40th Anniversary Celebration Kicks Off with Service Project, Author Visit

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Students took part in a 40th anniversary photo, assembling on Brumbaugh Field to create the shape of the number 40, before enjoying cupcakes and a picnic lunch. Upper School Lions collaborated on a colorful kite project with their kindergarten through third grade Cubs.

Upper School students packed 16,000 dry meals in Holden Court, completing the service project in less than 45 minutes. The meals will be donated to school programs in India.

“Having the day off for this purpose was a great way to come together as a school and help people who need it,” said Ava Katz ‘19.

 

They then participated in a dialogue with Molly Moore, a former foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and an alumni parent (Benny Anderson ’18). Moore, who worked in more than 50 countries during her 16 years overseas, spoke about her experience in impoverished communities similar to the one depicted in Katherine Boo’s “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity,” the all-Upper School summer read.

 

Students in second through eighth grade were treated to a surprise visit from New York Times best-selling author and 2015 Newberry medalist Kwame Alexander. Alexander is the author of 28 books, including “Solo” and “The Crossover,” and contributed the short story, “Seventy-Six Dollars and Forty-Nine Cents,” to the anthology “Flying Lessons & Other Stories,” which was the all-Middle School summer reading assignment.

Alexander recited poems and turned the text of his books into the lyrics for call-and-response songs, all with live guitar accompaniment.

 

“All his poems were really nice, and each one had a song to them,” said Tuuli Kethavath ‘27. “I feel like if I read that book, I could make it into a song.”

Opening Chapel at the National Cathedral commemorated the school’s 40th anniversary with a homily from The Rev. John Taliaferro Thomas, Chaplain at St. Andrew’s from 1999 through 2008 and currently interim rector at Grace Episcopal Church in Kilmarnock, Virginia.

Thomas encouraged students to reflect the light they see in the world and use this year at St. Andrew’s to make a difference.

“This is the most important year of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School because you are in it, and because in it, you can make a difference,” Thomas said. “So reflect the light, that the world may see and know that God is at work in you.”