Pakistan and China On My Mind

While it is easy to get caught up with getting ready for the coming year or even just enjoying a few days of summer, I am finding it very hard to get the people of Pakistan and northern China off of my mind these days. While domestic media continues to focus on the apparent good news coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, what seems like the really important news is the devastation and horrors facing millions of people in both China and Pakistan. Both regions are seeing record rains which have resulted in the thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions.

In China, first the north eastern potion of the country was hit with record rains last week, and then even heavier floods deluged the north western region in the Gansu province in recent days, resulting in some horrific mudslides with devastating results. If there is any good news, it is that the Chinese government has mustered a significant response and has the resources to assist the victims. China Daily provides regular updates.

The devastation is likely more tragic in Pakistan where the worst rains in over eighty years have forced rivers way over their banks in several regions including Punjab. Already there have been over 1600 confirmed deaths with many more missing and millions of people displaced by flood waters. But the complications are greater than that. First, Pakistan has been providing support to as many as two million refugees displaced by the violence in Afghanistan. This catastrophe will likely compromise their ability to continue to do that. Furthermore, there is great frustration with the way that the Pakistani government has responded to the crisis, with fears that this could eventually lead to a further destabilization of that government. This would only result in greater challenges in the region. For more perspective, both the BBC and the International Herald Tribune are good resources.

It is hard to find a bright spot in events like this, but one might be China's rapid response to the devastated regions within its country. The same can't be said in Pakistan, and the potential implications are unnerving. Those of us at The Winchendon School will have a good chance to better understand the challenges and responses as Global Dynamics will be focused on southern/southwestern Asia in the first semester before shifting east to China and its neighbors for the second semester. There is no doubt that there will be much to be learned in our GD studies - we can only hope that there is some good news that comes out of these crisis.

A Legend Moves On

On Friday evening, I stopped by the Byrnes' home to say goodbye to Mike Byrnes and his family. It was certainly a bittersweet moment, especially as I reflected on The Winchendon School moving forward without Mike's presence. He has engaged so many students in remarkable ways over the last fourteen years. And while Mike is best known for his role in building a basketball program that is highly regarded in this and many other countries, this is not where his most masterful work was done. I can't tell you how many alumni and parents have mentioned how Mike Byrnes had such and incredible impact on their lives and defined their Winchendon experience.

One of the more memorable moments of this past year was when a beaming Mike Byrnes pulled up one afternoon with a van full of boisterous students from all over the world. They were off to a rodeo, and for many of them it would be the first such event that they had ever been to. Mike could have been supervising the gym or some other easier duty, but he was having a blast creating an adventure for a group of kids. When I talked to the students afterward, they were so appreciative that Coach Byrnes had provided them with this memorable experience. Over the last several years, many parents have told me how wonderful Coach Byrnes had been to their kids. When traveling through Asia, alumni and their parents are always asking about Mr. Byrnes. And, when Coach joined the Facebook crowd, he quickly built a vast friend list. Whether teaching early second language learners, taking any one of the many of the kids under his wing that he has over the years, or prepping a young hot shot for the big leagues, Coach Byrnes has connected with so many Winchendon students over the last 14 years in ways that the rest of us can aspire to. We will miss Mike Byrnes, Brunelda and the girls.
But it is also time for Mike to take the next step in his career, just like graduation time comes for our seniors each spring. The move to a coaching spot at Robert Morris University is the next step in his education. It wouldn't surprise me at all that by the time this year's incoming freshmen graduate in 2014, Mike will have taken the helm of his own program. His new players will be lucky to have him in their lives just as so many Winchendon students and adults have been.
So now we move on. There is room for the next Winchendon legend to be built. It will take me a while of getting used to Mr. Byrnes not being at morning meeting, or on the sideline at basketball games, or knowing that he has carefully recruited some specific student to be his basketball manager because he wants that student to have a special experience. But is also gives me confidence that Mike has set standards for all of us. He has set the bar for hard work and integrity, for looking for that student who needs a little extra support, for be willing to invest in becoming a better a teacher, for playing to win, for modesty even in the face of significant accomplishments, and for knowing when and how to take a break and have a bit of fun. It is really exciting to stop and reflect that there are a lot of potential and probable legends on the Winchendon faculty, and Mike has set some great precedents for us.

Thanks Mike. Come back and visit your Winchendon School often and stay in touch with your legions of fans on Facebook. Best wishes to you and your family.

The New Dorm Starts Up

After six weeks of crushing ledge, moving dirt and relocating utilities, we finally achieved what feels like upward progress. The cement trucks were coming most of the day, filling the foundation forms that will yield the walls for the foundation. It feels great to starting up...
These are the early steps in what will be a new dorm with rooms for up to 62 students and four faculty apartments. Construction will be completed late next winter with landscaping waiting for spring to come. The first students will most likely move in next summer. For a look at some of the early plans for the new building, click the images under "One Building Scheme".

This is an exciting new chapter for The Winchendon School. The new student rooms will allow us to bring the home stay students back on campus, provide new rooms to replace the aging ones in Cottage, and free up rooms in the existing dorms to expand faculty residences in those buildings. And, as importantly, the new dorm will provide two apartments for faculty families now living off campus and two other single family members.

Stay tuned for further updates!

And we talk about the pace of change?

I had the opportunity this past weekend to revisit the Class of 1962 Vestigia. This yearbook is labeled "Volume 1" as it was the first for the School in its new home in Winchendon MA and with a new name. At the end of the prior academic year, the Board had decided to move the Hatch School to what has proved to be a wonderful new home.

What I find stunning is not just the foresight that the Board and Headmaster Robert Marr showed in making this decision, but also the amount of change that Mr. Marr successfully guided the School through during these first years in Winchendon. According to Mr. Marr's comments, only six faculty members made the move to Winchendon, and more than half the students were new to the School that fall. However, in those early years the stage was set for what has been an incredible five decades of advancement.

