Our goal was 1,000 members taking action to "green" their holidays and get back to island priorities of ohana and aloha.

We fell just short in terms of numbers, but there are many successes to be counted here. Dozens of members shared stories of how the Campaign changed what they gave, how they celebrated, and what they got out of the holidays in 2008.

If you have a story, you can still add it here.

And though it was 900 of us instead of 1,000, the actions we took together over 6 weeks made a measurable difference:

• We kept 8 tons of waste out of our landfills and incinerators with commitments to reuse wrapping, recycle and use biodegradables at parties, make our greeting cards, get off of catalog lists, and recycle Christmas trees.
• This included more than 10,000 lbs of paper waste avoided from wrapping, packaging, and greeting cards -- paper that would have required harvesting 120 trees.
• We kept 5 tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere by combining errands to save gas and using LED Christmas lights, and saved more than $1,500 in gas and electric bills in the process.
• We gave a total of 1,711 gifts that were homemade or gently used items, gifts of time, or plants and food that we knew would be used rather than wasted.
• We donated more than 560 items to families in need, volunteered at least 500 hours of service, and gave an estimated $6,100 to support the work of nonprofits.

Some of the groups that led the Campaign charge included Kealakehe High School, the Westin Maui, Seabury Hall, Punahou School, and Actus Lend Lease. The Kanu Hawaii Facebook Group added fuel to the Campaign, too, bringing new people to STH and to Kanu. And, hundreds of non-members also participated through the Kokua Hawaii Foundation.

We owe special mahalos to Kim Johnson and Katie Wright Pere of Kokua Hawaii who first conceived this campaign; to Keana Okuda and Karen Shishido who blogged about gifting responsibly; and to our friends at KGMB9 who covered the Campaign with several segments on their morning show.

The momentum of our campaigns is building: 781 participated in the Day of Action, 900 participated in Simplify the Holidays...we hope hundreds more will band together for campaigns in 2009.