@Assembly—Fall Edition
The School community gathers on the Pergola (or in the typically sunny
Centennial Amphitheatre during winter months) for a
pre-graham-crackers-and-milk (or fruit, or early lunch) twenty minutes of
announcements, skits, and presentations each Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday.
The School community gathers on the
Pergola (or in the typically sunny Centennial Amphitheatre during
winter months) for a pre-grahamies-and-milk (or fruit, or early lunch)
twenty minutes of announcements, skits, and presentations each Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday. Some of what ensues is scripted; most is not.
Occasionally, the “not” becomes fodder for discussion later in the
day. Either way, Assembly is Thacher in repose (a catch-breath in
the middle of a busy day) and action, one expression of a continually
evolving community of young and older. What follows is a small sampling
from the first trimester—30 or so Assemblies.
•Head of School Michael Mulligan was the first to congratulate seniors named as National Merit Semi-finalists: Tim Brown, Jack Eastburn, Claire Ferguson, and Logan Kroloff. He also read the names of Commended Scholars: Amanda Ach, Brannon Cavalier, Lexie Cook, Jay Harman, Holden Miller, John Neville, Ethan Nonomura, William Peterson, Annie Sawyer, Maddi Sowash, Barrie Sterling, Will Sturgeon, and Alessandra Waste.
•”Rochelle Small Clifford is flying our way!” a delighted Mr. Ockerman, Director of Music announced. [Rochelle, an opera singer from New York City, a former student of James, and the first Anacapa Fellow of the 2007-08 year, spent her week in residence working with all vocal ensembles, as well as Intro Arts students. At the end of the week, she performed for our School community at a Head of School's Invitational (in other words, attendance required), filling all available space with her extraordinary soprano voice.
•Director of Community Service, Ms. Perry put out a plea for help at the annual Monica Ros School Fiesta. And, presto! a whole host of helpers lined up. [MRS is a nearby grade and preschool; volunteering there both for Fiesta and as mentors in classrooms is a longstanding tradition at Thacher.]
•Brainchild of Sarah Brown-Campello, this term’s athletic assistant: a sale of "vintage" Thacher athletic garb. “We’ll have all kind of uniforms, including the first ever girls’ lacrosse uniforms, basketball warm up suits, and even some checkerboard green soccer tops.” All proceeds from the sale went to Grupo Rosa e Amor, a non-profit organization in Brazil that aids women in their fight against breast cancer.
•Voted to seats on the Judicial Council, reported Max Pillsbury, were seniors William Peterson, Shirin Nury, and Meredith Dworkin, and junior Alex Simon. Max also announced what’s on the Community Council’s present agenda: discussion about the camping program, bio-diesel and green efforts on campus, and staff appreciation events.
•Ms. Finley heralded the arrival of alternative rock band Chris Robley and The Fear of Heights for an al fresco Pergola performance on an informal dinner night.
•“Fireside Chat tomorrow night,” Mr. Mulligan announced, inviting students and faculty to the Head’s Home discuss School policy on facial hair and display of earrings by male students. He also extended an invitation to a town meeting to learn about the newest master plan for the School called Thacher 2020: The Sustainable Campus. The Master Planner, who had spent eight months looking at Thacher and creating the plan, did a presentation and left a copy of the proposal in the Thacher library for anyone interested in reviewing it further.
•Everyone seemed to have gotten the mid-Fall memo from Thacher's chapter of Amnesty Internation: “Wear red.”--a voluntary and colorful show of support for the Burmese monks resisting arrest and detention by Myanmar’s military regime.
•As an introduction to The Langston Hughes Project—Ask Your Momma: Twelve Moods for Jazz (co-sponsored by United Cultures of Thacher and Lectures and Concerts), faculty member Mr. Perry read two of Hughes' poems. [This multimedia presentation, whose driving force is Ron McCurdy, Chair of the Jazz Studies Department and Professor of Music at University of Southern California, features the spoken word, a live quartet, and larger-than-life visual illustrations of Hughes’s world. It captivated the audience, and students and faculty alike were on their feet dancing by the end of the show.]
