Miss Hawaii's Outstanding Teen 2012- Community Service Award

Congratulations to Aeshalani Palomares for receiving the Community Service award from the 2012 Miss Hawaii's Outstanding Teen Pageant!

Her extensive community service and leadership experience led her to compete in this pageant and receive this prestigious scholarship award.

Aeshalani is a Cancer Survivor who has volunteered with hospitals in Hawaii, American Red Cross, Blood Bank of Hawaii, and more. She plans to pursue higher education at the University of Hawaii at Hilo to receive a nursing degree to help pediatric oncology patients.

Best wishes to Aeshalani as she continues her life of service! Thank you for inspiring us all!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We are so blessed and thankful for the many supporters and sponsors that made 2011 a wonderful success! Thanks to generous donations from organizations and businesses like North Shore News, American Carpet One, Grace Bible Church of Leeward, Coffee Gallery, and Spaghettini, we were able to give more scholarships to youth in need!

It is with great joy and hope that we enter 2012 believing that this year will brings us to new heights and success!

God Bless you and your family in 2012!

If you are interested in making a contribution to this organization for the next school year, please contact Jaee Fuselier at info@readyforscholarships.com or make your anual payment through Paypal.

Hands of Hope

There are many ways that teens and families can get involved together and volunteer in our community. One outreach for the homeless in the Central Oahu region is called Hands of Hope.

This event happens once a month and is held at the Wahiawa District Park. Many homeless and needy families come together to receive a great lunch, and free clothes and other things. Many youth and families volunteer to serve food, and distribute goods, and play with the children who attend.

If you are interested in being a part of the Hands of Hope Outreach in the future, please contact us at info@readyforscholarships.com.

Congratulations!

Congratulations Natalie!

Congratulations to Natalie, a 2011 graduate! She is one of our 2011 Ready for the Real World Scholarship recipients.

Natalie has done extensive community service for wildlife conservation on the Big Island of Hawaii and will continue in her passion at a University in Washington. Double majoring in Biology and Zoology, she is a young woman with a heart to serve her community and world.

Thank you Natalie for all of your hard work!

Mililani Golf Club fundraiser

Thank you Mililani Golf Club!

Ready for the Real World is pleased to announce a new sponsor!

Mililani Golf Club has become a partner of this scholarship program and we are so thankful to have them on board!

The Golf Club invited us to their annual Mega Day and Golf tournament. All the proceeds from sodas, raffle tickets, and the putting contest were given to Ready for the Real World!

We are so thrilled to have an organization like this in our community who is willing to use their creative ideas to help the youth in our community.

If you have an organization that also like to create a fundraiser to sponsor a scholarship, please contact us at info@readyforscholarships.com.

Volunteer Opportunity!

Weed Circle Clean-up in Waialua/ Haleiwa!

Meet at Weed Circle

Saturday, April 30 2:00-5:00.

Come for any amount of time ready to work hard and make the entrance of Haleiwa and Waialua more beautiful!

Please contact us at info@readyforscholarships.com for more information!

Ho'omana Youth Empowerment

Ho'omana Youth Empowerment Day was a huge success!

The Ho'omana Foundation was created to inspire, uplift, motivate and empower Polynesians and others of all ages. Ho'omana shares the success stories of Polynesia to inspire others to live their dreams and be creators of their own destiny.

Jack Johnson playing at Youth Empowerment Day

Ho'omana held a youth empowerment day for the graduating seniors at Kahuku High school. They heard from inspirational speakers from their own community who have become successful. Some of these included Jack Johnson, Sam Choy, Miss Hawaii 2010, football players and a doctor. The youth were inspired to achieve their greatest potential and keep working hard even after high school.

Guest speakers

Ready for the Real World also extended our application deadline for 2011 scholarships for the seniors at Kahuku High School, in hopes that they will realize the possibility of college and pursue their dreams!

Kokua for Japan

Come out and support Japan!

Kokua Japan is a A Benefit Concert For Japanese Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Disaster Relief. Come out and enjoy music from entertainers like Natural Vibrations, Amy Hanaiali'i, Mailani, Taimane and more! All of Hawaii's radio and TV stations have teamed up to promote and make this event happen.

It will be held on Sunday, April 10 from 12-5pm at the Hilton Hawaiian Village the Great Lawn. Tickets are only $15! There will also be a telethon to raise funds for Japan's relief effort throughout the day.

This is a great way to show our support not only for our personal community, but also for our international community. We can pull together and help our neighbors in need.

