The second story of PBS Hawaii’s NEW HOME is being built atop an existing building, with this new top floor extending over parking.

For the first time in my life, I enjoy having to stop in traffic for a red light – but only the one at Nimitz Highway and Sand Island Access Road.

Near this traffic intersection that’s home to a huge monkey pod tree, a two-story building continues to emerge, one in which more than a thousand Hawaii residents have invested.

PBS Hawaii’s new location, The Clarence T.C. Ching Campus, is a welcome bricks-and-mortar sight for our Board of Directors, Community Advisory Council, and Staff. More than that, it’s a vision of the mind and heart.

What we see is the promise of collaborative space that will allow us to create and deepen programmatic partnerships with other nonprofits, educators, filmmakers and other artists, businesses, labor and government. We see live televised events enlivening the industrial district with music and capturing meaningful debates on timely issues. We see teachers and students as frequent visitors – physically and virtually – as they take part in workshops in media literacy, journalism and video production. We see our suite of locally produced shows expanding as more media-makers are attracted to noncommercial PBS-style diverse viewpoints and trustworthy information.

I’m happy to report that construction, by Allied Builders System, is on budget and on time. We thank the Hawaii State Legislature for approving a $1 million grant this year for construction and First Hawaiian Bank Foundation for the largest corporate gift to date – $200,000.

What we see is the promise of collaborative space that will allow us to create and deepen programmatic partnerships…

We’re starting the home stretch, with $3.5 million to go to reach the $30 million goal. To all who have already made a gift of any size, thank you so much for sharing in this vision that is larger than all of us.

A hui hou (until next time),