Pine Point School

Winter/Spring 2011

ViewPoints

Inside: A Look Back at The Geise Years

Winter/Spring 2011ViewPointsBOARD OF TRUSTEES

Alan BanisterKevin BowdlerLou DoboeSusan Funk, Vice PresidentPaul Geise, Head of SchoolBeth Gianacoplos, Vice PresidentLinda Goddard, PresidentStephanie Gosselin, SecretaryChristopher Hilton, TreasurerW. Lee HisleBarbara Silver HoltNorman JasonChudy NduakaDebbie O’Brien John PereiraCarla Petrocelli Kim RickWilliam RollaJennifer SchwindtJoseph StaleyMarcy Withington, Treasurer

PRESIDENT’S COUNCILPeter BriggsSearle FieldJohn FioreSusan FunkValerie GrimmDirk t.D. HeldSusanne KnisleyMarcia McGowanKim PaddonArdice PerryJanie StanleyKaren Stone

CONTRIBUTORSEditor: David Hannon, Director of Development

Assistant Editor: David Cruthers, Associate Director of Development

Designer: Rosemary Robertson, Publications Coordinator

Contributors: Carol Ansel, Black Dog Photography,David Cruthers, Tiffany Barres Foley ’98, Paul Geise,David Hannon, Louisa Muller ’97, Chip Riegel Photography,Rosemary Robertson, Diptesh Soni ’03, Zach Stanley ’96,Gary Williams and Jean Williams

89 Barnes Road Stonington, CT 06378860-535-0606http://www.pinepoint.orgdevelopment@pinepoint.org pinepointalumni@pinepoint.org

Download a digital copy of the magazine athttp://www.pinepoint.org/viewpoints.

FEATURES2 Why Pine Point: 10 Top ReasonsIn his final letter to the Pine Point family, Head of School Paul Geise pres-ents his top ten reasons why he believes Pine Point is an exceptionalschool. In doing so, he encourages members of the Pine Point family to goto the School’s website and offer their own thoughts on the subject.

4 The Importance of Effort and UnderstandingOn September 21, Pine Point sponsored its own Peace One Day. It was anextraordinary day for our school and the many presenters and participatingmiddle schools that joined us for a day to consider the topic of peace in itsmany forms.

16 The Geise YearsIn a pictorial display, we take a look back at Paul Geise’s tenure as Head ofSchool. Included in the piece are some of the notable changes and distinc-tions that came to Pine Point on his watch.

24 School Gathers to Honor Paul Geise Three hundred members of the Pine Point family and the extended commu-nity gathered at Mystic Aquarium in mid-April to honor Head of SchoolPaul Geise and to renew ties with old friends.

32 9th Grade Arts ConcentrationWith the ability to concentrate their study in the arts, the 9th graders bene-fit from another capstone experience as part of their academic program.

39 Costa Rica - Culture, Customs, and LanguageFor the second year in a row, the 9th grade traveled to Costa Rica as part ofthis year’s International Studies Program. With experiences ranging from atour of a Boston Scientific manufacturing facility to a volcano, they foundthat the country has a wealth of offerings and much to distinguish itself.

42 Life in the Political ArenaSince his graduation from Boston College, Zach Stanley ’96 has beeninvolved in a number of efforts in the world of politics from interning inSenator Edward Kennedy’s office to working the “field” side of theKerry/Edwards campaign in Florida. For the last three years, he has servedwith Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications in their Boston office withtheir Public Affairs team.

Departments44 Class Notes

Front cover: Sixth grade teacher Steve Brown maintains a flock of chickens at the home andsmall farm he shares with his wife, Kate, on Farmholme Road. One of the benefits for his sci-ence students is that during the early spring they get to care for and observe four differentbreeds of chicks. The students study their behaviors (pecking order, preening, feeding, oilingof feathers, perching, etc...), and physical adaptations (scaly legs, pecking tooth, oil glands,feathers, etc...) in order to better understand the local songbird, heron, or raptor they re-searched in class. Each day the students measured, in grams, the mass of the chicks and talliedthe average mass for two weeks. The chicks initially weighed 30.1 grams and after 12 days theaverage was 114.8 grams! On the front, Julia Little ’14 weighs an Easter Egg chick (Araucana).The unusual breed gets its name from the Indian tribe of Chile where they were first discoveredbut has since found a home in southeastern Connecticut! (Chip Riegel Photography)

One of the high-lights of the year is

always the middleschool musical.

This year, audiencemembers were

amused by the an-tics of a “rollicking

band of pirates.”

The Pirates of Penzance Junior

Photos by Carol Ansel and Gary Williams

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Why Pine Point: s we look ahead, I also have have begun to reflect. When Robin and I first visited PinePoint during the winter of 1998, we had an initial experience I trust most of you had

when you came to campus to learn about the School…we were not certain where the en-trance was! A quirky, charming albeit confusing arrival to the School has never made my topten list of why we chose Pine Point. Fortunately, there were friendly faces to direct us oncewe entered a building. And that was an important reason to learn more about this fine, fineschool. My list of “Why Pine Point” had begun. My list of “Why Pine Point” had begun.

I remember being impressed by the quality of teachers, and I was equally impressed withthe engagement of the students who clearly had been positively influenced by the schoolculture. Without a doubt, great teachers and impressive students are key components of anexemplary school. I also remember commenting to the Search Committee that I did not seeany reason why families should not be banging down the door to enroll at Pine Point. Theproperty, the program, and the people of Pine Point combined for a dynamic, integrated all-encompassing learning experience, and over the years, the list has only been reinforced andclarified.

What, then, are the elements that make an exceptional school like Pine Point? Seeking todetermine the top ten items on the “must have” list, I solicited input from the departmentchairs to see how aligned our collective thinking was on this question. As you might haveexpected, there was good alignment! Here is the countdown list we amassed:

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Outstanding secondary school placements as wellas successful college experiences and beyondAfter all, there is a bottom line to the investment in educa-tion that parents make. Pine Point stays connected to itsalumni and shares in celebration all the meaningful and re-markable ways past Pine Pointers are making a difference inthe world. A recent issue of ViewPoints highlights a few ofour younger alumni and showcased their collegiate careers.And we continue to enjoy an excellent reputation and suc-cess rate for our secondary school placements, a reason in-ternational families, in fact, find a year or two ofpreparation at Pine Point so appealing.

Meaningful PartnershipsIn a recent parent survey, Pine Point scored quite high infrequent and comprehensive communication with parentsthrough on-going formative assessment and narrative evalu-ations. Add to this teacher homepages and schooltubevideos and blogs, frequent phone calls and loads of face toface school time and the key term ‘dynamic’ within our mis-sion statement is surely apt. But the partnerships extendbeyond the schoolhouse walls, and learning for the childrenengages them with people and places in the local, regional,national, and international communities. Talk about a value-added learning environment!

A global view of education alongwith environmental leadershipThere is no doubt that our commitment to learning fromthose around the world is vibrant and ever changing. OurInternational Studies Program, our exchanges with studentsin France and South Africa, and most recently our globaloutreach on Peace One Day showcase some of the School’son-going efforts. Similarly, our significant solar panel array,our new micro-wind turbine, and our continuing focus onthe E3 concept for future facilities underscore the proactivestance Pine Point is taking to connect sustainable environ-mental leadership with learning.

Excellent facilitiesWell, some things have changed since 1998 (although aproper arrival still eludes us!). Parents, children, and thelarger community now have access to an even more beauti-ful campus. A state-of-the-art library/technology center, aninviting and mindfully conceived early childhood center,science laboratories, an observatory, generous doses of ed-ucational technology throughout, inviting and well-equipped spaces for the arts, and bucolic grounds onlybegin to describe the good fortune of the Pine Pointfamilies.

-Paul G. Geise, Head of School

10 Top Reasons

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Strong and expansive arts and enrichment programsLeadership is highly correlated with creativity in the profes-sional literature, and all students from preschool to grade 9have the opportunity to experiment with art, dance, and music.The arts are not an add-on; rather they are an integral and im-portant part of the curriculum. Further, all of the enrichmentactivities that take place frequently are inspirational: from theregular enrichment assemblies, Peace Day Youth Conference,and all school D.E.A.R. lunches to the Hunger Banquet, AprilMadness poetry competition, Monday Morning Meetings, andField Day. There is no doubt that a Pine Point student receivesboth an intentionally balanced and enriched education.

A focus on service and characterThe core values of the school – Respect, Integrity, MoralCourage, and Excellence – are given life and exercise throughvarious paths. Service learning happens at each grade level withevery student. As one faculty member put it, “All students aredeveloping a caring heart to accompany their strong mind fromthe time they walk through the doors at Pine Point.” Appren-ticeship programs, performance assessment programs, moralleadership programs among others simply provide opportuni-ties to put their moral character into action. Our Umbrella Pro-gram, referred to as UP, frames out this distinctive and valuedcomponent of the Pine Point program. Learn more about it bygoing to www.pinepoint.org/UP.

A focus on the whole childPine Point firmly believes that every youngster has certain giftsand talents to tap, that every child learns differently, and thatyou cannot separate the social, emotional, intellectual, andphysical aspects of a child’s growth and development…it is thewhole child you must educate. Every effort is made to have thePine Point program differentiate instruction, meeting the needsof the individual and challenging them or supporting them asneeded. The Pine Point program is inclusive, comprehensive,and learner centered. Results of our children’s external testmeasures – the DIBELS, the Gates-MacGinitie, the OtisLennon, the ERB’s Comprehensive Testing Program, and eventhe Secondary School Admission Tests, as well as our recogni-tion as a National School of Character and a Moral Develop-ment Program National Model – are testimonies to the breadthof the Pine Point experience. Truly, we are developing strong,disciplined and creative minds and caring hearts actively en-gaged in doing good.

