A dozen former TCS students gathered the day after graduation to share a noon meal and memories. Graduates from 1999 through 2009 spent the afternoon catching up with each other, exploring familiar and new nooks and crannies of the school, perusing senior projects, and, in true Community School fashion, pitching in to clean up the kitchen when it was all over.
Join us in congratulating the Class of 2009, who graduated on June 13: (from left to right) Shawn Mallory, Fiona Howell, Jared Pittman, Eric Dube, Charlotte Doucette, Ruby Nelson, and James Lydecker. Photos by B.G. Hodges
While twelfth graders worked feverishly to polish up their senior projects and a dozen TCSers walked the streets of New York in search of the immigrant experience, a handful of dedicated students and teachers found themselves at work on a four-house Greater Portland Habitat for Humanity build in Portland, Maine.
We heartily recommend the volunteer housing provided by Habitat and the opportunity to participate in the construction of ecologically cutting-edge homes. Super-insulated walls and ceilings, radiant heat, pervious driveways, healthy materials, and careful waste disposal are only some of the elements that will lead to green certification of these houses.
After a day of work, we played: at Sebago Lake, at the edge of the Atlantic at Eastern Prom, and in Portland. The final day of May Trip Week found us at the Saco Heath with The Nature Conservancy, repairing a boardwalk.
Please click on each photo to see the full view.
Farmer Bob at the fair
Choosing plants
Fun for the very young
and the young at heart.
Pickles, dilly beans, tomato sauce: there aren’t many garden products we still choose to put up in jars. In recent years, these old favorites have been joined on the shelves of New England pantries by some impressive local “signature” salsas, in all grades of HOT. Whether you are a backyard-salsa enthusiast or you prefer to stick with salad greens, cukes and beans, you garden because you love fresh food, close at hand. Saturday, May 16th, from 9 am-2 pm, folks can get their gardens off to a good start with a wide range of organic seedlings at The Community School Spring Fair, 1164 Bunker Hill Road in South Tamworth. Kids’ games and art projects, as well as a tasty lunch, are also on tap.
This annual Spring Fair is a fundraiser for The Community School, where getting dirty in the garden is part of the curriculum. TCS students often reach outside the classroom to practice real life skills. Planting an annual salsa garden with first graders from The Brett School gives students from the garden class a chance to pass along some of what they have learned. Together they sow something far better than salsa: the seeds of a can-do attitude.
So once again this past March, first graders from the Brett School ventured to the Bunker Hill Road campus with their teacher Heather Booska. It was time to begin their salsa adventure with the TCS garden class teens. Brady Potter, CSA Farm Manager, took everyone into the school greenhouse where the older students had already been hard at work. Flats with rows of delicate green sprouts turning toward the sun were ranged on tables inside, thriving despite the snow banks outside.
Later, everyone headed into the Perkins farmhouse. There teens helped the novice gardeners plant their seeds (green peppers and tomatoes) in little pots which soon took their place in the warm greenhouse. Next September, these same students will return to the school gardens to harvest their vegetables, add some onions, and make their own fresh (VERY MILD, “first-grade-safe”) salsa to take home and enjoy.
Consider: might 2009 be the year to display your version of this traditional Mexican favorite on the pantry shelves? Nothing brings the echoes of July’s summer sun to the dark of winter like your own backyard brand of tongue-tingling salsa. Each bite is like a guarantee of warm weather to come!
In addition to organic vegetables from The Community School greenhouse ready for transplanting, there will be a wide selection of flowers, trees, and shrubs donated by Spider Web Gardens available for purchase at the Spring Fair. For those who want local, organic foods all summer long, without the weeding, call Brady Potter at 323-7000 for information about a membership in the CSA garden at the school.
Local artists Marnie Cobbs, Peggy Johnson, Andrea Kennett, Candace Maher, Nicole Maher-Whiteside, Lianne Prentice, and Women Who Glue exhibited some of their works last Saturday at the Windamere Herb Farm in Wonalancet. Each generously donated a percentage of their sales to The Community School’s scholarship fund.
Isn¹t it great to finally see the snows melting away (even in under the trees, back deep in the woods)?
And how wonderful to be able to see those daffodils and crocuses poking up. Those planted by the front door at school have been blooming since last week! It does appear that Spring has finally Sprung!
The pace of life quickens when the streams are running again–and in keeping with the season, the pace is picking at The Community School too!
Most seniors are back from their off-campus Senior Projects, wonderful adventures including traveling to Vienna for history research, interning with small business entrepreneurs, and hiking into the wilderness on solo treks. Now they are fully engaged in pulling together their reports and presentations for the end of the year and finishing up their classes.
With the start of Spring Block classes, all sorts of exciting new options have opened up for our kids.
Melinda’s Gardening Block hosted a group of Brett School students on 3/24. They gave a tour of the greenhouse, Brady talked about gardening and planting, and then the little kids got to start some seeds for this summer’s Salsa Garden. Next fall the same group of Brett School students will return for harvest and salsa-making with their TCS buddies. Here are a few photos from that afternoon:
Snowy outside, but WARM in the greenhouse
They're so little! (the sprouts and the kids)
Getting ready to plant, Melinda introduces the Brett students to the seeds.
