Windows Into Shore

A Commitment to Community: Larry Griffin Celebrates Twenty-five Years as Head of School

From the Shore 75th Anniversary Bulletin

By Lee Carey, Director of Admissions and Secondary School Placement

Booming laughter rises up the Dining Hall ramp, cascades over the open wall, and infiltrates the words of soothing reassurance being offered to parents brand new to Shore. Of course it is Larry Griffin! For twenty-five years — a full third of Shore’s history — it has been easy to know when Larry is out and about on campus. He is as serious about the fun of life and learning as he is about education’s best practices. Larry’s quarter century at Shore’s helm is characterized by this very trio of forces, defined as much by his energy and enthusiasm as it is by his pedagogy. Intellectually, he likes to think of Shore as a traditional school at the forefront of elementary education. He also knows schools don’t arrive or remain at the head of the class without growth, evolution, and the capacity to reflect upon themselves with perspective — and a sense of humor!

In 1987, Larry inherited a school that was thriving in the manner of many independent schools, delivering an excellent standard of education within a highly regarded traditional style. New heads are always coached to do more observing than changing in year one. In Shore’s roots, high expectations, and winning teams, there was plenty for Larry to admire. His approach to life, however, clearly informed his style of leadership, propelling him to seek improvement, fresh ideas, and growth. Insatiable action and vision quickly replaced observation, and by the end of Larry’s first fall, Shore was off on the race of change.

Twenty-five years hence, we can attest to the fact that Larry rarely pauses. In the early years, he quickly engaged faculty in the process of professional evaluation, not just around what we are doing now, but where we would be focused next. He fought for what has become a trademark of Shore, its significant funding for professional development. Rather than administer from the top down, he orchestrated deliberate avenues for faculty leadership. Teachers guided accreditation teams and influenced Shore’s decision to become a two rather than three division school. Division heads educated teachers about learning styles, and teachers led their peers on issues of diversity. Trustees, administrators, and faculty colluded to form and reform mission statements. Sometimes change was big and deliberate: voting was unanimous on the decision that Shore’s science facilities must be built. The resulting Brian R. Walsh Science Center and Library Resource Center was and remains an extraordinary setting for teaching. Sometimes evolution grew slowly and from within. Faculty proposed to Larry that the science department’s collaboration with Readiness and Kindergarten teachers could become fully integrated science and art learning for R-2. Their integrated study spawned Shore’s initiation of Coherent Curriculum teaching at every grade, and today’s SAIL curriculum is routinely studied and emulated by other schools. Larry likes nothing better than when a great idea emerges from his faculty.

Sometimes no one really brings change; instead, it sometimes finds you. Larry’s style has been to research and consider. As our world has grown more diverse and the student body has responded with enrollment, so too came Larry’s need to seek diverse faculty and deliberately engage all teachers in multicultural training and conversations. Incorporating technology in administration, teaching, and learning is a wave that has grown only higher with no crest in sight. Larry has found the funding and the foresight to keep our students and teachers at the cutting edge. Parenting styles, the desire for schools to become hubs of community, and the ease of technology colluded to usher in strong and deliberate expectations for communication. Robust athletics remain a trademark of Shore. For their physical health, team play, and sportsmanship, sports are still a priority for the students and surely for Larry as a coach. But as individual pursuits have proliferated, students can now balance their afternoon choices with far greater variation over the course of a year. And then there’s the Shore dress code. Larry is a conservative dresser at heart. Even in the face of relaxing corporate standards of dress, giving up student coats and ties was hard. Settling on a school style that represents an egalitarian approach, with an air of purpose and without distraction, however, was easy.

