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OC16 recognizes 23 of Oahu’s public school teachers at the 2013 Outstanding Educator luncheon Wednesday, August 14, 2013 at The Willows. The Outstanding Educator program celebrates 25 years of recognizing teachers who have gone above and beyond in educating and making a difference in our local high school students’ lives.
The Outstanding Educator program is now in its 25th year. It was created by Oceanic Time Warner Cable Vice President of Programming, Mitzi Lehano, the same year Oceanic began televising live sports here in the islands. When Lehano approached the Oahu Interscholastic Association 25 years ago to form a partnership allowing Oceanic to televise live OIA football, she included the Outstanding Educator program in the agreement to ensure education was emphasized along with sports. “The Outstanding Educator program was created to recognize the hard work and dedication teachers put into educating our youth,” Lehano said. “Sports are important to help build confidence, teach team-work and other life skills, but the things our student athletes learn in the classroom are equally important and many times the teachers don’t get the recognition they deserve for the countless hours they put in. The Outstanding Educator Program does just that, it reminds our teachers that we do appreciate them and the hard work they put in.”
The Outstanding Educator recipients will be treated to a special lunch at The Willows with entertainment provided by OC16’s comedy duo, Da Braddahs. Oceanic Time Warner Cable President Bob Barlow will be speaking and a representative from Pizza Hut, one of the Outstanding Educator’s sponsors, will also address the awardees. Each of the 23 teachers being recognized will receive a specially engraved award, a certificate and a backpack filled with other prizes.
“Programs like these are so important because I think, first and foremost, to have a recognition culture is very important in any organization,” said Pizza Hut Hawaii President and CEO, Henry Katsuda. “The teachers, we feel, are the most important people in the school system because they have the greatest impact on our kids; their willingness and their ability to learn. They are the ones who are tasked with putting together the programs, with doing the actual teaching, with motivating our kids to learn, coming up with creative ideas, to deliver the materials in a fun and exciting way. And when they’re not helping our kids out academically, they’re teaching them life lessons. They’re mentoring our kids on the virtues of responsibility, accountability, and the virtues of hard work. A lot of what they do, I think many times go unnoticed and maybe unappreciated and I think it’s just wonderful that OC16 provides this venue for us to showcase our outstanding educators and to give them the recognition that they truly deserve.”
History of OC16 Sports
The first live prep sports event was broadcast on September 13, 1989 from the Aloha Stadium. It was an Oahu Interscholastic Association football doubleheader and the games aired on local cable network KBLE Ch. 17. Oceanic televised seven football games that year. Over the next eight years, Oceanic continued to broadcast sports on various cable channels until it found its home on channel 16 and was branded OC16 on September 8, 1997.
Oceanic created a partnership with the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA) in 1989 that has only grown stronger over the past two and half decades. Oceanic has also forged partnerships with the Interscholastic League of Hawaii (ILH) and the Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA). More sports have been added to OC16’s sports lineup allowing more student athletes the opportunity to shine and to help them further their education through sports.
Throughout the years, technological advancements have allowed OC16 to improve not only the quality of its broadcasts with the creation of high definition but the number of viewers able to watch them. OC16 launched its website oc16.tv with live streaming of all of its programs and games in 2008. Viewers from around the world were now able to watch Hawaii’s young student athletes play live via the internet.
OC16 has continued to expand its sports coverage to include more sports each year and has started televising games from a wide variety of locations. Thanks to new satellite capabilities OC16 broadcasts can be done at virtually any location in the state!
In addition to watching live OC16 sports exclusively on OC16 and streaming live at www.oc16.tv, Oceanic subscribers can also view the games on OC16’s video on demand digital channel 15, OC16’s Interactive digital channel 17, and customers can purchase their favorite OC16 games online at www.oc16/products.
Nicely written.
Yes indeed Drew
Good teachers deserve this kind of recognition. They are shaping the future of the country and of our children's lives.
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