Isabelle Curtis will receive the Isamu Miyoshi scholarship which is awarded in memory of former Kauai High School principal Mr. Isamu Miyoshi and sponsored by Dennis (KHS '59) and Geri Miyoshi of Albuquerque, NM.   The other five recipients are: Misty Balisacan, Alexis Hernandez, Shelley Tottori, Ryan Valenciano and Megan Walsh.  These students were selected from a field of 16 applicants.  A formal announcement and awarding of a framed certificate will be presented at the senior luau which is scheduled for May 15, 2012.

Misty E. Balisacan is the daughter of Ronald and Adelaida Balisacan of Lihue.  She will attend the University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado and will major in Pre-Med/Pediatrics.

Isabelle J. Curtis is the daughter of Paul and Millie Curtis of Lihue.  She will attend San Diego State University, San Diego, California and will major in Physical Therapy.

Alexis A. Hernandez is the daughter of Alma Rosa A. Tamashiro of Kapaa.  She will attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and will major in Film and Journalism.

Shelley S. Tottori it the daughter of Leland and Shirley Tottori of Lihue.  She will attend Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska and will major in Pre-Med.

Ryan P. Valenciano is the son of Placido and Michelle Valenciano of Lihue.  He will attend Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon and will major in Physical Therapy.

Megan D. Walsh is the daughter of Kelley Knudsen of Kalaheo.  She will attend the University of California, Berkeley, California and will major in Biotechnology.

Thank you so much for the scholarship.  It will help with my books and all the lab fees.  I appreciate your confidence in me and hope to make you proud at Berkeley.Thanks Again,
/s/ Megan Walsh

Sincerely,
Isabelle Jasmine Curtis
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Kauai High School Foundation,    June 1, 2012It is thanks to your scholarship that I am one step closer to achieving my future goals.  I wanted to thank you again for the financial aid your scholarship has provided for me  I hope to make you proud.  Thank you again.

Sincerely,
/s/ Isabelle Curtis

Thank you for selecting me for your scholarship. I am humbled to be selected among the many other worthy candidates.

I will be attending Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, to pursue a Doctorate in Physical Therapy. I would like to thank my parents, coaches and teachers that have helped me to become successful in school and made my senior year memorable.

Sincerely...
Ryan Valenciano 

"The underwater Remote Operated Vehicle ( ROV) project is an educational program that Allows high school students to construct a simple ROV from PVC pipe and other ready made materials. Designing and building a vehicle to successfully complete a mission involves a practical, working knowledge of math, physics, electronics and engineering. It also requires setting deadlines, documenting procedures and results, project management, communication, teamwork, critical thinking, continual problem solving, and producing a quality product.

Using ROV in education is a new and innovative way to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) concepts. Many schools now have ROV teams and competitions are held annually in Honolulu and Hilo.

The ROV project teaches students basic skills in ship and submarine design and Encourages students to explore naval architecture and marine and ocean engineering concepts. In addition, the program is intended to highlight marine-related careers and promote the development of technical, problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork skills."

The 2011 overall Low Net winners were the team of Glenn Morishige '63, Claire Morishige '64 and Stephen "Khaki" Rapozo '65. Their winning score was a net 91, 21 under par. This team was also the Low Alumni Team winners and were presented with the Alumni Winner's Perpetual Trophy. All three players were also presented with a "bag of sand". Congratulations to the winning team.

All of the teams received a prize. There were also a lot of fantastic lucky number drawings. Among these prizes was an Indianapolis Colts football helmet, personally autographed by Peyton Manning, a Boyd's Gaming Complimentary Hawaiian Package, and also a beautiful Canvas Geclee.

The Kauai High School Foundation and the golf committee would like to thank the more than 250 alumni and 120 non-alumni friends and businesses for generously supporting our golf tournament. This golf tournament web site will be open throughout the year. If you are able to do so, please support these generous donors.

Mahalo!
Fred Morinaka, Tournament Coordinator

The start of the Class of ‘62’s involvement was during a discussion at their 45th reunion in 2007. They were looking for a specific item that they could present to Kauai High School during their special 50th reunion in 2012. Although there were different suggestions, nothing stood out as the one that they all wanted. Early this year, Paul Yukimura asked Kauai High School Athletic Director Ross Shimabukuro if he had any significant project that he needed help with. Mr. Shimabukuro identified the stage padding project but noted that it had to be accomplished in 2011 rather than in 2012, the 50th reunion year for the class of ’62.