•With a letter from the President of Stanford University in hand, Mr. Mulligan announced that math teacher Kurt Meyer had received an Exceptional Teacher Award from that esteemed institution [and a school with a long and strong connection to Thacher].
•Thacher mum Helen Weld (locally famous by virtue of her Strachan children Will ’09, Annie CdeP 2005, and Ian CdeP 2004) gave a quick peek into what she later spoke about in an after-dinner talk: the relief work she accomplished with a good friend and colleague in the medical field when they headed into the Kashmir region after the earthquake of 2005 left 3.5 million Pakistanis displaced, 800,000 killed, and 800,000 injured.
•The trio of seniors Brenna Donnelly, Allie Barbey, and Douglas Land shared an announcement urging students to patronize their snack bar, proceeds to go to the fire victims in the Southland.
•As one of an arm-long list of weekend events announced by Indoor Committee Heads Lindsay Oliver, Harry Hoffman, Amanda Ach, Paul Connolly and Rita Walton: Faculty Dessert Night, when small groups of students gather in faculty members’ homes for a confectionary collaborative. [A handful of this year’s offerings: a bread pudding bake-off at the Hoopers’, a German chocolate cake at the Grant-Omansiek home, an array of chocolate delights at the Sawyer-Jones abode, and good old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies at the Vyhnals’. While the goodies were baking, groups played board games or watched movies.]
•Newest members of Thacher Pack and Spur Club, named by PTS president William Hockey ’08: his classmate Rita Walton and Charles Hancock ‘10. All current members of the club joined that trio to present an honorary PTS belt buckle to faculty member emeritus “Uncle Jack” Huyler, recently returned to campus from Jackson Hole, Wyo.
•And with this return, Uncle Jack [who celebrated his 87th birthday in April] reinstated the Thacher Historical Minute (or Two), because, in his words, “You need to know a few things about your school!” For his first, he told the story of the small stone building just above the Pergola known as “Admissions” but actually the WLT—the William L. Thacher House. “From their horseback picnic way over on Sulpher Mountain, the boys watched as, throughout the afternoon, Mr. Thacher’s brother’s house burned down—and, knowing that it was too long a ride back to campus to make a whit of difference in the outcome, they refrained from telling WLT about it! Now, you tell me: Did they do the right thing?” [In a later Assembly, it was Jack who took center stage, guitar in hand, to conduct a sing-along: “Holiday, holiday, we all want a holiday!” Mr. Mully was swayed sufficiently to grant the first holiday of the year—and with it, the first assigned-date dance of the year, a Thacher tradition in which each student receives a date assignment via his or her Commons mailbox. This time ‘round, seniors fetched freshmen and juniors picked up sophomores at their dorms.]
•You’re never too old to Trick-or-Treat, as Mr. Sawyer, faculty advisor to the Indoor Committee, announced that faculty homes would be open for the annual sugar-grab.
•As if his Physics Phun sledgehammer-and-a-bed-of-nails trick weren’t enough to tickle the masses, Professor Harris, in a later Assembly, stood in front of the throng bedecked in a black vest to which were attached many small puffs of yellow fuzzies. “My costume’s nearly finished.” Pause. “I’m a chick magnet.”
•A skit orchestrated by Senior Class President Thomas Waltcher served as invitation to the 9th graders for a senior-freshmen Sunday afternoon of ultimate frisbee, soccer, and basketball. [The classes were divided up into mixed teams that rotated through the different games. Everyone cooled off with popsicles and pool time before cleaning up for Formal Dinner.]
•Good news travels: Alex Kaneko ’08 and Will Sturgeon ’08 announced that they’d be performing at Cate School on Friday night and asked for a show of hands for who’d want to take a fan van over. Lots of hands in the air. [The two produced a CD of the songwriting and singing that resulted from their Independent Project of last spring.]
•According to Harry Hoffman ’08, who held an informal survey when he and his roommate were locked in disagreement, students and faculty in the Thacher community prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate—but not by much.
•On Veterans’ Day, Matt Eilar named all teachers present who had been in the armed services for the assembled to thank, and then recited Maurice Thompsons’ poem “Old Soldiers True.”
