September 25, 2023 By Carol Britton Meyer
What began as East School fourth-grade teacher Brian DeMarco’s desire to reach out to and assist Maui schools in desperate need of assistance following the recent devastating wildfires has transitioned into a wide-reaching effort involving PTO members, students, and their families.
It all started when DeMarco was driving across the country with his oldest son, Aidan, to the college he is attending in San Diego and saw the news reports.
“While discussing the fires and their impact, I said to my son that I would like to figure out a way to help that could involve our students and their families,” he told the Hingham Anchor. “I thought it would be a wonderful way for fourth-graders who will be studying the 50 states this year to become truly connected to their country — even if that state is in another ocean,” DeMarco explained.
After returning home from California, DeMarco reached out to a number of elementary schools in Maui, asking if there was a way he and his students could provide some kind of assistance and received a message back that their help would be most welcome.
After connecting with the Parent Community Networking Center facilitator, Miki Mochizuki, there was an exchange of emails with DeMarco, including what the most immediate needs are and details of how students are faring in the wake of the wildfires.
‘Hingham Helps Hawaii’
After returning from California and after his initial contact with Miki in Hawaii, DeMarco got together with a former room parent and PTO member, Kristin O’Brien, to explain what he had in mind. “When I shared my idea and vision about a ‘Hingham Helps Hawaii’ fundraiser for Maui schools, she — without hesitation — said she would do anything she could to help get this effort up and running. And Kristin has. She has been instrumental!” DeMarco said. O’Brien sent emails to families and PTO members, created fliers detailing the fundraising plan, and brainstormed creative ways to get the kids involved.
“I’m certain without her initial push the ball wouldn’t be rolling as fast as it is now,” he explained. “Kristin connected with the other three elementary PTOs to gauge interest, and they all immediately began planning how to roll the project out within their schools. The funds raised will go toward helping the Maui school purchase needed general school supplies when they are able to,” DeMarco said. So far “at least a couple of thousand dollars has been raised.”
Susan Willison, a fourth-grade Plymouth River School teacher with a long history of putting together in-class fundraisers and who had worked closely with DeMarco during the cohort days of the pandemic, was receptive to the idea.
Tangible connection to helping Maui students
“Susan was as passionate as I was and provided terrific guidance on the best approach to engage the students. We brainstormed quite a bit,” DeMarco explained. “It was important that the kids take ownership of their fundraising efforts so that they would have a tangible connection to helping the students in Maui.”
Willison shared numerous examples of her school kids participating in past drives such as running to raise pledges, selling homemade items, and operating a lemonade stands, among other ideas.
“Susan quickly became another driving force behind this campaign, emailing colleagues, setting up Google presentations, and activating her students to be part of this project,” DeMarco explained.
Numerous PTO members have joined the effort. For example, the South School PTO has decided to organize the project as a fifth- rather than a fourth-grade effort as part of their class project.
Foster School teacher Eileen Farrell was the point person there, helping spread the word to parents during their curriculum night presentations and working with the PTO to organize a contributions table,” DeMarco said. “With all the elementary schools involved, this has become a model of community success. Seeing how clever some kids were with this fundraiser is brilliant. Our future looks bright here in Hingham!”
Expectations far exceeded
The East School PTO recently hosted a booth with student volunteers at the Back to School Bash to share information about the project and to collect donations. In addition, Lauren Wheeler, a fourth-grade teacher at South, is working with her grade-level team to create handmade cards of well-wishes that will be sent to students in Maui.
“The list of people involved is enormous. It far exceeds what I anticipated when I first discussed the project with Kristin,” DeMarco said. “We started the rollout on Sept. 11 at the start of the new school year, and it has ballooned into something much larger than I could have hoped — with PTOs, parents, and students all throwing in their support. Many hands are contributing to this effort being such a success.”
The mother of two boys who participated in the Foster effort shared an anecdote. While she was purchasing lemonade and cookies at Trader Joe’s, the cashier asked what the purchases were for. “When I told him, he gave me $10 out of his own wallet to ‘start them off,'” she told DeMarco.
King Kamehameha III School in Lahaina — which had an enrollment of about 600 students — was completely destroyed. “Many of the children are unaccounted for, which is just heartbreaking,” Mochizuki said in an email to DeMarco after the tragedy occurred.
Schools damaged; families lost their homes
About 2,000 people were displaced and were staying in shelters or living with family and friends (with no count of how many were children). Three other Lahaina public schools did not burn but have smoke damage (Princess Nahienaena, Lahaina Intermediate, and Lahaina High School), and most of their families lost their homes, according to Mochizuki.
“About 3,000 students cannot return to Lahaina for a while,” he explained when DeMarco first contacted him. “Lahaina is an extremely tight-knit community, being rather remote (about an hour’s drive from town on a single-lane highway). The neighborhoods beyond the scorched town are physically fine but are cut off from access to water, gas, and stores. They are slowly reconnecting the electricity, but cell service is still down.”
As of mid-August, students were slowly enrolling in the other schools in the area, but many of the families were still in denial, believing that they would be returning to Lahaina soon. The slow enrollment from these displaced families was expected to pick up as families realized they could not attend school in Lahaina for a while. Things might change as families are offered residence in the hotels on that side but much is unknown,” Mochizuki told DeMarco at the time.
Traffic on that side of the island dramatically increased, “as all those people who survived are now living here. There’s exhaustion, frustration and grief, which we see in the clashes of tempers that flare everywhere,” according to Mochizuki, “but we also see our Aloha spirit shining through in the sheer amount of volunteers and donations that have poured in from everywhere.”
Mochizuki expressed appreciation for DeMarco, his class, and the Hingham community for offering assistance. “As with all tragic disasters of this magnitude, it is a marathon effort,” he said.
Community donations welcome
DeMarco said that in large part, it’s due to the supportive nature of the Hingham community toward his own family during challenging times that inspired him to reach out to the Maui school community.
“I knew as a singular teacher I couldn’t accomplish a whole lot, but I knew if the Hingham community got involved, we could do some great work,” he said. This prediction has proved to be true.
Here’s the Venmo link and QR code for community members who would also like to make a donation — https://venmo.com/code?user_id=3642520399512881882&created=1695388534.742313&printed=1. Anyone making a contribution should label the transaction as “Hingham Helps Hawaii.”
What a wonderful idea. A great idea from a great teacher at East School. Sad to see they aren’t getting a fair run with their contract negotiations. I thought we approved that in the override?