 In 2019, ThinkTech was focused on integrating Zoom with its VMIX broadcasting system that left us well prepared to deal with COVID. Our transition to remote appearances with Zoom in the time of COVID has been seamless and we have also been able to add Zoom webinars for larger programs. More than ever, ThinkTech is an important platform for civic engagement, not only on the issues and events that arise and revolve in the ordinary course of local, national, and global development, but also on the extraordinary issues and events that arise here in the time of COVID. We live in a world of chaos and dramatic, irreversible change. And as it works out, ThinkTech is able to cover and comment on those changes. We stream 30 live talk shows a week on the issues and events that are changing our world with a variety of hosts and guests in Hawaii and elsewhere. Our citizen journalists are connected with these seed changes and they connect our community with those changes. We have done that over the years and we will do it increasingly and increasingly well in the face of an uncertain future. We are gratified to be able to do it for the community and for you. Watch our videos on thinktechawaii.com, YouTube, Vimeo, and social media, sign up for our daily email advisories to see the shows we've done and the shows we're doing and contribute what you can to help support our efforts in these difficult and unpleasantly interesting times. I'm Jay Fiedel, Mahalo. Welcome to our 2020 ThinkTech Holiday Party and Awards Program. ThinkTech now in our 20th year of serving the community. In this time of COVID, we're joining you virtually by Zoom. I'm Jay Fiedel, CEO of ThinkTech, and we're delighted to have you all here. Our sponsor, as for so many years in the past, is the law firm of Clay, Chapman, Iwamuro, Police, and Nervell. And the joyful holiday music you just heard is courtesy of our friends, the Carolers. Mahalo to them. And I'm Carol Monly, Executive Vice President of ThinkTech. On behalf of our directors, underwriters, staff, and program hosts, thank you for joining us today. We can't go any further without an Oli, especially this year. Our Oli tonight, as for many years in the past, is by Kalee Akinah, one of our longest-running ThinkTech hosts. Aloha mai kākō e Māho aloha. Aloha. I'm Kalee Akinah, your trustee at large in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and President of the Grassroot Institute. I want to wish to you and your ohana and everyone in the ThinkTech Hawai'i community a warm holiday season. Please receive this special blessing and Oli. O nāna ita hāla meta lehua, e hale lehua no yana tanoe, o ta'u no ria e ano i nei, e alia nei. Ho'i o ta'i tima, hikimai no tō, a hikipu no mete aloha, aloha. Great. Thank you so much, Kalee. Mahalo. What are we here for? Those challenging and stressful year, we do have reason to cheer and celebrate the good work of others and to give thanks to ThinkTech's viewers, supporters, and friends. A moment about the state of ThinkTech. As a Hawai'i non-profit digital media company, we have always strived to give special meaning to the public conversation. In this year, as no other, our unique voice has grown and is being heard above the chaos around us. This is because of our unique skills on virtual connection, our persevering staff, and the heightened inspiration and dedication of our dozens of citizen journalist hosts. The talent of our citizen journalist hosts has expanded our coverage to include fast-moving developments in the pandemic, the devastating effects on our economy, the re-examination of critical social issues, the consequences of our political divide, and the serious impact of these things on global issues and events. Every year we're honored to present a distinguished leader in our community to address you. This year, we're honored to hear from a man for all seasons in sports, business, media, and community leadership, Honolulu's new and very promising Mayor-Elect, Rick Langiardi. Good morning, and aloha. I'm going to ask to say a few words by Jay Fidel, and I'm really honored to be able to do this in privilege. Let me just start off by saying it's now December 3rd. I have my Christmas shirt on. We're less than a month from being sworn in, and I come at you today with a incredible sense of challenge and also appreciation and gratitude for the people who turned out to vote for us in this campaign, and actually vote for me, if you will, to be the person to step up and to lead us during these incredible times that we're feeling and honolulu. I will tell you, as I said throughout the campaign, I am up for the challenge, but I said repeatedly, this is too big a job for any one person, and I'm not going to do it alone. And a goal, one job, one was going to be to put together a team, and so I want to give a quick update on that. Very excited about what's happened. We created a portal in conjunction with the city so we could fulfill all the HR protocols. We closed that portal last night, midnight, and we've had over 600 applications come in with great cover letters, people vying for the Cabinet positions and the Deputy Director positions that we have available, and we've put together our transition team that's going to evaluate those resumes and cover letters, and then beginning on December 11th and 12th, and then the following week, the 18th and 19th, over the course of four