2 held in cab driver's death1 teen charged with 2nd-degree murder, held on $250,000 bail

Sunday, May 9, 2010
Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaii, USA)

Honolulu police have arrested two teenagers in the May 1 beating death of 41-year-old taxi driver Charlys Ty Tang.

Michael Robles, 18, of Mānoa and an unidentified 17-year-old male were arrested at the Honolulu Police Department's main station on South Beretania shortly before midnight on Friday.

Robles was charged with second-degree murder, and is being held on $250,000 bail, police said.

The 17-year-old boy was arrested and a petition filed in Family Court, said Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Capt. Letha DeCaires

Tang, who immigrated to Hawai'i from Cambodia, was found beaten and dying in his car just before 2 a.m. in the parking lot of the Waipahu Times Super Market. It was his 41st birthday.

Police said Tang had picked up two men around 1:15 a.m. on Kūhiō Avenue then drove them to Times. Witnesses reported seeing two men fleeing the scene.

Tang's death shed light on the long hours and potentially deadly situations faced by local taxi drivers, many of whom are immigrants. In the wake of the apparent killing, many drivers voiced their concerns about working in the midst of a prolonged recession.

Tang worked as a cook at several restaurants, but turned to driving a taxi when many of those restaurants closed because of slow business.

On the day he died, his family had been planning a birthday celebration at Magic Island to coincide with a gathering of other immigrants from Cambodia.

A service for Tang will be held Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Mililani Downtown Mortuary (visitation from 9 a.m.), with burial to follow at noon at Valley of the Temples Memorial Park.

Tang is survived by his wife, Xiaoling; son, Jarvis, daughter, Aprille; mother, Jenny Tang; brothers, Billy and Peter; and sisters, Judy Chow, Susan and Pamela.

Cab driver killed on birthday

Ty Tang

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer (Honolulu, Hawaii)

Cambodian immigrant Ty Tang was hard worker with 2 young children

WANT TO HELP?
Donations in the form of checks can be sent to:
University Avenue Baptist Church
2305 University Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96822
In the memo line, write: For Ty Tang's Family

Cambodian immigrant Ty Tang was driving a taxi out of Waikīkī to help raise his two young children when he was found beaten and dying in the middle of the night Saturday in the parking lot of the Waipahu Times Super Market.

It was Tang's 41st birthday.

His family had been planning a celebration for Tang at Magic Island on Saturday to coincide with a gathering of other struggling, but hardworking immigrants from Cambodia.

Instead, Tang's children — a 12-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl — were told they could not deliver a birthday cake to their father's hospital bed at The Queen's Medical Center on Saturday "so he could blow out the candles," said Tang's best friend, Richard Ung, who also emigrated from Cambodia and also drove a cab out of Waikīkī.

Since Honolulu police called Ung around 2:15 a.m. Saturday with the news that Tang was found dying with head and facial injuries, "I cry all the time," Ung said. "He's a nice person, a good man, a good father, a good friend."

Detectives yesterday continued to search for two men who were seen fleeing from the direction of Tang's white, 2004 Ford Crown Victoria after he was found beaten at 1:50 in the morning. He died later on Saturday.

Tang had picked up two men around 1:15 a.m. on Kūhiō Avenue near Seaside Avenue then drove them to the Times Super Market, police said.

Police asked anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, or *CRIME on their cellular phones.

Worried Honolulu cab drivers — most of them immigrants themselves — and their even more frightened wives and children were wondering aloud yesterday about the safety of hustling for fares in hard times during yet another Hawai'i slow tourism season.

At a waiting area for 200 to 300 cab drivers outside Honolulu International Airport yesterday, one immigrant cab driver after another said they have to wait eight to 12 hours per day for their turns to pick up what averages out to two fares per day.

On a typical shift this time of year, drivers said, they can generate about $100 per day, which means they take home about $65 every day after paying for gas and maintenance on their cars, which they own.

"It's slow, really slow," said Tony Nguyen, 36, who was raised in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. "Every day worse."

Jimmy Lieu, 44, who is from Vietnam's Mekong Delta area, only drives his cab during the day "because it's dangerous. My wife always tell me to be safe. My wife, she keep checking on me, checking on me."

Lieu considers "night time" to be after midnight.

