a lot of this information from. And it's really critical to get involved, because you're going to meet so many amazing people. So like you said, even for myself, I'm not diabetic and I don't ever want to be knowing what the journey is like. So I'm working so hard. But the awareness factor is so key and understanding that we have choices in life. So I can sit at home and be a couch potato and not get anything done. Or I can choose to volunteer at one of the boards or one of the events. And every time I go out, I'm going to either meet someone with that issue and I'm going to hear their heart and their story and I'm going to say, how can I help you? How can I help your family to be better or to not accept, but to walk away from that disease that you were diagnosed with by learning more about it? Right. And even as people who have never had the disease, never hoped to have the disease, it's still really important that we learn about it and empathize with these people about it because how else will we get as close to the stage where they're at without being close to the community and that's through volunteering? Right. I mean, like take example for last night, for example, I was at the neonates conference or fundraiser and we had babies that were born preemies and they were 1.5 pounds, 2 pounds. I mean, they could fit in my hand. And I've not experienced that before, but all the people that I met last night were preemies and they look just like you and me now. So you see, I didn't understand any of that, but because of last night, I was exposed to the families and the preemies that grew up and wow, what great work is out there and you know what the key factor to the success of the preemies are? That somebody, while they were that little loved and held and just was there and nurtured them, the volunteers, the nurses that we have to give credit to. So yes, it just matters. Just working from the heart can make a big difference to so many. So right now we're going to take a 60 second break and then we'll be right back with Denisha Honda. Aloha. And Aloha. My name is Calvin Griffin, the host of Hawaii Uniform. And every Friday at 11 o'clock here on Think Tech Hawaii, we bring in the latest in what's happening within the military community. And we also invite all of your response to things that's happening here. For those of you who haven't seen the program before, again, we invite your participation. We're here to give information, not disinformation. And we always enjoy response from the public. But join us here, Hawaii Uniform, Fridays, 11 a.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha. Hey, Stan Energyman here on Think Tech Hawaii. And they won't let me do political commentary. So I'm stuck doing energy stuff. But I really like energy stuff. So I'm going to keep on doing it. So join me every Friday on Stan Energyman at lunchtime, at noon, on my lunch hour. We're going to talk about everything energy, especially if it begins with the word hydrogen. We're going to definitely be talking about it. We'll talk about how we can make Hawaii cleaner, how we can make the world a better place, just basically save the planet. Even Miss America can't even talk about stuff like that anymore. We got it nailed down here. So we'll see you on Friday at noon with Stan Energyman. Aloha. Hi, everyone. I'm here with Danisha Lin Honda. And she is a student and a former graduate of the University of Hawaii. And she is our newly crowned Miss Hawaii, or Chinese, JC's 2019. Welcome back, Danisha. Thanks. Yes. And so what we're talking about today is volunteerism and making a difference in your community by working with your heart and the time that you have to delegate to this. Right. So key, isn't it? It really is. And the greatest thing about volunteering to me is that it really takes what you like personally and may not be able to do professionally as a job, but you can still, you know, contribute a part of it to the community that you're with. So the slide that we see here is actually when I was volunteering as a major tech advisor to these high school kids. And that's because one of my passions growing up was music. I was in Dan for nearly 10 years of my life. And a great way to give back to that, even though I'm not in marching band anymore, was to mentor these kids growing up and going into the program. And it's really nice being able to still do what you like doing and not have to worry about anything else at the same time. Right. Volunteer that time. It's your time. Right. And that's the whole idea about volunteerism. You can pick and choose what turns you on, what makes you happy. And then when you pick the right avenue to go down, it's just effortless, you know. And that's what we want. When we are looking for volunteers for any of the boards or even becoming board of directors, that's exactly what we want. Unconditional love coming from the board member that will just drive you even on the 12 and 13 hour of volunteering and setting events up and working with the clients that we do, just that love exuding from you to show our people how much we love them and we care and we want to make a difference. Right. Right. And I know that that's how you're going to approach every one of the opportunities that come your way at this very young age, right? So let's talk about is this area of mental health, driving everything else, catching on in companies that you work with, how