Please click here for more information about Kokua Japan. Hope to see you there!

Prudential Awards!

At the Hawaii State Capitol, four youth in Hawaii were acknowledged for their community service both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.

They were given this opportunity through Prudential Financial, which has a program to award youth who do extensive volunteer service in their communities. Each of these young people are completely dedicated to their causes.

One young woman has raised tens of thousands of dollars for orphanages in Uganda and even for the homeless kids in her community. Another has dedicated herself to helping wildlife preservation on the Big Island of Hawaii. The young man helps at-risk youth build, repair, and maintain bikes to keep them focused on something positive.

Each of these teens have found a cause they absolutely love and continually give back to help those in need. They are daily preparing themselves for the Real World as they see the real needs of others and work to help them.

If you are interested in championing this call to volunteer, please contact us at info@readyforscholarships.com.

Mililani Middle School making a difference!

Aloha friends,

A few months back a large group of Middle School students participated in a walk-a-thon to raise funds for various charities across the island. These 8th grade students were filled with excitement to see how much money they could raise.

It was an honor to reunite with these students this month as they presented checks to the charitable organizations they raised funds for. They gave thousands of dollars to charities like Partners in Development for the homeless, an ocean clean up program, and a foster families program to name a few.

I had the chance to speak with them again about the value of service and about making this one-time event into a life-long commitment to help our community. These are the values that Ready for the Real World is all about. It is so important that our young people see the value in giving back to their communities. They must realize it can not only help someone else, but also themselves. That's why Ready for the Real World gives scholarships to young people who do extensive community service.

It's always encouraging to see youth excited about giving back to others.

You can check out the scholarships available and opportunities to serve at www.readyforscholarships.com!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

Aloha Everyone!

We recently celebrated the birthday of Dr. Suess through the Read Across America program in many schools across our state. Through Read Across America, schools gather local celebrities, men and women from the area who children can look up to, and many military personnel. There are even fire fighters and police men and women who come out. Each volunteer is assigned a classroom to read a book to and talk story with the children to share about their profession and ask any questions.

It was so much fun to see many people from across the island gather together to read to our children. Kids really do look up to them and so many people in our community. We just have to recognize the impact we can make in their lives.

Keep reaching out to the children within your reach to be a role model for them!

IHOP National Pancake Day!

March 1st was IHOP National Pancake Day! IHOP restaurants across America united to give out free pancakes in order to raise funds for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. They offered free pancakes and customers made donations to this cause for the whole day!

The Local radio station, KCCN FM100 promoted this event through having their morning show at one of the IHOP locations on Oahu.

The Local Radio hosts and Miss Hawaii were there to support the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

Maddie is a young girl who represents the state of Hawaii as the Children's Miracle Network Miracle Child for Hawaii. She has spina bifida (a developmental congenital disorder in the spinal area) and has had over 20 surgeries, however remains strong with a smile on her face. She walks with crutches and from the looks of it is very thankful for the Kapiolani Medical Center, which is Hawaii's Children's Miracle Network Hospital. It is for children like this that we raise funds.

Maddie and her family with Miss Hawaii at IHOP

Youth Car Wash

Recently a group of teens had a car wash to raise funds for a leadership conference! They created, promoted, and participated in the entire project. It was a great success and raised enough money for all of them to participate in the conference!

Volunteering is so easy and can actually be fun! Just one car war with a group of friends can raise funds to donate to organizations like Children's Miracle Network, or to buy hygiene products for homeless children. The possibilities are endless!

Need help in creating a volunteer project? We at Ready for the Real World can help. Contact us a info@readyforscholarships.com and we will help you make your ideas of a volunteer project a reality.

Spaghettini Fundraiser

Aloha Everyone!

We are so thrilled to announce that our fundraiser through Spaghettini has raised over $1,500!

Spaghettini is a wonderful New York style pizza restaurant in the North Shore town of Haleiwa. They created a fundraiser to give to Ready for the Real World scholarships. For one month, a portion of the proceeds from every slice of pizza was donated to our foundation.

We recently received the check to be donated to scholarships for this year! We are thankful to Bob and Garrett for their unprecedented generosity! It is so wonderful to have businesses who understand the importance of giving back to the next generation.

We are now accepting donations for 2011 and hope many more people will catch this vision for our teens.

If you are a high school senior or a young person raising money to do international volunteer work, please check out the applications on our website today.