Balance of rigor and relevance in academicsThe students work hard at Pine Point with active and collabora-tive engagement. The School is emphasizing the developmentof critical thinking and problem/solving skills necessary in arapidly changing world. Students develop the ability to commu-nicate ideas clearly both orally and in written form. There is aprogrammatic emphasis on active participation in all aspects ofa student’s learning and with many opportunities to distinguishthemselves and develop leadership skills in academics, the arts,

and on the playing field. Of course, one could not do justice toexplain the entire scope of our academic program within thebounds of an article, so please go to www.pinepoint.org/learn-ing to dig deeper into our curriculum. What you may not see,however, is the curricular mapping that each faculty membermaintains to assure that their course of study stays relevant, ro-bust, and in line with best practices.

A safe environment to learn - closeness of relationships between student and teacherSo often Pine Point has been noted for its family atmosphereand strong sense of community. The involvement by everyone –teachers, students, and parents – creates a warm and safe placefor the children to learn as well as take intellectual risks. In themost recent parent survey, nearly 80% of the respondents were“extremely satisfied” with the sense of comfort, warmth, andsafety at Pine Point. The teachers will know your child - classesare small and relationships are close. Parents are not just en-couraged but required to be part of their child’s education. Andalumni often continue to have friendships with faculty longafter they have left Pine Point.

Top-notch facultyThe ultimate value of any great institution lies in the quality ofits professionals, and Pine Point boasts some of the very finest.Nearly three quarters of the faculty have advanced degrees andnearly all are actively involved in their craft beyond the schoolhours. One is a college professor and another is a living mu-seum interpreter. One is an author, another a regional natural-ist, and still another an Education Council board member for aneighboring school system. Several have won awards over theyears for their excellence. The Pine Point faculty are seasonedand veteran teachers, kept fresh by functioning within a learn-ing community that advocates an innovative spirit. Teachersknow their students personally and academically, they targettheir strengths and help them improve in needed areas. As onestudent exclaimed, “The teachers are amazing!”

How did we do? So what would your list be for an exceptional school? Whatwould compel you to make the investment in a child’s educa-tion? For my years at Pine Point, I am proud to boldly and con-fidently argue that the School is truly exemplary. And I amdeeply grateful to the families who are or have been a part ofthis distinctive educational arena along Barnes Road in Ston-ington, Connecticut. Each of you has helped make this fine,fine school truly great. What a joy it has been to share that withyou!

Do you have other items on your top ten list?A different order? We’d love to hear from you!!

Offer your input by clicking onwww.pinepoint.org/topten

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he day started at sunrise, but the event itself had been in the makingfor years.

On September 21, 2010, Pine Point was one of many places around theglobe that celebrated the event known as Peace One Day. Over 40 presen-ters and musicians participated, as well as students from 11 local schools, inwhat was a very special day in the history of our School and our community.

Though it was the last full day of summer, there was a chill to the air as70+ individuals gathered behind the 5th grade classroom and processedonto the soccer field behind bagpiper Jennifer Armstrong. For the nextthirty minutes they were led by Sally Sugatt, a certified yoga instructor andthe sister of Arts Department Chair Jean Williams, the latter the drivingforce behind the whole day. The group stretched, breathed deeply, centereditself, listened to “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes, reflected on the poemsread by Mr. Salsich, and in general prepared themselves for what was obvi-ous to everyone that beautiful morning – this wasn’t going to be just an-other day at Pine Point.

At the beginning of the school day, the students were divided into sixgroups, each named for an individual–Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Ma-hatma Gandhi, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Dalai Lama–whose life is synonymous with peace and non-violence. Head of SchoolPaul Geise officially welcomed everyone and explained what the day wasabout and what was going to take place. Setting the proper tone, he refer-enced Mother Teresa, who declared, “If we have no peace, it is because wehave forgotten that we belong to each other.” Led by former music teacherKit Johnson, the group sang “It’s in Every One of Us,” a song that alumniwill recall was a staple of Morning Meeting back in the 1990s. Inspired bythe strength that comes in believing in yourself, the students and ourguests headed off on their day.

Every student, teacher, and guest wasgiven a t-shirt. The front of the t-shirt wasa design of the earth drawn by JadeGilman ’11. The reverse bore a quote fromformer First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt: “It isn’t enough to talk about peace.One must believe in it. And it isn’t enoughto believe in it. One must work at it.”

The Importance of Effort

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PeacePhoto by Dana Jensen,Courtesy of The Day

–David Cruthers and David Hannon

Photos by Carol Ansel, David Cruthers, and Black Dog Photography

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At a music festival in 1998, British actor and filmmaker Je-remy Gilley came up with the idea of celebrating one day in theyear, where conflicts would all cease – a day of worldwide non-violence. In September 1999, Gilley launched the first PeaceOne Day (POD) from the Globe Theatre in London. As the PODwebsite points out, “The event was attended mostly by Jeremy’sfriends and was largely ignored by the press.” However, the fol-lowing month, Gilley had attracted the support of Nobel PeacePrize winner and former president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias,and another former Costa Rican president, Rodrigo CarazoOdio. The following year, Gilley was invited to India to meet an-other Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the Dalai Lama, who gave hisblessing to the idea of a day of peace. Soon thereafter, formerIsraeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres (yet another Nobel PeacePrize laureate) and former Australian Prime Minister MalcolmFraser lent their support.

In January 2001, Gilley met with United Nations SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan, who “expressed his support for the creationof a United Nations global ceasefire/non-violence day and sug-gested practical steps that could be taken once achieved.” ThatSeptember a resolution was voted on by the UN General Assem-bly to establish September 21 as Peace One Day, to be annuallycelebrated worldwide on that date. Ironically, the resolution wasto have been introduced on September 11, 2001, at the UN.Instead, the building was evacuated due to theattack on the World Trade Center. Anarticle in The Christian Science Moni-tor from 2009 said that incident “madeGilley even more determined to ensurethe day would be honored with action,not just lip service.”

Pine Point first got involved in 2009when history teacher Gary Williamsshowed Gilley’s film “Peace One Day,” hav-ing heard from an old friend about a relatedevent in London the year before. Later, JeanWilliams reflected on the genesis of PinePoint’s celebration.

and Understanding

“The idea of organizing an all-school event hadbeen resting in the back of my mind for some time.Creativity works in strange ways, and more often thannot, is the result of the confluence of a few things. I re-call the seed of the POD idea was born while I wasworking on material for the 2010 Winter Arts Program.Our relationship with bagpiper and singer Jennifer Arm-strong developed when she did a month-long residencyduring the winter of 1997/98. I have many of her CDsand on one of them was the song ‘Waging Peace for ourChildren.’ I thought it would be cool to bring her downfrom Maine to do that tune with our kids singing thechorus. I wanted her to pipe our kids into the gym andthen perform the song. I contacted her and we set uptentative plans, but it never came to be. At that time, Ithought – how about for Peace One Day 2010? She wasavailable and thought it was a great idea. From there,the idea continued to build. Gary and I discussed it alot, carving out some of what we envisioned (schedule,topics, workshops, possible guests) and I broached thesubject with Head of School Paul Geise one morning inJanuary. Needless to say, he was all over it. I presentedthe skeletal idea to the faculty around Valentine’s Dayand with their unanimous support, we were up and run-ning. Everyone got a pink Post-It as a reminder.”

Origins of the DayWorldwide and at Pine Point

One Day

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During the course of theday over 300 childrenranging in age from 3 to 15worked with musicians,political leaders, electedofficials, social serviceexecutives, pastors,conscientious objectors,members of the military,storytellers, Peace Corpsvolunteers, nutritionists,conflict resolutionspecialists, physicians,journalists and others in aseries of developmentallyappropriate activities. Thenature of peace is broadand so inevitably thevarious sessions in whichthe students were involvedreflected that breadth.There was decidedly aserious bent to the day; it’salso obvious in looking atthe photos that there wasalso a great deal of fun andjoy to be found in workingwith others, creating art,and sharing the pleasurethat comes with beingtogether.

Tom Verde, a Stonington resi-dent and Middle East expert,

spoke on “Making Peace in theMiddle East.” At the beginning

of his talk, he showed a group ofimages, and asked the studentsto determine if they were from

the Middle East, or Europe andthe US. The pictures ranged

from street protests to expensivemalls to camels to people skiing,

all of which were from the Mid-dle East. His point was that that

part of the world is not solelycomprised of Arabs, Israelis,and desert, that there is a far

greater complexity to it.

Peace butterflies were made and hung on a tree in the OutdoorClassroom.

Rev. David Good (right), Senior Pastor of the Old LymeCongregational Church, and Mongi Dhaouadi, Executive

Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations ofConnecticut, presented on Islamophobia and Interfaith

Friendship and Cooperation. The two friends spokeabout respecting differences while finding common

ground. Mr. Dhaouadi showed the students a copy of theKoran, told of what it’s like to be a Muslim in the US,

and of his experiences with hatred and kindness.

Sally Sugatt

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“I was impressed with both the quality and quantity of participants. Frompedagogues to parades, the carefully selected variety of speakers andactivities were broad enough to engage a wide audience, yet focusedenough to never lose sight of the point: that peace is achievable througheffort and understanding. I was proud and flattered to be included on aprogram along with such people as David Good, Mongi Dhaouadi andScott Bates. These people, and others on hand for the event, arecommitted individuals who are working actively, both locally and globally,to promulgate the message of Peace One Day.” – Tom Verde

Arts Department Chair Jean Williamslooks on happily at the ceremonies at theend of the day. Acknowledging a remarkmade afterward from 7th grade teacherDavid Smith ’69 that the day was an in-credible amount of work on her part, Jeansimply offered that “it was a mission.”

