| The best boarding schools offer outstanding facilities for academics, for residential life and for student activities and athletics. Today, Blair can claim two of the three. Recent years have brought academic additions such as Bogle Hall, Timken Library and Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts. Residential life enhancements include Ann L. Siegel Hall and renovations to Romano Dining Hall and Blair’s student and faculty housing.
Upgrading student activity and athletic facilities is the next essential step if we are to properly meet all of our student’s needs. Increased activity space will provide students with opportunities to be productively engaged and learning—especially during the winter months.
To date, Blair has realized the first phase of this vision: with a generous gift, we have added 120 acres of new property, which will allow us to create a pedestrian campus and significantly upgrade our outdoor fields. In addition, we will build new faculty housing to ensure that faculty members continue to live in close proximity to students.
A new Activity and Athletic Center represents the final phase of this vision: purposeful space for the “second half of our educational day,” when students can participate on sports teams, learn new skills and interact with teachers and coaches. This space is critical for our student body, now coeducational and 100 students larger than a decade ago.
An Activity and Athletic Center will allow Blair to develop a robust winter intramural program as well as improve the experience of winter team athletes, most of whom now have shortened practices that run through family-style dinners and evening study hours.
Just as importantly, the new facility will become a true campus center, with a school store, post office, informal study areas, offices for college counseling, and a place for day and boarding students to mix. In addition, there will be athletic courts and enhanced facilities for fitness and weight training.
A new Activity and Athletic Center is necessary to strengthen student life and Blair’s sense of community while also allowing us to fully achieve our mission to develop students’ intellectual, moral and physical capabilities.
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