“Wow!” “Oh my gosh!” “I can’t believe it!”

These were just some of the comments from our children as they returned for the first day of school and saw the new dining room for the first time.

As parents gathered this morning for our annual Back-to-School Coffee we took a few minutes to officially open our newly renovated dining room with a ribbon cutting. Sharon Lauer welcomed parents to the new school year and introduced Mark Greenawalt and Karl Martone, our outgoing Board President and Treasurer. Mark and Karl oversaw the launch of The Campaign for Unquowa and the completion of the first three phases of campus improvement projects. While they thanked the entire Unquowa community for so generously supporting the campaign, they gave special acknowledgement to Joan and Steve Panagos and Ellen and Paul Greenberg for their extraordinary $300,000 matching challenge and asked them to cut the ribbon.

This was just the first of four ribbon cuttings on the first day – we just kept putting up new ribbon! Later in the morning, our PreK-3 and PreK-4 classes came to cheer and marvel at the enormous scissors while Chef David cut a ribbon. The rest of the students and faculty gathered before both Lower School and Upper School lunch to help celebrate as Mr. Doug and Chef David joined Sharon Lauer to cut even more ribbon!

Our kitchen also received major updates during this project and Chefs David and Jessica have been busy settling back in and are excited to be cooking again for our family of students and faculty.

It was great to watch the students enjoy their first school lunch of the year in the beautiful light-filled space – and vie for the chance to get a seat in the bay windows overlooking the brook!

What a wonderful way to start the new school year! Our deepest gratitude to all the families and friends of Unquowa who so generously supported these projects.

Up next, our Final Phase of projects…new performing arts spaces!

For more info, please contact Kate Haviland in the Development Office at kate.haviland@unquowa.org.