Parent Newsletter: February 2010

DEAR BLAIR PARENTS and FAMILIES,
In this newsletter you’ll find information concerning upcoming events and other items of interest. To keep you further informed, you will receive two more issues of the Parents’ Post and Blair Bulletin in the mail this year. Visiting “Important Dates” (located at the bottom right section of the Parents’ page on the Blair Web site) will also help you keep up with what’s happening on campus. This section provides weekend highlights and other dates of interest. Please feel free to contact us with questions or ideas for future newsletters.

Sadie Hawkins Dance

The theme of “Carnivale in Venice – A Masquerade Ball” set the stage for the mid-winter semi-formal on February 6 – a “girls ask boys”/Sadie Hawkins dance. With Italian music playing in the background, students escaped to Venice for the evening.  The night began with “mocktails” at Sharpe House before students made their way to the dining hall to be greeted by gondolier (and faculty member) Jake Dellorco. An exquisite dinner, complete with a chocolate fountain, and dancing rounded out the evening. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the moms and dads who volunteered their time to help make the evening “fantastico.” A special thank-you goes out to Susan Mayes P ’03 ’09 ’11, who chaired the decorating committee and created the vision for the evening; Heather Eckert, faculty advisor; and the girls from Annie Hall. Other parents who worked tirelessly include Jean and Frank Cordero P ’11, Gretchen Hargis P ’03 ’08 ’13, Suzanne and Rich Hoffman P ’10 ’11, and Tammy and John Redos P ’09 ’12. To view photos of the dance, click here. To see parent volunteers at work and the fabulous decorations, click here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Athletic Tournaments and Nationals
February 12-14
Boys’ and Girls’ Varsity Basketball MAPL Tournament
February 16
Boys’ Swimming State Meet at Lawrenceville
February 17
Girls’ Swimming State Meet at Lawrenceville
February 20
Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball States (semi-finals)
February 20
Winter Track MAPL Meet at Lawrenceville
Boys’ and Girls’ Squash MAPL Tournament at Lawrenceville
NJISAA Wrestling Prep States at Blair
Boys’ and Girls’ Swimming States Meet
February 25 & 26
Skiing States
February 26 & 27
Prep Wrestling Nationals at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

For the weekly athletic schedule, click here.

Once Upon a Mattress
The Blair Academy Players present Once Upon a Mattress on February 18, 19 and 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the DuBois Theatre of Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts. Tickets for the show are general admission, and are $10 for adults and $5 for students. There are no reservations necessary for the show. The musical, with music by Mary Rogers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, book by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer, and Dean Fuller, is based upon The Princess and the Pea fairy tale. For more information, click here.

Headmasters’ Societies Competition Week
February 22-26
Headmasters’ Societies Competition Week, now in its seventh year, gives students and faculty a chance to have fun on an intramural level before heading into exam week. Sports and other activities, such as a bake-off and board games, are played by teams, with the winner announced after a talent show at week’s end. An evening with a hypnotist will also take place. Team Breed took the 2009 trophy. Last year’s photos can be seen here.

Blood Drive
February 22
The Blair Health Center’s annual blood drive will be held Monday, February 22, 9:00-4:00 p.m. The Miller-Keystone Blood Center of Lehigh Valley will be on campus in their bloodmobile to facilitate the drive. Faculty and students (17 years or older), are invited to participate.

Reminder from the Health Center
February is an excellent time for parents to make an appointment for their child’s physical examination for the 2010-2011 school year. Click here for the form. Please make his or her appointment in early June or soon after your child is home for summer break.

Parent Challenge Grant Extended to June 30: 
Incredible Opportunity for Parents to Support Blair
We are excited to announce that a parent has generously offered to extend the Challenge Grant for the 2009-2010 school year to June 30, 2010. For every new or increased gift made by a parent, the Challenge Grant will make an additional contribution to Blair.

• New gifts will be matched—dollar for dollar—up to $2,000
• Increased gifts of any size will generate an additional $500 for Blair.
• $10,000 will be given for a first-time gift of $10,000 or more.

Participating in the Challenge Grant is an easy way to increase your support for the School. We hope that you take advantage of this incredible opportunity to provide a greater Blair experience for all our students by making a pledge or gift before June 30, 2010. Better yet, click here to make your gift TODAY!

