Saturday was a special day on Proctor’s campus. We welcomed hundreds of volunteers, runners, riders and spectators as we hosted the Rail Trail Run and Ride fundraiser for the Special Olympics of New Hampshire. The entire student body and many faculty and staff participated; some helped set up the event, others raced in the 5k and 10k runs alongside Special Olympic athletes. Others cleaned up, organized child races around Carr Field, and cheered on runners and riders.

There is something about a beautiful fall day that brings out the best in a place. Smiling faces walking around campus, sun-filled classrooms, lunch outside on the lawn, and a host of athletic contests certainly showed well to the visiting families on tour yesterday.

At 3:45 Sunday morning a group of 40 students and faculty will leave Proctor’s Stone Table bound for a day of peaceful protest at The People’s Climate March in New York City. Driven by the efforts of Eco Dorm and Proctor Environmental Action, the group will join hundreds of schools, environmental and labor groups, scientists, and community organizations in what is being billed as the largest climate change demonstration in history. 

In the second week of classes, I have been thinking about relationships as I watch the shifting social landscape of Proctor that teeters, dissolves, and rebuilds. Somewhere on campus, life-long friendships are just beginning, somewhere a social group evolves with new players coming in and old ones exiting. Most of the time this process is healthy, some of the time it is not. It’s a significant part of the adolescent landscape.

We have reached the midpoint of our second week of classes. Leaves are starting to turn, as has the weather. The twenty-two students and three instructors on Ocean Classroom were on campus briefly conducting research on port cities before departing for Hurricane Island for the remainder of the week.

The bell.

Walk up the stairs in Maxwell Savage and there’s the rope, like a thick mooring line tethering us to something important. For years Chuck Will would climb those stairs prior to assembly, check his watch, then set the big bell to rocking and ringing, calling the community together.

As we finish the first week of classes, we pause to appreciate the transitions that have taken place over the past two weeks. New students arrived and immediately took off on a five day hiking trip in the White Mountains. They then returned to campus, were oriented to buildings, classrooms, dorm rooms and have very quickly immersed themselves in ‘student life at Proctor’.

Sunday was a busy day. Wilderness Orientation returned, Sports Camp ended and all students arrived back on campus! Dorms are meeting for the first time this evening to discuss expectations, community living, and to begin to build relationships that will last a lifetime. Tomorrow morning advisory groups will gather at 8:30 AM followed by our first all-school assembly of the 2014-2015 school year and abbreviated class periods. Here we go!