In fact, anything that benefits the students is an easy consideration for Larry. It is, after all, his mantra: regardless of how it may serve the adults or the school, is it good for children? A veritable litany of changes under Larry’s tenure testifies to the pursuit of this philosophy. Upper School students have time for support and enrichment with faculty not only through the regularity of the “Eighth Hour” period but also through the thriving opportunity for Independent Study. Kindergarten and now Readiness, too, stretch their curriculum over a full day rather than half. There’s time for the personal growth of free play and social time, more art and more movement, and, above all, no rush. Seventh and eighth graders see peers in new ways through Project Adventure. Fifth grade whaling and sailing curriculum is brought to life on board the ship at Mystic Seaport, and seventh graders learn the art of field science in the ocean lagoon of Camp Briarwood. Where Lower School students have always benefited from the consistency, safety, and responsive classroom model of the homeroom, Upper Schoolers find refuge, identity, and reinforcement within their advisor groups and the Advisory Curriculum. With persistence and insistence, Larry has pushed for the learning to be as personal as it has been academic, to be as hands on and creative as it is formal and preparatory. Balance remains important; accessibility for students with different passions and talents is key.

And then there’s that laugh. Larry loves the fun of children, of people, of life. Interviewing Readiness children about what it is they think he does at Shore delights him as much as cooking up pranks to foil ninth graders who look to fool their fearless leader at Mountain School. Larry devises tactics to surprise the student body with Head’s Holiday, and he pedals the oval in Chinese dress delivering the Kindergarten’s international bears. Creating his own Wall-E costume for the Halloween parade kept him up all night, and exemplifying to the ninth graders how not to impress secondary school interviewers makes us groan. Those who know Larry know that he brought his passion for baseball to Shore, but nothing is more fabulously silly than watching him lead the conga line of Lower Schoolers through the dining tables on opening day with “Sweet Caroline” blaring and the game up on the big screen.

That big screen in the big Dining Hall whose space allows Shore students to gather over meals and with their teachers and classmates, sometimes chatting about school but often not, makes Larry proud. Beyond its resources as a facility, the Dining Hall raises the personal quality of Shore students’ days outside of the classroom. The role of the Community Code does, too. Especially as a vehicle for praising what children do well, the Code’s power as a framework for remarking upon the good enjoins everyone to Larry’s optimistic view of human nature. He cares deeply about what students can learn in their relationships with others, especially about themselves. Eighth and ninth grade camping trips and the remarkable ninth grade week at Mountain School are exemplars of this affective goal. The trips play to all of Larry’s sense of fun and adventure. Moreover, they are indelibly etched in Shore students’ relationships to both classmates and the school.

In these twenty-five years, Larry has taught us to look forward, remain optimistic, and always consider the best for children. We share his pride in our campus and programs. We construct our teaching more broadly and more creatively. Children participate with their hearts as much as with their minds. Along the way, Shore has learned to embrace the energy of change, and we cannot help but laugh with the joy.

Thank you Mr. Griffin!

 

 

 

 

Why Pay for an Independent School?

Lee Carey
Director of Admissions & Secondary School Placement

It's all about the teaching, both in and out of the classroom.  Instructional groups are ten-twenty students.  Student relationships are personal, and teaching occurs in the classroom, on the playing field, in advisor groups, at lunch and recess, in study periods, and independent study mentorships. Teachers know their students strengths, passions, and learning styles.  Students share commonalities of strong ability and high motivation. They energize each other, bringing focus and excitement to their classes. And teaching happens in the hallways as we strive to meet the expectations of our Community Code.  Its tenets help to exercise and to recognize the kindness, openness, honesty, and respect that guide the tone of the school community.  

It's all about the curriculum. Students learn to write in all disciplines, to present their work, and make connections between subject areas.  They practice habits, skills, and attitudes of learning that support every area of study for high school and college. Students engage in team and independent work, writing conferences, lab sciences, and research. They understand their teachers as resources for their learning.  Reading groups by ability start at Pre-K, and math is stretched everywhere: in the homeroom materials, Third Grade logic, Six Grade math team, and honors algebra and geometry. Specialist teachers and facilities support the curriculum.  While the three R's are always core subjects, from the youngest Pre-K students through Grade Nine, science is taught in the lab, art in the studio, and PE and sports in the gymnasiums or on the fields five days a week. Spanish words migrate from the language classrooms back into the homerooms, and integrated projects combine disciplines at every grade level and incorporate the information technology of the library.  

