When four 15-year-old Iolani School girls got together seven months ago to plan their final Girl Scout project, they decided it would be fun to throw the biggest Christmas party the community of Papakolea has ever seen.

"We like kids, and we like shopping," said Liane Leong. "It's perfect."

After months of hard work, the Papakolea community center will be filled with hundreds of gifts Dec. 3 for the children and families in the Hawaiian Homelands community. There will be live entertainment, a lu'au and Mayor Mufi Hannemann passing out gifts as Santa Claus.

The party is a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Papakolea, which has held smaller Christmas parties the past two years.

Donny Hoover, director of the Boys and Girls Club, said excitement is building.

"Already some of the children know something is brewing," Hoover said. "They are really excited."

A group of the club's teens went door to door, passing out forms asking what gifts children would like. Most wanted toys or CD players or dolls, but one child asked for only a 9-volt battery so he could finally operate the present he got last year.

"It broke some of their hearts," Hoover said.

"At the Boys and Girls Club we think about that. We see them every day. We know the children that have and those that don't. For some last year (our gift) was their only present."

Leong, along with Chelsey Moriyama, Alyson Wee and Tate Kaneshige have been friends and members of Iolani Girl Scout Troop 808 since they were in first and second grade. "Christmas in Papakolea" is their Girl Scout Gold Award project. The Gold Award is highest honor in Girl Scouts, the equivalent of the Eagle rank in Boy Scouts.

To complete the award, the girls must plan and carry out a service project that will benefit the community. Many Girl Scouts make blankets for the needy, build park benches or do clean-up projects for their awards.

"We wanted to do something bigger than normal," Kaneshige said.

More than 250 families totaling 600 people are expected to attend, with Lina Girl and Danny Kaleikini acting as emcees. The Hoku Award-winning group Maunalua will perform, along with Papakolea resident Genoa Keawe and slack key guitar player Kiho Alu.

The planning has approached a fever pitch with coordinating details of transportation and gift pickup from the many donors. Kaneshige's house is filling up with boxes of gifts, sorted by age group.

To buy about 600 presents, the girls approached local businesses and asked if they could help. More than 80 companies and individuals pitched in.

"We learned how to manage our time and to meet deadlines," Moriyama said. "We haven't had any weekends."

Trying to fill every request possible, the girls recently went to Kmart and filled five shopping carts with presents. They have spent the past two weeks wrapping gifts and affixing the names on the presents.

Wee said all the hard work and effort will prove worthwhile.

"Seeing all the children open their presents and that they are happy, that is success," she said.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.