Mahalo,

Jalee Fuselier

Youth Challenge

Aloha,

The Hawaii National Guard has a program called Youth Challenge that supports youth in need of direction in life. Their mission is to provide opportunities to learn the life skills needed to be successful, responsible, Productive Citizens while earning their high school diploma.

The first time I met the youth from Youth Challenge was in October at Childrenand Youth Day Day at the State Capital. They were volunteering to help that day and were some of the hardest workers I saw.

There was a great Mahalo Luncheon recently to celebrate the end of this term. It was so much fun watching the youth perform and speak.

It's inspiring to see young people who are setting their lives back on the right course. Many of them will be receiving their GED, continuing in higher education, and/or joining the military in the future thanks to the guidance and help from the Youth Challenge Program.

Access Surf Hawaii

Aloha,

The final Access Surf event was held this month at White Plains Beach on Oahu on December 4th! We are so thrilled to know that there is an organization dedicated to helping the disabled community.

AccesSurf empowers people with disabilities by providing adaptive surfing instruction and therapeutic educational programs on water recreation and enriches lives by assisting families to access the beach and ocean in a barrier free environment.

This program is run completely by volunteers. Every first Saturday of the month they meet and enjoy a fun beach day with all the participants. Anyone with a desire to help the disabled and a love for the ocean can volunteer!

Janeé Fuselier is pictured here going into the ocean to surf tandem with an Access Surf Volunteer. She has Cerebral Palsy and walks with crutches, but this program makes it possible for her and many other like her to participate in water activities.

Music with a Message

Music with a Message is a program affiliated with the American Lung Association and their NOT (Not on Tobacco) campaign in our schools.

here are some photos of the most recent stop on tour at Pearl City High School.

Music with a Message organizes high school- college age young people to perform during a school assembly an represent a tobacco free message. As performers, they are role models and representatives of this needed message in our schools.

If you are interested in having Music with a Message come to your school, or if you know of someone who would be a perfect performer for this, please contact Ready for the Real World at info@readyforscholarships.com

Give Thanks!

Aloha,

It's officially the holiday season!

We are happy to share that many people kicked off the holiday season right through serving others! Hundreds of people from the central Oahu area gathered together for "Give Thanks" a volunteer opportunity at Iliahi Elementary School on Thanksgiving Morning at 4am!

They cooked, packed Thanksgiving lunches, did crafts, and put together food bags for the elderly and needy in their community all morning long! Later in the day many volunteers went door to door to pass out the food and gifts.

It was a wonderful time with cheerleaders from the high school, families with their children, teens with their friends, and many churches collaborating together to make a difference in their community!

Over 1,100 meals we given on Thanksgiving thanks to the volunteers that made it possible.

What can you do this holiday season to make a difference?

- Ready for the Real World

info@readyforscholarships.com

Volunteer Opportunity!

Here's a great volunteer opportunity to get involved with helping those in need.

This project was found on the Volunteer Hawaii website through Aloha United Way, one of Ready for the Real World's partners.

Check this out!

IHS (Institute for Human Services), Hawaii's largest shelter for men, women and families with children is entering the holidays with hope in our hearts.

During the holidays we offer a special opportunity for donors - we lovingly complete handwritten messages in beautiful cards - and mail the cards to the people our donors want to remember. A gift of a financial donation is made in the name of the card recipient.

We need volunteers with beautiful handwriting to come and write the special messages! People who are meticulous, patient and dependable are encouraged to join us as we have card writing sessions from November 8th - December 16th.

This is a wonderfully simple, yet meaningful way to really help IHS serve the people who come to us for emergency services.

Volunteers need to be age 15 or older. It can be an individual or group opportunity. Volunteers need to have excellent handwriting and good organizational skills. They need to be patient, flexible, good humored and take pride in their work!

The project is at the following address:

546 Ka`aahi St Honolulu, HI 96817

If you are interested, click here for more info and to get connected.

Election Day!

Election Day is a huge day in our nation! Such a big deal that you probably didn't even have school today.

It is a wonderful gift that we have as Americans to choose the men and women that will represent us for the next term.

If you are over 18 yrs old, I trust that you have already taken advantage of this opportunity and voted. If not, go now!

Ready for the Real World targets the youth of our nation, which are usually not of voting age. However, as youth, you have a chance to change things as well! Encourage your parents, family, and voting-age friends to vote! Become educated on the candidates and share that with your loves ones. You can still make a difference, even without voting!