Headmaster's Newsletter -- Week 2

Despite its destructive power, or perhaps because of it, Hurricane Dorian had a positive effect on our school community. It brought us all together. Before the turbulent winds and loss of electricity, the heavy rains did nothing to dampen school spirit. We had a full slate of Saturday classes and finished the day with sports practices. We are blessed with many indoor facilities (double gym, swimming pool, dance studio, yoga studio, theatre stage, wrestling room, etc) but not everyone avoided the (literally and without any hyperbole) torrential downpour. I was thrilled to see cross country runners splashing their way around the track for their afternoon workout. So envious were the girls on the hockey team they took off their shoes and ran barefoot in the rain around the turf field! It was the perfect “cool down” after their intense indoor training session. Laughter and great memories made in a moment.

With the power outage on Saturday night came a loss of wifi. Ironically, this made us more connected than ever. It also seemed that every teenager in our boarding community did their very best to support each other and soothe away any anxiety created by the storm. Students and houseparents congregated in the Dining Hall for a night of old fashioned board games and face-to-face conversation. There was lots of great food and good fun for all. What could be better than boys and girls of all ages and nations connecting in real time over candlelight and flashlight?

Sunday ended up being gorgeously sunny. Our 200 boarding students mobilized themselves into work groups and within an hour had all the branches and leafy debris on campus piled up for removal on Monday. The enthusiastic desire to help out was overwhelming. Every time I went to pick up a branch it seemed I had four different students offer to carry it for me.

Sunday afternoon was punctuated by a “slip and slide” on Front Hill and more fun and games organized by the Prefects. I cannot thank them, Ms. Schaffer, our Houseparents, and our heroic maintenance crew, enough. What could have been a difficult time of transition ended up being a positive example of resilience, cooperation, and school spirit. And we did not miss a single class!

It has been an excellent second week.