There are moments today during which we may think that we are marshaling the School through an important period of change. We implement the Global Dynamics program. We steadily introduce new technology. We renew older facilities including the Rotenberg Arts Studios, Posich and Ford Hall, and we build new including the tennis courts, now the new residence hall, or soon the new indoor field with the Clark Memorial.

However, these are nothing like the changes that The Winchendon School went through in the early 1960's. The Vestigia staff captured The School's spirit very well in the yearbook's introduction:

When a new idea appears among men, it is welcomed - sometimes with tumult, sometimes with joy - but always with an avid interest in each progressive step. A new school year, a new campus, a new name - indeed, our school is a new idea taking a child's first steps in the world of learning. Yet, like the Roman god, Janus, whose visage scanned both past and future, we look to the past for sowing and to the future for harvest...
The introduction continued...

"Vestigia", a Latin term for footsteps... In the motto - "Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum" - lies more than just a name; it is both a shadow of our theme and the substance of our hope - No Steps Backward. Only the future, which is big with promise, can bear out the aspirations that swell our thoughts today. We are assured, however, that meeting every challenge as it comes, we will see the footprints of the past firmly placed on solid ground and the footsteps of the future plain before our eyes.

I am in awe not just how well the Mr. Marr and the School thrived through its first decade but even more so how this group of students captured the culture of embracing change that is still a hallmark of The Winchendon School today. The School thrives and is a leader in our field of secondary education not just because of this eagerness to embrace change, but also because our mission and philosophy are well rooted thanks to the tilling of first Mr. Hatch and then Mr. Marr. Our future "is big with promise", our vision for the future is "plain before our eyes" just as the Vestigia staff captured it in 1962.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Marr.

Where in the world has John Kerney been?

For readers who don't recognize the reference to one of my favorite videos of Matt Harding and his world travels, I have been feeling a little bit like Matt in recent months. Now if only the 45,000,000 people who have checked out Matt's videos would read this blog! At the least, I will use the excuse of feeling like him for the reason that I have not been writing.
In an effort to rationalize my absence, I have put together a little top 10 list of why I have not been more expressive during the last three months:

1. In March, my wonderful hosts in nine different cities in Asia kept me so busy and well fed that there was no time or energy to write.
2. Then Hayfa Abdujabar joined us from Harvard for a day to infuse our school-wide dialog on gender and rights in Islam and the Middle East. Hayfa had me thinking about a lot.
3. In April, the town-wide Earth Day effort kept us busy, leaving us especially tired after work and the end-of-day fun.
4. Throughout the spring, we continued to work at our goal of raising at least $10,000 for Haiti relief, eventually exceeding what to some had deemed an unreasonable goal by more than 20%. This was achieved by many different initiatives involving everyone in the Winchendon School community. Some of that effort has gone to support the terrific efforts of Forward in Health.
   
5. Come late April and May, I could blog or cheer on the Winchendon athletes. You choose...
6. Coach Patty and others did a great job of organizing a fun alumni lacrosse weekend. There will be more like these.
7. There was the Boston Harbor cruise with all looking sharp and dancing the night away.
   
8. Then a generous donor made it possible for all of the freshmen, sophomores and juniors to spend an afternoon in Boston seeing the Imax film "Arabia" and visiting the Museum of Science.
9. The same donor paved the way for the Class of 2010 to spend an afternoon and evening reconnecting to our Hatch School roots by relaxing in Newport, RI.
10. The Student Art Show was a stunner. Stop by the dining hall if you haven't had a chance to see some of the great work that was done this year.
11. And soon the end of the year was upon us with a wonderful baccalaureate at Cathedral Pines featuring the Winchendon Singers, a memorable senior night dinner and graduation day with lots of memorable words, tears, smiles and send-off hugs.
12. No time to spare...days later, thanks to the significant efforts of several of our Board and staff members, we were able to break ground on the new dorm project. The new building will be complete by next spring.

Oh, was this supposed to be a top 10 list? I ramble... I hope that you get the point!

I am back and will work to do a much better job of keeping up with the blog. Have a good weekend!

Winter Art Program Beauty

I was walking out of the office earlier this week and a couple of students came rushing in gushing "Mr. Kerney, you have to come see what we have done. Come right away." Now, at boarding school, such a beckoning could be a loaded pronouncement, possible trouble or even a prank. But coming from Ms. Draugsvold's artists and by the tone of excitement in the students' voices, I knew that whatever was in store would be special. I was not disappointed.

The image above is special because it is a collaborative effort by the whole group. This is a group with a wide array of experience and interests, but working together they have created beauty that will hopefully soon grace the dining room.

The pieces below are by individual artists.

Joanna Draugsvold provide all of the images. Thanks for sharing your passion with these students and helping them discover their expressive and creative voices.

Hockey and hoops fun for Haiti

Yesterday members of both the basketball and hockey teams continued with the fund raising efforts for Haiti. The hockey players organized a great 3 on 3 tournament and had a great time. The basketball team hosted a wonderful clinic for the kids in the youth programs.

From the looks of this hockey image, there was a lot of interesting technique demonstrated.

The hockey players will be sharing these moves in another clinic to be offered to the local youth programs later this week.

We continue to make good progress towards our goal of raising $10,000 to support relief efforts. One significant donation has already been made to the American Red Cross and another will be presented this morning to Forward in Health, a local group of doctors who have been working in Haiti for a long time and have operated clinics to help survivors of the earthquake over the last couple of months.

Congratulations to the students and faculty on their impressive efforts raising funds in creative ways.

Thanks to Elliot Harvey for these photographs.