It's all about the communication. Teachers expect to be in frequent touch with parents. Formally, twice yearly conferences and extensive narrative reports inform both parents and children about their progress. Informally, calls, e-mails, and meetings bring parents into conversations about student progress, needs, and strategies.  From this partnership, students understand the priority of education, and from parents' participation, students understand the importance of community. Help with a project, volunteer in the library, have a lunch with a child, share a love of reading or professional expertise with a class unit. Parents are welcome on campus everyday. Weekly assemblies and curricular celebrations draw both students and parents together. Class dinners and school-wide activities ensure that families from differing parts of the region form community friendships.   

It's all about the faculty. To teach children is an honor. The profession comes with high expectations.  All employees work on one year contracts. Professional review is standard and professional development and advanced degrees are funded. New hiring is offered to teachers who love their profession, understand the impact of learning styles, multiculturalism, and subject integration. Collegiality is key as teachers join in their planning and share strategies for teaching individual students. While guided by strong department leadership, they are unfettered by state mandates, and encouraged to incorporate personal passions. They aspire to generate independence and a love of learning in their students. They must be learners themselves. Above all, they must love children.  Graduates return frequently to visit, and it is their teachers they wish to see.       

Discover an independent school. Let us show you our programs and introduce you to our faculty and families.  View our calendar of Open Houses and receptions.  You will find tours, activities, and conversations for all! 

Smart. Strong. Sure.

Living the (Community) Code

Lee Carey
Director of Admissions & Secondary School Placement

There is a frequently shown TV ad that distracts me from its advertising intent by the social message it weaves: see the good, do the good.  It's the ad where the neighbor who saw a colleague clean up a workroom mess turns around and helps with the massive leaf pile next door, and so on.  It tugs at me every time.  Not that I am unkind, not that I don't know how and when to offer assistance.  But there is a difference between knowing these things and reflexively doing these things.  Most know and recognize good behaviors, the Golden Rules, if you will, from an early age.  We are taught them, made to practice them.  They do make us better, more functional citizens. 

At Shore we strive to live by our Community Code.  It grounds us and reminds us of what it takes to allow ourselves and others to get the most out of life within a school community and hopefully well beyond.  Most days we live the Code well: doors are held, classmates are included, new ideas are welcomed.  When we haven't had our best day, there are people to remind us of how we can do better tomorrow.  But there is something powerful in seeing the Code be truly lived by children around you. 

I watched at lunch last week as a middle school student made three earnest attempts in a single lunch period to coax a solo diner to a table of classmates.  Despite being thrice rebuffed, a group then resolved to move themselves to the solo diner.  As I visited the playground with a prospective eight year old student and his parents this week, we were invaded by a boisterous recess crowd of fifth graders.  As we deepened into adult conversation, my student visitor bravely ventured to a swing across the playground.  Suddenly, there she was, a fifth grader towering over my young visitor, leaving her peers and coming to ask if he'd like to join the 4 square game. 

Inspiration for us all and true moments of living the Community Code.  

Red Flags or Red Herrings?

Lee Carey
Director of Admissions & Secondary School Placement

Last week, a review of Susan Engel's Red Flags or Red Herrings? Predicting Who Your Child Will Become landed on my kitchen table.  Working in independent school elementary admissions, I encounter lots of anxiety from parents about whether they have been doing the "right things," certainly to get their children ready for school, but also for life.  I work with parents of adolescents, too, as they journey into secondary school placement.  They muse often about what else they should push their child into to look better prepared in the eyes of prep school admissions officers.  What to do with all this angst? 

Clearly the answer is to read this book.  Dr. Engel (and her considerable research) champion the view that every child is born with immutable traits that remain constant over a lifetime. Regardless of home or school environments, the dreamy stay dreamy, the analytic devour the facts, the optimistic ones bring us sunshine, and the hot-tempered keep us on our toes.  Shore's legendary elementary teacher, Debbie Parkhurst has always said, "you know, they all start school with their bags packed.  I can tell you by the end of Kindergarten what they will be like as students, teenagers or even adults." 

We have many things to offer them, of course.  We stretch their talents and nurture their citizenry in school.  Chores and the occasional disappointments of life build their coping skills.  Team play and solo projects prepare them for greater-world encounters.  But still, the artists gravitate to the studio, the leaders have a hard time softening their elbows, and the shy are happiest when they can reflect on paper (or online!).  In the words of our Anita Barbato, beloved former Lower School Head at Shore, "Such as I am, I am a Precious Gift."  