Many of the drivers waiting around for fares yesterday said they have been ripped off by passengers who bolt from their cabs — or have worried about sketchy, fearsome passengers.

"When people get in your cab and say, 'You got change for $100?' that's a sign," Nguyen said. "But there's not much else we can do when English is second language. No career jobs."

Waneka Davis refuses to pick up passengers after 9 p.m. and won't ever make what she calls "the long trip" to the Windward and Leeward Coasts, giving up the chance for a lucrative trip.

Davis, a mother and grandmother of two, is constantly being warned by her family to be safe.

"They say, 'Mom, be careful.'"

The Honolulu medical examiner's office yesterday identified the victim in Saturday's taxi cab beating as Charlys Ty Tang.

But everyone called him Ty, (pronounced Tee).

Like his friend, Ung, Tang lived in Waikīkī and occasionally worshipped with Vietnamese and Cambodian parishioners at University Avenue Baptist Church.

Pastor Hong Ly Khuy yesterday was collecting donations for Tang's family, which includes an ex-wife Tang remained friendly with and Tang's new wife.

Before he turned to driving a cab, Tang had worked as a cook at several restaurants that closed because of slow business, Khuy said.

Then about four years ago, Khuy said, Tang turned to driving a cab, one of the primary sources of income for struggling immigrants.

"It's a job for when you're new and don't speak English that well," Khuy said. "But all the time, people talk about how dangerous it is."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.
-------
Two men sought by police

Police yesterday released sketches and descriptions of two men wanted for questioning in Sunday's fatal beating of cab driver Ty Tang in the parking lot of the Waipahu Times Super Market.

Suspect 1 is described as 17 to 23 years old, 5 feet 4 to 5-7, and 140 to 155 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.

Suspect 2 is described as 17 to 23 years old, 5-8 to 5-11, and 155 to 180 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information of this incident may call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cell phone.

[Cambodian-American] Taxi Cab Driver Dies After Brutal Attack

Father Of Two Children; Enjoyed Work, Cooking

May 3, 2010
KITV (Honolulu, Hawaii)

HONOLULU -- A taxi driver brutally beaten in a Waipahu parking lot early Saturday has died.

Honolulu police are investigating his death as a homicide.

Charlys Tang turned 41 years old Saturday.

Police said early that morning two men robbed and beat Tang when he confronted them over not paying.

Police said the men fled leaving Tang bleeding in the parking lot at Times Supermarket in Waipahu.

“Thank you for being the best dad ever. Thank you for teaching us how to play a sport and for taking us to the beach,” wrote 13-year old Jarvis Tang in a birthday card he wrote to his father.

Tang met Elissa Ramos after moving to Hawaii from Cambodia.

The couple had two children together, son Jarvis and 10-year- old Aprille, but they never married.

“It’s just very sad because my kids love him so much, and he loves the kid so much,” said Ramos.

Ramos said Tang worked long hours to provide for his children.

“He’s a good person and he tries his best to take care of us and he tries to make us a good person as he is,” said Tang’s daughter, Aprille.

Tang loved to cook, a passion he shared with his children.

“I will miss how teaches me how to cook and try to add recipes,” said Aprille Tang.

“He taught me how to cook some food and how to swim and how to ride a bike,” said Tang’s 13-year- old son, Jarvis.

Several years ago, Tang married another woman but remained very close to his children.

His family says he treated everyone kindly.

Tang's son didn't get to give the birthday card to his father.

He says if he could, he would add one more thing:

“I would tell him how great of a dad he was,” said Jarvis Tang.

Tang’s family donated his heart.

---Police Investigate Homicide----

Honolulu police released sketches of the two men wanted in connection with Tang's slaying.

Police described the first suspect as a man, 5'4" to 5'7" tall, weighing 140 to 150 pounds.

The second man is described as 5'8" to 5"11" tall, weighing 155 to 180 pounds.

Police say they they both have black hair and brown eyes and they are about the same age, between 17 to 23 years old.

If you have any information on this case, call Crimestoppers at 9-5-5-8-3-0-0.

