CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Kawananakoa Middle School Principal Sandra Ishihara-Shibata (middle) teaches Kalela Lovell how to make a ribbon. Students made ribbons with personal notes for the 2,023 soldiers of Hawaii's 29th Infantry Brigade now at Fort Polk, La.

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Students support
their soldiers

Kawananakoa kids make ribbons
for teachers called to duty

Twelve-year-old Tawnzyna Spencer folded a red ribbon between her fingers, pondering what she wanted to write on it.

"I feel scared for him," the seventh-grader said Friday in her classroom at Kawananakoa Middle School. "I'm going to write, 'Be safe.'"

She was speaking of the school's head counselor, Bruce Oliveira, who is in Fort Polk, La., along with social studies teacher Gary Tani, as members of the Hawaii Army National Guard on their way to Iraq.

Kawananakoa Principal Sandra Ishihara-Shibata will be able to deliver the personalized ribbons to the two men and the rest of the 2,000-plus members of Hawaii's 29th Infantry Brigade at Fort Polk next week as part of BOSSLIFT.

At the invitation of the Defense Department, 30 "bosses" from various walks of life in Hawaii are flying Tuesday to Fort Polk to visit with their employees before the citizen soldiers leave for Iraq.

The Hawaii Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve organized the four-day trip. It is designed to give employers a better understanding of what their employees are up to while away from their civilian jobs, and to acknowledge the support of those employers.

Also headed to Louisiana are Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi, Police Chief Boisse Correa, Deputy Schools Superintendent Clayton Fujie and representatives from private employers such as Castle Medical Center, Servco Pacific, Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and Times Supermarkets.

They will fly a KC-135 Stratotanker to observe aerial refueling of Air Guard F-15 fighter jets, observe Army skill training in the field, and take flights on Army Guard UH-60 helicopters.

Ishihara-Shibata said she was hesitant to leave her Nuuanu campus, but wants to support her employees and says it will be educational for all involved.

"I don't want to leave the school," said Ishihara-Shibata, who puts in long hours on weekends and even showed up on New Year's Day. "But this is a good opportunity."

In the school office, red ribbon loops that her students had made during homeroom last week were strung in fat leis.

"Every soldier will get one of these to put in their pocket, just to let them know the students at Kawananakoa appreciate them," said reading teacher Diana Pang, as her class finished a few more.

At the school office, three large red Kawananakoa Middle School shirts hung yesterday where staff could scribble messages of support on them before Ishihara-Shibata packed them up. Along with shirts for Oliveira and Tani, there is one for 24-year-old Mitchell Miyasaka, a Kawananakoa graduate and Army Reservist now at Fort Polk, whose mother, Josann, is health aide at the school.