SUMMER 2007Drew Smith
Headmaster
Time, talent, and treasure. Any organization that is voluntary, or whose mission deliberately operates without regard to profit, must depend upon a certain measure of all three. As we prepare our annual report for the 2006-2007 academic year, I am feeling grateful as I recall all of the gifts bestowed upon the school last year. I’d like to share with all of you three donations we received from members of the Salem Quarterly Meeting, for which I am feeling particularly thankful.
This past year was the first in which our students contributed their thoughts and words to the Helen Glass Peace Essay Contest. Eighteen of our students submitted pieces, and a few were noted by the contest committee of Friends from Mickleton and Mullica Hill Monthly Meetings as being of special merit. Mickleton’s Sondra Ball lent a few of our students her considerable skills as a writer to help them prepare their essays for public reading. The contest itself, culminating in a potluck opportunity to hear the winning essays, was organized this year by Bill Carrigan, also of Mickleton—one of our trustees. I know that our students will participate in this contest this year largely thanks to the valuable time devoted to the school by both Friends.
Our Fifth-day meeting for worship was frequently energized last year by the presence of Lori Talbot, a trustee who is a member of Greenwich Monthly Meeting. Lori’s work with our worship began when she made a connection with the middle school Meeting Committee, and its faculty advisor. Lori’s experience and skill in helping our students to be more deliberate about worship is ongoing, and I expect that we will again this year be challenged to reflect and share thoughtfully about such issues as personal choice, or the meaning of community, because of Lori’s willingness to share her gifts with us.
This past summer the school was honored to receive a gift in loving memory of Paul Kramme, a long-time supporter and friend of the school. The countless gifts of all kinds graciously donated to the school by Paul, Dorothy (a member at Woodstown Monthly Meeting and former clerk of trustees), and the Kramme family, are central to the school’s ongoing work, and are the foundation upon which rests the work of generations of students and faculty. Their gifts serve as a model to all of us in the Friends School community who wish to further the work of the school, and by extension, the Religious Society of Fiends. Paul Kramme’s gift of treasure will truly touch each and every one of our students.
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Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 10:17 PM