Khmer New Year Celebration at Cambodian Dhammaram Temple in Waialua, Hawaii

Click on any of the images above to zoom in

Committees of Cambodian-American Buddhist Association of Hawaii (CABAH) would like to invite members and guests to come join our important Cambodian New Year Celebration (Bon Chol Chnam Khmer) on the following schedule. Bon Chol Chnam is very important annual Celebration for all Cambodians to have family reunion, cultural show, entertainment, and cultivate goodness/merits for their life.

WHEN:

Saturday, April 11, 2009

• 02:30 PM: arrival of all participants and guests at Cambodian Dhammaram Temple or Dhammaram Asrama: Parita Chanting

Sunday, April 12, 2009

• 9:00 AM - Arrival of all participants and guests : Worship Triple Gem, Observe Five Precepts, Offering Food to Monks, Meditate and Pray for Well-being of Our Ancestors as well as all Beings.
• 11:30 AM: All participants have lunch

Note: Khmer New Year will be inaugurated (Chlong) in Sunday, April 12, 2009 to conduct Sand Mount, Buddha Bath, Khmer Dance, Khmer Music and play Traditional Games.

There will be an election to choose the Permanent Board Members after Lunch time.

WHERE:

Address: 67067A Kaelohanui St., Waialua, HI 96791
(Across the street from Waialua High School’s Basketball Court)

Click here for a map to the venue location

Cambodian Orphans Perform Traditional Khmer Dance and Music During Visit with Hawaii Email Foster Parents

30 children ages 14 to 20 to participate in cultural exchanges with other Oahu students

8/26/2008
By Jennifer Pang
Hawaii Reporter

HONOLULU – http://www.emailfosterparents.org – A group of talented children from the Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate (FLOW) just outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, arrive on Oahu September 3. Many will meet their email foster parents for the first time, and also participate in cultural exchanges with other Hawaii students of the same age from Kaimuki High School, Le Jardin, Mid-Pacific Institute, and Punahou School. The visit culminates with an extravagant fundraising performance at 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 13 at Mamiya Theatre. Tax-deductible tickets are available for $50 and $75 ($100 tickets are sold out) by calling 545-3676, and include a wine and pupu reception with the performers from 5 – 6:30 p.m. at the theatre plaza.

“For most of the children, this trip is the first time they’ve ever left Cambodia,” said Oahu resident Rob Hail, Founder and President of Email Foster Parents International, a non-profit that pairs caring adults as foster parents with orphaned and vulnerable children in developing countries. “What’s even more exciting is that on September 3, many foster parents will get to meet their foster kids for the first time, after years of frequent email correspondence. It’s sure to be a chicken-skin moment.”

FLOW was founded in 1992 by Phaly Nuon, a dynamic humanitarian who survived Cambodia’s infamous “Killing Fields” of the Khmer Rouge. The orphanage cares for 250 children ages 5 to 22, and an additional 100 children who come from neighboring villages for lunch and English classes. All kids attend public school or university as a condition of residency, and the older children participate in caring for their younger “siblings”. As part of the curriculum and to provide a link to their rich and ancient heritage, children are given the opportunity to learn Khmer classical dance and music. Over the years, the program has grown and expanded, and in 2006 twelve students were invited to perform in Tokyo, Japan. Following this, Hail, and fellow Rotarians Nancy Walden and Hal Darcey decided they would figure out a way to get the children to Hawaii, despite many hurdles with visas and cost.

“We wanted to bring the kids here, so they could meet their foster parents in the flesh, as well as experience our American and Hawaiian cultures while sharing their own culture with us,” said Nancy Walden, Cambodian Children Cultural Tour Chair. “These extremely talented teens represent a positive future for Cambodia. To see them perform is an inspiring and delightful experience.”

Email Foster Parents International (EFPI) blossomed out of a program founded in 2001 by Rob Hail. The program become a 501(c)3 non-profit in 2008. Today EFPI provides a bridge between orphaned and vulnerable children in developing countries with responsible, caring international donors who offer them support and encouragement primarily through email correspondence and through a $360 annual donation that provides care for the foster child. Foster parents can travel to FLOW to meet their children, getting to know them while staying in FLOW’s guesthouse.

“The relationship you build with your foster child is powerful,” said Hal Darcey, EFPI Vice President. “Your encouraging words are so important; they soon start calling you mom or dad. If you have children, they begin to see them as brothers or sisters. It really touches your heart to know you are making such a difference in their lives.”

