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| The Class of 2023 Shines Leading the First School Camp in Three Years
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| Dear Readers of the What's New, |
| This will be a short edition of the What’s New, as our students and staff busily ready for tomorrow night’s Lighting Our Way Banquet, the first in three years (!), an event we will surely report on in future issues of this newsletter. But we would be remiss if we did not include a story about a different tradition restored, PBA’s annual school camp that had been mothballed for the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Tuesday, September 27, I was greeted at the front door of the PBA Weinberg Building by a crew of cheerful seniors, members of the Class of 2023, who had been planning for the year’s camp since the first day of school. They had pitched me and the faculty on changing our traditional camp site from Mālaekahana State Park to a site owned by the Ko‘olauloa Foundation, a non-profit managing a retreat gathering place nestled between Hau‘ula and Laie on the mauka side of the Kamehameha Highway. While I was excited to see the new location, I had misgivings that any location could work as well as Mālaekahana had the previous years of the PBA school camp. |
| Those misgivings were laid to rest not long after we arrived. The property was beautiful and green. Patches of buffalo grass rose tall in areas left unmowed. Seniors and support staff had mounted large tents, a volleyball court, and at night, as we marveled at the swaths of thick stars unencumbered by Honolulu lights, we appreciated the soft glow of the solar lamps the foundation staff had installed
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| throughout the camp site so we could more easily find our way in the dark. School camp is never a time to sleep soundly – we institute an 11 p.m. curfew – but I am always amazed by the large number of students risen before dawn for the sunrise hike I with the cross country team on the Ma‘akua Ridge Trail, and we are always grateful for breakfast after the hike. I am also always amazed to witness sides of the students we would never have known existed outside of the camp experience, girls competing as fiercely as the boys in games of capture the flag or Uno, students with strong kitchen skills for meal preps, hidden musical talents joining Mr. Jake strumming his guitar, and this year, a large group of students adept with fishing rod, surf board, camp fire, and living in the wilderness. Fair warning – there were reports of a ghost sighting in one of the unoccupied cabins on the property. We aren’t certain why it happened, but we were impressed when a member of the senior class tackled Otake Sensei in her attempt to flee the scene. But the relationships deepened and the new friendships emerging were well worth the bug bites and bruises, from my vantage point. Let me take this opportunity to thank the senior Class of 2023, Dean of Students Liane Viloria who advised them during the planning, and all the faculty who worked so hard to carry off a successful camp experience. Thank you also to the students of PBA for making Camp Ko‘olauloa ‘22 an unforgettable experience! |
| Warmly, Josh Hernandez Morse |
| Thank You for Your Give Aloha Participation! |
| On behalf of the entire school community at Pacific Buddhist Academy, thank you for donating to our school through Foodland’s Give Aloha fundraiser this year. Your philanthropy supports our school’s vision and helps us to continue nurturing future practitioners of peace. |
| This year, the PBA community raised $5,289.68 – and this is all before Foodland’s matching donation! These funds will help support both financial aid for families in need and priority expenditures including curriculum resources, technology upgrades, and student-centered activities such as field trips and athletics. We can’t thank you enough for taking the extra time to shop at Foodland to support our school, faculty, staff, and mission! |
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| Student Activity
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| Shop on Amazon? |
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| Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to PBA at no cost or fees to the shopper! AmazonSmile is available at smile.amazon.com on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android phones. It's a great way to make your online purchases count for more! |
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1754 Lusitana Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
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