Toys in Cages: HTA waipahu's PAAC Club Year in Review
Shayna Mcelhannon has been to the Hawaiʻi Humane Society. She's seen what happens to the things the club donates. "I have seen some of the toys we have donated in the cages with the animals," she wrote, "which makes it that much more rewarding."
That image — a donated toy, found exactly where it was meant to go — is what six years of showing up looks like.
A Club That Runs on Tradition
Hawai'i Technology Academy Waipahu's PAAC Club meets bi-weekly in person, 24 members strong, led by Co-Presidents Emma Baksic and Shayna Mcelhannon. The club has seniors bringing younger siblings into the fold, freshmen attending their first WorldQuest, and officers who came back from LEAD Summit ready to lead differently. It's a club that has built enough history to feel it.
Two Drives, One Community
Humane Society Donation Drive (Fall 2025): 125 items collected — sheets, toys, food, dog beds, leashes, a puppy playpen, and one advent calendar. The second year running this drive, the numbers came in slightly lower than the year before, likely due to competing campus drives. The club named that honestly and moved on. "It is still nice to see that people care about these causes as much as we do," wrote Secretary Hayden Tonaki.
Child and Family Services Collection Drive (Spring 2026): 156 items collected, valued at approximately $856. The 6th Annual drive, running every spring since the pandemic. Diapers, notebooks, Dove soap, Spam, carrots, rice, toothbrushes, Clorox, and a Barbie. CFS serves keiki to kupuna between HTA's two campuses in Waipahu and ʻEwa, and the coordinator's response said it all: "As always, it was a pleasure to see you and so wonderful to see the amazing work that you and your students do for your community."
Both drives connect to SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being). The CFS drive will be back for a 7th year.
Showing Up Beyond the Drives
The club's volunteer calendar was quietly remarkable. In October, they ran a BOO-Book Giveaway at HTA's Halloween Spooktacular — free books for kids, now in its second year. "With the price of everything increasing nowadays, getting access to new books may be difficult for some families," Hayden noted. In February, high schoolers read with HTA Ewa Beach kindergartners during Read Across America. Shayna connected one-on-one with a boy who doesn't usually talk much: "because I was able to give him more 1 on 1 time, he came out of his shell."
And in December, the club volunteered at the Blackened Canteen Ceremony at Pearl Harbor National Memorial — an event honoring WWII victims of the Japanese bombings. Zynen Dimatulac, a sophomore, wrote the reflection that stopped the room: "Greeting different people from different backgrounds who attended this ceremony reminded me about how important peacekeeping efforts are among the countries in the Pacific, and seeing both Hawaiian, American, and Japanese cultures come together to honor the soldiers and civilians that have fallen gave me chills."
PAAC Programs
LEAD Summit: Three officers attended. Thalia Grace Hoapili came in expecting hands-on leadership lessons and found something different — and better: "What I didn't expect was just how much fun it would be, and how we're still able to grow those skills in leadership, communication, and collaboration through activities that personally challenged each of us." Hayden's favorite moment was the activity about personal challenges: "I felt that helped me connect a lot more with my color group members."
Global Vision Summit: HTA O'ahu represented as an NGO in the AI in the Pacific simulation — a role without a vote, but not without a voice. Hayden reflected that most real-world conflicts don't end in resolution either: "Most negotiations take months or years to conclude and I thought that was really insightful." Thalia called the topic "way more intense" than expected, noting that watching each country, NGO, and company navigate differently "made it very engaging."
Academic WorldQuest: Freshmen showed up — literally. For Aleah Romualdo and Maiya Birdsall, it was a first. "I got to see the opportunities that PAAC offers," Aleah wrote simply. Hayden's favorite topics: the Belt and Road Initiative and Soft Power.
What Six Years Builds
The CFS drive tally going back to 2021 tells its own story: 313, 1,037, 492, 424, 313, 156. The numbers go up and down with the economy, with competing campus drives, with the realities of any given year. What doesn't change is that the club shows up in February with boxes.
The toys are in the cages. The 7th annual drive is already on the calendar.
Hawai'i Technology Academy Waipahu PAAC Club, led by Co-Presidents Emma Baksic and Shayna Mcelhannon, completed six years of the Child and Family Services Collection Drive, the Humane Society Donation Drive, and volunteered at the Pearl Harbor Blackened Canteen Ceremony, HTA kindergarten reading, and the BOO-Book Giveaway, while attending LEAD Summit, Global Vision Summit, and Academic WorldQuest during the 2025–2026 school year.