If you have any questions, contact Sue Habermann at (908) 362-6121, ext. 5653, habers@blair.edu, or Susan Long at ext. 5705, longs@blair.edu.

Spring Break Trips
Community Service Mission Trip – Camden, NJ, March 15-17
Baseball – Vero Beach, FL, March 10-18
Softball – Orlando, FL, March 16-24
Boys’ Tennis –Miami, FL, March 22-28
Crew – South Carolina, March 20-28
Girls’ Varsity Golf – Orlando, FL, March 20-26

SKEPTICS SERIES
Cowan Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.
February 16
Glenn LeBoeuf
Senior vice-president, Freedom Capital Management
“The Rise of Lincoln: 1831-1860”
February 23
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Author of Admission, Korelitz drew upon her personal experience as an outside reader of admission for this book.
For the complete Society of Skeptics series schedule, click here.

ART EXHIBITS
Teacher Exhibits Art in Two States
The work of art teacher Rita Baragona is currently on display in two separate shows, “Realism Unbound” at the Noyes Museum in Oceanville, NJ, through February 14, and “Zeuxis, An Association of Still Life Painters: The Common Object” at the Lancaster Museum of Art in Lancaster, PA, through February 28.

Julia Whitney Barnes
February 8-March 13
Reception: Thursday, February 11, 7-8 p.m.
Julia Whitney Barnes is a Brooklyn-based, mixed media artist who has spent the last dozen years making indoor and outdoor works related to the natural world. Barnes creates installations, sculptural reliefs, oil paintings and drawings; she will show selections from her Orchid-Bat series as well as a variety of new work.

Jeffrey Epstein
March 30-April 24
Reception: Thursday, April 1, 7- 8 p.m.
Jeff Epstein’s paintings usually explore the suburban landscape, often at night. He notes, “The unpeopled spaces share indications of human presence yet the pervasive feeling is one of solitude, perhaps finding beauty or a hint of menace where none was perceived before.”

Friday Night Arts
Dubois Theatre, Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts
Student singers, dancers, strings, jazz and wind ensemble.
Friday, April 30, 7:30 p.m.

The Annual Student Art Exhibition
April 29-May 15
Reception:  Friday, April 30, 6:30 p.m.

Click here to view the full calendar of gallery offerings.

MARCH EVENTS
March 3 - Exams begin
March 5 - Exams end and spring break begins
March 28 - Boarders return by 7:00 p.m.
March 29 - Classes resume
April 5 & 9 - Accepted Student Revisit Days sponsored by Admission Office

Video Project Premiere
The Fall After School Video project will be shown after spring break during an all-school assembly (date to be determined). "The Random Show" is a video about all sorts of random subjects featuring “man-in-the-street” interviews with members of the Blair community.  The random subjects include octopi, Chinese food in China compared to Chinese food in America, the importance of shoes, colonoscopies, awkward conversations between teachers and students, and much more.  The students who worked on the project include: Jillian Black ’10, Grace Donnelly ’10, Stephen Harrington ’12, Thomas Jardine ’13, Carolina de Olazarra ’11, Cassidy Kean ’12, Andrew Marvin ’12, Olivia Sapin ’11 and Christina Wang ’11. The project was overseen by Judith Kahan Kampmann, director of video studies. 

Parents of Seniors
Graduation is right around the corner! Don’t forget to make your travel plans soon. A packet of information concerning Senior Week and graduation will be sent from the student affairs office in early April.

Senior Prize Assembly – May 17
Baccalaureate - May 19
Commencement - May 20

For more details of Commencement Week, click here.

Blair Summer School in Ecuador
This summer, Don and Susan Morley will be heading off to Ecuador with students for Blair Summer School in Ecuador. From June 10-July 11, with an optional cruise through the Galapagos Islands July 11-18, Blair students will have the opportunity to study and live high in the Andes in the Republic of Ecuador. This trip is open to any Blair student interested in Spanish or art – no prior experience is necessary. Contact Don Morley, foreign language department chair, at blairinecuador@blair.edu or by phone at (908) 362-2006 for more details.

