After reading about the plight of homeless children along the Wai'anae Coast, Denise Tange couldn't sleep.

The 48-year-old mother was disturbed by the image of a 6-year-old homeless boy selecting a can of tuna instead of small toys in his school store because his family was short on food.

She was disturbed by the image of a 12-year-old girl so traumatized about living on the beach that she wrote a poem, "Life's Just Not Fair," detailing the inhumanity of it all. Tange has a 12-year-old daughter.

"I stayed awake all night thinking about that," Tange said.

Tange, who lives in Japan and was visiting O'ahu last week, read The Advertiser's series about the Wai'anae Coast homeless crisis at her upscale Waikiki hotel and was so moved she decided to do something to help.

Tange and two other visiting friends, all of whom are mothers with children in the same affluent private school in Tokyo, initiated arrangements to have their children's school collect clothes and other donations to send to the coast for homeless students.

"We are here enjoying this amazing, luxury lifestyle in this land which is paradise, taking it all for granted, while at the same time, there are these children living this life," Tange said, referring to the inhospitable conditions among the beach encampments, one of which she visited last week with an Advertiser reporter and photographer.

The three women weren't the only ones moved to act.

Dozens of people who read the series stepped forward with offers of help. Many were local residents, but readers from as far away as the East Coast also responded.

One North Carolina woman sent $100 to a Mililani friend, who was so moved by the series that she contacted family and friends — some who read the stories online from the Mainland — asking if they were interested in helping Wai'anae's homeless kids. They have agreed to do so.

A Big Island man said he had "very generous" friends in Southern California who wanted to donate.

Kamaile Elementary School, one of the coast schools most affected by the homeless crisis and prominently featured in the series, got so many offers of help the staff initially was overwhelmed. Individuals, nonprofit groups and businesses said they would donate money, school supplies, canned food, bottled water and other goods — whatever Kamaile said it needed.

"It was amazing, the outpouring of aloha, from simple people to big organizations," said Pua Gomes, the parent coordinator at Kamaile. "(The series) struck a chord with them. They had to do something. They couldn't just sit back and do nothing. So they gave from their heart."

TOUCHING HEARTS

The Advertiser's five-day series detailed the pressures the homeless crisis has put on the region's housing, healthcare and school systems. The problem has become especially acute within the past two years, mostly because of escalating rents. Hundreds of families now are living on the beaches and in makeshift quarters in the valleys.

But because many O'ahu residents rarely, if ever, visit that part of the island, they said they were surprised by the magnitude of the problem, particularly the severe effects it has had on school-age children living under the stars.

"This (schools) article really struck a nerve, and I would like to help," wrote one reader in an e-mail. "I would also like to say that you definitely opened up my eyes, and hopefully many more."

The poem by Ariel Lewis-Hashimoto, who as a then-12-year-old spent nine months on the beach in 2004, especially touched readers, men and women alike, who said they cried or teared up as they read it. Ariel, an avid reader who likes writing in a journal, now lives with her grandmother and is a 10th-grader at Kapolei High School.

The poem was published Oct. 22 as part of the homeless series, and the next day a Waipahu couple showed up at the Kapolei school's office and left two big bags of gifts for Ariel, whom they had never met. Inside were books, a new journal, gift cards, a back pack, school supplies and a clock with the inscription, "You have touched many hearts."

Another woman, a Kailua grandmother with two 12-year-old granddaughters of her own, said she was so moved by the poem that she contacted Ariel's grandmother, Cheryl Lewis, to ask if she could make a quilt for the once-homeless girl. The Kailua woman likewise has never met Ariel.

"When I read that poem, it just made sense," said the Kailua quilter, who asked not to be named because she was acting in the spirit of altruism. "It just highlighted what was really happening. ... It was straight from her heart obviously. And it meant something to me."

Ariel, a shy, soft-spoken girl, said all the compliments she got from strangers and classmates made her happy. A vice principal at her school even asked Ariel to autograph her photo in the newspaper.

Lewis, her grandmother, said she was impressed by the outpouring of support. "I feel really good about it, that people do care."

HELPING FAMILIES

That caring spirit manifested itself in many ways: