Star-Kist Gives $1,000 “Charlie’s Kids” Awards To Nine Elementary Schoolsff

Nine public elementary schools across the territory each received $1,000 from Charlie the Tuna and the good folks at Star Kist Samoa Inc.Of 24 public elementary schools, eleven submitted proposals and nine were selected for the $1,000 awards.

Star-Kist Samoa general manager Brett Butler explained that the program, which has officially been called “Charlie’s Kids”, will be an annual event focused on improvement of student performance and preparing youngsters for entrance into high school.

The program is only for public elementary schools. Butler said the criteria for proposals included strong focus on a curriculum-based program that could be implemented with a budget of $1,000.

”We required each of the applying schools to spell out their plans in their submitted proposals, to make us understand what they had in mind,” Butler said. “Additionally, we wanted them to give us an idea of how they were going to measure the success of the proposed program.”

Charlie’s Kids is the result of extensive discussions and planning by the company’s management team who fiddled with the idea for over a year.

Butler said that they got approval to move forth with the program and in August, they shared the idea with Director of Education Malaetele Dr. Lui Tuitele, who supported the program.

Star Kist Samoa’s human resources manager Taeaoafua Dr. Meki Solomona, on behalf of the cannery, met with local elementary school principals throughout this year to explain the program and the criteria for being selected.

”We wanted the program to be flexible and creative so the school principals and teachers can look into different projects that they think will make a difference in their respective schools to prepare the students for high school,” Butler explained.

Butler said that unfortunately, some of the schools submitted proposals for constructional work, which was something that they weren’t looking for. He said their main focus was on a curriculum based program ideal for the preparation of students to enter secondary education.

Butler said that this is the first time Star-Kist Samoa has spearheaded a program like this since he took the helm and they anticipate to make Charlie's Kids an annual event.

To qualify next year, the criteria will most likely remain unchanged. However, schools that qualified for the award this year will have to submit reports on how the money was used, what they did, and how the program progressed.

“Accountability will be a requirement in order to qualify the second time around,” Butler said.

Charlie’s Kids is being offered to the children of American Samoa only, not anywhere else, as it is a program made available by Star-Kist Samoa and not Del Monte of which Star-Kist is a subsidiary.

Taeaoafua, along with several Star-Kist employees whose children attend the schools that were selected, were busy delivering $1,000 checks to the winning schools.

Butler said that they wanted some of their employees to be present during the presentation of the checks, “so they can feel like they are a part of this remarkable new program.”