Letter to the Students from Dave Low Concerning Summer Plans
Though it is still cold and we have some winter ahead of us, it is none too early to begin thinking about summer plans. Some specialists argue that the American education system is fundamentally flawed ... that we take far too much time off from the business of formal learning. A counter-argument is that summer provides an excellent opportunity for learning of a different type ... learning that complements what we do in school ... and learning that can have a whole lot to do with figuring out what our passions are.

If you haven’t started yet, begin thinking about productive things you can do this summer.  Some of you may need or choose to find paying jobs (not necessarily easy in this still recovering-economy) while others of you may be graduating to the level of counselor in camps that you have attended.  For some, there will be study and travel opportunities that will broaden your horizons.  Whatever it is that you wind up doing, try to make sure that in one fashion or another, it is helping you develop into the responsible, interesting adult that you hope to be.

Representatives from various programs come through Blair advertising their offerings.  Most often, this involves setting a table up in the dining room and offering to talk to interested students.  We will do our best to let you know when people are going to be here, and we urge you to stop by those tables just to get a sense of the various opportunities out there.  Note that the bulletin board near the student mailboxes now features Summer Opportunity notices.

Book Store Winter Sale
Be sure to check out the “end of winter” sale in Blair’s bookstore. Many items have been marked down by 10-20% off the original prices. Bookstore manager Reanne Mauriello notes, “Fleece jackets and vests are at their lowest prices this season.” If you can’t visit campus don’t let that stop you from shopping! Simply log on to the online bookstore, click on the “Sale Items” link and visit today.

Purchase a RECYLABLE BAG and get a 5% DISCOUNT each time you re-use the bag at the bookstore.

RECENT EVENTS

Super Quad Wrestling Tournament at Blair Academy
It was standing room only in Blair’s performance gym as the Bucs downed two of the top teams in the country on February 6. Dubbed the “marquee wrestling event of the weekend” by wrestling source www.theopenmat.com, the Super Quad saw three nationally ranked teams battling for national respect. The three duals created a tense atmosphere as Blair beat both #6 Wyoming Seminary, 31-30, and #13 St. Edwards, 30-28. Wyoming Seminary beat St. Ed’s 33-23. For details on the Super Quad, click here.

Marine Science Trip
Members of this year’s marine science class traveled to the Cayman Islands over the long winter weekend, accompanied by their teacher Rod Gerdsen and faculty member Dale Phelps. Activities on Grand Cayman included a snorkeling tour of Stingray City, snorkeling on a pristine reef, a tour of the Cayman Turtle Farm, a stop in “Hell” for a quick visit and a kayaking trip through the local mangroves. For more information and to view pictures of the trip, click here.

Green Cup Challenge
“Ninjas” and Nature Conservancy Team Up
Blair Academy has again entered the Green Schools Alliance Green Cup Challenge, a competition among east coast independent schools to determine which institution can save the most electricity. Additionally, members of Blair’s sustainability committee are helping to implement various “green” initiatives on campus, including a composting program for dining hall waste. “Green ninjas” roused fellow students’ participation in the Challenge, demonstrating their leadership skills and their willingness to take positive action for Blair and for the environment. At the January 26 Society of Skeptics program, the ninjas made an appearance along with guest speaker Eric Olsen, Skyland project manager for The Nature Conservancy, who spoke about land conservation in northern New Jersey.

Named Squash Courts Dedicated
Blair Trustees, squash players and community members gathered on January 22 to dedicate three named squash courts and to thank the donors whose gifts helped to make the School’s top-notch squash center a reality. Honored at the dedication were Mr. and Mrs. John C. Bogle ’47, Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Schmeelk and Andrew Schmeelk ’04, and Mrs. Ralph N. Meerwarth ’50 and Ms. Tracy L. Meerwarth, and the Class of 1942. For more information, click here.

Skeptics Speaker Discusses Earthquake in Haiti
Dan Chamberlin, parent of Scott ’11, presented a Society of Skeptics program on January 19. He and other parishioners from the Trinity United Methodist Church of Hackettstown, N.J., were on a mission trip in Haiti when the earthquake occurred. For information on how you can help Haiti, click here.

Let us know if you have any e-mail address changes by contacting lists@blair.edu.