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Scott Bates of Stonington presented a work-shop called “Seeking Peace in Iraq.” The for-mer Senior Policy Advisor for the HomelandSecurity Committee described the tribal de-lineations of Iraq (shown in the drawing by

Middle School Head Diana Owen) and talkedabout the past leaders of the countries in-volved in the conflict, and what the United

States’ presence in the area has meant.

Two local veterans ofthe peace movement –

former Pine Pointmusic teacher and

conscientious objectorKit Johnson, andJoanne Sheehan,

regional coordinator ofthe War Resister’s

League – spoke of theirexperience and belief

in nonviolence.

Even as peace was dis-cussed in many differentforms, those in harm’s waywere not forgotten. Cap-tain David Roberts,Deputy Commander atSubmarine SquadronTWO at the Groton Sub-marine Base, told the stu-dents that the military’spurpose is to help keepthe peace, that war is al-ways the last resort. Subsalso serve as a deterrentto war, complete recon-naissance work, and per-form humanitarianservices.

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Major David Nutt, an Army Chaplain in the CT Na-tional Guard, spoke of his time serving in Iraq. In awar zone, he told the students, if you don’t have touse your skills as a soldier (and your colleagues don’tas well), then the mission was a success. Without aweapon, he acts as a shepherd and counselor to localmilitary personnel and their families.

Lisa Tepper Bates talked abouther role as Executive Director ofMASH (Mystic Area Shelter andHospitality). Even with the rela-tive prosperity in our area,homelessness remains a majorchallenge, especially after theeconomic downturn that beganin 2008. Founded in 1997, theorganization works to end familyhomelessness, one family at atime, in the shoreline communi-ties stretching from New Londonto Westerly.

Presenters and Artists During the School Day• Nicos Anastasiou, HasNa, Inc. and Program Coordinator for the Cyprus

Friendship Program• Jennifer Armstrong, bagpiper, American folk musician, writer, and storyteller• Lisa Tepper Bates, Executive Director of MASH (Mystic Area Shelter and Hospitality)• Scott Bates, Former Senior Policy Advisor for Homeland Security Committee• Melinda Blum, School psychologist• Dale Carson, Abenaki Tribal member, Northern New England and Southern Canada• Judy Davis, Pine Point teacher• Doug DeLapp, Pine Point teacher• Julie Wright DelPrado ‘89, Pine Point teacher• Mongi Dhaouadi, Executive Director of Council on American-Islamic

Relations of Connecticut• Lara Dolphin, Pine Point teacher• Rebecca Bayreuther Donohue, roleplayer, Mystic Seaport• Alice Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of The Community Foundation of

Eastern Connecticut • Rev. David Good, Senior Minister of Old Lyme Congregational Church• Amy Hallberg, Pine Point teacher• Dr. Paul Hayes, Senior Pastor for Noank Baptist Church• Maria Iacoi, Pine Point teacher• Kit Johnson, conscientious objector, musician, former Pine Point teacher• Elizabeth Jordan ’99, Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso • Linda Lindquist, storyteller and former Pine Point teacher• Linda Lozis, Pine Point teacher• Tamsy Markham, Yoga instructor • Andy Maynard, State Senator for Connecticut, 18th District• David Newbery, Director, SoccerPlus FC• Major David Nutt, Chaplain, Army National Guard• Debby O’Brien, nutritionist• Rev. Carolyn Patierno, All Souls Church, New London• Bill Pere, songwriter, producer, teacher, troubadour, founder and

Executive Director of LUNCH• Richard Pickering, Deputy Executive Director and roleplayer, Plimouth Plantation• Rev. Barbara Porizky, storyteller• Rev. Mark Porizky, Senior Minister of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Groton• Dan Potter ’60, Mystic Paper Beasts co-director, artist• Marcia Reinhard, Young Emissary Coordinator and Youth Group Director, Jewish

Federation of Southeastern CT• David A. Roberts, CAPT, USN, Deputy for Training Submarine Squadron TWO• Jason Rosen, artist and certified Level 2 Reiki practioner, former Pine Point teacher• Hamilton Salsich, poet and Pine Point teacher• Dr. David Schwindt, Integrative Medicine Physician• Joanne Sheehan, War Resister’s League Regional Coordinator • Diane Corwin Seltzer ‘67, Pine Point teacher• David Smith ’69, musician and Pine Point teacher• Karen Stone, MS Candidate, Champlain College, Mediation and Conflict Studies• Sally Sugatt, yoga teacher• Marya Ursin, Mystic Paper Beasts co-director and mask-maker, yoga instructor• Tom Verde, journalist and author • Kristin Whelan, yoga instructor• Gary Williams, Pine Point teacher• Jean Williams, Pine Point teacher• Kristin Wraight, Community Educator for Women’s Center of Southeastern Connecticut • Amy Zezulka, director and teacher, Mystic Yoga Shala• Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, Medicine Woman and Tribal Historian, Mohegan Tribe

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One student asked Scott Bates, “Ifsomeone from al-Qaeda sat acrossthe table from a US official and eachwas asked, ‘What do you want?’ whatwould each one say?” Bates said thesad thing was that this question hadnever been asked, so we don’t have ananswer, and, if we don’t know, howcan there be a peaceful resolution?

This wasn’t just another day

State Senator Andy Maynard (D-Stoning-ton) spoke about politics and the debatesbetween political parties. As with anyconflict, he told the students the key topolitical peace is finding common groundthrough compromise.

Israeli students Shai Fogel and Asaf Urie spoke of their time inworkshops and retreats with Palestinian youth, with the purposeof enjoying each others’ company and learning who they were aspeople.

As a certifiednutritionist, past

parent DebbyO’Brien spoke to

the 2nd gradeabout propereating habits.

Head of School Paul Geise ran many Skype sessions throughout the day withNicos Anastasiou of the Cyprus Friendship Program, who spoke to studentsabout the search for peace between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Jennifer Armstrong

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Participating SchoolsAmerican School for the Deaf Bennie Dover Jackson Middle SchoolClark Lane Middle School East Lyme Middle SchoolMystic Middle SchoolSaint John School St. Mary Star of the Sea School St. Michael School Solomon Schechter School Leonard Tyl Middle School The Williams School

At lunch, Dan Potter ’60 marched around as a bird of peace, led bypiper Jennifer Armstrong, with the entire student body following.

at Pine Point.

Elizabeth Jordan ’99 spoke about her two-year stint inthe Peace Corps teaching middle school students (inFrench) in the West African country of Burkina Faso.

Rev. Mark Porizky of St.Andrew PresbyterianChurch, Groton, spoke withthe 9th graders, remindingthem that they “can’t learnforgiveness unless we havebeen forgiven ourselves.”

Deputy Executive DirectorRichard Pickering of Plimoth

Plantation introduced himself,and, during the introduction,“morphed” into Richard War-

ren, a family man living inPlimoth in 1627. He spoke of

the hardships of the first sevenyears living in the New World,

and his vision of peace.

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Alice Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of TheCommunity Foundation of Eastern Connecticut,called her workshop “Choosing Peace: YouCan’t Do Everything!” She stressed how makingconnections with only a few people can lead topeaceful relations, but that we can’t change allminds.

Recently a peace-minded friend from Old Lyme sent me a clipping ofDay reporter Joe Wojtas' article on the Peace One Day forum at PinePoint. I can't tell you how pleased, even thrilled I am at this news. Hav-ing had two sons graduate from Pine Point - Matthew Robb, '83, andNathan Robb, '86 - the School has long held a special place in myheart. But news of the Peace One Day forum elevates Pine Point to anew esteem in this mother's mind and spirit.

All of us owe a huge debt of gratitude to whoever conceived the vi-sion of bringing together middle schoolers from across the region tospend a day of exposure to notions such as peace, forgiveness, recon-ciliation, non-violent approaches to foreign policy, discussion and com-promise as ways toward conflict resolution. And the presence of MongiDhaouadi and his analogy of learning to know a Muslim to learning toknow a new plant is a thought I'll not likely forget - and I doubt the kidswill either! The whole day, all in all, a brilliant idea.

Violence is mindlessly accepted in this culture as a major tool offoreign policy. Yet never have the words of Martin Luther King beenmore obviously and profoundly true, that "violence always begets vio-lence." Middle school is the right age to plant a seed to begin a newway of thinking. Thank you for this wonderful service to Pine Point, thecommunity, and the region.

Sincerely, and Salaam!

Nancy Neiman-Hoffman

Rev. Paul Hayes of the Noank Baptist Churchasked students to share examples of conflictsthey had experienced, as well as to explain howthey normally respond to such situations.

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“Peace One Day was a fun learning experience about peace and peace-making. Iam going to try to put peace in my house by listening to my parents and notfighting with my sister. If I do just this, it can lead to many more peaceful days.”

–Claudia Pagnozzi-Sch wam ’15

The power of the event has stayed with members of the PinePoint community since that September day. At their January facultymeeting, in the midst of comment writing, the faculty was alreadytalking about the future of the day. In mid-April, Jean Williams re-flected, “I received a positive response from many in our communitywhen asked if they would like to be involved in generating ideas forthe future. So we will meet soon and brainstorm. While this pastyear was a good springboard for discussion and reflection, my per-sonal goal is to develop more of a plan of action. It was an amazingday in 2010, but carrying the torch further is essential if we wish ouradults and children to affect change.”

A session of making lanterns to be dis-played outside was coordinated, in part, byJulie Wright DelPrado ’89, who later saidthat one of the things she loved about theday was the collaboration, be it planned orimpromptu.

