School Sign for Maui Preparatory Academy

I'm attaching a picture of our marquee on the first day of school. We are located in Lahaina, the site of the deadliest wildfire in 100 years. Not a record we want to hold. Our school was well out of the burn zone, but when the sun came up the next day after the inferno, our school would be the only undamaged school on the entire west side of the island. We pivoted and went into service mode, increasing our capacity to allow for 50 extra students, then 110. The demand for students to attend school in Lahaina was so great that more than 1,000 applied. We ultimately accepted 133 students (a 40% increase) to our independent school. "Independent" means we receive no funding from the state or federal government, instead relying on tuition and fund-raising. We launched a "sponsor-a-student" campaign to cover the variable costs that accompanied the influx of students so that no student who fit our admission criteria would be turned away for financial reasons. This is nothing more than to share the pride that we have in our school. This new marquee sits near the entrance of the complex. I took care to learn how to use SignCommand and add graphics and program messages to display at certain times. In fact, the sign showing the correct time was the first clue I had that power was restored to our area four days after the fire. It is a beacon of hope for us now!

Alexis Merrill
Maui Preparatory Academy
Lahaina, HI