{"id":86655,"date":"2025-12-19T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T07:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/?p=86655"},"modified":"2025-12-18T01:41:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:41:41","slug":"hawai%ca%bbi-national-guard-joins-community-partners-to-bring-holiday-joy-to-hilo-keiki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/2025\/12\/19\/hawai%ca%bbi-national-guard-joins-community-partners-to-bring-holiday-joy-to-hilo-keiki\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi National Guard Joins Community Partners to Bring Holiday Joy to Hilo Keiki"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/files\/2025\/12\/Group-shot-at-22Heroes-and-Helpers22-event-at-Hilo-Target-store-1024x640-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-86656\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/files\/2025\/12\/Group-shot-at-22Heroes-and-Helpers22-event-at-Hilo-Target-store-1024x640-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/files\/2025\/12\/Group-shot-at-22Heroes-and-Helpers22-event-at-Hilo-Target-store-1024x640-1-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/files\/2025\/12\/Group-shot-at-22Heroes-and-Helpers22-event-at-Hilo-Target-store-1024x640-1-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Members of the Hawai\u02bbi National Guard joined first responders in spreading holiday cheer during the 9th annual Heroes and Helpers event, held Dec. 6, 2025, at the Target store in Hilo. The community-focused initiative provided 50 disadvantaged keiki with a festive shopping experience while strengthening positive relationships between youth, service members and first responders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Guardsmen from the 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry Regiment were there early and the keiki were excited to see them,\u201d\u00a0said Maj. Ryan Caday, a Judge Advocate General in the Hawai\u02bbi Army National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Modeled after the \u201cShop with a Cop\u201d program, Heroes and Helpers pairs children with uniformed heroes for a one-on-one shopping spree designed to build trust and connection. Guardsmen volunteered alongside the Hawai\u02bbi Police Department, Hawai\u02bbi Fire Department, Department of Land and Natural Resources, National Park Service rangers and other agencies, helping keiki select gifts for themselves and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each child received a $125 Target gift card, made possible through donations and support from Catholic Charities Hawai\u02bbi, Target and community partners. Guardsmen and other first responders guided the children through the store, sharing conversations, encouragement and laughter along the way. After shopping, volunteers wrapped gifts to prepare them for Christmas and the keiki were treated to snacks and hot chocolate to end the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMost of these families are low-income, and some could barely afford the gas to participate,\u201d said Caday. \u201cThere were times when the first thing keiki would buy were simple things like toilet paper, soap, and detergent.\u00a0It\u2019s a heartbreaking lesson in gratitude for everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Guardsmen participation in Heroes and Helpers reflects the Guard\u2019s enduring commitment to community service. By standing shoulder to shoulder with first responders, nonprofit organizations and local businesses, Guardsmen helped ensure that Hilo keiki experienced not only holiday joy, but the care and support of the broader community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The State of Hawaii, Department of Defense (HIDOD)\u2019 Retiree News does not endorse any of the external hyperlinks listed or posted on this site. This includes linked websites, information, products, or services contained therein. We are a government run website for which transparency and accountability are paramount. HIDOD cannot have the appearance of endorsement and are bound by the HIDOD Social Media Policy concerning political posts being respectful, honest, and accurate. Operational Security will additionally be adhered to. Retiree News does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at linked sites. Some of the sites linked to may limit the number of stories you can access without a paid subscription. All links were provided with the intent of meeting the mission of the HIDOD\u2019s version of Retiree News.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the Hawai\u02bbi National Guard joined first responders in spreading holiday cheer during the 9th annual Heroes and Helpers event, held Dec. 6, 2025, at the Target store in Hilo. The community-focused initiative provided 50 disadvantaged keiki with a festive shopping experience while strengthening positive relationships between youth, service members and first responders. \u201cThe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":86656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"38761,30489,35747,36681,45207,10500","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12393,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020s","category-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86657,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86655\/revisions\/86657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}