Past parent Karen Stone, MS candidate inmediation and conflict studies at Champlain

College, spoke on conflict resolution. Theworkshop demonstrated to the students thatconflict is an opportunity to come to a solu-

tion that benefits all parties. By thinkingcreatively, one can develop a solution in

which everyone wins rather than a solutionwith one winner and one loser.

Carrying the Torch

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The day closed with a concert fea-turing music, poetry, and dance.A modern dance piece based onStephen Spielberg’s Schindler’sList was performed, featuring PinePoint teachers Robin Rice andJean Williams. West African danc-ing and drumming were also pre-sented, featuring new Pine Pointparent Susan Connelly, mother of Aedan ’17.English teacher Hamilton Salsich recitedmore verse. Music included past parentGlenn Hardy doing a solo piano interpreta-tion of Bill Evans’ “Peace Piece;” The LCBBand, featuring 7th grade teacher DavidSmith ’69; and Honor by August, a Washing-

ton, DC band fronted by guitaristEvan Field ’91. The evening

ended with brothers Jeff ’02and Jake Mortrude ’08

playing a piano-drumduet of John Lennon’s“Imagine.”

Glenn Hardy

Jeff Mortrude ‘02 Jake Mortrude ’08

Jennifer Armstrong

W. Che Cartafalsa and

Evening Concert

Rachel Potchiba andJessie English performa Mali dance routine.

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English teacher Hamilton Salsich read poetry at themorning and evening sessions, as well as at the concert.

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

−Wendell Berry

The Peace of Wild Things

Evan Field ’91

Honor by August

Dance inspired by Schindler’s Listfeaturing teachers Robin Rice (above,left) and Jean Williams (below, left)

LCB Band, featuring 7thgrade teacher DavidSmith ’69 (right) with DanBernier and Kipp Sturgen

Zachariah Combs

ViewPoints 16

The YearsGeise

1999-2011

t was just a year ago (May 13th to be exact) thatmembers of the Pine Point community learned

that the 2010-2011 school year would be Head ofSchool Paul Geise’s last at the School. In makingthe announcement, then President of the Board ofTrustees Ardice Perry thanked Mr. Geise for “whatwill be twelve years of outstanding service, com-mitment and growth.” She noted that some mem-bers of this year’s upcoming graduating class wereTeddy Bears (Preschool 3s) at the beginning of histenure.

She added: “We have watched and participatedas Paul moved our School from good to greatthrough the building of dynamic partnerships withthe faculty and with each of you, with organiza-tions within our local community and with globaleducational institutions. Whether he was im-mersed in financial strategies, curriculum develop-ment, new construction, global partnerships,faculty development, classroom instruction, stu-dent challenges, playtime activities, or upkeep ofthe facilities, the long-term benefit to Pine Pointwas always his top priority. Our School is excellentand our community is better because of Paul’sservice. We are grateful for his legacy and the op-portunity we have had to work and play with theGeise family.”

As part of that communication, Mr. Geise ad-dressed a letter to the entire constituency. Hebegan by writing with pride of “the remarkablethings happening in our daughters’ lives thesedays…There is little doubt that during thoseformative years at Pine Point each child advancedand developed her strong mind and caring heart.”He recalled an early family project. “I rememberwhen my family and I arrived at Pine Point in 1999,having relocated from England. One of the firstthings we did as a family was to get some green

paint and paint the trees attached to the walls beside what was at the timeour main entrance. I also recall pressing to get a roadside school sign in-stalled along with a spotlight to shine on it. Those seem to have stuckwith me throughout my service to this fine, fine school – endeavoring toshine a bit more light on Pine Point and to help make it a bit more green.”

He closed by asserting his conviction that “Pine Point is fortunate tohave terrific faculty, wonderful students, and great parents who, over theyears, forge a dynamic partnership in learning. May that spirit and thatcharacter never change. The CAIS reaccreditation takes place in 2012, anideal time for the next head to lead his or her charges into the next greatchapter in Pine Point. There surely will be challenges as well as uniqueopportunities, but the success of the school will always find strengthamong its greatest resource–its people.”

Trying to capture Mr. Geise’s impact on Pine Point and the manychanges that have taken place over the last twelve years is a difficult un-dertaking. Some no doubt will recall that at the end of each MorningMeeting, as everyone headed out of the Mitchell Auditorium, he wouldencourage everyone to “Have a wonderful week of learning!” And on thefirst day of school, he asked each student to “work hard, play fair, be kind,and get involved.” From service learning to the International Studies Pro-gram to the growth of the campus, Pine Point has certainly changed overthe last twelve years. Here’s a glimpse of some of the moments, statementsof philosophy, and distinctions that stand out.

-David C. Hannon, Director of Development

I

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“As its ninth Head of School, I come to Pine Point School at an

extraordinary time in its history. From my perspective, never be-

fore has there been such an inviting door in the wall through

which we might step. Together, and only together, our efforts to

build upon our strengths and tackle head-on our challenges will

take us to places we perhaps have never dreamed possible.”

-September 1999

2000Campus Master Plan Completed

Board of Trustees Undertakes Capital Campaign to Builda Library/Technology Center, an Early Childhood Center,and to Raise $1 Million for the Endowment

2001Attends Global Connections Seminar at Starahe School inNairobi, Kenya

After 9/11

With Conrad Anker and Margot Barres ’01 With Emmy Walrath ’10

At Starahe in NairobiLower School Head Susan Kozel, David Lattizori ‘01, Briana Rosenberg ‘01and Emily Geise ‘01

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2002Named Klingenstein Visiting Fellow at Teachers College,Columbia University

2003 International Studies Program Established

“There now is an even greater responsibility upon independent

schools such as ours to restore faith and confidence that good-

ness and honor and integrity are still nourished in society.”The Class of 2003 (Samik Sikand, Doug Ansel, Eric Blum,Diptesh Soni, Katie Geise, Sarah Hallberg, and Eliza Hannon)on the inaugural ISP trip in 2003

Library/Technology Center Groundbreaking, October 2003

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2004Pine Point and Mystic Aquarium and Institute forExploration Announce Partnership:

Robert Ballard Speaks at Pine Point

$1 Million Raised for the First Time in the History of Pine Point

Library/Technology Center Opens

Series on Philanthropy Offered:Local Leaders (Alice Fitzpatrick, Ken Kitchings ’70,Jon Kodama, Joyce Resnikoff, Duncan Stoddard, andAnn den Tex) Visit Campus

2005Symposium on Excellence in Teaching Hosted by Pine Point:

28 New England Schools Participate

$1 Million Endowment Goal Achieved

Student Philanthropy Group G.I.V.E.(Generosity, Involvement, Volunteer-ing, Education) Established

“I am committed to making sure that Pine Point is leading

the charge for exemplary education and serving as a vital

community resource.”

“I am deeply humbled and immensely grateful when I reflect upon the noble charge I

have been given as Head of S chool to articulate a vision for our children’s future.”

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2006Fiore Sabbatical Program Established

Partnership with Stanford University’s Education Program forGifted Youth Established

Forty-Two Acres of Adjacent Conservation Land Donated toPine Point

2007330 Photovoltaic Panels Installed at Pine Point:

As of January 5, 2011 over 477,000 lbs of CO2

Prevented from Entering Atmosphere

The Character Education Partnership Names Pine Point asOne of Its 10 National Schools of Character

Pine Point Successfully Raises $1 million in Capital Gifts toSecure $500,000 Challenge Offered by the DeMovick family

Observatory Added to Campus

“In the next decade, the School’s character

will undoubtedly be challenged as will its

core values. I believe we are well posi-

tioned to meet this challenge, to think

deeply about living and learning in the 21st

century, making best use of what we have

been given and what we create.”

At the Washington, D.C. Alumni Reception with Kate MurphyGardner ’94, Meredith Jason ’79, Brianna Carbonneau ’99, EmilyGeise ’01, Ben Williams ’98, and Casey Morgan Peltier ’60

On the opening day of school in September 2007. Front row: John PaulWronowski ‘17, Arabella Hatfield ‘18, John Pereira ‘15, Gracie Filler ‘14, TreyDiBona ‘16, and Nayan Sapers ‘19. Back row: Mia Perry ‘13, Andrew Bronk ‘12,Victoria Garbo ‘08, Lydia Schulz ‘09, Joseph Rosen ‘10, and Kelly Kong ‘11

Celebrating the installation of photovoltaic panels, April 2007

With former Pine Point Heads of School Norm Jason and Alan Houghton

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2008 DeMovick Early Childhood CenterOpens

Moral Leadership Program Begins

2009 The Campaign for Pine Point Closes:

$5.84 Million Raised

The Council of Spiritual and EthicalEducation Honors Pine Point as Oneof Two Schools in the CountryDemonstrating Excellent Practices forEthical Education

“Pine Point is a small school with

a big vision. We seek to be a gen-

uine leader in educating others.

We embrace partnerships and

firmly believe that learning takes

place in every experience and with

every new story being told.”

DeMovick Early Childhood Center Groundbreaking, April 2008

With daughter Katie ‘03 and Kristin Harkness ’77

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2010 Alicia Z. Russell Garden Created

One of 48 American Educators to Participate in the Japan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for ESD (Education forSustainable Development), Administered by Fulbright Japan

Wins Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center’sGood Neighbor Award

“I have decided that the academic year 2010-2011 will be my

final year serving as Head of School for Pine Point. I am deeply

grateful for the extraordinary opportunities Robin, our girls, and

I have been afforded; for the unfailing support of so many

within the Pine Point family, and for the personal and profes-

sional growth with which we have been blessed these past 12

years. I have sought to help move Pine Point forward in mean-

ingful and substantive ways. I hope with each step we have taken

together, the School’s mission has been strengthened as has its

overall program. My goal was to pass on a school that has

moved forward from when I received it. That, after all, is the

measure of a headship. I know I will leave with innumerable

cherished memories.”