•The whole Thacher Gymkhana Team—seniors Genevieve Jensen, William Hockey, Brannon Cavalier, and Alessandra Waste, junior Kendra Carter, sophomore Teresa Findley, and freshmen Maggie Miller and Mary Ellen reported that they’d eked out a lucky thirteen-point victory and CdeP’s fourth consecutive win in the Thacher-Orme-Fountain Valley Tri-Gymkhana. After they presented the commemorative plaque to Head of School, the Magnificent Eight humbly deflected praise for themselves first to their coach, Mr. Schryver, then back to their furry, four-hoofed friends and teammates: Jim, JD, Jerry, Padoco, Dueller II, Chocolate, Giraffe, and Carson. Obviously, what was true over a half-century is still true: Good horses + good riders = good times, win, lose, or draw.
•Speedy Kristen Findley ’09, announced her coach Ms. Hancock, ran in the Girls Cross-country State preliminary round at Mt. SAC and finished fourth in her division, earning the chance to run in the next round just before Thanksgiving. [She advanced further, and is, as of this posting, running at the States in Fresno.]
•On the heels of that news, Coach Derf (Mr. Coleman) announced that the Boys Cross country finished 2nd as a team in the State Prelims. In end-of-season voting, Captain Thomas Waltcher earned Most Inspirational Runner, while the two Most Improved Runners were first-year harrier McCoy Becker ’10 and veteran Chris Allison’09. Next year’s captains are John Callander ’09, and Will Strachan ’09.
•Thank you’s in abundance: from Emmanuel Camarillo (“The 10th grade boys thank the 9th grade boys for the dodgeball game on Sunday afternoon”); Amnesty International Heads Maddi Sowash and Robin Walter (after quoting both late senator Paul Simon on Rwanda and teacher Cecilia Ortiz—“Let us not sit in oblivion!” they extended “thanks to all who wrote to congressional representatives after the The Devil Came on Horseback on Saturday night!”—and, in an earlier Assembly, thanked those who in some way supported their efforts to raise money for the Darfur crisis. Between doughnut sales, t-shirt and sweatshirt sales, and general donations, the organization raised $4,500 to send to Save Darfur); and Mr. Meyer (to Erin VonGehr, John Callendar, John Neville and Alessandra Waste) for their help moving computers from the former Media Lab to the new space, to make room for the English-History Office.
•Thacher’s Director of Food Services Richard Maxwell waxed poetic in his invitation to one of the School’s favorite evenings in the dining room:
Persian Love Puffs
Espresso Chocolate Cake
Almond Berry Tarts
For goodness’ sake!
Local sea bass
& BD’s produce green
Three kinds of sushi
You know what I mean?
Pizza egg rolls
Chicken Mole, Rice, Beans & More
Our friendly chefs have a lot in store
So, cancel your plans
Stay healthy and able
Join us tomorrow night
for our annual Chef’s Table!
[One of the most highly anticipated nights of the year, Chef’s Table brings pros from other local Bon Appetit campuses to Thacher, where each one showcases one or two dishes. While all the food was delicious, it was still tough to top the desserts provided by Thacher’s own baker, Robin Schlitt.]
•Mr. Mulligan welcomed Los Padres ForestWatch executive director Jeff Kuyper as “a good friend and neighbor”—and someone whose work is critical to us all as he and LPFW try to protect the land right out our back door in Horn Canyon and close by in the condor habitat—land which is under siege as oil and mineral companies seek new wild places for exploratory drilling. “Forest Watch is working to protect the entire Los Padres Forest, from Big Sur to LA County and east to the San Joaquin. I hope you will check out their website: www.lpfw.org.”
•Coach Doc V (Dr. Vyhnal) was just about bursting with pride about this year’s JV Girls Volleyball team, which finished 7-7—wildly successful in comparison to recently past teams. This year’s Most Improved Player was Brianna Bohnett ’10 and Most Valuable was Wohona Delgadillo ’10. [Soon to come: full Fall SportsWrap. Stay tuned.]
