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Toys for tots -- hawg style

By Lisa Malakaua

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 10:28 AM HST

There is nothing like a party to put you in a festive mood, but leave it to a couple of hundred Harley Davidson riders to bring joy and hope to disadvantaged children who might otherwise be overlooked during the holidays.

The Third Annual Rock n' Roll Revival Benefit party for Toys for Tots will include three rock n' roll bands: 5th Wednesday, Razz Jazz, Joe Battery Band featuring Devina Mendeiros. Derek Kurisu of KTA will be the emcee and will also be giving away fresh poke as door prizes.

"It's our third year participating and what better cause is there than to help children -- you can't go wrong it always feels good to do something nice for the community" said 5th Wednesday lead singer, Esther Zamora.

The Rock n' Roll Revival benefit party will be held Saturday, Nov 15 at the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort Crown Room. The party is natural in simplicity, but high in class with white linen table cloths and stunning holiday-lipstick red poinsettias bordering the stage adding a touch of holiday ambiance with red and white lighting. Harley King Ellsworth proved that he not only knows his way around custom Harleys, but an elegant "bring your own pupu's" hosted cocktail party too.

"This fundraiser is for anybody who wants to support Toys for Tots. This particular fundraiser is for our Toys for Tots motorcade that is happening on Dec. 14 starting at 10 a.m. at Wal-Mart and ending at Aunty Sally's Luau House. The toys you will see on the bikes of the riders on the Dec. 14 motorcade are toys that they just purchased themselves from Wal-Mart or somewhere else for the kids," Ellsworth said.

"In September, I start my Toys for Tots program and so I send out request letters to different businesses and the businesses support me with monetary donations, toys, and door prizes for the events we put on," Ellsworth said. "Then when we are done collecting the toys, I have a list from ten different agencies on the east side and they tell me what they need and then I assort all the toys accordingly and then distribute to the different agencies. We started out all East Hawai`i but this year we got two agencies that actually work on the west side. The run that we are going to do on the 14th probably generates between 800 to 900 toys but we actually give away 3,000 toys, so the thing is growing way more than what the run can generate, that is where the fundraising money comes in, so we can go out and buy all the toys."

So if you would like to put a little pep into your holiday step by donating to a tot, contact Ellsworth at Hilo Harley Davidson: 934-9090 otherwise we will see you at Wal-Mart.

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Top: Toys for Tots motorcade that is happening on Dec. 14 starting at 10 a.m. at Wal-Mart and ending at Aunty Sally's Luau House. Bottom: The Rock n' Roll Revival benefit party will be held Saturday, Nov 15 at the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort Crown Room.

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