days, we have two, five, three, five person teams that will be interviewing the candidates who were selected to be interviewed, and there will be quite a few interviews going on. Before then, they're going to be handing over to myself and Mike Formby, who is our managing director. So we've created a process now and an opportunity, if I could say it, being an old coach, you know, this is sort of like open tryouts. That's exactly what we want it to do. We want it to reach into the private sector and say, look, we are at a point in time that none of us could have imagined. This is an incredible leadership challenge. It's too big for any one person who is looking to join us, who are the people who want to embrace the accountability that we have on us right now to help lead them through these times. So I'm very excited about that. I'm also, again, very grateful. This is, you know, my whole life, I've been in leadership roles, much of which has happened in this community, not all. My decision to run for mayor a year ago was something I never really anticipated, but we did. We made the decision, now here we are. So I feel an incredible sense of responsibility. I just want to make that clear to everybody and everybody that we bring in, I want them to share in that sense of responsibility, that understanding that people are going to hold this far really high for us, and that we have to deliver. So it's going to be about making things happen. And I'm excited about that. The other thing I want to say is that, you know, I was quoted recently about saying we need to learn to live with this disease because I've heard repeatedly about people want to get back to norms. We've all talked about it. We all know about this fatigue that all of us have gone through as a result of COVID. Look, I would tell you that learning to live with the disease is the acceptance of the fact that this is not going to go away anytime soon. And we're encouraged just of late in the last week or so about the imminence, if you will, of vaccines, but even then we're not going to be in a situation to probably second quarter or whatever. We've just, we have to, living with this disease for me is about personal responsibility. We've been given the directives on the protocols. You don't need to hear them over and over again. They're really pretty simple about wearing masks. You're responsible to each other, socially distanced, avoiding the large gatherings, at least for now until we get clearance. And it's a real good reason to believe we're going to stop moving up in tears because the instances here in Hawaii, here in Honolulu, especially, we're showing some really good numbers now. So it's, you know, about the social distancing. It's about washing our hands. But really understanding that we owe it to each other to help us get through this period of time, which is unprecedented. So, look, I go into office now, here a month away, challenged, unlike any challenge I've ever felt my life. I've told people, I don't think I've ever felt a sense of responsibility like this in anything that I've ever done before, because there's so much at stake for so many people. And so in that regard, I promise you we're going to do our very best. We can't solve everything overnight. I ask for some patience, but know that we will attack everything that we possibly can on as many fronts as we can to stop moving us forward. We will get through this. I'm very confident we're going to select a great team and I also hold great hope in that team and their capabilities to serve you. So I want to take this opportunity to really just wish everybody festive holidays. I know it's been tough. It was just even weird going through Thanksgiving last week for all of us. Every year, we've always had big family gatherings. We did it. There were three of us eating that turkey together. And now we get into the Christmas and New Year and Hanukkah seasons and everything else. So find the joy in our heart. Let's keep working forward. This is, you know, I'm very much a realist, but I know that better times are ahead and we'll do everything we can to help make that happen. So on behalf of you, my family, my wife, my children, I wish everybody very happy holidays. We look forward to a great year together and a great new beginning for us. I promise to do the very best I can to serve you as the next mayor of the city and county of Honolulu. Thank you very much. We wish you all the best in your first term as our mayor. Now on to the ceremonies and celebrations. First, our community service awards. Think Tech regularly honors community organizations, but this year, recognition is more important than ever. Since these organizations have guided, comforted and supported our community during a very difficult and threatening chapter in our history. Our first community service award goes to Project Vision Hawaii for Outstanding Service to the Community. The citation reads as follows, for its creative and admirable innovations to improve access to health and health care for the people of Hawaii during the time of COVID by the expansion of its mobile health screening program from one statewide screening unit to four, serving all counties and screening more than 115,000 patients across the state. And by the expansion of its mobile hygiene program to include showers and hygiene supplies to maintain high level sanitation in