Every year at Founders’ Day the Unquowa community gathers to enjoy an afternoon filled with friends, good food and fun. This year the weather was glorious, the turnout our best ever, the farm-to-fork barbeque delicious, the eighth grade activities a blast and the announcements exciting. A highlight every year is having so many alumni return to reconnect with each other, the school and their former teachers…this year they joined us in record numbers! Check out the alumni section of the blog for those photos.

Fun activities provided by the eighth graders included face and nail painting, cupcake and pumpkin decorating, moon bounce, frisbee golf, a bake sale and more. As always, it was wonderful to see our oldest students taking on a leadership role and working hard to organize and run these activities as part of their efforts to raise money for their end of year class trip and class gift to the school.

Our most recent alums from the Class of 2013 joined us in large numbers to help with the inaugural raising of Unquowa’s new school flag, their class gift to the school. Before they gathered together to all have a hand on the rope to raise it on the front lawn flagpole, Sharon Lauer welcomed everyone with a few words. She described how, last spring when they were still eighth graders and preparing for their graduation, the Class of 2013 spent a long time thinking about what to give as their class gift and, once they decided to give a school flag, they were very careful in their selection of the design. They chose the classic drawing of the school’s building because, as they explained, “Unquowa is our second home.” Powerful symbolism indeed!

A little later we gathered on the field to dedicate the Grabe Technology Lab, with deep gratitude to the Grabe family (parents Doug and Daneen, grandparents Bill and Joan and Unquowans Nicole ’11 and Derek ’14) for their generous support of the school through The Campaign for Unquowa. Mark Greenawalt, Sharon Lauer and Joan Panagos stood with Doug and Derek as the Unquowa community thanked them and their family for their generosity to the school and their commitment to supporting education through technology. Before inviting everyone to visit the lab where our student tech crew was preparing demonstrations of the graphic design and robotics projects typically done there, Joan Panagos made an exciting announcement.

As VP of the Board of Governors and Chair of The Campaign for Unquowa, she announced that the Board and Sharon Lauer and given the “green light” to the next phase of campus improvement project this summer – the complete renovation of the dining room! After completing the first two phases of projects in the summer of 2011 (new roof and the installation of the playing field) and 2012 (expansion and renovation of the Upper School science lab and fifth grade classroom), the news of this next project is exciting! Check out the Campaign News and Update section of the website for more information.

Thank you to our own Chef David, Resident Chef Jessica and their team for the yummy farm-to-fork lunch. The alumni, their parents and guests were impressed (and a little jealous!) that our students are fed by such talented chefs every day! The band, Bone Dry, did a wonderful job of setting the perfect tone with their music throughout the afternoon.

Our biggest “thank you” goes to everyone who joined us for another fantastic Founders’ Day!