About 500 families have participated in the 2019 Adopt A Family program hosted by Helping Hands Hawaii and supported by the Good Neighbor Fund fundraising campaign.

Participants in the annual program create holiday wish lists that are then fulfilled by people who “adopt” the families or by community members who donate items or money to Helping Hands Hawaii.

The program guarantees some level of support for everyone who participates, and over the years Helping Hands Hawaii has maintained a 100% success rate of providing some level of support for all participants — a fact the organization is proud to share.

“We’re always able to find some way, whether it’s by one-to-one donor match or by fulfilling the family’s requests through miscellaneous contributions during the season,” said James Li, program manager for Helping Hands Hawaii, in a Nov. 15 interview.

Li also noted how quick donors are to ensure that Adopt A Family participants are helped.

“In a short span of just a couple of months, when you think about it, it’s kind of amazing to get gifts to all these people in a short amount of time,” he said.

Families in need of assistance are often experiencing some financial or health-related problem and have fallen on hard times. Parents in those families work long nights and could still be in school, and sometimes children take on responsibilities perhaps meant for adults.

The U.S. Census Bureau shows that 8.8% of people in Hawaii live in poverty.

Donors can be individuals or even businesses and other organizations, providing single donations or fulfilling wish lists for multiple families.

Though this year’s Adopt A Family program is coming to the end, donations will continue to be accepted through Dec. 31.