Manny helps kids sow tomato seeds. It's great to have a "big kid" around.
First grade boys look up to Ronny.
Helping hands
This particularly fun day repeats itself each spring as TCS works with Brett School first graders on the “Salsa Garden” — part of the Rural Sustainable Schools program.
Other block classes this spring are Water Ecology (Joslin), Archimedes to Tesla (Don), and The Immigrant Experience (Mark).
Friday afternoons offer different options. On Fridays, students get to put aside their M-Th block classes and choose from a selection of stewardship classes.
* Some of the TCS students and the 1st graders in the photos above have known each other all year, because each Friday Melinda and a handful of our students faithfully go to the Brett School to help out in the first grade classroom. This has sometimes meant inviting the 1st graders back to our campus to visit, play games our students have created, eat healthy snacks, or walk around the gardens. TCS students receive community service credits for this time.
Preparing a Vietnamese meal
* Another Friday choice this spring is Health Class which has been wildly popular, since the first three weeks were all about FOOD! Joslin and the students worked together to cook healthy meals-from scratch-with delicious results. The aroma from the kitchen was INCREDIBLE!
Ronny and Azia walking calves
* A different community service opportunity on Fridays has been helping out on local farms, mucking out stalls, grooming and exercising animals, and getting involved in the nitty gritty of animal husbandry.
Kids love to learn by doing!
You are always welcome to peek in on what’s happening on Bunker Hill Road. If you haven’t been in yet to see the new student ART EXHIBIT, be sure to stop by the campus. When I heard that the theme was TRASH-ion (fashions from recyclable throw-aways) I must admit I had to deal with a little bit of a gag reflex. However, I’m impressed with what came out of this project. Three dimensional art, hats, concept-clothing, and real fashion! Stop in and take a look.
-Joan Hodges, Admissions and Publicity
Sweet Life Revue, photo courtesy Lori Lenart and Arts Council of Tamworth
Idol Hands, photo courtesy Lori Lenart and Arts Council of Tamworth
What do local musicians Idol Hands Bluegrass and Sweet Life Revue have in common with industry icons Bill Monroe, Nickel Creek, Earl Scruggs, Jerry Garcia, and Alison Krauss? A love for performing one of the most distinctive American musical forms ever developed: bluegrass. Saturday, April 18th at 7:30 pm, Sweet Life Review and Idol Hands will take the stage at the Salyards Center for the Arts in Conway Village to play well-known old favorites and original compositions, proceeds to benefit The Community School.
Think you know bluegrass? Don’t be so sure! As a genre, bluegrass has a lively propensity to wrap itself around traditional and fusion jazz, contemporary country, Celtic music, rock & roll, old–time music and Southern gospel music. Bluegrass presents a constantly energized face to its worldwide audience of fans.
Come enjoy a night of terrific entertainment by these two well-known groups from North Sandwich. Talented musicians all, Sweet Life Revue is a happy collaboration between Katie O’Connell (sometime guest vocalist for the Lakes Region Symphony Orchestra), Kathy Carney, and Roger Sorlien, playing folk, Celtic, and bluegrass music. This group is complemented by the eclectic mix the four musicians of Idol Hands bring to the stage. Doug Hazard and Peter Heimlich first crossed musical paths with each other while in college, 40 odd years ago. Several years later, Bob Peelstrom, band member and back-up musician for acts as varied as Judy Collins and Chuck Berry, joined the duo after a get-together at the Vintage Fret Shop. Finally, K.A. Brett School music teacher Lisa Ferguson contributes influences from her background in country rock, cabaret, and folk.
Proceeds will fund financial aid for students at The Community School, a fully accredited independent day school for grades 7-12 serving families in New Hampshire and Maine. Students pursue a rigorous academic curriculum in addition to working in the school’s certified organic CSA garden, assisting with tree stand maintenance, and individually contributing 150 hours of local community service. The Community School offers students a unique experience-oriented program, including travel opportunities and study abroad. Two-thirds percent of the student body receives financial assistance.
Tickets are on sale at The Community School and at The Other Store in Tamworth Village beginning Wednesday, April 8th, and at the door on the night of the performance. Ticket price: $10 for adults, $5 for students aged 13-21, and $25 for a family of 4 or more; children 12 and under FREE. For more information call Jenny Rowe, director (323-7000).
Orange Zinger art quilt made by parent Nancy Calnan
Join us for our 4th annual auction at The Riverside Inn Bed and Breakfast in Intervale, New Hampshire on Sunday, March 29 from 3-6 pm. While helping yourself to hors d’oeurvres, drinks, and desserts, browse the silent auction tables. Then get ready for auctioneer George Cleveland, who will cajole and amuse even the most reticent bidder. All proceeds go to the school’s scholarship fund.
Fine handcrafters, specialty shops, artists, and others from the following communities have generously donated items for the auction: Intervale, Wolfeboro, Conway, Sandwich, Tamworth, Tuftonboro, Moultonborough and also Parsonsfield, Limerick, Cornish, and Fryeburg, Maine.
Here’s just a taste of the day’s items:
To reserve tickets, call us at (603) 323-7000 or email bearcamp@communityschoolnh.org. Tickets also available at the door. $25/couple, $15/solo adult, $10/student.