Putting on their thinking caps and using emails, Paul Yukimura, Sharon Takeuchi, Josephine Gampon and Priscilla Texeira discussed the feasibility of pursuing the project, and worked out the details of the hows and whats, etc. They devised a plan that would provide their gift this year, (a year early), but would formally make the presentation during their reunion in 2012…possibly during a basketball game.

Having agreed on the plan, the rest was a matter of execution…getting the money, providing the coordination and communication…and scrambling due to the short time frame in which the money was required.

Ron Takeuchi volunteered to be the focal point to collect the money from the class, Josephine Gampon volunteered to be the communicator with the class, and Paul Yukimura will continue to serve as the coordinator with Kauai High School. Ron and Sharon Takeuchi, as members of the Kauai High School Foundation’s Oahu Golf Committee, were aware of the Foundation’s tax exempt, IRS 501(c)(3) status, plus the upcoming golf tournament. They felt that it was an “automatic” to tie in their class’ fundraising effort to the tax exempt Foundation and specifically to the golf tournament. The tax exempt status was promoted as a means to encourage participation. As an aside, Paul Yukimura is also on the Foundation’s Kauai Golf Committee, and Josephine Gampon is the Foundation’s ambassador to the class of ’62.

On July 7, 2011, Josephine Gampon wrote a note to the class informing them of the project and solicited their participation. A deadline of October 1, 2011 was established. To date (November 28, 2011) a total of $5,530 has been collected. https://kauaihighschoolfoundation.com62donors2011.htm

The final product? A red padding will go across the bottom of the stage with letters proudly spelling “RED RAIDERS”. On the lower right will be printed “Class of ‘62”.

Contributors: Sharon Takeuchi and Paul Yukimura   7/28/11

As you may know, high school athletics is constantly challenged to raise funds in support
of the various athletic teams.

The past year, league funding for thirty-seven sports was $7,500.00. It is my
understanding funding to athletics will be cut again next school year (to $2,500.00).
Keith Amemiya (former Executive Director for the HHSAA) was tremendous in assisting
Public high schools via his “Save our Sports" program, adding $11,999.00 to our athletic
program. It was the final installment for the Save Our Sports Program. While it was a
great help to our program, there is still a great gap providing for our athletic teams.

The cost of running the athletic program the past year was in excess of $180,000.00 (not
including the cost of uniforms). It is left to the teams and athletic department to raise the
balance of the funds via donations and fundraisers.

The past school year brought many additional challenges to the athletic program. With
football moving to daytime, revenues for our gate and food booth dropped almost 40%.

We rely on revenue from the football season to carry our athletic program to make up for
the lack of league and state funding, so we took a tremendous "hit" because of the
shortfall. Fortunately many fans and boosters came through with donations to help us
make it through the year.

Over the summer, we are resurfacing the gym floor. With it comes replacing the scorer's
table, stage padding, and scoreboards. DAGs will take care of the cost of the resurfacing
and scoreboards but the school takes on the responsibility of the cost of the stage
padding and scorer's table (at a cost of over $5000.00).

I am currently in talks with some alumni to help defray some of the cost.

Any help the Kauai High School Foundation can provide will be of tremendous help to
the Kauai High School Athletic Program.

Thank you for considering our program. We truly appreciate all the help and support.

Sincerely,
/s/ Ross Y. Shimabukuro
Athletic Director
Kauai High Athletics

I would like to thank the Kauai High School Foundation Scholarship Committee and the
Foundation Board of Directors for the generous $1,000 scholarship award. I am extremely
honored and delighted to be one of this year's recipients.

Especially with the rising costs of education, your scholarship award will greatly help me in paying
for my college expenses at California Polytechnic State University where I plan to pursue a degree
in computer science. My goal is to become a software engineer. I am committed to studying
hard and working diligently to meet that goal.

As requested, I am also informing you regarding the details for payment to the University……..

Once again, thank you for your continued support for students like myself and for the work your
Foundation does in behalf of Kauai High School. Your generosity surely makes a difference.

Sincerely,
/s/ Justin M . Fujikawa

Proposal Review Criteria. The strongest proposals will be those that meet all or most of the following criteria:

• INTEGRITY OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT. Project is well defined and likely to be successfully completed. Project will benefit students’ learning process. Project budget is adequate and will be used to support Project activities. Major activities conducted to implement and to meet Project objectives are adequately explained.
• POTENTIAL OF PROJECT TO EXPAND STUDENT CREATIVE THINKING. Project is clearly defined with measurable outcome. Evaluation of Project is incorporated in Project design. Project demonstrates the ability to evaluate what is new and/or innovative.

Grant Range. Grants range between $100 and $3,500. Projects will usually be funded for one year, although multi-year requests will be considered.