•Joining the ranks of those who have achieved “Horseman” status is Kendra Carter, announced Director of the Horse Program, Mr. Schryver.
•School Chair Max Pillsbury was pumped up with heartfelt thanks for the 28 donors who gave blood in the fall Bloodmobile drive.
•“Remember, as we head into our first exams of the year,” intoned Assistant Head Mr. Robinson, “that trust demands accepting the responsibilities that go along with it.” On a practical note, he reminded the younger students that juniors and seniors take their exams in spots all over the academic parts of campus for an hour longer than the young’uns. “So for goodness’ sake, be quiet!”
•Ms. Lin offered an extra yoga session this week, “for relaxation and energy restoration.”
•Visiting campus and classes to see how her work might find its way into the Thacher curriculum via the Anacapa Fellows program was Chris Finch, DVM.
•”Extreme Knitting now includes political discussion,” Ethan Nonomura announced, as a way of luring more into the Friday night activity hosted by Ms. Halsey.
•”Time to sign up for Cultural Weekend!” announced Ms. Perry. Offerings by faculty for the second weekend in December include concerts (Beethoven’s 1st and 9th, Enrique Iglesias and Tom Russell), the Monterey Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival, gospel brunch at House of Blues, shows including Wicked, Ray Charles Live, Tony Award-winner The History Boys, The Nutcracker Ballet, La Boheme, and others including a “Surf Adventure,” a Hawaiian excursion (hula lessons or an outrigger canoe paddle), museums (the Getty Villa, the California Science Center, the Huntington, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum and Library,
•Teamsters Director Mr. Jacobsen spoke for “those very large but gentle beasts, Pancho and Pedro,” when he invited any 10th, 11th, or 12th grader who’d like to work with the Percheron team this winter as their afternoon activity to sign right up.
•An excited Maggie Miller ’11 rose to accept the mantle of Freshman Class President, as those who voted her the position cheered from their seats.
•In his Thanksgiving holiday send-off, Mr. Mulligan reminded students that there are two levels to LAX [Los Angeles International Airport] and to be sure to be on the right one at the right time, going and coming back, as well as to fetch passports from the Business Office. Mr. Klausler chimed in about I-20’s needing to be signed for travel abroad, then Mr. Curwen asked for everyone to unplug everything from wall sockets. “And take time to celebrate family during the break!” Mully concluded.
Back
•Head of School Michael Mulligan was the first to congratulate seniors named as National Merit Semi-finalists: Tim Brown, Jack Eastburn, Claire Ferguson, and Logan Kroloff. He also read the names of Commended Scholars: Amanda Ach, Brannon Cavalier, Lexie Cook, Jay Harman, Holden Miller, John Neville, Ethan Nonomura, William Peterson, Annie Sawyer, Maddi Sowash, Barrie Sterling, Will Sturgeon, and Alessandra Waste.
•”Rochelle Small Clifford is flying our way!” a delighted Mr. Ockerman, Director of Music announced. [Rochelle, an opera singer from New York City, a former student of James, and the first Anacapa Fellow of the 2007-08 year, spent her week in residence working with all vocal ensembles, as well as Intro Arts students. At the end of the week, she performed for our School community at a Head of School's Invitational (in other words, attendance required), filling all available space with her extraordinary soprano voice.
•Director of Community Service, Ms. Perry put out a plea for help at the annual Monica Ros School Fiesta. And, presto! a whole host of helpers lined up. [MRS is a nearby grade and preschool; volunteering there both for Fiesta and as mentors in classrooms is a longstanding tradition at Thacher.]
•Brainchild of Sarah Brown-Campello, this term’s athletic assistant: a sale of "vintage" Thacher athletic garb. “We’ll have all kind of uniforms, including the first ever girls’ lacrosse uniforms, basketball warm up suits, and even some checkerboard green soccer tops.” All proceeds from the sale went to Grupo Rosa e Amor, a non-profit organization in Brazil that aids women in their fight against breast cancer.