Those who are interested in becoming a foster email parent should visit http://www.emailfosterparents.org or call 545-3676.

During the two-week trip, the children will stay with their foster parents or other host families. Highlights of the trip include the following (Media are invited to attend these events):

September 3, 9 a.m., USS Bowfin

30 students and 8 chaperones arrive in Honolulu from Cambodia, meet their foster parents – many of them for the first time. *That afternoon a video news release will be delivered to TV media; photos will be emailed to print media.

September 7, 4 p.m., Central Union Church

Students perform in full costume, makeup and headgear in an hour and a half two-hour performance. *Media area will be set aside for videographers, photographers and reporters. This performance is for the members of Central Union Church and for the Cambodian Community in Hawaii.

September 9, 8 a.m. to Noon, Kaimuki High School

Cambodian students visit Kaimuki High School, give a 45-minute performance to the students at 8:45 a.m. Following this, groups of students will be escorted by Kaimuki student government officers to classes, including wood shop, electronics, a math class and ukulele lessons. The visit ends with a trip to the cafeteria to pick up an American school lunch, which the children will eat in the theatre with the dramatic arts students.

Jennifer Pang is the President of Pang Communications

Sisters setting the PACE

The Venerable Somnieng, head of the Life and Hope Association in Cambodia, visited La Pietra last year and inspired middle-school girls to develop a cross-cultural exchange with girls in Cambodia. (COURTESY PHOTO)

Monday, March 17, 2008
By Maryna Feldberg and Bobbi-jo Katagiri
Seniors, La Pietra
Honolulu Star Bulletin (Hawaii, USA)

La Pietra middle-school students devoted a recent FridayFest, a school social event, to a community service activity. Working with the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, La Pietra has adopted a sister school in Cambodia through a Buddhist temple located in Siem Reap.

The connection began when La Pietra English teacher Marisa Proctor traveled to Cambodia last summer with the East-West Center's "Travel and Teach" program and volunteered at Wat Damnak, where the Venerable Somnieng, a Buddhist monk, is the head of the Life and Hope Association. LHA sponsors many community outreach programs, including the Program Advancing Children's Education, or PACE. This year, PACE has identified 13 at-risk girls in the community to live together in a boardinghouse and attend the Life & Hope Junior School.

Last October, Somnieng spoke at La Pietra while visiting Honolulu for a conference at UH. Upon arriving, his eyes lit up when he was reminded that La Pietra is an all-girls school, and it wasn't long before he suggested forging a link between the girls at his boarding house and La Pietra's middle schoolers.

Later that day, when social studies teacher and Middle School Congress adviser Tom Robinson heard Somnieng speak, he knew that he had found an opportunity to build a long-term, meaningful connection for his middle-schoolers. This wouldn't be just a one-time community service project, he realized. He wanted something more lasting.

The result became Sisters Setting the PACE, an organization whose mission is to empower girls in Cambodia and Hawaii by building friendships and developing cross-cultural citizenship through support, communication, cultural exchange and lifelong education. Students will learn from and motivate one another to become responsible young women who will bring about positive change in their communities and beyond.

Mutual benefit for both parties is the main goal for this project. By creating this connection, the Cambodian girls have the opportunity to get an education, and La Pietra students get the benefit of cross-cultural communication with people from a country most Americans know little about. Both schools hope to build a solid relationship so that, within a few years, they might even get to meet. While the focus this year is mostly on raising funds to help the girls' transition into the Life & Hope Junior School, long-term plans include donating school supplies and even computer equipment to allow more frequent communication.

La Pietra middle-school students have already raised more than $2,500 and sent disposable cameras to the PACE girls, who will photograph their lives and respond in writing to a questionnaire about themselves. When they send these back, La Pietra girls will be paired up with PACE girls and return the favor with pictures and letters of their own.