communities experiencing homelessness or access to care challenges related to income, disability, lack of insurance, geographical location or cultural conflict. We recognize, acknowledge and offer our most heartfelt thanks to Project Vision Hawaii and its management staff and volunteers for the success of their efforts to help the homeless and the disadvantaged in our community stay healthy. Here to accept the award for Project Vision Hawaii is its executive director, Darra Kauhane. Hello, my name is Darra Kauhane. I'm the executive director of Project Vision Hawaii. We're so grateful for this honor today. And this recognition means the world to our team who has been working tirelessly to serve the community, especially during the pandemic. Project Vision strives to provide increased access to health equality locally and internationally now that we've merged with the Hawaiian Eye Foundation. And we're a humble but mighty group that forces collaborations and partnerships with other organizations here in Hawaii and abroad. We have the largest mobile health vision and hygiene fleet in the state. For our vision buses, hygiene trailers, mobile clinics, they provide services for remote communities throughout the state and for our houseless community. Our roots are obviously in vision care, hence the name. We continue to provide those vision screenings, exams, glasses, and eye surgeries to those in needs. But thanks to our founders, Annie Valentin and Ann Chip Chase, we've grown to address other needs that we've seen while out providing vision services. And those include hot showers, hygiene supplies, food stamp registrations, Medicaid registrations, housing placements, case working, document help, anything that we can find to remove the barriers for our brothers and sisters that are living on the streets or those who are suffering and especially during the pandemic. Those that have lost so much, we just try to help anywhere that we can. During COVID, we've been an integral part of the race against COVID for the houseless community and those in congregate setting. It's been a huge blessing to work with the Department of Health, with Partners in Care, with the Institute for Human Services, just to name a few, to serve our individuals in need, our clients in need. As many of you know, there was an outbreak within the shelters and we've been able to test, on a cadence, test our homeless individuals so that we can prevent a further spread of the coronavirus. So we've absolutely had to switch gears, as many other groups have had to during this time. But because of it, we actually just finished a strategic plan and we will be formally moving towards mobile health in general. And so we look forward to continuing our services. And we thank you for the recognition today for the work that we're striving to do and the growth that we've experienced in this past year. Thanks for your work and service to the community, Vera. And congratulations. Our next community service award goes to NAMI Hawaii, the Hawaii chapter of the National Lines on Mental Illness. The citation reasons follow. For its admirable and continuing efforts to help people and families whose lives have been affected by mental illness in our community. To every extent possible, those efforts have continued during and especially in these emotionally challenging times of COVID with a variety of free programs for community-based education, recovery, family support and advocacy provided with kindness and care in safe, confidential and non-threatening settings to share the struggles of mental illness and promote hope for those who have been affected. We recognize, acknowledge and offer our most heartfelt thanks to NAMI Hawaii and its management staff and volunteers for their relentless efforts to help people recover and deal with mental illness in our community. Here to accept the award is Executive Director Kumi Okutama. Aloha, thank you so much. I am so privileged to be a part of this wonderful award. And NAMI Hawaii is so honored to be selected, to be a winner. We have been through a tough year and we know that mental health has always been important but more so now with the pandemic and all of the riots that happened and the elections that happened, there was so much stress this year. More than ever, how important mental health is for our community. This past year, we were able to reach more people than ever before because of a new platform called Zoom. We're all using it now. And it's been able to connect the islands. It's been able to get services to people who otherwise would not be able to get services in the past because they were on another island or because they didn't have transportation. And now we're able to help everyone statewide who ever needs the help. And we were one of the first in the nation to start with online programming in the nation. We were one of the first to have support groups for people in stress, living in recovery from mental health. We also have family support groups that meet online. We were able to do workshops, conferences, trainings and so many different classes to educate our families on how to be better family members to people who are struggling with serious mental illnesses. And all of these programs are provided free of charge to our community. And we've noticed an uptake at least double in the request for services this past year. And we know