•Voted to seats on the Judicial Council, reported Max Pillsbury, were seniors William Peterson, Shirin Nury, and Meredith Dworkin, and junior Alex Simon. Max also announced what’s on the Community Council’s present agenda: discussion about the camping program, bio-diesel and green efforts on campus, and staff appreciation events.
•Ms. Finley heralded the arrival of alternative rock band Chris Robley and The Fear of Heights for an al fresco Pergola performance on an informal dinner night.
•“Fireside Chat tomorrow night,” Mr. Mulligan announced, inviting students and faculty to the Head’s Home discuss School policy on facial hair and display of earrings by male students. He also extended an invitation to a town meeting to learn about the newest master plan for the School called Thacher 2020: The Sustainable Campus. The Master Planner, who had spent eight months looking at Thacher and creating the plan, did a presentation and left a copy of the proposal in the Thacher library for anyone interested in reviewing it further.
•Everyone seemed to have gotten the mid-Fall memo from Thacher's chapter of Amnesty Internation: “Wear red.”--a voluntary and colorful show of support for the Burmese monks resisting arrest and detention by Myanmar’s military regime.
•As an introduction to The Langston Hughes Project—Ask Your Momma: Twelve Moods for Jazz (co-sponsored by United Cultures of Thacher and Lectures and Concerts), faculty member Mr. Perry read two of Hughes' poems. [This multimedia presentation, whose driving force is Ron McCurdy, Chair of the Jazz Studies Department and Professor of Music at University of Southern California, features the spoken word, a live quartet, and larger-than-life visual illustrations of Hughes’s world. It captivated the audience, and students and faculty alike were on their feet dancing by the end of the show.]
•With a letter from the President of Stanford University in hand, Mr. Mulligan announced that math teacher Kurt Meyer had received an Exceptional Teacher Award from that esteemed institution [and a school with a long and strong connection to Thacher].
•Thacher mum Helen Weld (locally famous by virtue of her Strachan children Will ’09, Annie CdeP 2005, and Ian CdeP 2004) gave a quick peek into what she later spoke about in an after-dinner talk: the relief work she accomplished with a good friend and colleague in the medical field when they headed into the Kashmir region after the earthquake of 2005 left 3.5 million Pakistanis displaced, 800,000 killed, and 800,000 injured.
•The trio of seniors Brenna Donnelly, Allie Barbey, and Douglas Land shared an announcement urging students to patronize their snack bar, proceeds to go to the fire victims in the Southland.
•As one of an arm-long list of weekend events announced by Indoor Committee Heads Lindsay Oliver, Harry Hoffman, Amanda Ach, Paul Connolly and Rita Walton: Faculty Dessert Night, when small groups of students gather in faculty members’ homes for a confectionary collaborative. [A handful of this year’s offerings: a bread pudding bake-off at the Hoopers’, a German chocolate cake at the Grant-Omansiek home, an array of chocolate delights at the Sawyer-Jones abode, and good old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies at the Vyhnals’. While the goodies were baking, groups played board games or watched movies.]
•Newest members of Thacher Pack and Spur Club, named by PTS president William Hockey ’08: his classmate Rita Walton and Charles Hancock ‘10. All current members of the club joined that trio to present an honorary PTS belt buckle to faculty member emeritus “Uncle Jack” Huyler, recently returned to campus from Jackson Hole, Wyo.
•And with this return, Uncle Jack [who celebrated his 87th birthday in April] reinstated the Thacher Historical Minute (or Two), because, in his words, “You need to know a few things about your school!” For his first, he told the story of the small stone building just above the Pergola known as “Admissions” but actually the WLT—the William L. Thacher House. “From their horseback picnic way over on Sulpher Mountain, the boys watched as, throughout the afternoon, Mr. Thacher’s brother’s house burned down—and, knowing that it was too long a ride back to campus to make a whit of difference in the outcome, they refrained from telling WLT about it! Now, you tell me: Did they do the right thing?” [In a later Assembly, it was Jack who took center stage, guitar in hand, to conduct a sing-along: “Holiday, holiday, we all want a holiday!” Mr. Mully was swayed sufficiently to grant the first holiday of the year—and with it, the first assigned-date dance of the year, a Thacher tradition in which each student receives a date assignment via his or her Commons mailbox. This time ‘round, seniors fetched freshmen and juniors picked up sophomores at their dorms.]