A New Shore Tradition: Celebration Dinner

Larry Griffin, Head of School. Larry recently announced changes to Recognition Night
(formerly known as Awards Night) in a letter to the Shore community. 

It is my honor to announce the creation of a new tradition that brings all of our eighth and ninth grade students, their parents, and their teachers together for an evening of sharing reflections, celebrating accomplishments, and honoring friendship. When our eighth and ninth grade students walk out of our new Celebration Dinner, they will carry with them a lifetime of memories. As many of these young women and men prepare to graduate, others will prepare to accept the mantle of leadership at Shore.

Celebration Dinner, a formal gathering, will focus on celebrating the best of times spent together. The evening will highlight the depth and importance of the connection between teacher and student. Many of these relationships have been forged over ten or eleven years. We rarely have an opportunity to pause and reflect on what we have accomplished together and to contemplate the possibilities that lie before us. A select few teachers will address the gathering with messages of appreciation for accomplishment and share their vision for the power of effort, scholarship, and character.  A retrospective slide show will allow us to momentarily relive the best of times together. This evening will be dedicated to securing memories of growth, happiness, and community.

Graduation week will kick off with the culminating activities of the interdisciplinary study of NYC for the eighth grade and the final coherent theme on sailing for our ninth grade seniors. Academic recognition for students who have achieved Honors and High Honors in the spring term, and for those with consistent honors achievement throughout the current year, will be one of the highlights of our last Upper School assembly. The last hour of the school year will be in jubilant celebration at an “All Shore Field Day” joining children, faculty, and staff from Readiness through Grade Nine. The entire eighth grade will gather for their class pool party on Sunday evening; the ninth grade beach party will follow on Monday at dusk.  Celebration Dinner, exclusively for all eighth and ninth grade students and parents, will occur the night before Graduation, less than twenty- four hours before we focus on the accomplishments and contributions of each graduate at our closing ceremonies on Wednesday.

When we look back on our Shore years, we want the final week of school and the tradition of Celebration Dinner to be amongst our strongest and most meaningful memories.

With Shore pride,

Lawrence A. Griffin
Head of School

Helping Haiti: From Our Village to Theirs

Dr. Henry Frissora, Former Shore Country Day School parent (Giules '10, Alessandra '06) and Board of Trustee member. Hear Dr. Frissora and Sam Byrne, President of the Board of Trustees at Brookwood School, speak about their experiences in Haiti at the inaugural Shore Speaker Series event on February 9, 2011.

We were screaming down the Windward Passage at nearly twenty knots when three deafening bangs shook the deck and the eighty-one foot maxi-boat Captivity came to a sudden halt.  The twenty-man crew scrambled to cut the buckled carbon fiber mast off the boat and then prepared for an unplanned voyage to the closest safe harbor. Thirty miles to the west, the dim lights of Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) beckoned, while to the east, an equal distance away, lay the dark, barren, shores of Haiti, our impoverished neighbor, but with no visible port.  Our race from Miami to Montego Bay now prematurely over, we limped into Gitmo, our spirits intact to race another day.  The dark images of Haiti, however, lingered on my radar screen until a night in January nearly three years later when a devastating earthquake brought her into the forefront of world news.

Shortly after the earthquake hit, many in our local medical community were at a loss about what they could do to help. The press was abuzz with gruesome stories of surgeons performing amputations en masse under mango trees, using hacksaws and no more than an aspirin for anesthesia.  Though some foreign medical crews began arriving in Port-au-Prince, they were helpless given the devastation of what little infrastructure had existed in the city before the earthquake hit. All government buildings, the Nursing School, and most hospitals and roadways had been demolished, and nearly 300,000 people lost their lives.