Never visiting my campus or even the surrounding area before, I honestly didn’t know what to expect, except that I was finally going to have challenging classes, which didn’t come often in high school. I was excited for that sort of change. Ironically, that one aspect of college that I was so eagerly looking forward to caught me off guard during the first course on my first day of classes. It was in that class that I realized that one of the high school classes that I took (and got an A in) had given me almost no preparation for my college course. I was very discouraged after my first two classes of having no idea what was going on. I didn’t know what to do. If I stayed in there, and continued to be out of the loop, I feared I would most definitely fail. How embarrassing and what a waste of time and money! After asking some classmates, my parents, and a student advisor for advice, I ended up dropping that class, and in turn took a lower level class that would prepare me. In the end, the problem was taken care of. What a big relief!

I guess college can come as a shock to anybody, especially if one doesn’t know what to expect. What matters however, is that you have people providing support, whether it’s your professors, advisors, family, or anyone else. On top of that, when one receives a scholarship, it adds a whole new level of motivation to succeed. Sure, there’s the obvious extra money that helps pay for tuition, but it’s the idea that there’s other people, who could very well be complete strangers, that care about you succeeding in your college career. I see that as even more important. Knowing that these people trust you with whatever sum of money they so generously give means a lot – or at least it does to me.

I’m now starting my 2nd of 3 quarters of my first year, and I’m really looking forward to it. I know my classes are going to be challenging as always, and some are definitely going to be tougher than others. However, I’m quite confident that I can succeed. California Polytechnic State University, or “Cal Poly” for short, is a great school full of smart and friendly people from so many walks of life. On top of that, the town atmosphere is very warm and friendly towards outsiders. I feel confident that I’ll have a successful college career here which will effectively prepare me in the field of electrical engineering. Organizations like the Kauai High School Foundation are a big help, and I’m so thankful that there are alumni and others, who care so much for Kauai High School and its students. Being so fortunate to have such opportunities and support in my life, not only motivates me to succeed, but also inspires me to want to give back and return the favor some day.

The bulk of the participants were from Kauai and Oahu, but there were a few golfers from the mainland. There even was one group from Japan. The weather was perfect, clear with a slight breeze, which guaranteed the resulting great scores and fun. Each participant was given a “goodie bag” which included among other things, a spam musubi, a bag of Kauai Kookies, and bottled water.

At 7:00 am, final instructions and re-statement of the tournament rules were read over the course loud speakers by tournament official Alan Tada (’71); then it was time for the shot-gun start…off to the tees by 87 golf carts. Quite an impressive sight.

After eighteen holes of golf, activities continued at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall for lunch, drinks and presentation of prizes and lots of fun. First, a musical blessing by David Iha (’58), then a buffet lunch, then the program by MC, Tom Shigemoto (’66). Kauai High School Foundation President Gary Yamamoto (’60) introduced the two Foundation Scholarship recipients, Tyler Navarro, and Shaun Koide and their parents. Then he introduced Kauai High School Athletic Director Ross Shimabukuro (’73) and presented him with a check for $5,000 to assist the KHS sports department. Pearl Country Club Golf Operations Manager Guy Yamamoto (’79) represented Honorary Chair David Ishii (’73) with a few words; then it was time to recognize the tournament donors by Oahu Co-Chair, Wilfred Morinaka (’57), and then finally the awarding of the myriad prizes by Kauai Co-Chair Alan Tada (’71)…The presentation of the endless list of prizes seemed to last forever, but made for many, many happy golfers!

The winners of the Golf Tournament? All the golfers, the Kauai High School Foundation, the scholarship recipients, the Kauai High School Athletic Department and finally the team from Japan headed by Masayoshi Oda with a net score of 87.  Although the tournament designated two holes for $10,000 hole-in-one prizes, no one succeeded in that quest. However, Charlie Yokomoto (’60) succeeded in making a hole-in-one at an undesignated hole…not a $10,000 prize, but a special recognition prize none the less. (Garden Island article)

The tournament was a tremendous success and was the result of all the hard work by the golf committee and the volunteers working at the golf course and at the Convention Hall. Special recognition and thanks go to the volunteers who started the day at 5:00 am at Wailua Golf Course setting up the sign-up tables, posters, signs and tee sponsor signs at each tee.   The planning for the Second Annual Kauai High School Foundation Fundraiser Golf Tournament will start soon!

Tyler will be attending Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his parents are Damien and Charlene Navarro. Shaun is headed for California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, and his parents are Miles and Eliza Koide.

Congratulations to these two young men and their parents.

Garden Island article:  http://thegardenisland.com/sports/article_f690c17e-72d0-11df-a846-001cc4c03286.html