•You’re never too old to Trick-or-Treat, as Mr. Sawyer, faculty advisor to the Indoor Committee, announced that faculty homes would be open for the annual sugar-grab.
•As if his Physics Phun sledgehammer-and-a-bed-of-nails trick weren’t enough to tickle the masses, Professor Harris, in a later Assembly, stood in front of the throng bedecked in a black vest to which were attached many small puffs of yellow fuzzies. “My costume’s nearly finished.” Pause. “I’m a chick magnet.”
•A skit orchestrated by Senior Class President Thomas Waltcher served as invitation to the 9th graders for a senior-freshmen Sunday afternoon of ultimate frisbee, soccer, and basketball. [The classes were divided up into mixed teams that rotated through the different games. Everyone cooled off with popsicles and pool time before cleaning up for Formal Dinner.]
•Good news travels: Alex Kaneko ’08 and Will Sturgeon ’08 announced that they’d be performing at Cate School on Friday night and asked for a show of hands for who’d want to take a fan van over. Lots of hands in the air. [The two produced a CD of the songwriting and singing that resulted from their Independent Project of last spring.]
•According to Harry Hoffman ’08, who held an informal survey when he and his roommate were locked in disagreement, students and faculty in the Thacher community prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate—but not by much.
•On Veterans’ Day, Matt Eilar named all teachers present who had been in the armed services for the assembled to thank, and then recited Maurice Thompsons’ poem “Old Soldiers True.”
•The whole Thacher Gymkhana Team—seniors Genevieve Jensen, William Hockey, Brannon Cavalier, and Alessandra Waste, junior Kendra Carter, sophomore Teresa Findley, and freshmen Maggie Miller and Mary Ellen reported that they’d eked out a lucky thirteen-point victory and CdeP’s fourth consecutive win in the Thacher-Orme-Fountain Valley Tri-Gymkhana. After they presented the commemorative plaque to Head of School, the Magnificent Eight humbly deflected praise for themselves first to their coach, Mr. Schryver, then back to their furry, four-hoofed friends and teammates: Jim, JD, Jerry, Padoco, Dueller II, Chocolate, Giraffe, and Carson. Obviously, what was true over a half-century is still true: Good horses + good riders = good times, win, lose, or draw.
•Speedy Kristen Findley ’09, announced her coach Ms. Hancock, ran in the Girls Cross-country State preliminary round at Mt. SAC and finished fourth in her division, earning the chance to run in the next round just before Thanksgiving. [She advanced further, and is, as of this posting, running at the States in Fresno.]
•On the heels of that news, Coach Derf (Mr. Coleman) announced that the Boys Cross country finished 2nd as a team in the State Prelims. In end-of-season voting, Captain Thomas Waltcher earned Most Inspirational Runner, while the two Most Improved Runners were first-year harrier McCoy Becker ’10 and veteran Chris Allison’09. Next year’s captains are John Callander ’09, and Will Strachan ’09.
•Thank you’s in abundance: from Emmanuel Camarillo (“The 10th grade boys thank the 9th grade boys for the dodgeball game on Sunday afternoon”); Amnesty International Heads Maddi Sowash and Robin Walter (after quoting both late senator Paul Simon on Rwanda and teacher Cecilia Ortiz—“Let us not sit in oblivion!” they extended “thanks to all who wrote to congressional representatives after the The Devil Came on Horseback on Saturday night!”—and, in an earlier Assembly, thanked those who in some way supported their efforts to raise money for the Darfur crisis. Between doughnut sales, t-shirt and sweatshirt sales, and general donations, the organization raised $4,500 to send to Save Darfur); and Mr. Meyer (to Erin VonGehr, John Callendar, John Neville and Alessandra Waste) for their help moving computers from the former Media Lab to the new space, to make room for the English-History Office.
•Thacher’s Director of Food Services Richard Maxwell waxed poetic in his invitation to one of the School’s favorite evenings in the dining room:
Persian Love Puffs
Espresso Chocolate Cake
Almond Berry Tarts
For goodness’ sake!