Almost immediately, Sam Byrne, the sailing captain from our aborted race three years earlier, began sponsoring private air relief flights to and from Haiti, piloted by Peter Simpson, an old high school friend.  Peter had just flown Ric Bonnel, an American doctor, to Miami with a critically injured Haitian child in need of life saving care, and Ric had asked Peter if he knew of any medical teams that might be interested in helping to staff the Pierre Payen Hospital, a small facility just up the coast from Port au Prince.  The hospital, founded by an American surgeon named Dr. Victor Binkley in the 1970’s, is a small mission-based hospital with a clinic and single operating room, and somehow, the facility had survived the earthquake.  Ric had been in the area working at an orphanage when the earthquake struck, and he had helped to convert the compound into a major disaster relief center to provide surgery with anesthesia and intra-operative x-rays for earthquake victims.  The hospital now desperately needed medical teams to volunteer for one or two week stints. Ric turned to Sam who began contacting friends in the medical field, many of whom had sailed with him, and within one day, our team, Ekip Uit or Team Eight, came together and made a commitment to do our part. The strong friendships and sense of teamwork that for many of us on the team had been forged at sea enabled us to mobilize rapidly and to enlist massive community support.

Our group included our sailing team’s anesthesiologist, the Boston Celtics’ orthopedic surgeon, a newly trained pediatric emergency specialist, a gifted plastic surgeon, nurse anesthetists and operating room and pediatric and myself, serving as surgeon and team leader.  (Ultimately, support from our medical community was so overwhelming that we were able to staff a second team headed by another of our orthopedic colleagues.) Each member of our team shared a common desire to help our poorest neighbor, a country where much of the population’s only access to medical care before the earthquake hit had been Voodoo medicine, and we knew that we would be working in adverse situations with limited supplies in the midst of disease that we had never before encountered.  As a team, we embraced the importance of serving without ego and with the attitude that each of us would take on all tasks, no matter how menial, in order to help save lives.

We were instructed to procure our own medical equipment and supplies, and after making hundreds of phone calls and sending countless emails, we were able to assess the situation at Pierre Payen and gather the surgical supplies, anesthetics, medications, and x-ray equipment that we would need. Wherever we turned, our community at large was willing to help.  Every department we approached at Beverly Hospital and the New England Baptist Hospital offered support in the form of medications, testing equipment and other supplies. Beverly Hospital’s Evelyn Lilly Lutz Foundation pledged financial support for our nursing crew, while countless private donors opened their purses to help.   The Travel Clinic at Beverly Hospital Danvers worked overtime to immunize the medical crews, and Lyon’s Ambulance donated a stretcher. Colleagues in the emergency room and both the intensive care and infectious disease units at the two hospitals even pledged twenty-four hour availability to back us up if we had any complicated medical questions.  Orthopedic and surgical companies donated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of supplies for our adopted hospital, and Dr. Rob McLaughlin of Beverly Hospital sent down a portable C-Arm machine, an X-ray image intensifier, for the operating room.

At a dinner meeting shortly before our departure, each team member rose to describe what his or her role and responsibilities would be once we arrived in Haiti, and the enthusiasm was palpable. Up until then, Captain Sam had firmly believed that he would be of more value to the team by remaining at home and generating income to support our work, but that night, caught up in the passion felt by each member of the team, Sam, rose and said, “I’m in!”  With those words, our modest medical relief effort transformed into what would become a massive community airlift to help the people of Haiti.

Our original plan had been to travel to Haiti via an efficient, agile, turboprop Pilatus plane that could carry seven passengers and a very modest cargo, but within hours of our dinner meeting, Sam managed to procure for our use the 737-sized Airbus jet owned by Dow Chemical, and Exxon agreed to supply the fuel.  We now had the capability not only to transport our medical supplies and team, but thousands of pounds of necessities for the people of Haiti. In an effort led by Tracey Byrne, Sam’s wife, students at area schools including Brookwood, Shore Country Day, Glen Urquhart, and the Manchester Public Schools joined forces with countless local residents, including many Beverly Hospital employees, to collect clothing, rain gear, tents, crutches, cell phones, solar chargers, and other items for us to deliver to Haiti. Through her radiology contacts at Anna Jacques Hospital, my wife Audrey was able to procure two modern ultrasound machines for us, and Sam and Tracey selflessly volunteered their home to be our processing center where legions of volunteers delivered, cleaned, folded, and vacuum packed truckload after truckload of supplies.