La Pietra is working in cooperation with the East-West Center's Schools-Helping-Schools program to help ease the communication and fund the expenses for the exchange between schools. Originally created to aid victims of the 2005 tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, Schools-Helping-Schools is now expanding out to other projects. Its involvement ensures that 100 percent of La Pietra's donations go straight to the students of PACE. The East-West Center is a nonprofit organization designed to strengthen relations and understanding among people and nations of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

Cambodian schoolchildren offer a hero’s welcome to two Kaimuki businesswomen who funded school

Professional voice coaches Neva Rego, front, and Betty Grierson, left, posed with their student, Dr. Kathleen Kozak, at the Bel Canto School of Singing in Kaimuki. Kozak, who built a school with the American Assistance for Cambodia program in 2006, inspired the two business owners to work extra hours to raise $20,000 to fund a secondary school for underprivileged Cambodian children. (CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Singing the praises: Cambodian schoolchildren offer a hero’s welcome to two Kaimuki businesswomen who funded school

STORY SUMMARY:
Two Kaimuki small-business owners worked an extra hour a day for a year to save money to fund a school for Cambodian children who were still living in the shadow of the Killing Fields.

Though Neva Rego and Betty Grierson, owners of the Bel Canto School of Singing, don't fit the stereotypical profile of Hawaii's well-heeled philanthropist, they were so inspired by the unfortunate children of Cambodia that they used hard work to overcome their lack of resources.

The women, along with other Hawaii donors, were recently honored by King Father Norodom Sihanouk, who threw a palace lunch in their honor and sent them home with silver.

However, the small-business owners said that the greatest rewards came when the children who inspired their gift gave them a hero's welcome.

Neighborhood children and students from schools surrounding the Bright Future Kids School in the rural countryside outside of Phnom Penh sat patiently during the grand opening of their sister school. Kathleen Kozak, a doctor for Straub in Hawaii, was one of the major donors for the project. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Sunday, October 14, 2007
By Allison Schaefers
aschaefers@starbulletin.com
Honolulu Star Bulletin (Hawaii, USA)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Two Kaimuki small-business owners showed Cambodia the meaning of aloha on a recent trip to open a secondary school that they funded for more than 300 underprivileged children in Kandal province.

Neva Rego and Betty Grierson, owners of the Bel Canto School of Singing, worked an extra hour a day for a year to raise $20,000 to build a school in a remote Cambodian village where the children did not have access to an education. The women were moved to build a school for Cambodian children when their voice student, Dr. Kathleen Kozak, began singing the praises of American Assistance for Cambodia program. Kozak invited the business owners to the opening of the school that she funded last year for the nonprofit, founded by retired journalist and Holocaust survivor Bernie Krisher.

Workers continued to build the facility minutes after the grand-opening ceremony for the school. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

It's ironic that music is the stuff Rego and Grierson are using to help rebuild Cambodia and lead the country's children out of the shadow of the Killing Fields. In the years after infamous communist leader Pol Pot killed 2 million Khmer people in the 1975-79 genocide, Cambodia has struggled to rebuild without the aid of all of the trainers, educators, artists and entertainers who were among the first to be executed. Last year, only one out of every two Cambodia children completed primary school, but Krisher hopes to change that with Khmer schools that he has built largely with U.S. and Japanese aid.

"We've got 382 schools and more coming in every day," Krisher said from Phnom Penh on a recent trip to open several high-profile development projects in Cambodia, including a secondary school for the brightest Khmer children and an orphanage for children who have lost either one or both parents to HIV or AIDS.

Rego and Grierson said they were touched by the children they met in Cambodia during the opening of the Kozak Ohana School in 2006 and wanted to find a way to make their own difference.

"We didn't think that we had enough money to open a school, but when we met the children, we decided that we had to make it happen," Rego said, while surrounded by the bright, brown-eyed students at her simple Kandal province school and from the nearby village.

Many other Hawaii people have opened their hearts and their checkbooks to Krisher's cause, shoring up the health, education and, eventually, economic prospects of Khmer children so that the emerging country can meet its development goals. On Krisher's most recent fundraising trip to Hawaii, donors pledged more than $78,000 to bring the total of Hawaii-funded schools in Cambodia to 16. However, Rego and Grierson don't fit the stereotypical profile of the wealthy philanthropists that often fund such projects.

