When she was 7 years old, Rylee Brooke Kamahele learned a life-changing lesson at a homeless shelter while passing out Christmas gifts.
Rylee had always been blessed with more than enough as a child. Little did she realize that her parents were struggling to pay the bills after her father was severely injured by a drunk driver a few years before.
Now 16, she said her parents hid the financial hardship from her and her older brother, Rylan, at the time. But in 2015 they nearly lost their home to foreclosure and the water and electricity had been turned off, she said. Her mother signed up that year for the Angel Tree, a charity that donates gifts to children, when they couldn’t afford presents.
Sasha Kamahele, her mom, said her kids were spoiled and complained that they only received one gift compared with being showered with presents in years past.
“I said, ‘OK, that’s it, Christmas is canceled!’” Kamahele recalled. “I told them, ‘yes, we’re having a hard year right now, but you should be grateful for that one thing. … You guys need to figure out a way to help other people.’”
They chose to accompany an uncle to a shelter to help give out gifts he’d collected for homeless keiki.
Her children were struck by how overjoyed the kids were about receiving one small gift, and how their parents came up to hug and thank them repeatedly, Sasha Kamahele said, adding that the experience transformed their attitude.
Rylee said, “I realized that it could have been us in a shelter ourselves. I looked at helping the houseless from a whole new perspective — it became a humbling reminder that at any time, one circumstance can change any person’s life. … Simple things that I can do to put a smile on these kids’ faces means the world to me.”
In 2016 at the age of 8, her good friend Kadence Fergerstrom, now 17, joined her in forming The Secret Santa Project Hawaii, which has helped thousands of keiki facing hardship, many of whom were too late to apply or were ineligible to receive gifts from other charities. Their motto is “kids helping kids,” with young volunteers doing the brunt of the work, although sometimes they’re accompanied by parents to outreach events.
Raiden Barrientos, 13, has been with the Secret Santa project since he was 6 or 7 years old, but started donating toys to disadvantaged children from the age of 4, he said. He’s earned the nickname “Toy Raider” for the way he scoops up dozens of toys on sale after Christmas for the following year, spending the money he received for Christmas. Usually they’re action figures, plushy toys and other trinkets from $2 to $5 each.
“I just want kids to have a fun and nice Christmas and have everything they really need,” he said. “I want to help families that the big toy drives are unable to help,” he said.
He began donating toys to The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree at age 4, touched by stories told by his tutu (grandmother) about the lean years when she couldn’t afford Christmas presents for his mom and auntie when they were young. His tutu could barely make ends meet but made too much money to qualify for government assistance or the Christmas charities.
His mom, Diana Rabanal, said, “We wanted to teach him to share with other kids. … He just fell in love with helping others. And it was just rewarding for everybody, me and my mom, and seeing the look on Raiden’s face seeing all the little kids getting stuff they can’t get (on their own).”
Raiden said, “What really stands out for me is some kids get the smallest thing, like a little action figure and they go crazy and get really happy over just one singular toy.”
With only two weeks before Christmas, Rylee said their volunteers race around collecting donations, wrapping presents and trying to get everything ready by Dec. 25. A core group of eight kids are committed to the project year-round, but many of the 50 or so volunteers are middle-schoolers fulfilling community service requirements.
The Secret Santa Project usually assists about 500 kids a year, but only about 300 applied this year and donations have been comparatively low.
Their beneficiaries include kids from shelters, camps for the homeless, foster homes, and those suffering medical challenges, economic hardship, or considered at-risk. Referrals come from agencies like Toys for Tots and The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree, which couldn’t fulfill requests for gifts that arrived after their deadlines, Rylee said. Her project also received about 100 email requests from individual families this year.
From its beginning, the project has regularly supported the Waianae Civic Center, which assists military veterans and their families, and Life 360, focusing on mentoring at-risk youth. Kulana Malama, which helps medically fragile children, will receive assistance for the fourth year.
Secret Santa posts the Christmas wish list of every child on its Instagram site, including their first name, gender, age and clothing sizes. They’re asked to list three things they want and three things they actually need. The latter includes items like tents, mosquito repellent, bedding and basic necessities of people living on the street, she said.
Gift distribution parties were held Friday at the Waianae Boat Harbor and Saturday at the Waianae Civic Center. Activities included games, entertainment, refreshments, a photo booth and a free selection of new and gently used items, hygiene products and other necessities. But the volunteers also deliver gifts, including activity kits (gingerbread houses and board games) to individual families or schedule a specific pickup site for them.
Like Raiden, Rylee also started giving to others less fortunate when she was 4 because her parents always emphasized the importance of helping others and it’s become a lifelong mission. The Secret Santa Project is just one of eight programs under her nonprofit, The Catalyst’s Club. Others include Love is a Verb Foundation and Promise to Our Keiki. As the club’s president and executive director, Rylee founded it in 2019 to empower youth with leadership qualities to be catalysts for change in the community.
Sasha Kamahele said her daughter really does all the work and has spreadsheets organizing her projects — “I’m just the paper signer and the driver.”
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How to help
Email thesecretsantaprojecthawaii@gmail.com or follow on Instagram: @thesecretsantaprojecthawaii