does that relate to what you're doing, the mental health aspect of volunteering? So the mental health aspect, like I mentioned before, is just going back to the fact that we're all social beings. We love being around people. We love networking. It's also the way that we get forward in life here. We have to know who's who. We ideally would know who the movers and shakers of this world are. And one of the greatest things about doing that is that when you volunteer in your community, you can tap into those resources and make things happen. So for example, when I was a legislative aide for Senator Kidani last session, I was able to go to her for help on one of the side projects that I wanted to work on. And that was to give at least 50 high school seniors from Waianae High School free prom makeovers if they were low income families, if they were receiving free or reduced lunch. And the thing was that by working with her in other projects and from day to day actions I was able to ask her for help. We were able to secure a venue and have these kids come out, coordinate with the schools and make the volunteer projects happen. And that also wasn't able to happen unless we had the volunteers from Circle K, the Kiwanis, and other volunteer organizations involved. Wow. So you know, you talk about volunteerism. Is there any data that will back up community service thrives a company or thrives you? Is there any data that backs it up? So there's a lot of, like I said before, there's a lot of studies that say that your rate of diabetes goes down, heart rates are healthy because we volunteer a lot. At the same time, companies actually saw the value of volunteering and community service so much so that they were able to figure out ways to stipend their workers to commit volunteer service hours. And it's not to incentivize them to only help out because they're getting paid for it, but it's to emphasize the importance of volunteering and the value that it has not only to the community, but even to private businesses. Right. And again, all these questions I'm asking you because, I mean, I went through it all and I know all the data says exactly what you state, you know, that it does help the company, it helps everyone in the company, and it helps the volunteer as well, and then it helps the recipient. So everyone wins, you know, and like you said, you're doing it because you want to do it from heart and not because it's a paid event and your boss is, you need to go out there and clean up and pick up rubbish or do this, right? And so that's when it matters. I work with another company that is mandated that we volunteer with the St. Jude's Children's Center once a month. But what happens is that's just giving me the excuse to do that and the reasoning to do that. But then the other three weeks, I or the other volunteers will go to St. Jude's Medical Center and volunteer on their own. So our company just gave the door open and they just continue to walk through it week after week, and that's where the volunteerism heart is developed. And so when we have companies that do that or work alongside with our hearts of wanting to serve, it makes the world so much better because they have the resources to do that and to guide us. And I know that when you're the boss, you're going to continue to do this and encourage and not incentivize them financially but by heart, right? So that's what I'm looking at. But you know, there's so many benefits of working with the community, not just locally but worldwide. Do you agree with this? Oh, yeah. So like I mentioned earlier, when I was studying abroad in China, I was actually able to work with the Amity Foundation in providing baits, goods to sell to raise money for the nonprofit. And at the same time, what they would do is they would fund local projects in the community, such as, you know, doing rideshares, providing for the needy in China, the discrepancies between the wealthy and the poor are extremely huge. So by working with the Amity Foundation and eventually becoming a volunteer coordinator with them, I was able to tap into my own resources, which wasn't a lot, but I had my classmates so I could volunteer them to... That's better than money. Yeah, right. So labor force, hearts are... You cannot buy. Right. So someone like you, who is a great networker and a great leader, people will follow you and is exactly what we need, more than sometimes money. Okay. So continue. Sorry. Thank you. Oh, well, that was pretty much what the story was about. It's really interesting because in China, a lot of people don't tend to do things unless they are compensated because of how their economy is, where you scratch my back, I scratch your back sort of mentality and volunteering, even as a foreign student, I can see what little impact that we can do not to totally upend their economy, but just to provide a little bit of assistance to those who really have the short end of the stick. Well, I'm going to agree with you on everything you're stating, and I truly love the service-oriented lifestyle. So you know, it seems so easy for you, but how does one get involved or get started into even a fraction of what you're doing? Right. So what's really great about volunteering and community service is that you don't have to go for the big boys. You can start small. And what that is is to really adopt a service-oriented lifestyle, even doing things that you're