With the children of Kesennuma, June 2010

Bill Griffin and Robin Geise help put the Russell Garden in.

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“We interviewed Mr. Geise. We interviewed him in hisoffice, which is in the Main Office. Mr. Geise is the Head-master at Pine Point. He pretty much works everywhere inthe school. Mr. Geise has been working at Pine Point fortwelve years. Sometimes his job is hard, and sometimes itis fun. It is easy for him when he gets to see students ac-complish great things. It is difficult when he has to disci-pline students for the mistakes they make. He chose hisjob to be closer to family.

“When Mr. Geise was a boy, he wanted to be an astro-naut and a professional baseball player when he grew up.We asked him why he did not follow these dreams, and hesaid that he enjoys being a lifelong learner and also en-joys the feeling of making a positive difference when hecan. He says that education is among the most importantthings in a society.

“Mr. Geise’s strongest memory from second grade waswhen he practiced air raid drills in school and when Pres-ident John F. Kennedy died. We asked Mr. Geise what hismost embarrassing moment ever was. He laughed whenhe told us that his most embarrassing moment was whena straw got stuck up his nose. He had been talking to hisboss and drinking hot chocolate through a straw. Whenhe lifted the cup to his mouth the straw went up his noseand would not come out! We loved his story!

“When Mr. Geise became Headmaster he said, ‘It wasvery exciting with the learning and the wonderful chil-dren!’ Mr. Geise’s new job will be Headmaster at Stan-wich School in Greenwich, Connecticut. He showed us apicture of the school, it is really big. He chose it to beeven closer to his family, who lives mostly in New Jersey.We loved interviewing Mr. Geise. He is fun and passion-ate. We had a wonderful time.”

2011 Installation ofWindTronics WT6500Honeywell Wind Turbine

One of the 2nd grade’s annual projects has the studentspairing up and interviewing (and drawing) members ofthe faculty and staff. Caelan Desmond ’18 and OscarKing ’18 sat down with Mr. Geise in February to findout a little more about him.

With former Heads of School Dick Mitchell, Margie Field, and NormJason, April 2011

In so many ways, it seemsappropriate that Paul and

former Head of School AlanHoughton (1955-1967) are

tied with one another in theirrespective roles for the

longest serving tenures atPine Point. Paul is shown

with Alan in this photo takenin 2003 following one of

their regular lunches.

ViewPoints 24

-David C. Hannon, Director of Development

School Gathers toHonor Paul GeiseEndowment Fund andLibrary/Technology Centerto Bear His Name

hree hundred members of the Pine Point family andthe extended community filled Mystic Aquarium on

April 15th to honor Head of School Paul Geise, who willleave at the end of June after twelve years of devotedservice to become the Head-Elect at The StanwichSchool in Greenwich.

was aided by a $50,000 challenge from an anonymousfamily. (A full listing of the donors to The Paul GeiseFund will be presented in the Annual Report.) Thecommittee that worked to build the fund included: AlexAlpert, Alan Banister, Patience Banister, David Han-non, John Groton ’73, Barb Holt, Debbie O’Brien, BillRolla, Jennifer Schwindt, Joe Staley, and Karen Stone.The raising of $217,000 to create The Paul Geise Fundrepresents a significant accomplishment for the Schooland pushes our total endowment holdings over the $2million mark!

Following Linda Goddard’s remarks, First Selectmanof Stonington Ed Haberek, State Senator Andrew May-nard, John Groton ’73, Hamilton Salsich, Alan and Pa-tience Banister, and Carol Ansel offered reflections onPaul’s contributions to Pine Point over the years.

In a second surprise presentation, Alan and Pa-tience Banister announced on behalf of the Board ofTrustees that the 7,500 square-foot Library/TechnologyCenter would be named in Paul’s honor.

In all regards, it was an historic night in the life ofPine Point and a fitting tribute to a man who hastouched the lives of so many people during his timewith us.

Over 50 members of the faculty and staff, two former Heads of School(Norm Jason and Margie Field), eight former Presidents of the Board ofTrustees (Peter Briggs, John Fiore, Susan Funk, Valerie Grimm, Susanne Knis-ley, Ardice Perry, Janie Stanley, and Karen Stone) and a wonderful mix ofalumni, parents, past parents, grandparents, and friends were in attendance tothank Paul and to enjoy the opportunity to reconnect with one another. Minusthe 50th anniversary party held in 1999, the gathering was the largest turnoutin the history of Pine Point.

Local community leaders on hand to help with the celebration included:Vicki Anderson, Executive Director of the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center;Rodney Butler, Chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council; SteveCoan, President and CEO of Mystic Aquarium; Ed Haberek, First Selectmanof Stonington; Doug Lyons, Executive Director of CAIS; Andrew Maynard, CTState Senator; and Steve White, President and CEO of Mystic Seaport.

The event was officially hosted by the Board of Trustees and organized byParents Association Secretary Alex Alpert, Director of Development DavidHannon, Trustee Debbie O’Brien and Parents Association Co-President Jen-nifer Schwindt. Support was given by Jonathan Edwards Winery and CottrellBrewing Company while volunteer assistance was provided by Kelly Carter,Kathy Rosenberg, and Carla Petrocelli.

As part of the evening’s festivities, President of the Board of TrusteesLinda Goddard announced that an endowment fund bearing Paul’s name hadbeen established in the amount of $217,000! The fund is unrestricted and willsupport the entire program. Backed by over 200 donors, the fund’s success

The raising of $217,000 to create The Paul Geise Fund represents a significant accomplishmentfor the School and pushes our total endowment holdings over the $2 million mark.

T

A Fitting

ViewPoints 25

John and Ardice Perry with LindaGoddard and Charlie Gill

Alan Banisterand Robin Geise

Patty Kitchings, Barbara Timken, and Hugh O’Brien

John Groton ’73and Robin Geise

Juan DelPrado, Julie Wright DelPrado ’89, Jennifer Schwindt, David Hannon,Chris Benbow and Alejandra Benbow

Cathy Marco

Paul Geise, Linda Goddard, Steve Coan and Andy Maynard

Tribute

Steve White and Susan Funk

Courtesy ofThe Westerly Sun

ViewPoints 26

“I feel so lucky to have experienced Paul in action. He inspired so manypeople to be the best they could be....and since it was all about our childrenand doing the best we could do for them whole families were uplifted. Theschool was an extended family for us.”-Patty Kitchings

Jennifer Schwindt Alex Alpert, Hugh O’Brien, Dionne Butler, and Kim Rick Paul and daughter Katie ‘03

Pete Fullerton and Patience Banister

Spike Lobdell, Emily Geise ’01, and George BourganosJohn and Sandy Pereira

(All photos by Kerilynn Antoch)

ViewPoints 27

While the party honored Paul for his impact on the lifeof the School, it was also an opportunity to thankRobin for all of her contributions, particularly in thearea of the arts.

In a jointly written communication that was readthat night by President of the Board Linda Goddard,the Arts Department declared, “We want to express ourheartfelt appreciation for all the accompanying Robinhas done for us over the past twelve years…Robin'sbrilliant playing, her easy-going manner and her en-couraging words always played a huge part in the suc-cess of all our performances…She accompaniedMonday morning meeting performances, Grandparents’Day performances, Winter and Spring Arts programs,Graduation ceremonies, Lower School Chorus perform-ances, and Chamber Choir performances. To many ofour students, she has been a patient and loving privatepiano teacher. There is no way to express our gratitudefor the many hours she has devoted to the Music/ArtsDepartment faculty. We will miss her terribly but, withjoy, we send our very best wishes. We know that shewill affect many more young lives.”

“Thank you for all that you have done for our family, Pine Point, and the community.You are an inspiration and will be missed!”-Brian Bronk

Hugh O’Brien and David Schwindt

Harvey DeMovick ’87 and Susan DeMovick

Monica Eppinger and Paul

State Senator Andrew Maynard and First Selectman ofStonington Edward Haberek thanked Paul for promotingPine Point as a community resource.

With Tom and Sassy Dodd

Susanne and Bob Knisley with Carla and Bob Petrocelli ‘81

Courtesy of The Westerly Sun

Courtesy of The Westerly Sun

ViewPoints 28

Regarding the tribute, Patience declared, in part:“There were many different fingerprints on the building as this project

came to fruition, but it was one hand, Paul’s, that pulled everything to-gether. Paul ever so gently persuaded numerous donors to willingly con-tribute the necessary funds; he attended to the largest and smallest ofconstruction details, from the overall design to the location of each elec-trical outlet. In the process, he raised the practice of horse trading to anart form. Paul’s stewardship did not end when the construction was com-pleted: he put up cardboard coyotes to keep the deer away from theplantings outside, and he and Robin have faithfully weeded those gar-dens every summer for the past six years. Under Paul’s guiding hand andpropelled by his vision, the Library/Technology Center has been, fromthe very first days, exactly what it was intended to be – the heart of theSchool and a beacon to the community.

“In recognition of his extraordinary efforts on behalf of Pine Pointand all that he has accomplished in his 12 years as Head of School, andwith unbounded gratitude from the entire Pine Point family, from the cur-rent generation of students and many generations to come, it is my greatpleasure to announce that the Board of Trustees has voted that the ‘new’library shall now be known as The Paul G. Geise Library/TechnologyCenter. Thank you, Paul, from the bottom of our hearts, for giving life toso many of our dreams.”

Over the weeks leading up to the event

at Mystic Aquarium we asked members

of the Pine Point community to share

their thoughts on Paul. We regret that

we are only able to present just a few

of those messages.

“We think Pine Point is an incredibleregional asset and worthy of continuedsupport.”-Beth Tillman and Van Brown

Patience and Alan Banister unfurled a banner announcing that the L/TC henceforthwould be The Paul G. Geise Library/Technology Center.

