HMSA has awarded $88,000 to Hawaii high schools and outstanding student-athletes.
HMSA has awarded $88,000 to Hawaii high schools and outstanding student-athletes.
School principals, athletic directors, students and family members came from across the state to the Hawaii Convention Center to honor Hawaii’s top high schools and the finest scholar-athletes at the 2014 HMSA Kaimana Awards &Scholarship Program luncheon.
“The students and the schools we’re honoring today understand the value of giving back to our communities,” said Elisa Yadao, HMSA’s senior vice president of Consumer Experience. “In addition to the countless hours they worked to excel academically and athletically, they all made time to make a difference and give back. These are young people making positive change in the world and we want to do whatever we can to help them because that’s the best way to create healthy, vibrant communities.”
The Kaimana program, which started in August 2005, recognizes all-around accomplishments by high schools and rewards individual student-athletes with scholarships. It’s sponsored by HMSA and administered by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association.
At the awards ceremony, 21 students received scholarships worth $3,000. Five of those students were named distinguished scholars and received an additional $2,000 each.
Thirty high schools were honored for achieving the highest program scores in their league and division in athletics, academics, sportsmanship and community service. The 10 highest-scoring schools received a check for $1,500.
KGMB Sunrise News anchor Steve Uyehara and Pali Momi director of philanthropy Liz Chun emceed the awards luncheon. Guest presenters included KITV4 sports anchor and University of Hawaii Rainbow Warrior football play-by-play announcer Robert Kekaula; news anchor Ron Mizutani of KHON2’s Wake Up 2Day; Honolulu Star-Advertiser columnist Dave Reardon; Dana Takahara-Dias, vice principal of Stevenson Middle School; and Dave Vinton, director of sports programming for OC-16.
Big Island Interscholastic Federation winners were (Division I), Kealakehe High School, first; Konawaena High School, second; Keaau High School, third; (Division 2), Hawaii Preparatory Academy, first; Makua Lani Christian Academy, second, and Parker School, third.
Scholarships went to Kristiana Van Pernis of HPA, who received two awards; Kiersten-Tawny Hurley, Kanu o ka Aina NCPCS, and Bram Paikuli, Kamehameha Schools Hawaii.