Letter: It pays to show off excellence

Occasionally — too infrequently — examples of excellence deserve to be celebrated. Our daughter’s family recently experienced one of those moments.

Facing a deadline, they had decided not to make a hoped-for move to Hilton Head Island. Hearing this, a friend asked principal Amanda O’Nan if she could arrange an impromptu look at Hilton Head Island High School. Within an hour, meetings were set and our family was blown away by the quality of the school and the extraordinary attention given to them by everyone on the staff and students they met. As a result, there are high odds another young family will make our island their home.

High compliments to teacher Mary Beth White for a giving a close look at the academic programs; coaches B.J. Payne and Kevin Osterstock for the full tour of the school and facilities; plus coach Steve Fuller and receivers Bryce Singleton and Tyler Hamilton for making the football program come to life; and John Werner and Rich Thomas for alerting and coordinating with the football staff.

And David Ames deserves credit for refusing to lose an opportunity to attract a young family to our island. The more we can showcase excellence like this, the more successful we will be in attracting young families.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 12:34 PM with the headline "Letter: It pays to show off excellence."