through some of the more recent news coverages that mental health organizations are closing left and right. Of over 50% of them have closed since the pandemic because they're not able to stay afloat. But Nami, Hawaii with the support of our community we're still able to provide services and we're relevant more than ever. So I'm so honored to be a part of this community. Think Tech Hawaii has invited us from the very beginning since I've been here six and a half years ago and we have partnered with many other projects in the past. So we are so honored to receive this award and grateful for all of your support and your community efforts. Thank you very much for all that you do. And let's continue to move forward to help our community get better services, get more information and help those who are in need. Thank you very much. Thank you for your work and service to community and congratulations. Our third community service award goes to the Medical Intensive Care Unit, MICU at the Queens Medical Center. The citation reads as follows. For their dedication to treating, caring for and saving the lives of the COVID-19 patients who have been entrusted to their care at the Queens Medical Center. And doing so with courage and unfailing professionalism day and night, month after month, even in the face of personal stress and lethal danger to themselves and their loved ones. In so doing, they have provided and are providing the gift of life and of hope for those who are sick or worried sick. We are deeply grateful and profoundly indebted to the doctors and healthcare workers and staff of the MICU for their sacrifices and for their contributions to critical healthcare in Hawaii. We recognize, acknowledge and offer our most heartfelt thanks to them and each of them for their selfless heroism, kindness and dedication in protecting and saving us from the ravages of this pandemic. Here to accept the award is Dr. Scott Gallagher, Director of the MICU. Thank you, Think Tech Hawaii team. Jay, Carol, Melissa, Haley, for honoring our Medical ICU team with this Community Service Award. What an early Christmas present. We're humbled. Everyone in the ICU team tends to be pretty low-key and nobody does anything for recognition or reward except a good patient outcome. And they truly are a family. Try very hard to treat every patient as a family member too. And their first reaction actually in hearing about the Community Service Award is to make sure that I say loudly we couldn't have done this alone. We have a super supportive leadership team from the Board of Trustees and CEO on down and they made sure everybody was as safe as possible. None of our MICU caregivers have become ill as a result of treating COVID patients, which is amazing. We also have tremendous, tremendous community support. We had donations of PPE, so protective equipment, food. All of these made a huge difference to the morale of the team and actually solidified that team's awareness of how much everybody in Hawaii is connected. Really are one big ohana. And I think we really are at our best when we do the right things for each other. Since this pandemic began for us sometime around March, we've had about 200 odd ICU encounters out of about a thousand patients with COVID that were admitted to the hospital. And I guess if I were to characterize the various challenges or phases that the team have gone through, early in the pandemic, the biggest obstacle was really fear. It was so much we didn't know and information that changed almost daily. And these caregivers all have families too and like the rest of the country, they wondered things like, how do you manage the kids not being in school anymore? Family finances, maybe the spouse gets laid off. And now you add to that the worry that they had to maybe bring home some deadly disease to people that you care about. But we all learned together and we kept each other safe. And really the next phase for us was kind of fatigue. We all started to realize that this is likely gonna be a marathon and not a sprint. And everyone was working longer and harder than ever before. We were very lucky. The surgeon general visited our ICU team along with Dr. Josh Green. And afterwards, we were able to secure some much needed relief staff, which gave a bit of respite for the team and it helped really immensely. People continue to step up. The dug in really had a grit determination that became probably more infectious than the virus. And we learned to celebrate our successes in big ones and small ones. I think everybody remembers the first patient or two that we managed to discharge or graduate from the ICU after this disease. I think we're in a time of adjustment now preparing for the next surge, so to speak. And from my heart, this award is gonna reenergize the ICU team. What they're doing matters. Their self-sacrifice and hard work is valued by the community. And I so appreciate you for this award recognition. I think though I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that maybe it would be nice if we didn't have to work so hard, that maybe it'd be good if there's less sick patients from this virus. And that's truly where the community can help us. It's so tough, particularly during what should be a holiday season, but please do the right things. Wear a mask, wash your hands. Don't gather in large groups. Try to stay physically distant. We