In the fall of 1968, Dick Bellefeuille arrived on campus with his wife, Helen, and his young family. Along with serving as the dorm parent in Mary Lowell Stone, Mr. Bellefeuille (as he was always known by students) taught Spanish and coached reserve football, skating club, and lacrosse. Over the next thirty-two years (1968-1999), he would expand his teaching role to the science and math departments and become Proctor’s first athletic trainer in the 1980s. Through these varied roles, his career impacted thousands of students’ lives and left an indelible mark on the Proctor community. On December 28, Dick passed away at home in Concord, New Hampshire under the care of hospice.

We are in the midst of an unprecedented cold stretch in central New Hampshire as daytime temperatures have not climbed above 5 degrees and nightime lows have consistently been -10 degrees or colder for the past six days. Students will return from Winter Break this evening to relatively balmy temperatures in the upper single digits. Keeping Proctor's forty-five buildings and myriad heating systems within each running has kept our Maintenance Team incredibly busy during this stretch. Today, we pause in the midst of a professional development day to thank them for their tireless commitment to keeping us warm! 

The sun set over the west end of campus for the final time in 2017. As we reflect on 2017 and the frigid sub-zero temperatures that have held their grip on campus over the past week, we look forward to 2018 with hope for what is yet to come. Hope (for our students, for our community, for our environment, and for our world) is only as powerful as our actions, however. We must not only hope for change in 2018, but believe we each possess the ability to positively impact the world around us. 

The past twelve months have reminded us, once again, of the power of a school community like Proctor. We have felt the purest of joy and deepest of sadness as we have, together, navigated the rollercoaster of life. As we prepare to usher in 2018 with open arms, we take a few minutes to look back at a few of the most powerful moments of 2017 via Instagram. Enjoy!

Students depart campus for Winter Break today, but things will be far from quiet for varsity hockey and basketball teams, as well as our snow sport athletes. Check out a complete schedule of holiday tournaments and winter break training and racing schedules for the Hornets below. If games are in your area, we hope to see you come out and support our athletes and coaches! 

Last December, we announced a new resource on Proctor's website called Buy Proctor where we highlight the work of our alumni in various industries. As we enter the busyness of the holiday season, we checked in with Kelcey Loomer '96 whose jewelry business, Seed and Sky, is featured on the Buy Proctor page. Kelcey's artistic journey eventually wound its way to a home studio in Asheville, NC where she and her husband, Alex, have dedicated their life to sharing the beauty of the natural world through art. Check out what Kelcey has to say about running her own business and her relationship with Proctor. 

As any athlete or coach will tell you, there is no force more powerful in sport than momentum. It is not explainable by physics (people have tried), but when the roar of the crowd grows, a palpable shift in confidence among players, coaches, and spectators takes place. A distinct feeling emerges when you know things are moving in the right direction, and no matter what shot you throw up, you know it is going in. You get chills as you watch it all unfold in front of you. The power of momentum. 

Program directors for Mountain Classroom, European Art Classroom, Proctor en Segovia, Ocean Classroom, and Proctor in Costa Rica have talked about each of these remarkable study abroad programs in assembly over the past few weeks. We have all read the blog posts from each of these off-campus programs, and have seen the transformation in the students who return from studying off-campus. With Off-Campus Program applications for the 2018-2019 school year due one week from today, many of the conversations happening right now between advisors, parents, and advisees center around the excitement, and challenges, that accompany studying off-campus.