Opening The Doors to New Comers

On Thursday, November 10th, Damien welcomed new and old families to its campus to see what Damien has to offer. More than 200 people took the opportunity to see what Damien was like. This was the first Open House in over 2 years due to covid-19 and it was very successful. There were many people that helped with the Open House, whether it was to get the word out on TV, to having to set up and organize the school grounds. Many people complimented the school and were happy with the Open House being so informative. Parents send their child to a private school to be safer, grow more religious, have better education, and stay away from harmful things. 

The purpose of having this open house was mainly for people to see what Damien has to offer and what Damien looks like. When people choose to come to a private school, the decision process is what actually matters such as coming to the school, talking and meeting the faculty and even talking to students to get a feel or at least try and get comfortable with the school culture. For example, before you buy something like a car, you want to try it out for yourself, see how it feels and that goes through the same decision process of how parents choose their school for their children.

Ke Ali`i spoke with Admission Director Brent Limos to ask about his open house experience.  Mr.Limos relayed that "“The presentation and tour guides were outstanding and throughout the night I got nothing but compliments from parents who would stop by and say hello to me in the cafeteria.”  Brent Limos was amazed by how well the students and staff welcomed people to Damien Memorial and he stated, "the campus showed out well that night and student volunteers tried to clean up and make the campus look  presentable. Administration gave warm welcome speeches, and the rest of the faculty and students represented the school well, whether they were doing tours, helping out teachers in classrooms, or by helping run booths for academic, sports, and clubs.”

  For the planning process of the Open House, there are many moving parts, so he has to work hand in hand with administration, faculty, staff, maintenance, and even the students of Damien Memorial School. Miscommunication wasn’t a problem of planning the Open House but Mr. Limos stated, “because it was the first live event in two years, it was more like we needed to shake off the rust. Like forgetting some things that we had in the other Open Houses.”

          The Damien gym was filled with sports such as football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, soccer, wrestling, paddling, golf, bowling, judo, paddling, and cheerleading. Walking through the hallways we had clubs and organizations such as JROTC, student government, robotics, youth speaks, and Japanese club. Through all of this there was cooperation, communication, and teamwork being used to either solve problems or being flexible with changes that came along throughout the night.