greatly appreciate the award, but I really think all of us are hoping for a time that life can be a bit more normal and families aren't hurting quite so badly. I think the holidays will be a happier time than for all of us, but from us to you, thank you so much. Happy Christmas. I hope the holiday season brings you all of the health and happiness you all deserve, but thank you. Thanks for your work and service to the community. Scott and all of you, and congratulations. And to our Think Tech community, we say yes. Please support and continue to support these very worthy award-winning organizations. Will everyone give them a big hand? And now on to the Think Tech Hawaii Awards, honoring our show of the year and our outstanding hosts that provide such great content to our viewers all through the year. Our show of the year award goes to the series called Humane Architecture, hosted by Martin de Spang and Vistodo Brown. The citation reads as follows, for its remarkable, thorough and thoughtful coverage of architecture in the islands and around the world, by enlightening us about the values of distinctive planning and design and about those creative individuals who make our public and private spaces and thus our quality of life so much better. This weekly program is hosted by UH architecture professor Martin de Spang, broadcasting from Germany and Bishop Museum historian DeSoto Brown from Hawaii. Their devoted viewers value the significant critical contribution they have made and are making to public understanding of architecture and environment and the sense of place and culture. We recognize, acknowledge and offer our most heartfelt thanks to the hosts of Humane Architecture for their extraordinary work on this unique show. Here to accept the award are co-host Martin de Spang and DeSoto Brown. Hey DeSoto, you know what? I guess we won the show of the year 2020 award. How about that? That's pretty amazing. And I was gonna say, maybe it's because you've been on ThinkTech for such a long time and I've been on ThinkTech with you just for four years but you even predate me. So maybe it's just because we've been around for so long that they gave us the award. Let's do some more reflectiveness and walk through this picture here from the bottom to the top because the mission of the show is that we're observing a uniquely beautiful built environment in Hawaii. The middle picture, we also know a not so beautiful, more invasive hermetic built environment which we don't like. And we would like to convert that into what you see at the very top as an indication into a literally and figuratively equally green environment. That's in a nutshell, the mission of the show, right? But let's reflect a little on the method and let's go to the next slide and use the show we just did. What's our method? Well, we do a variety of things. We look to the past to see what the practices were then that were successful that we can continue to use and adapt and live with. And we also look at the present and see what's going on and we critique it. And we sometimes say that we don't like it and we wish things were being done differently. And finally, we also are gonna look to the future because as you are a teacher, you're an instructor. You are instructing the emergent generation of people who will be working in the future. So those are the things we bring together to do human-humane architecture. Yeah, and along that, what makes, because as you said, we've been doing it for some years, what makes this year special and different from the other ones is that thanks to my bosses at UAH, us being in COVID, they allowed me to operate from here. So we're doing it from the opposite ends of the worlds and trying to get the best of both worlds. And that might be another that we can think of. And next slide, as you said before, we've been doing it for a while. The next slide shows that because these are all the shows that we've been doing ever since the beginning. And we're very lucky that Jay doesn't need to make this a popularity contest. And although we're nearing close to 9,000 views, which is a lot, and we have heard is the most of any of the shows, we hope that it's not just about quantity. And the next slide shows us, gives us an overview of all the slides and shows we've been doing this awarded year. And next and final slide also gives us a clue about that we mostly owe the award to, which is our wonderful guests, right? And let's remember some of them and let's walk through that disorder. Well, we've got our buddy, Ron Lindgren, who is a retired architect. He's now reaching 80 years old. He is the architect of the Kahala Hilton Hotel or one of the company that he worked for. He also designed the Holly Kulani Hotel. That's pretty amazing. And to get his insights and his experience like our other guests has been very important for us. Yeah, as well, we had Steve Owl who we missed dearly because he just passed and left us, but we have Richard Lowell who's with us. So these are the veterans, right? These are the masters, the modern masters from the past. Then we got our contemporary fine colleagues like Bundit Kanistakan and David Rockwood who do the best practice of these days. And then as you pointed out, the third row there from the top is our emerging generation that gonna reconnect to the great past of mostly mid-century, right? We also wanna thank our families