A Cambodian government official handed out gifts to children of the New Life Orphanage during the establishment's grand opening. All children at the orphanage, which was funded through Bernie Krisher's foundation, have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Still, Rego and Grierson said that they figured if the children of Cambodia could find a way to survive each day in a land short on money, resources and access to the basics like adequate food, shelter and even clean water, than they could manage to find a way to fund a school.
"These children are so poor that all they know about is staying alive from one day to the next," Grierson said. "We are so concerned about things like paying insurance on our cars, but these kids just want to stay alive."

While they were short of dollars, the two business owners were determined. By working harder and saving more, they were able to make a project happen that at first seemed impossible.

"We just worked longer hours," Grierson said, adding that the pair named the school Bel Canto after the Hawaii business that made it possible.

Retired journalist and Holocaust survivor Bernie Krisher, left, who founded the American Assistance for Cambodia and the Japan Relief for Cambodia school-building programs, received a hug greeting from King Father Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Ties between the unlikely friends served as the inspiration for Krisher's school-building program. (COURTESY ROYAL PALACE OF CAMBODIA)

The businesswomen said they also were inspired by Kozak's example from the year earlier. The young doctor funded the opening of the school with faith, dogged determination and lots of work hours.

"I didn't have the funds when I committed to building a school, but I found a way to do it," Kozak said.

A fortuitously timed tax refund helped bolster Kozak's savings so that she could open her school last year. She returned to Cambodia recently to celebrate the opening of the Bel Canto School, as well as the opening of the Bright Future Kids School, another project that she helped fund.

"It was amazing to be at the opening of the Bright Future Kids School," Kozak said. "One year ago, we held a groundbreaking. Now, there are several buildings that will be there for perpetuity."

The Bel Canto School and others like it will serve as feeder schools for the Bright Future Kids School.

"The sky is the limit at the Bright Future Kids School," Krisher said. "It will provide secondary education and a chance for a bright future for the smartest children from Cambodia's most remote villages. Without this school, these children would have had to go back to farming after they finished elementary school."

Building the Bel Canto School was just another adventure in a lifetime of many for the two business partners and longtime friends.

Professional voice coach Neva Rego, front, signed the welcoming book at the opening ceremony for the Bright Future Kids School. Betty Grierson, left, who works with Rego, and their student, Dr. Kathleen Kozak, observed the signing. (ALLISON SCHAEFERS / ASCHAEFERS@STARBULLETIN.COM)

Rego, a native of Kaimuki, and Grierson, formerly of Canada, met in Italy while studying opera. Rego returned home to Hawaii in the early 1980s and soon after opened the Bel Canto School of Singing so that she could share her love of music and expertise with others. Over the years, Rego has coached many stars, including the Brothers Cazimero, Makaha Sons, Shari Lynn, Jimmy Borges and Danny Couch. She also was recognized by the Hawaii Legislature last year for her contributions to the state, which have included voice coaching for 16 Miss Hawaiis and two Miss Americas.
Gov. Linda Lingle herself honored Rego last week with a commendation letter acknowledging the opening of the Bel Canto School in Cambodia and thanking her for her work as a goodwill ambassador on behalf of Hawaii.

Grierson, who went home to Canada for a time before joining Rego, helped Rego expand her school and her dreams.

"In our own small remote way, we are helping Cambodia to rise up," Grierson said.

While the Bel Canto School in Kandal will be most concerned about teaching the students basic subjects like speaking English, eventually the Hawaii philanthropists might try to teach them to sing, too.

"If it goes well, eventually we'd like to hire a music teacher," said Rego, who has been honored with an "excellence in education" award from the National Society of Arts.

While the two business owners have earned many accolades in Hawaii, the most touching praise that they received has come from King Father Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

King Father hosted a lunch for the American and Japanese school donors. The women also were royally greeted from the students of the school they funded.

"They gave us so much love," Rego said, with tears in her eyes as she recalled the way that she felt to see all of the children at their school lined up to greet her on opening day.

Even Grierson, the least sentimental of the pair, said she cried at the event.

"There was plenty of waterworks," Rego said.

But there was also much joy, she said. While career choices kept the women from marrying and having families, they said that they now count hundreds of Cambodian schoolchildren among their ohana.

"Ever since we made the decision to fund this school, I've felt so much joy. These children have become our kids," Rego said. "I've learned that doing well for others is what true happiness is all about."