In addition to transporting our medical team and all of the donations we had received, the Airbus jet would also carry four non-medical people, including Sam.  At the time, no one could imagine just how invaluable these four team members would be.  Sam’s logistical, financial, and political savvy would help us to negotiate the airlift into a country lacking infrastructure and any government leadership.   Paul, a former state police special force detective, would assure our safety and security and arrange our ground transportation in a country where violent crime was prevalent, in part because thousands of convicted criminals had escaped from jails after the earthquake had struck.  Dexter, a builder, would become our fix-it guy whose levelheaded composure would help to keep us safe as we traveled the ramshackle, hostile, and crowded streets of Port-au-Prince.  Finally, Duane, a communications engineer dubbed “Radar” by the team, would be the one to help install a donated Wi-Fi system for the entire hospital compound and to set up computers to help us manage our patients and supplies.  Imagine our excitement when we learned, too, that after dropping off our team and supplies, our Airbus would carry forty-two orphaned Haitian children accompanied by several relief workers to Miami where the children would begin life anew with eagerly awaiting adoptive families.  After a week of nonstop preparations, our team was finally sitting on board the Airbus at Hanscom Field. Seats not occupied by team members were stacked with supplies, and local television stations covered the launch of Airlift Haiti.  We were off!

Upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, we disembarked and immediately began loading truck after truck with supplies destined for Pierre Payen, pausing only to wave teary-eyed as the forty-two Haitian orphans, many bandaged and maimed, boarded the jet in the arms of our volunteer flight crew. Our caravan then set off through the foul, dusty streets of Port-au-Prince, a city lined with rubble-covered open graves, tent cities on median strips, and throngs of people with vacuous stares milling about. We made our way along the coast to the Pierre Payen Hospital compound where interpreters and cooks at the compound’s guesthouse greeted us.  We unloaded the supplies in the dark, and then Dr. Tim Pratt, a visiting resident doctor, introduced us to our patients. Meanwhile, our non-medical crew and our anesthesiologist worked hard to repair complex anesthesia equipment and to learn how to operate the autoclaves in order to sterilize equipment.  Finally, we all called it a day and headed to our six cot rooms to try and get some sleep.

The next morning, we were awakened before sunrise by the sounds of angry roosters, braying donkeys, yelping stray dogs and roaring trucks and tip-taps, colorful Haitian busses, as they barreled up the coast. After taking cold showers for lack of any hot water and donning blue scrubs, we met in the breakfast room and began converting the space into Command Central, by setting up x-ray view boxes, a white patient tracking board, and Internet access.  Suddenly, a woman with children in her arms and by her side burst into the room and announced, “Hi! I’m Annie!  They call me the bipolar Mother Teresa with a rowing machine!”  Initially taken aback, we would come to depend on Annie, a Midwestern blonde with boundless energy, to help us navigate the complicated social structure of post-quake Haiti.  Within moments of her arrival, she gathered the entire medical team and led us in an ecumenical prayer, referring to God “the most awesome physician”. We learned that Annie ran an orphanage down the road, caring for babies and children severely maimed, congenitally deformed, or emotionally labile. In the days ahead, Annie would punctuate our stay with frequent prayers, often walking right into the operating room in the middle of a case. Annie was somehow able to inspire each member of our medical team, regardless of anyone’s religious beliefs or convictions.  Not only was Annie a spiritual presence in our midst, but she also was invaluable in referring patients from Port-au-Prince to us and in arranging their transport to and from the hospital, all by word of mouth, because ironically, our little mission hospital had now become a go-to facility for patients requiring complicated surgery in a sterile setting.