Betsy and Tom Moukawsher

Van Brown, Beth Tillman, and Paul

Lou and Judy Toscano with Lorilee and Rob Darling

Courtesy ofThe Westerly Sun

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“The measure of aperson is thelegacy they leavebehind, and youshould be proud ofyour legacy at PinePoint.”-Ted Listonand Cindy Oksanen

“Paul has led and shared in a remarkable time inPine Point’s history, and our children have beendirect recipients of all that he has accomplishedduring the past twelve years. We would not want tomiss out on celebrating him and his contributionsand in wishing him well.”-John and Ardice Perry

Peter andCandy Briggs

Margie Field

Penny Vlahos, George Bourganos, and Alejandra Welch

Bob Knisleyand AdamFritzsche ’76

Hamilton Salsich

Kathy Coss ’01,Lara Dolphin andJessica Williams ’01

David Smith ‘69,Dan Bernier andKipp Sturgen

ViewPoints 30

“Shawmut feels so closely con-nected to the great work, thevision, and philosophy of part-nership that is at the very coreof Pine Point School. We arehonored to be associated withyou all, and hope to continueour relationship for decades tocome!”-Jackie Falla, ShawmutDesign and Construction

Linda Goddard

The Room John ‘73 and Alice Groton with Patience and Alan Banister

Kim and Ed Russell

Barbara Pattenden and Fiona Hilton

Courtesy of The Westerly Sun

John Sutphen and Roy Grimm

ViewPoints 31

“Mr. Geise is certainlya special man and willbe sorely missed. Hecertainly deserves thisspecial recognition!”-Mary Minn Kong

Carol Ansel

Caitlin and Chris Hurtgen

Lou Doboeand

Joe Staley

Juan DelPrado, Garth Dolphin and A.J. Zimbelmann

Rita Horan

Tammy and Denny Gibbs with Susan Kozel

ViewPoints 32

9th

Gra

de Arts C

Each 9 grader now students in terms of

th

ViewPoints 33

-David C. Hannon, Director of Development

ver the years, the 9th grade program has come to offer ouroldest students a capstone experience in a number of

areas. They deliver a speech to the entire school based on atheme of their choosing (this year it’s “The Positive Power ofPain”), study abroad as part of the International Studies Program,have weekly time on the Quest monitoring and studying local wa-terways aboard the School’s 24-foot research vessel, and arestrengthened by the recently added Moral Leadership Program.To this enriched, and demanding, program has now been addedthe ability to pursue a concentration in the arts.

For students in Grades 1 through 9, each one has at least onededicated class period per week in the visual arts, music anddance. Starting this past September, that format changed for the9th grade. Their time in the art rooms remained constant, but inan effort to recognize their abilities and their desire to pursuespecific artistic interests, each 9th grader now concentrates in twoof the three areas during the course of the year. Following a se-mester’s worth of work, the students presented their projects totheir parents, faculty, and guests at an evening showcase in Janu-ary.

It sounds cliché, but what jumped out while watching the stu-dents that night was that they were living out the School’s mis-sion. They were “committed to excellence” and clearly “engagedin their own learning in a caring and supportive environment”with great mentors. As well, there was “individual accomplish-ment.” With three of the projects joint efforts, “the power of col-laborative effort” was also being lived out. Obviously on displaywas “a passion for learning” and “an appreciation for the arts.”

oncentrationO

The artistry of Hannah Long, Jade Gilman, Austin Rosenberg,and Ben Dameron (clockwise, left to right)

concentrates their efforts in the visual arts, music, or dance. Not surprisingly, it is a real learning process for thedeveloping a plan of action and dealing with the inevitable challenges that arise over the course of the semester.

ViewPoints 34

direction without much difficulty. From there, they wereasked to submit a formal proposal.

Of course, it wasn’t just a matter of deciding upon aproject and starting work. As Middle School Division Co-ordinator Diana Owen explained, “Having decided ontheir project, the students were required to submit a pro-posed course of study including choice of discipline, ob-jectives, syllabus or schedule, materials and/or equipmentneeded for the project, method of documenting progress(e.g. journal with photos, videos, recordings), explana-tion of how the required time spent outside of classworking on the project would be spent, and the finalproduct. The teachers reviewed the proposals and deter-mined grading criteria.”

Mrs. Williams added, “Each teacher has a differentstyle, of course, but our goal is to keep the kids on task,to hold them accountable along the way to insure the var-ious benchmarks were met, and to monitor their progresswithin the designated time frame. This was a huge learn-ing process for them in terms of developing a course ofaction that worked for them, making changes along theway if necessary, using their time wisely, collaboratingwith others if involved in a group project, noting theirsuccesses and their weaknesses, and finishing on timewith a piece of work that they were hopefully proud of.As with any student body, there were some who had aclear focus, who used their time well and who werethrilled with the results of the experience. There wereothers who would have made changes and having inter-nalized what those would be, have gained a new and dif-ferent perspective for the future.”

Looking back on the first semester, Mrs. Williamsconcluded, “The members of the department werepleased with the results. As with any educator, one is al-ways walking that fine line between guiding and support-ing, but not doing it for them. How much do youencourage them to take on themselves? Do you let themfail? When to back off, when to step it up – we asked our-selves this a lot, as do most teachers.”

In the early ‘80s, the 8th and 9th grade arts curriculumwas centered around History of Fine Arts covering EarlyHumankind to the Middle Ages in 8th grade and the Ren-aissance to the 20th C. in 9th grade. After several years,the Fine Arts faculty felt that it was too academic and thatthe students were not receiving enough individual art,music and dance instruction. Consequently, Diane Cor-win Seltzer ’67, Kit Johnson and Jean Williams developedCAP (Collaborative Arts Project) collectively for 9th gradeand generated their own specific curriculum in each dis-cipline for 8th grade. The concept was to look at the com-mon elements of all three arts and to interrelate them.For example, how can line (or shape or form or energy,etc.) be seen in art, in music and in dance? They stressedcomposition and provided the students with a workingvocabulary to be able to critique the arts. The course wastaught very successfully for many years by the followingfaculty: Diane Corwin Seltzer ‘67, Kit Johnson, MariaIacoi, Jason Rosen, Rob Kelly, Jeff Kerr, Lev Itelman andSimon Holt. The next transition occurred when eachcourse area became more autonomous and could functionboth independently and collaboratively. This provided theopportunity for the 9th graders to have at least one estab-lished art, music and dance period each week.

The discussion of having a concentration for 9th gradeFine Arts students was begun during the 2009-2010school year. It seemed to be a natural progression for tworeasons: one, the students’ participation in the artsthroughout their time at Pine Point encompassed a di-verse experience of skill-building and artistic expressionwhich enabled them to reach a certain level of mastery;two, it seemed developmentally appropriate for the stu-dents to have a choice and to take on the responsibility ofdesigning their own independent study.

During the first week of school, the 9th graders metwith the arts department to discuss possible opportuni-ties for study in each area, and they were very excitedabout the prospects. Once all of the options were pre-sented and the students had time to reflect on their ownand discuss it among themselves, they were able to find a

Rationaleby Jade Gilman

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Chair of the Arts Department Jean Williams welcomes parents, faculty andguests to the inaugural 9th grade arts concentration presentation in January.

(Photos by Gary Williams)

Sam Godfrey and Cooper FeltesSam Godfrey and Cooper Felteskicked off the evening in finefashion by performing “TheSound of Silence” on the recorder. They would return three more times duringthe night to entertain the audience, playing the theme song from Star Wars and“Greensleeves.” They found the Star Wars song to be “the most intricate piece tomaster as the notes ranged from the highest to the lowest tone our recorderscould produce.” For their final performance, they dressed as angels to play“Silent Night.” While focused on playing, both Sam and Cooper were aware thatthe audience found it hard to stifle their laughter as they watched them perform,whether garbed in standard khakis or as angels. Their study was, as they saidlater, “most certainly a project to remember.”

Ben Dameron (far left) pre-sented a series of photographs,some of which featured sculp-tures he had created utilizingnatural materials found on theSchool’s property. In this, hesaid he was inspired by thework of Andrew Goldsworthy.Ben is shown with his parentsand brother Zach ‘09.

Ben Dameron

Presentation

Sam Godfrey and Cooper Feltes

ViewPoints 36

Austin Rosenberg and Ryan Duguayteamed up to write and perform anoriginal rock piece. Austin has beenplaying guitar for several years, whileRyan, who has been playing drums fora number of years, was new to thebass, which required taking classesoutside of school to learn about theoryand scales.

Assessing the project afterward,Ryan wrote, “One challenge that Ifaced during this course was thinking of how to incorporate variations into thesong. Without the variations, the song is really easy for the bass, so I had to adda few other parts. Even though these parts were not extremely different from thebase of the song, they added depth to it, and made it more interesting…I likedthe song that Austin and I made, and I’m proud of what we created. Even thoughmy performance wasn’t flawless for the final presentation, the final project metmy expectations.”

Hannah Long“My first semester arts project was a series of three por-traits in different mediums. I presented them on a largewhite background with each individual portrait framed inblack as a tribute to my late grandmother, Janice Long. Myoriginal proposal stated that I would make as many por-traits as I could in pencil, charcoal, and permanent marker.However, after some assistance and a recommendationfrom Ms. Iacoi, I decided I would do colored pencil in-stead of charcoal as a challenge more outside of my com-fort zone. In the end, I was able to draw three portraits inpencil, permanent marker, and purple-toned colored pen-cils. My initial subject was unclear to me – did I want topick a random model from a magazine or draw a friend?My mom suggested that I use my late grandmother as asubject, and I found a great picture of her to use.

