Parker School receives HMSA Kaimana and Scholarship Award

Parker School cross country team members display the Kaimana Award prize, from left, Evan Kasberg, McCrae Johnston, Elliot Warkus, Jesse Tarnas, Isreal Nearman, Joshua Nearman, Mariko Langevin, Nathalie Whitfield and Taylyn Boyette.

Parker School recently placed first and is awarded $1,500 as the 2009 Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) Division II Kaimana Award winner. The Kaimana Awards & Scholarship Program was established by HMSA to support and encourage physical activity as part of their go campaign and recognizes schools and students “who get up, get out and get active.”

Parker School Athletic Director Tom Goodspeed and his coaches led a majority (seventy-nine percent) of Parker’s Upper School students who each participated in at least one JV or Varsity BIIF sport. Ninety-three percent of Parker’s student athletes’ grade point averages met or exceeded the academic criteria of the HMSA Kaimana Award. Parker’s clean sportsmanship record, with no athlete or coach infractions, satisfied the sportsmanship requirement of the HMSA Kaimana Award.

In the 2008-2009 school year, Parker’s student body logged more than 3000 hours of community service, of which the Make a Difference Day is Parker’s biggest annual project. Last school year, students cleared shrubs around the campus, planted and cleared debris at the Waimea Nature Park, helped at Tutu’s House, washed cars, finished the Waimea multi-use trail with Waimea Trails and Greenways, cleaned at Annunciation Church, and made crafts with the residents at North Hawai’i Hospice.

(West Hawaii Today, July 29, 2009)