One huge challenge our team faced occurred when running water was cut off to our hospital because road crews had accidentally dug through the pipe connecting to the main well.  As a result, all water had to be transported in buckets by hand. Conditions were filthy, and the air was noxious.  Miraculously, we were able to meet this challenge head on the next day when our team ventured into Port-au-Prince to transport a critically ill patient needing dialysis.  Our “ambulance” was an open back truck used for ice deliveries in the early morning and transformed to a moving critical care unit by ten. Driving in stop and go traffic through the city’s busy streets, we were barraged by hordes of people trying to push their way inside the vehicle. After collecting patients from various hospitals and clinics, we found our way to the Mennonite compound to speak to the folks who had drilled the well two weeks before.  In a friendly but forceful way, our team managed to coax them into giving us a new pump and conduit, and by the next morning, Dexter had worked his magic so that we had clean running water at the hospital. Now Sam and his crew, with their “no job too small” mantra, attacked the hospital in full surgical regalia, and using mops, pressure washers, hoses and Clorox flown in that day by Peter, they were able to create a much needed sterile environment in the hospital.

Our surgical patients, so sincere and appreciative, were a fascinating mix of people suffering from post-quake trauma or advanced, untreated chronic disease.  Our orthopod Brian had his hands full with poorly set fractures that required plating and correction, the cleaning of infected bones, and the repair of acute open fractures. Others treated quake victims who had developed large ulcers and needed reconstructive surgery requiring the moving of muscle and skin, repaired partially healed but unset jaw fractures, and corrected hand deformities.  I kept busy operating on patients with advanced tumors of the neck, breast, and uterus and giant hernias and wounds requiring skin grafting.  The surgeons often worked together, learning about our each other’s special techniques, and our anesthesia crew and our sole scrub nurse worked tirelessly so that we could have two cases going at a time. Our pediatric and non-surgical medical team members collaborated with our Haitian nurses and interpreters to care for patients with wounds, to dispense medication, to discuss nutrition, and to lift the spirits of so many people whose lives had been devastated by the quake, and they also kept busy running our central supply room.  Even with limited equipment, no preoperative CAT scans, minimal laboratories or culture studies, and frequent power outages, we all worked together, persevered, and found great personal satisfaction in what we were doing.

By the second week’s end, our team of medical and non-medical volunteers, along with our Haitian co-workers, had performed over seventy operations and had cared for hundreds of patients.  We had pushed ourselves beyond our comfort zone, working in an environment that lacked the luxuries of our American hospital settings, but we came away knowing that by working together and putting our fears aside, we were able to build community among ourselves and reach out to serve some of the poorest of the poor.  Just as each member of our sailing team three years ago on that dark and fateful night knew that every person on board was a necessary part of a whole, so, too, was each member of this team a crucial member of the community we built.  We left Haiti realizing that no matter where we find ourselves – at home with our families, in our schools, in our towns, or even on a troubled island hoping to lend a helping hand, we are surrounded by opportunities to make a difference., and when we say “yes” to these opportunities, we always seem to receive so much more than we give.

Believe

Britany Napolitano, Readiness Teaching Assistant

“Don’t believe everything you hear” is a phrase we have all heard at least once before. I had always heard wonderful things about Shore Country Day School from various people and families in the area, but I wondered if everything I heard was actually true. I was fortunate to find out for myself and am convinced that it is.

Since the first time I stepped foot on the campus and even now, everyone I have met has been so friendly and welcoming. The faculty and staff are eager to help in any way possible and want to get to know you. There is an incredible sense of community across the campus that we are all part of a team that supports not only one another, but more importantly, the students. The community doesn’t stop at the faculty/staff but rather extends amongst the students as well, both in school and outside on the playground.

The students of Shore are truly amazing. Each morning they greet you with a smiling face and an eager spirit ready to learn. I am astounded by their abilities and responses each day; it has given me chills at some moments! Sometimes I wonder, are these students really in Readiness? And of course, they have me laughing constantly with their innocent, candid comments.

I am so excited to be part of this active community called Shore!

Education: A Key to Fighting Terrorism and Ending Poverty

Caroline Guenther '03

The below is an excerpt from the article by the same name appearing in this falls Shore Bulletin.

The books Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson describe the incredible work he has done with the Central Asia Institute (CAI) since dedicating his life to building schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan where government funding has not been available and the education of girls has been unheard of.  Greg originally traveled to Pakistan in 1993 to climb K2, but he became lost and was found disoriented near the remote village of Korphe, where the villagers there saved his life. Subsequently, when Greg noticed the children in Korphe writing their multiplication tables with sticks in the dirt, he promised to return and build a school for them in the village.   Eventually, Greg raised enough funds to return to Korphe, and in 1997, he fulfilled his promise to the villagers there.  Since then, CAI has built more than one hundred additional schools in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, many of which are for girls. 

