Today marks the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, which took the lives of seven NASA astronauts, including Kona’s own Col. Ellison Onizuka.

For many individuals, Jan. 28 will come and go as any other day, but for many in the West Hawaii community, it will bring back memories of “where were you when you heard or witnessed the accident?” For a large number of students, teachers, families and community members, it was viewed live – some at home, some at school and some surrounding the monitors at KTA stores.

As an educator, having spent three decades in Kona’s schools, I had the difficult task of consoling and debriefing middle schoolers who had witnessed the televised tragedy in 1986. It was my first year of teaching, and no university program could have prepared me for dealing with the shock, anxiety, confusion and grief experienced by those young learners, peers and colleagues, or self.

As the community and nation mourned, and U.S. citizens began to come to terms with the incredible loss, days turned to months, months turned to years, and small glimmers of hope began to emerge in remembrance of the STS-51 astronauts.

Through the dedication and determination of families of the Challenger crew, numerous scholarships were created, the “Challenger Center” was established, and NASA’s “Day of Remembrance” was instituted.

For the West Hawaii community, however, it was the creation of a local museum: the Col. Ellison Onizuka Space Center at the Kona Airport in the early 1990s, honoring Onizuka as a way to come together, celebrate and remember a local boy’s legacy.

While teaching at Konawaena Middle School in 2011, I reminded my classes about the then-pending 25th anniversary of the Challenger accident, only to be met by blank stares. This new generation of learners was born between 1997-1999, over a decade after the tragedy occurred — and had little knowledge of the disaster or the man behind the name on the school’s gymnasium.

It was during that school year that a most rewarding service learning project spearheaded by 12- and 13-year-olds was imagined, and implemented. Commemorated through a video documentary entitled “Dear Ellison,” Konawaena Middle schoolers researched NASA’s archives, collected oral histories from family members who remembered the disaster, and invited Ellison Onizuka’s surviving siblings — Claude Onizuka and Shirley Matsuoka — to the school to share their appreciation project (www.schooltube.com/video/ebaa467c0f50cc5d25d9/Dear%20Ellison).

Additionally, the Association for Middle Level Education in its magazine published the experience, entitled “Dear Ellison — a Service Learning Project” (http://808ne.ws/1SKPDwM).

So as the month of January in the year 2016 comes to a close, I reflect upon an epic tragedy that shook my community 30 years ago; I will remember an airport museum that opened its doors, and the minds of visitors from near and far, but sadly will be closing to future guests after March. But mostly, I remember the students who weren’t old enough to experience encounters by a local role model, but will be guided by his messages and memory in their own future endeavors.

Mahalo, Ellison, for the opportunity to grow as an educator, and an individual, over the last three decades in Kona’s public schools.

Sandy Cameli, Ph.D., is an educational specialist for Hawaii’s Department of Education.