Chandell Asuncion

Congress Approves Stimulus Package
Congress on Friday approved a nearly $800 billion package to jump-start the sagging economy through a combination of tax cuts and government spending.Known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the plan involves unprecedented amounts of federal funds for education programs, some of which will affect students in religious and independent schools. 

The Council for American Private Education (CAPE) has published details about the bill and its impact on private schools in a concise summary of the ARRA, on its website at   http://www.capenet.org/new.html.

Source: http://www.hais.org – Robert Witt, Executive Director and Cynthia Jordan, Communications Director

The 2009 Inauguration of President Barack Obama is being called the “People’s Inauguration” You can visit USA Today’s Flickr photo stream to see some of the best photos taken during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama, and read the transcript of his historic Inauguration speech. The photos taken by USA Today are copyright protected, however they are available for purchase directly from USA Today and are reasonably priced.

The photo shown above was taken by jurvetson who has made his photos available for us to use and remix, as long as you properly attribute his work and provide a link to  his Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

If you also feel that this is the “People’s Inauguration” and you are ready to accept the call from President Barack Obama to “roll up your sleeves” and proclaim your allegiance make a pledge today.

Here is a short video clip of celebrities who have come together to take the “The Presidential Pledge“.

Starbucks has joined this “Grass Roots” effort and is saluting everyone who is willing to pledge 5 hours of community service with a tall cup of brewed coffee. You can download a Pledge Card and your “I’m in” badge from their Pledge 5 champagne website.

What ever you pledge, whether it is to turn off the water while you brush your teeth, live a debt free life, or restore the Koa forest in Hawaii will be a significant contribution to “change”. Together we can make a difference in the world.

“Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but for greatness, because greatness is determined by service.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Are you in? Make a pledge today.

~hope

Today we came together for our Annual Service Awards Breakfast to celebrate the achievements and service of our fellow employees. We are so fortunate to be celebrating 340 years of combined service to Kamehameha Schools and Pauahi’s legacy. Today we came together to share prayers, food, laughter, hugs, makana and memories. Our esteemed campus techie and photographer Kerry Kamisato was awarded with a 20 year service award and was able to share this very special view of the service awards ceremony.

Laughter shook the room when Kerry entered the stage, gave everyone a hug, and then took his place in the reserved chair and began taking pictures.

We are blessed to be among special people, with generous hearts, and a vision of success.

Our industrious leader and on-call in-house comedian Mr. Phil Aganus made us temporarily leave all our worries behind as we were sucked in to his presentation. We enjoyed a morning full-of-laughter.

Today we can witness amazing things all over the world. Watch a one-minute video clip as scientist cup open a Hugh Squid found off the Australian Coast online at BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7513315.stm.