During my sophomore year at the University of St. Andrews, I read Three Cups of Tea, and when I returned home during a school break, I went to hear Greg speak at a book signing in Marblehead, Massachusetts. As he autographed my copy of Three Cups of Tea, I initially spoke to him in Arabic, telling him about my experiences in rural China and the Middle East. During my junior year of high school, I had studied abroad in Beijing and had traveled through much of rural China, where I had stayed with families in peasant villages. I had also visited many schools in rural China where I was able to donate school supplies for the children, and I had volunteered in an orphanage in Beijing every week, teaching English in a school for illegal Chinese migrant workers’ children. I shared with him that I was now majoring in Arabic and had spent the past summer studying in Yemen, one of the most conservative Islamic societies. Although I knew that the Central Asia Institute did not accept volunteers or offer internships because of the dangerous and sensitive nature of its work, I offered to help CAI in any way I could.  Greg wrote down his personal email in the back of my book and asked me to email him.

What's in a Website?

Peter L. Mason '93, Director of Communications

Here at Shore Country Day School, we've been spending a lot of time talking about our website. Launched this past fall, the reactions, for the most part, have been extremely positive (we even won an award). We have received some great feedback about the external site as well as the password protected section called MyShore, and as a result we have made some improvements to the navigation (rolling out in the next few weeks). 

Although we just launched our site, we are already in discussions about the next re-design. Whereas a few years back you might have your site remain stagnant for a few years, now the ' website re-design' is more of a process than an event, evidence in the fact we are already making some adjustments to our site and it is barely six months old. 

This article was recently tweeted and I found it interesting to learn what some of the web trends currently are. Whereas many may not be 'appropriate' for an educational institution, part of my job (and that of the web team) is to figure out what pieces of these new trends are. Moreover, do these design changes enhance the experience for our prospective and current families? Working in a school, it is easy to get sucked into the 'this is what everybody else is doing' group-think mentality. Or, to the contrary, the 'this is the coolest thing ever' design which really is just not appropriate for your users (this can also happen with photography, but a topic for another time). The trick for us is to find the balance between what our users are accustomed to seeing on other school websites for ease of navigation, while trying to be unique, innovative, and consistent amongst all our communication platforms. 

The web provides the best means for capturing the vitality of everyday life here at Shore, but it is definitely easier said than done.

Some Changes to Windows Into Shore

Peter L. Mason '93, Director of Communications

For the past few years, Windows Into Shore has provided a view of Shore from people who are part of the Shore County Day School community. Parents, faculty and staff, alumni, and students have all contributed. This will not change. However in an effort to provide more content and to paint a more complete picture of Shore, I will begin posting more regularly in this space. Guest bloggers will still contribute to the site, but by posting more frequently I hope readers will get a better sense of what happens on our campus everyday and all the special things that occur here. 

You might be thinking to yourself 'just what we need, another sales-pitch from someone who drinks the Kool-Aid, don't we get enough of that on the rest of the website?' Well, you are right, I do drink the Kool-Aid. But I find that when I give tours to prospective families as soon as I mention I am a graduate of the school I immediately have more credibility. I am no longer just 'the communications director' but now I am 'the graduate who chose to come back to work for his alma mater.' Or at least, that's what I like to think.

In this space I'll be posting interesting photographs of campus life, perhaps some articles I find relevant or thought-provoking, and just general thoughts about happenings here at Shore. In the past two weeks we not only dedicated the Inspiration Garden we also had Faculty/Staff Appreciation Night, head lice in the Lower School, and a Popsicle Party for new Readiness and Kindergarten students. Three of these events would have been great to write about...yet, there was no outlet to do so.

As we say in 'the business:' give people a reason to come back. If I/we provide the content, I hope readers will continue to come back and read Windows Into Shore and pass it along to friends. Some posts will be long, some just a few sentences, but hopefully all will be interesting and honest. In the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.