passionate about, even if it's makeup, even if it's anime, you can volunteer for a lot of the conventions, you can volunteer to do dress-ups for the libraries. A lot of cosplayers in Hawaii actually do that, believe it or not, and do things that you're passionate about, and you'll like it anyways, and then you'll have the added benefits of supporting the community that has that need. And what you'll learn along the way is that there is so much need in the community and that you could actually do something. So going back to mental health, that sense of achievement, as selfish as it may seem, at the end of the day, it does make you feel better. It makes the community feel better, and it makes the overall state of things perform better. I mean, I think at one time I diagnosed myself as being an addict, and if you're going to be addicted to something, you might as well be addicted to community service, and I found myself that I was. And why I say that is because you work so long and hard for one event and one cause, and boom, that date comes up, and you're like doing it, and you're going 280, and it's accomplished, you raise all this money and awareness, and boom, it's done. And then the next year you're like, so you're going on a downward swing, and like, what do I do now? And I'm like looking and looking, right? Just like an attic wood for the next fix. So then I got involved with another one and another one, and I just, it's just my lifestyle now. And so I can say sometimes every week, there is an event that I'm going to be either organizing or working with, and what a great way to keep a high life. Yeah, I know. That's why I'm like, yes! So I'm so excited. So tell us some of the organizations that maybe you have volunteered with or that are out there that you can guide others to. Right. So like I said, start small, start with what you know, and then branch out from there. And a lot of the organizations, like this picture here, is me with the Chinese JCs. They're our sponsoring group for the pageant, and they're really great. They have such an efficient, systematic way of going about things. They're like, you know, our schedule is packed, we have so many things that we have to do. And what they do is they actually have people sign up for different events. So if there's something that you're not interested in, you don't have to sign up. If there's something that you want to learn more about, like ALS or diabetes or the cancer foundations, you can sign up for those. There's also ones involving wrapping chocolate, if you're a foodie. Yay! Yeah, so there are a lot of things, and actually there are many other organizations that you can become involved with as well. So we have American Cancer Society, Big Brothers, Big Sisters. If you're involved with the environment, you love the environment, Sierra Club's a great one. Children's Miracle Network, the partners that we are working with, with the Miss America Passion, we work very closely with them. Boys and Girls Club, Hugs, Make a Wish, Aloha United Way. And one thing that I didn't mention earlier is that, let's say you're in high school and you're like, I don't know what I'm passionate about, I'm still finding my way. But I see this video on YouTube and it's like the ice bucket challenge. And you know something as simple as that, where you start out challenging each other to do crazy things like throwing ice on yourself, why would you do that? And as silly and as maniacal as it may seem, at the end of the day, it raised so much money for ALS. It did. Millions of dollars. Millions. What started to be a prank, you know, at a jokester, it became their lead fundraiser. And worldwide. So yeah, something as simple as that can really make a valid difference. Right. Okay, on our next slide as we wrap it up, tell us what that all means to you as a reminder to you and to the audience that you want to leave us with. Right. So at the end of the day, all that really matters is that you live this service-oriented lifestyle and what it does is that it improves your mental state, the state of your environment and it establishes this really great sense of community. Like what we see here is us passing out flyers when I was still in Circle K International at UH Manoa and I actually ran into my old middle school band director and doing voluntary events really gives us these opportunities to run into old timers, run into our old friends and families and loved ones and it gives us this unspoken reason to come back together and commune in this common sense of giving. Right. And so I know that you wanted to share with everyone what goes around, comes around. Right. You know, and exactly, I mean, the more you lay down, I mean, we're not looking for anything in return, but it just happens that way. That's the way of the universe. Yeah, it really does. So if you ever have downtime, you're sitting on the couch and you say, oh, what can I do? Give the knee shell call. She'll plug you into some event somewhere or another or myself because we're always looking for hearts that want to volunteer. And so with that, Denisha, mahalo to you for sharing your heart and the simple guidelines of being a volunteer and having this servant's heart in serving our community. I look forward to talking with you further as you encounter the world. All right. All right. Aloha mahalo to you Denisha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha.