Hodgepodge January 23, 2011

I had to include a picture of some of the books that were collected during our 2-week book drive. Through your generous contributions, we were able to donate 6,100 books to Book Harvest. Those books are being put into the hands of children who normally would have no books in their homes. THANK YOU!!! Meanwhile, the basketball season is well underway. We have home games on Tuesday of this week. We hope to get a big crowd out to cheer for our teams. I know that our visitors from Lithuania will want to come to a game. They LOVE basketball! Our swim team and Ultimate Frisbee team are also hard at work practicing and getting ready for their next matches.















DIRECTOR OF PEACE CORPS TO SPEAK ON FRIDAY
Aaron Williams, who has been the director of the Peace Corps since 2009, will speak to the Upper School community Friday morning at 9am in the Center. Parents, alumni, and friends are welcome to attend. We will have coffee and light refreshments available from 8:30-9:00. Mr. Williams served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic (1967-1970). We are very excited about this opportunity for our students to meet Mr. Williams and learn about this important organization that continues to make a difference in the world today.

LITHUANIAN VISITORS
Our visitors from Lithuania (6 students and their teacher chaperone) arrived Saturday night and were met by their host families at the airport. They are getting some rest this weekend and will then attend classes with their hosts for the next 2 weeks. Many activities are being planned during their visit. We hear that they love basketball and hope to make it to a game at Duke or UNC. (and of course CFS!) They all speak excellent English, so I'm sure many new friendships will be formed during their stay.

WEATHER...Hmmmm...?? We'll see what happens. Keep your eye on the website.

MLK Jr. Celebration, Monday at 10:30am in the gym

Look at all those drummers! Over 60 of them! From the youngest, age 2, to some grandma-types...and everything in between. We also expect 60 in the gospel choir. We hope you are able to join us for our annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in the gym at 10:30am Monday morning. The entire Lower School will be singing, as well as the Chapel Hill Early School Community Singers. The celebration will include two oral presentations that involve 15 Upper School students. Our theme is "Spreading Peace...One Word at a Time." At our celebration, we will conclude our 2-week book drive for Book Harvest. Bring your new or gently used children's books and join with us as the CFS community comes together to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..

Only a few rehearsals left...

Two of our wonderful soloists, Eliza and Taylor, are rehearsing their solos for Let There Be Peace on Earth. Here, you can see Nia, our choir director, and Roy, our pianist, working out a part for the altos. The drummers have a rehearsal at 5:00 tonight (Friday). On Sunday from 4:00-6:00 in the gym, we will rehearse the entire celebration.






Reminders for Monday morning: The Celebration begins at 10:30am in the gym. Folks who are singing, speaking, or drumming in the celebration should be in the gym by 9:00. If you haven't yet contributed to the book drive for Book Harvest, you may bring your new or gently used children's books to the gym on Monday morning. Upper School students will be available to collect your books in the lobby. The Carolina Friends School does not have a day off to celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday--We have a day ON! Celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. King is a time for us to come together as an entire community and remember the messages he left for us. Together, we hope to Spread Peace...One Word at a Time. I look forward to seeing you on Monday morning!

P.S. Don't forget the Parade on Saturday.

MLK Jr. Celebration is in full swing...

Here is a great shot of Jonathan Henderson, our beloved leader of the Community Drumming Ensemble. Below, you can see the entire ensemble...all 50 of them! I have also included some pictures of Carol Blackmore's card-making workshop. Peace signs, hearts, and flowers abound amid warm messages of Peace and Love on the beautiful cards that are being made by our younger students. The Gospel Choir will meeting tonight (Thursday) at 5:30pm in the Center. The next Drumming Ensemble rehearsal will be tomorrow at 5pm in the Middle School. All of these activities remind us of the important work of Dr. King and his message of peace and nonviolence. Each musical group forms its own sense of community throughout this week of rehearsals that lead up to the Celebration on Monday morning. Hope to see you there!

Community Gospel Choir first rehearsal

We are getting started with our MLK Jr. week of celebration. The first rehearsal of our Community Gospel Choir will be held today (Thursday, January 6) from 5:30-6:30 in the Center. If you can't make it today but want to be in the gospel choir, we still want you to be a part of this community experience. Come to the next rehearsal on Sunday from 5:30-7:00 in the Center. We will help you get caught up.

Alums come back and give back

I may be just a little bit prejudiced, but I do believe that we have the all-time best alums in the world! They continue to care about CFS. They willingly give of their time and talents to give back to the community and to give to one another. The group of actors above (Rachel Cotterman was not available) are performing "Metamorphoses" in the Meeting Hall on January 1 at 7:30pm and January 2 at 5:00pm. I have been watching some of the rehearsals and am looking forward to the performance. The ensemble cast is made up of 8 alums from the class of 2005 to 2009. Our own Tasha (class of 2012) is also a part of this talented group. I hope you will be able to make time to see this adult-audience show.








Meanwhile, on December 29th, there was a CFS happening at the Pinhook in downtown Durham. Catherine Edgerton and dad Clyde started the evening with some duets.

Jim Henderson's band (Cat Baby) took over and played some wild dance music that got everybody warmed up for the final act. CFS alums and families filled the facility. The final group to perform were the Kodiak Farm Boys. This blue grass group is made up of 4 CFS alums and 2 friends. There were so many alums in attendance at the Pinhook that I finally lost count. Here are shots of some of them. Aren't they beautiful?!

Talent Show 2010

It was touch and go for this year's talent show when snow arrived the day before our scheduled performance. We didn't know whether we would have school on Friday or not. As it turned out, we had a one-hour delay, and school started at 9:30am. We had barely enough time to set up and get the show started by 10:30. We were off and running. Our trusty MC's, Alyssa and Miles, did a great job of keeping us on schedule. With a noon dismissal looming in the distance, we wanted to be sure to fit in every act. Here, you can see Nick playing his own beautiful arrangement for guitar of Fields of Gold by Sting.







The swim team performed a special Dry Land Tutorial. Freshmen, Isabella and Elisabeth sang a beautiful song.













Miles, Marnie, and Mariah did the Hippo Song, complete with helium balloons.









Emma and Lenore serenaded Willy. Daniel sang an a cappella version of a Pete Seeger song.





The grand finale was a musical revue by a large group of seniors who were led by Daniel, Joseph, Joe, and Neal. The talent was impressive (these were just some of the highlights) and the show ended at 12:15. We have great hope for our Cabaret, which is scheduled for March 26th. Be sure to mark your calendars!