Local sea bass
& BD’s produce green
Three kinds of sushi
You know what I mean?
Pizza egg rolls
Chicken Mole, Rice, Beans & More
Our friendly chefs have a lot in store
So, cancel your plans
Stay healthy and able
Join us tomorrow night
for our annual Chef’s Table!
[One of the most highly anticipated nights of the year, Chef’s Table brings pros from other local Bon Appetit campuses to Thacher, where each one showcases one or two dishes. While all the food was delicious, it was still tough to top the desserts provided by Thacher’s own baker, Robin Schlitt.]
•Mr. Mulligan welcomed Los Padres ForestWatch executive director Jeff Kuyper as “a good friend and neighbor”—and someone whose work is critical to us all as he and LPFW try to protect the land right out our back door in Horn Canyon and close by in the condor habitat—land which is under siege as oil and mineral companies seek new wild places for exploratory drilling. “Forest Watch is working to protect the entire Los Padres Forest, from Big Sur to LA County and east to the San Joaquin. I hope you will check out their website: www.lpfw.org.”
•Coach Doc V (Dr. Vyhnal) was just about bursting with pride about this year’s JV Girls Volleyball team, which finished 7-7—wildly successful in comparison to recently past teams. This year’s Most Improved Player was Brianna Bohnett ’10 and Most Valuable was Wohona Delgadillo ’10. [Soon to come: full Fall SportsWrap. Stay tuned.]
•Joining the ranks of those who have achieved “Horseman” status is Kendra Carter, announced Director of the Horse Program, Mr. Schryver.
•School Chair Max Pillsbury was pumped up with heartfelt thanks for the 28 donors who gave blood in the fall Bloodmobile drive.
•“Remember, as we head into our first exams of the year,” intoned Assistant Head Mr. Robinson, “that trust demands accepting the responsibilities that go along with it.” On a practical note, he reminded the younger students that juniors and seniors take their exams in spots all over the academic parts of campus for an hour longer than the young’uns. “So for goodness’ sake, be quiet!”
•Ms. Lin offered an extra yoga session this week, “for relaxation and energy restoration.”
•Visiting campus and classes to see how her work might find its way into the Thacher curriculum via the Anacapa Fellows program was Chris Finch, DVM.
•”Extreme Knitting now includes political discussion,” Ethan Nonomura announced, as a way of luring more into the Friday night activity hosted by Ms. Halsey.
•”Time to sign up for Cultural Weekend!” announced Ms. Perry. Offerings by faculty for the second weekend in December include concerts (Beethoven’s 1st and 9th, Enrique Iglesias and Tom Russell), the Monterey Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival, gospel brunch at House of Blues, shows including Wicked, Ray Charles Live, Tony Award-winner The History Boys, The Nutcracker Ballet, La Boheme, and others including a “Surf Adventure,” a Hawaiian excursion (hula lessons or an outrigger canoe paddle), museums (the Getty Villa, the California Science Center, the Huntington, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum and Library,
•Teamsters Director Mr. Jacobsen spoke for “those very large but gentle beasts, Pancho and Pedro,” when he invited any 10th, 11th, or 12th grader who’d like to work with the Percheron team this winter as their afternoon activity to sign right up.
•An excited Maggie Miller ’11 rose to accept the mantle of Freshman Class President, as those who voted her the position cheered from their seats.
•In his Thanksgiving holiday send-off, Mr. Mulligan reminded students that there are two levels to LAX [Los Angeles International Airport] and to be sure to be on the right one at the right time, going and coming back, as well as to fetch passports from the Business Office. Mr. Klausler chimed in about I-20’s needing to be signed for travel abroad, then Mr. Curwen asked for everyone to unplug everything from wall sockets. “And take time to celebrate family during the break!” Mully concluded.
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A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
Thacher is committed to maintaining an atmosphere of respect and dignity free from harassment. Our school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, or any other characteristics protected by state or federal law in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, tuition assistance, and athletic and other school-administered programs, or any other basis in law.