who made us who we are. We just did the show with my father turning 80. And we also wanna last but not least because some said we're the main architectural critics on the island. So that being said, we wanna thank the many that we address in the shows and that might not initially wanna hear what they hear but what we believe we have to say and that they take it as it's meant to be very constructive criticism once again to make Hawaii the place that it deserves to be the most beautiful place in the world as well in the built environment. So thank you all and thank you to Soto for being my buddy and putting up with us every week for so many years now. And little did you know when you invited me to be a guest way back four years ago that I would end up being the sidekick for this entire series. Who knows? Who knows if I knew? So thank you all. Thank you all. This means a lot to us and it's motivates us to keep on going and as Jay likes to say getting better every time. That's right. So thank you all everybody who supported us and we're gonna keep going. Thank you both for your work and service to the community, Martin and Soto. And congratulations. This year we acknowledge two outstanding hosts. Our first outstanding host award goes to Tim Mappichella, host of Rediscovering America, formerly known before the election as Trump Week. The citation reads as follows. First professional and well-honed show host skills in monitoring our weekly Rediscovering America talk show formerly known as Trump Week with regular guests Cynthia Lee Sinclair, Winston Welch, Stephanie Dalton and Jay Fidel and in courageously covering controversial issues and events through a time of governmental chaos, COVID and confusion. When such a discussion has now been all the more important to our community and our democracy. We recognize, acknowledge and offer our most heartfelt thanks to Tim Mappichella for his diligence and determination in hosting this show and his abiding commitment to civic engagement and to raising public awareness in our community. Here to accept the award is Tim Mappichella. I wish to say thank you for this award. Given the excellent caliber of my fellow hosts, this is a true honor. I live in Hawaii Kai, the most Republican populated community in Hawaii. So hosting a show titled Trump Week isn't as easy as one might think. Without going into difficult detail, loss of valued relationships has left some scars. There's not enough time for me to tell you my motivation why I chose to participate with Trump Week. All I can say it is not something I planned, not something I wanted, but rather something I had to do. The show is one of commentary, not news. And in the two years of being on the show, two truths came bubbling up to the surface. Number one and the most important, to learn the difference of believing in freedom of speech versus the acting consequences to practice it. Number two, something all journalists harbor within their questions to their interviewees. Something Socrates is credited for saying and getting in trouble with. Something Timothy Leary made popular in the 1960s, which is question authority. And in a democracy, a free society, include the word always. Those guests who appear on the show each week, I believe they have these two points well within their philosophy. What began as two person show has grown into a guest panel of four courageous individuals that bring their research perspective and candid commentary to the show. Guest and original host, Jay Fidel, Stephanie Dalton, Cynthia Lee Sinclair and Winston Welch. These four special people spend hours watching news and reading articles on both sides of the political divide. I could tell you that watching that much news in a given week in this politically charged climate is more than stressful. And yet they do it. I thank them for their dedication and for making the show the show. The politics, the politics and by their courage, the controversy, the controversy. As proven by all the love letters we receive in the form of comments. 29 minutes of four dynamic personalities, not having the benefit of a face-to-face round table discussion, yet all bringing a clear and strong voice to the issues of the week. And after the show is over, after the Zoom platform is gone, I often take a deep breath and say to myself, what rollercoaster of conversations did I just come out of? And upon reflection, the answer is usually the same. I don't know, but let's do it again next week. Thank you. Thanks for your work and service to the community and congratulations. Our second Outstanding Host Award goes to Wendy Low, host of Taking Your Health Back. The citation reads as follows. For her uplifting and inspiring interviews and conversations, in moderating our Taking Your Health Back show and in covering a variety of topics dealing with physical and emotional health, as well as food, family, aging, community, and lifestyle, among other things. Which are all of significant interest and value to our viewership in Hawaii and elsewhere. And which are particularly relevant and helpful in the time of COVID. We recognize, acknowledge and offer our most heartfelt thanks to Wendy for her diligence and determination in hosting the show and for her abiding commitment to civic engagement and to raising public awareness in our community. Here to accept the award is Wendy Low. Lulee and I could hear