Thank you for writing a petition and

wanting to make a difference! 

How to use your petition

I suggest creating a Facebook page, putting the Facebook page link on your petition and asking people to follow you on your Facebook page to help keep them informed, or start an email list and try to get them to sign your email list because the petition doesn't save anyone's contact information.

You can use your petition in county council meetings by saying you are standing with however many signatures on your petition and now all the people who signed your petition, you are literally standing up for during meetings. This makes your voice louder.

Ask people to leave comments on your petition because you can copy and paste ALL the comments from the petition and use them in your comment letter for meetings that come up for your petition topic. This way you will never stand alone and you will get more people's voices heard through sending their comments with yours and always send your petition link as well in your comment letters so they can see the exact comments and know they are true.

You can easily copy ALL the comments from the petition by opening all the comments. Click on the View More Reasons For Signing. Keep clicking this until this doesn't show up anymore. Then scroll up slowly and make sure to click on Read more on some of the comments because this will open the really long comments so they can be completely copied. Then copy all the comments by holding down the left click and scroll up, then right click and copy and past them in your letter.

Petitions can change the world!

Petition Instructions

1.) Get a good petition photo and make sure the photo for your petition is legal to use. Meaning, you might have to purchase the rights to use it. You can find Free Stock Photos at https://www.dreamstime.com/free-photos or you can purchase 1 or more photos by purchasing a Credit Package from this link https://www.dreamstime.com/credits.

This site Copilot (microsoft.com) gives incredible AI photos for free. Just type Create...give the description of the kind of photo you want for your petition. After a few seconds you'll get examples. Then click on the photo you like. If you don't like any try giving another description. You might have to refresh the page if it gets slow. Download the photo you like by clicking on the three bars at top right after you click on the photo you like, you'll see download. 

2.) Go to Change.org because it will walk you through creating your petition https://www.change.org/start-a-petition?utm_source=google_paid_x&utm_medium=twigeo&utm_campaign=us_web_pmax_ua_sap_20240109_generic-petition_conversions-sap&utm_content=&utm_term=gclickid.CjwKCAjww_iwBhApEiwAuG6ccGj3DJKEcVREi4GrawaWb_PBwNQT7zZIDqVtiyE4DsbJ6xbIYPjneBoCs_wQAvD_BwE_&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjww_iwBhApEiwAuG6ccGj3DJKEcVREi4GrawaWb_PBwNQT7zZIDqVtiyE4DsbJ6xbIYPjneBoCs_wQAvD_BwE&started_flow=true.

3.) Let everyone know about your petition when it's ready and post the petition link with a description to MANY different Facebook pages and when doing this make sure your petition link is copied correctly every time because sometimes it doesn't copy correctly. Using the exact link for it's web address helps.

Post it to pages like these:

https://www.facebook.com/BigIslandNow/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigislandnews/ https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiNewsNow/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/konacommunity/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/hilohappenings/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/PunaNewsNetwork/ https://www.facebook.com/BigIslandSupport/

Find more Facebook pages by using the search box on Facebook with your topic.

There are a lot of different ways to get your petition out there just research how and post about your petition weekly.

If there is a deadline coming up you can also make fliers and put them everywhere like gyms, stories, bulletin boards... be sure to ask for permission if you can.

You can make big signs and get your info out there for the public to see. Be sure to pick up ALL signs after deadline.

Write to the West Hawaii Today paper about your petition https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/letter-to-the-editor/  and you can shorten the petition link at https://tinyurl.com/.

I use https://www.yola.com/ to make websites and some people just use a Facebook page and make sure your Facebook page is for business because if it's personal it only let's you have 1,000 followers no more. At least it did years ago.  

Don't read or reply to negative comments! Don't take part in negative threads. Only respond to positive comments because this will help your heart and mind a lot, so don't give the negative people much mind. 

4.) Once you get some signatures on your petition you can set up meetings to talk with government officials or just email them about your petition and make sure to get a reply, or keep emailing them and calling about it. They work for us so they need to reply to you.

Mayor Roth's secretary's email is tiffany.kahoonei@hawaiicounty.gov. 

County council members emails will be on this site https://www.hawaiicounty.gov/our-county/legislative/county-council/council-members-and-districts

Emails of other government officials you'll find through these links below, some of them you might have to email directly from their website.

https://portal.ehawaii.gov/government/state-officials/

https://www.rxphawaii.com/big-island-legislators

https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/legislature/legislators.aspx?chamber=S

https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/legislature/legislators.aspx?chamber=H  I copied all of the emails from this link and you can just copy them from below and put them all to your email:

repaiu@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repalcos@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repamato@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repbelatti@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repchun@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repcochran@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repevslin@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repganaden@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repgarcia@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repgarrett@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repgates@capitol.hawaii.gov,
rephashem@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repholt@capitol.hawaii.gov,
rephusseyburdick@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repichiyama@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repilagan@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repkahaloa@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repkapela@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repkila@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repkitagawa@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repkobayashi@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repkong@capitol.hawaii.gov,
replachica@capitol.hawaii.gov,
replamosao@capitol.hawaii.gov,
replowen@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repmarten@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repmartinez@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repmatayoshi@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repmatsumoto@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repmiyake@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repmmizuno@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repmorikawa@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repnakamura@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repnakashima@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repnishimoto@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reponishi@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repperruso@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reppierick@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reppoepoe@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repquinlan@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repsaiki@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repsayama@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repsouza@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reptakayama@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reptakenouchi@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reptam@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reptarnas@capitol.hawaii.gov,
reptodd@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repward@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repwoodson@capitol.hawaii.gov,
repyamashita@capitol.hawaii.gov

Thank you for your time my friend. I pray for all of us to create a better world.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Melendez