“There were some obstacles I faced along the way, but I saw them as nor-mal difficulties in any artistic process. I didn’t have too many other troubles,but rather picked up my pencil and began to draw. Although it was tedious atsome points, and I definitely became tired with the project, I knew I had tocontinue, and in the end, I was proud of the series. I sketched the pencil onewith regular shading of dark, medium, and light hues, drew the permanentmarker outline and shaded with pointillism, and sketched and shaded the lastone with different tones of purple, varying into blues and pinks. They all werenot exactly the same, but I arranged them in a way to accentuate each of theirstrengths and together, the black, white, gray, and purple pattern tied to-gether well. Overall, I was proud of my work, especially considering the timeit took, the obstacles I faced, and the mistakes I made. And most importantly,I was glad that I could portray such an amazing person and her gentle kind-ness through simple pencil strokes and paper.”

Austin Rosenberg and Ryan Duguay

Austin Rosenberg and Ryan Duguay

Hannah andher parents

ViewPoints 37

Bonhui Cho began his presentation noting that “not a lot ofschools have comics in their art programs.” He had as-sumed that he could create three to four sand paintings butsoon discovered that finishing just one would take somedoing. He acknowledged that Ms. Iacoi had really pushedhim to make his work as anatomically correct as possible.The process of sand painting is time-consuming, but it alsoallows for exploration in approach. For example, Jeffrey ex-perimented with funnels and paper cones to control theamount of sand deposited. And unlike the more traditionalsand paintings, he chose to actually use sand as the “paint.“

Art Teacher Maria Iacoi with Hannah Long and Marion Philippe

Marion Philippe“I decided to teach dance to kindergarteners and second graders. I started out wanting to seehow different age groups act with different kinds of music, but as I read through a child’s de-velopment book and a book about different activities a teacher can do in a classroom, I deter-mined that I also wanted the kids to learn something and have fun at the same time. In thebeginning, my proposals started out as simple activities, but as I went deeper into the re-search, I incorporated music that went well with the activities that I was going to teach. Whiledoing the activities, not only did I notice that the kids were moving to the rhythm and thebeat of the music, but I also noticed they learned how to be careful and watch where theywere going, all the while smiling and laughing.

“Overall, I thought I achieved my goal of learning how to teach, becoming a better teacherand having a marvelous time during the whole process. As I watched the slideshow I made, Inoticed that whoever came into the dance room was executing what I asked them to do, lis-tening to me, and having their imaginations run wild. This whole process, however, taught methat sometimes it is harder for the teacher to teach than the students to listen because of allthe preparation and work that is being put in. Throughout the two classes, everyone workedtheir hardest, danced their hardest, and had the best time they could have, including me.”

Bonhui Cho

Jade Gilman chose to focus her study on expres-sions. (Classmate Hannah Long, shown to the im-mediate left, served as one of her models.) Jade’sobjective was to explore how we look when we’reoverwhelmed by emotion. In this, she worked onshadows and lighting as it influenced expression.

Jade Gilman

Working with Jade Eleazer ‘18

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Simone Kronholm, Shylia Barnes, Nolan Burkholder and Dan Cunningham(shown above) field a question regarding their collaboration producing theirvideo “Pas Americano,” based on the song by that name. What was surpris-ing to hear from the group was that none of them had done any digital edit-ing before and so they undertook online tutorials to produce what was a slickproduction. It was particularly interesting to learn that they created the mid-dle of the video first, then the end, and finished by creating the introduction.Assessing the value of the project, Shylia wrote, “I chose this project be-cause I knew it would be a challenge and I wanted to be able to work with agroup. I was proud that we finished the video in the short amount of time wehad. It was a great learning experience because it taught me how to work in agroup and how to negotiate with people.”

Simone Kronholm, Shylia Barnes,Nolan Burkholder and Dan Cunningham

On their return to school in late March the students threwthemselves into this semester’s work. Four of the students are in-volved in individual art projects, one is playing the piano, and an-other is writing and arranging an original song as well as all theaccompanying tracks on the software program Garage Band. One ispreparing a Mark Twain monologue. One collaborative effort is fo-cused on dance and film animation while another has the studentslooking at different styles and choreographing them.

No doubt their presentation later this spring will be anotheropportunity to show off their talents and enthusiasm for this newestPine Point experience.

New Challenges

ViewPoints 39

The thirteen 9th graders, along withteachers Lara Dolphin, Jon Mitchell,and Robin Rice, embarked on the ninthannual International Studies Program(ISP) on March 1st for an 11-dayadventure to Costa Rica. They weregreeted on their arrival to San José bytheir host brothers and sisters fromItskatzu Educación Integral School andwould spend the next six days with theirfamilies learning about the culture,customs, and language of the country.

While staying in Escazú with their hosts, the stu-dents had the opportunity to visit many importantsites. They saw Cot, the first settled Costa Rican townwhich is part of Cartago, the original capital, as wellas the current capital, San José. They also saw Irazú,an active volcano, and spent time touring the facilitiesof the American-based, medical devices company,Boston Scientific. The 9th graders also spent the dayat Veragua rainforest exploring the terrain via tram,walking through the rainforest, and a zipline tourabove the trees observing the vegetation at 20 mph!

The students then departed for Guácimo, Limón,to EARTH, a private, international, non-profit univer-sity dedicated to education in the agricultural sciencesand natural resources in order to contribute to sus-tainable development in the tropics by seeking a bal-ance between agricultural production andenvironmental preservation. While at EARTH, theytoured an organic farm and a banana plantation.

The observation of sloths in both captivity and inthe wild was another treat for the students and theirteachers when they visited the Aviarios Sloth RescueCenter outside of Cahuita. After four nights away, thestudents returned to Escazú for their final eveningwith their host families. On the following day theyboarded a flight to Boston and a quick bus ride backto Stonington

What follows are the observations of the students,both in prose and verse. Enjoy their trip through theirwritings!

Things are different here, but I am happy forthat. If it was the same as America, then therewould be no point in coming here.

- Simone Kronholm

Culture, Customs and Language

Costa Rica-Compiled by David Cruthers,

Associate Director of Development

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Today, as we tromped through fields of some of the world's richest soil, sur-rounded by a mixture of bird calls and cow moos, swatting flies away from ourfaces and shielding our noses from the stench of pigs, humidity accumulatingon our cotton tee shirts and the sun beating down on our faces, but all thewhile seeing some of the world's most diverse, beautiful plants and animals, Irealized something. I realized that although the work was hard and the climatemerciless, the people at EARTH University love their country enough to dealwith it in order to make it better. It might have been hot, and the work mighthave seemed difficult, but it is all worth it to them for our Mother Earth.

- Hannah Long

The NightThe night has Mysteries, the night has secrets.Untold stories with never ending plots,The Shadows are dark, the sounds are muffled.The Night has mysteries, the night has secrets.Make believe creatures come out to play,the more you believe the more you see.Monsters lurk in the darkness too,waiting for the perfect moment to get you.But don't worry, the night has Mysteries,the night has secrets.

- Jade Gilman

I saw that this trip was more than just marvelous scenes and warm weather, itwas a trip to explore a whole new culture and meet more people. -Marion Philippe

Shylia BarnesNolan Burkholder

Simone Kronholm

I'm not going to lie, sitting in the airport as we wait for our flight to Costa Rica is pretty scary.I have no clue what to expect. What will it be like staying at other people’s houses that I don'tknow? This question keeps reappearing in my mind. Besides meeting the hosts, I am not nerv-ous at all. I am very excited for the warm tropical weather. Being in this cold weather all winterreally makes me want to be in a warm climate. I am also excited to be in another country forthe first time. I have never left the United States before so I think it will be a very good experi-ence for me. Also, being put with a family that doesn't speak English will be another experi-ence. I think the language barrier will be my only problem. I know some Spanish but I feel Iwill have to be resorting to my Spanish dictionary a lot. Other than the problems I may havewith my host, I am very excited for this trip.

- Sam Godfrey

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In advance of the Costa Rica trip, I was assigned to research the economy ofCosta Rica. Immediately after I actually got here, I noticed a couple of thingsthat I found interesting about the economy. First, Costa Rica is moreAmericanized than most developing countries that I have been to. I foundmultiple franchises of McDonald's and Wendy's. However, I soon realized thatthis wasn't the case with some areas of the country other than San Jose. In themore underdeveloped areas, it was hard to find anything that has anything closeto American culture. Also, I tried to focus on how the wealth is distributedaround the country. Luckily I had opportunities to travel around the country withmy host family. Similar to South Korea, the majority of the country was focusedon the capital city in both population and wealth.

- Bonhui Cho

Going to Boston Scientific was actually a lot more fun than I thought it wasgoing to be…Having a U.S. company in another country is very controversial,however. They are supplying jobs to Costa Ricans, but with all the jobless peo-ple in the U.S. it might be better to move to the U.S. It is not just as easy asthat, but if they really felt they needed to, they could find a way to do it.

- Dan Cunningham

The Snorkeling Gang

Begin by slowly wading into the water,letting the ocean blanket your toes.Stretch out your limbs and start to swimto the land which no one knows.Brace yourself for tidal wavesand discoveries from wild imaginations:creatures I was excited to witnesson our Costa Rican vacation.However, I did not anticipate such fortuneas to see a multitude of fish,and incredibly vast amount of organismslike a variety of food on a gourmet dish.Relax your muscles and stick your head under:get ready to experience the majestic ocean.Be still, be calm, be patient, be watchful,and you will become part of the commotion.Glued to the coral, the seaweed swayscontaining communities that uncertainly unshelter.I tried to touch a specimen:I almost felt her.But fish are fast, shy to human touch,so back up, and enjoy them from a distance.When danger's presence is felt, They look for a place to hide.Thus the coral lends its assistance.Do not scare the fish with your presence:their beauty is far too treasured. Follow these rules and gain the time of your life.An experience I find unmeasured.