Rick Sanjeevi, Jay, Carol, Melissa, Haley, Eric, and all the Think Tech Hawaii hosts. Aloha and Mahalo for this great honor. We are over 35 plus Think Tech Hawaii show hosts and I share this award with all of you. Little be known to all of you, I'm a stalker. I have been viewing your videos for content, yes, for updates, yes, but also to study what works and makes all of you so successful. So I Mahalo all of you, as well as been chosen for the Outstanding Host Award. Being a shy tit-a-chick from Miley, going to Merino High School, getting married and living in Hong Kong for five years, owning and operating a chocolate factory in Honolulu for 20 years, while sitting on 12 boards of directors, while raising two beautiful daughters and retiring at 50 years old. Traveling the world delivering Bibles and little chairs and now building homes in Uganda for the houses community there is ever so fulfilling. Now I'm teaching Hawaii to be more plant strong and to grow via tar gardens in aeroponic growing system. Hashtag grown, not flown. And now my life is beginning. Having the platform of getting simple information out to the public via Think Tech Hawaii is beyond a dream but a golden opportunity to help Hawaii take their health back. I Mahalo you, Jay and Think Tech Hawaii for the golden opportunity and most of all for believing in me, Mahalo. Thank you so much for your work and service to the community Wendy and congratulations. Will everybody please give them a big hand? Each host are only a few of the dozens of Think Tech hosts who reach out to connect with guests here and everywhere to raise awareness and to understand the issues and events at play in our world. Actually they all deserve awards. So thanks to them too. Collectively they've done more than 2,000 talk shows just in 2020. Our final award of the evening is to our underwriter of the year. As a non-profit Think Tech has always relied on the annual donations of underwriters who provide us the biggest portion of our financial support. This year we proudly acknowledge the Sydney Stern Memorial Trust. The citation reads as follows. Towards generous and continuing contributions to Think Tech and a myriad of other non-profit community organizations in Hawaii in both funding and in its concern caring and active participation in the activities of those organizations. And for its regular introductions of and appearances with those organizations in our Think Tech talk shows. We recognize, acknowledge and offer our most heartfelt thanks to the Sydney Stern Memorial Trust for its abiding commitment to the Hawaii community and to the disadvantaged members of that community. Here to accept the award is Sandra Schwartz. Aloha, my name is Sandra Schwartz and I'm a professor of history at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. On behalf of the Board of Advisors of the Sydney Stern Memorial Trust, I'm honored to accept the underwriter of the year for Think Tech Hawaii. I love to study the ancient world because it gives me perspective to understand the depth of our history and humanity. I imagine Think Tech as a virtual forum where ideas spread and discussions flourish, maybe not in TOGAs, but Aloha shirts will do the job just as well. As a board member of the Sydney Stern Memorial Trust, we give many grants to organizations that have a 501 C3 status in the US, but we have a special emphasis in Hawaii. Over the years, we've carved out a niche to help support small organizations in Hawaii who might need that extra helping hand to fulfill their projects. We are pleased to support Think Tech Hawaii to bring a wide array of programs in the public interest. So, keep up the good work, Jay, Carol, and everyone who brings their hearts and their minds to Think Tech Hawaii. Happy holidays. Thanks for your continuing support and encouragement, Sandy, and congratulations. And now for our door prizes. An appreciation for your interest, support, and attendance here tonight, and using our special randomizing software, we have selected three of you who have registered for this evening's virtual program. Each of you can appear as a guest on one of our talk shows and use our platform to share something of interest and value with our viewers and the community. Here are the three winners. And the winners are Lynn Flanagan, Avi Soyfer, and Elizabeth Siphol. Congratulations to you all. You'll be in touch to organize and schedule your forthcoming talk shows. And thank you all for your participation and support of our efforts at Think Tech. To those who provide our content, to those who help us with fundraising, including, of course, our cherished underwriters and grand tours and directors, and to our loyal and trepid staff who have met every challenge we have faced, I call for a virtual toast with you all and each of you. To the Think Tech Enterprise and to the Think Tech platform for civic engagement, the crucible of our creativity, let's recommit to the vows that brought us together 20 years ago and through all the years since then. Yes, here in these challenging times, bless us, everyone. Yes, thanks so much for attending our 2020 holiday party and awards ceremony. May 2021 bring you and all of us good health, peace, prosperity, and a little rest from the COVID and the chaos. Okay, until next year, stay safe and healthy and well-informed on our own Think Tech Hawaii. Better every day, aloha.