- Austin Rosenberg

We warmed in the waterbut it only got hotteras we looked and gazedat the fisheswe embraced the sunand until we were donewe had no significant wishes.The scen'ry was specialand if not for our vesselwe wouldn't have seen this lagoonwe dove, we played-I wish we had stayedbut I knew I'll be at the beachSOON!

- Cooper Feltes

Ryan Duguay

Ben Dameron

ViewPoints 42

Talk about your experience in 2004 in Florida and at the conven-tion. Had you done any other political work before that? Did youintern with Sen. Kennedy after the convention?

After I graduated Boston College in 2003, I did not have a joblined up and was unsure what field I wanted to enter. I knew I hadan interest in ‘politics’ but I didn’t know how to translate that into ajob straight out of college. I was able to secure a full-time summerinternship in Sen. Kennedy’s Boston office during the summer of2003 and intern directly for the Issues Director. My time there paidoff very quickly as the Issues Director got me an interview with theDemocratic National Convention Committee (DNCC), which wouldhost the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.

At the DNCC, I worked for the Deputy CEO for External Affairs– the main liaison between the DNCC and federal elected officials,federal advocacy groups, and union groups. As one of the originaljunior staffers hired, I worked at the DNCC for just about a year.My exposure to the Democratic political world was immediate anddirect. All of these individuals and groups were allies of the Demo-cratic Party, and were planning on attending the Convention. Ouroffice was responsible for making sure their questions were an-swered, their needs were addressed, and after it was all over, thatthey were happy. Given that all these individuals and groups wereinvolved directly in federal politics, our dealings with them were in-

in the Political Arena

Pine Point alumni are involved in a widerange of professions, and, in each issue ofViewPoints and our monthly e-newsletter,

Back to the Point, we aim to highlight some ofthe great things they are accomplishing in the

world. One area where we haven’t shone a light is inthe area of politics. With that, we present Zach Stanley ’96, a

graduate of Pine Point, Taft, and Boston College. Zach is Assis-tant Vice President in the public affairs practice group at Rasky

Baerlein Strategic Communications in Boston where he special-izes in state and municipal lobbying, community relations, na-tional legislative and regulatory affairs, public sector businessdevelopment, and organizing municipal and state issues cam-

paigns. We conducted a Q&A session by email.

-LifeThe experience with the Democratic National Convention Committee gave me greatinsight into how politics functions behind the curtain and intrigued me greatly.

herently political. We constantly had to give consideration to eachindividual or group’s standing with the party and relationships withDemocratic leadership. This experience gave me great insight intohow politics functions behind the curtain and intrigued me greatly.

After the Convention was over, almost all the junior staffworked to get positions on the Kerry/Edwards campaign – allacross the country. I was assigned to work in the Gainesville, FL,office and showed up in August of 2004 with no previous cam-paign experience. I was working on the “field” side of the cam-paign, the piece of the campaign that is in charge of identifyingsupporters, persuading undecided voters, and getting supporters toactually go to the polls and vote on Election Day. The hours therewere long and the work was tough. It involved a lot of door to doorcanvassing and phone banking to identify supporters and persuadevoters. But, I gained great leadership and organizing experience.Each day, I had to plan and organize the activities of our twelvecollege interns and the numerous campaign volunteers. This in-volved training volunteers to canvas or phone bank, creating thelists of who our volunteers and interns would contact, and in-putting the data returned from the canvas and phone banks. Ulti-mately, we were all extremely disappointed on Election Day, but thetime I spent in Florida was important for my professional develop-ment led directly to my next, and current, job at Rasky BaerleinStrategic Communications.

ViewPoints 43

What took you to Rasky after your work with the Democratic Party?

After the 2004 campaign was over, I wanted to continue work in politics,but did not want to immediately work on another campaign. With a glut ofex-campaign staff coming off the Kerry/Edwards campaign (who alldreamed of getting a job in D.C. if Kerry had won), competition in Demo-cratic circles for jobs was tough. After much job hunting, I was introducedto my current firm, Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, to interviewfor a job as a community relations organizer for an energy siting projectthe firm was engaged in at the time. My experience on the Kerry campaignin Florida gave me the required credentials to be hired on a project basisto organize support in six different coastal communities for a proposed en-ergy facility off the coast of northern Massachusetts. Our client, GDFSUEZ LNG, was proposing to build an offshore LNG (liquefied naturalgas) receiving terminal – something that had never been done in theUnited States – and wanted to gain community support for the project inthe coastal communities. For almost two years, I worked at Rasky Baerleinbut worked almost exclusively for this one client (the great news is that theproject was approved and is now operational).

My work on that project allowed me to transition to a full-time job atRasky Baerlein where I work on the Public Affairs team. Our group is incharge of state and municipal lobbying, government relations, public sec-tor business development, corporate grassroots campaigns, community re-lation campaigns, and managing state ballot and municipal referendumcampaigns. I’m now a registered lobbyist in Massachusetts and was re-cently promoted to Assistant Vice President.

What was your involvement in the last election cycle in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts is one of twenty-four states in the country that allows citi-zens to propose statutory or constitutional changes through a statewideballot initiative. For the 2010 election, Rasky Baerlein was hired by theMassachusetts Package Store Association, the Beer Distributors of Massa-chusetts, and the Massachusetts Wine and Spirits Wholesalers to run aninitiative campaign in support of passing initiative Question 1 on thestatewide ballot – Yes on 1. This ballot question, if passed, would repealthe state sales tax applied to alcohol sold in stores. Up until 2009, the

state sales tax was not applied to alcohol sold in Massachu-setts. The Legislature changed the law in 2009 to collect addi-tional tax revenue. As you would imagine, the retailers who sellalcohol and the businesses that distribute alcohol were nothappy with the addition of a sales tax after never having it be-fore. Many argued the increased cost to the consumer and thelure of tax free New Hampshire was hurting their sales. Ourfirm’s work, which included managing every aspect of the cam-paign – from creating the proper messaging, to creating thetelevision and radio ad content, to running survey and focusgroups, to organizing campaign supporters, to the PR – gaveour client a win at the ballot box on Election Day. This was ahuge upset victory as no one predicted the question wouldpass. Further, it was an anti-tax measure that passed in light ofa Democratic sweep of the Governor’s race on down throughall the statewide elected officials and Congressional seats inMassachusetts. With this win, Rasky Baerlein remains unde-feated when managing statewide ballot campaigns – going 11-0.

What’s on your plate right now?

Right now I am managing the implementation of a new projectfor a major international pharmaceutical firm. We’re in the earlyphases of launching a new generation of grassroots campaign-ing that relies heavily on social media tools and online organi-zational tools to identify, organize and mobilize a coalition insupport of our client’s legislative issue. The goal of the cam-paign will be to engage those individuals and groups who areinterested in the topic and provide them a voice in the debate.This really will be the cutting edge in organizing real people tobe part of a large legislative advocacy campaign and our firm isexcited to engage.

In addition, the new legislative session in Massachusettsjust began. It’s a two year legislative session in Massachusettsand it is one of the most active state legislatures in the country– with over 5,000 bills filed this session. On a day to day basis,we are the eyes and ears of our clients at the State House, pro-viding them with the necessary intelligence, relationships, andmessaging to help them in their legislative advocacy efforts.Each week, I’m at the State House, taking our clients to meetwith legislators to educate the legislators on our client’s issuesand advocate for their position (whether for or against a partic-ular piece of legislation).

What are you passionate about outside the office?

Living in downtown Boston allows me to explore all the restau-rants and bars across the city – something I very much enjoy.During the summer I make every attempt to get down to myfamily’s house on Fishers Island to golf, swim, sit on the beachand relax. I really cherish my time there and the ability to havean island mentality – at least for two days at a time. I’m lookingforward to my 15th Pine Point reunion on August 6!

Zach is shown with Sen. Ted Kennedy when he interned in thesenator’s office in 2003. The inscription reads, “To Zach, Thanksfor your help in my Boston office. Ted Kennedy, 03.”

ViewPoints 44

Alumni ReunionCalling the Classes of 1952-2005!

Please join usto renew ties with old friends.

August 6, 2011 at 6:00 pmin the Alicia Z. Russell

Memorial Garden.Please RSVP to David Cruthers

(dcruthers@pinepoint.org)or register online!

The 1950sPaul Connor, 12 Spring Street, Noank, CT 06340, PACNOANK@aol.com

1960Dan Potter was in Hanoi once again for two months, finding winter there warmer than at home in Ston-ington. He had three shows last fall – in New York City, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

1961 - 50th Reunion!Jack Humphreville, 456 South Arden Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90020-4736,Jack@TargetMediaPartners.com

Ray DuBois wrote, “I am about to complete five years as a ‘recovering government official’ and continueat the Center for Strategic and International Affairs here in Washington. In addition I am nurturing fourprivately held companies toward IPOs in the next 18 months. Interestingly they are in different sectors:energy (2), engineering and training and simulation. My 17-year-old son, Pierre, is at Canterbury Schooland my 16-year-old daughter, Mary, is at The Taft School, both in Connecticut. My wife, Helen, and Imake the trip to watch their games at least once a month. I hope to make our 50th Reunion on 6 Augustin Stonington.” (Mary has become friends with Ceilie Moore ’09 at Taft!) Susan Albrecht Leach also payshomage to her class’ upcoming anniversary. “50 years – holy cow! I’m living in a small town in NJ justacross the river from Philadelphia. I’m married to a retired engineer, and we have a daughter and twosensational grandkids in the Philly area. I’ve been 22 years with Lincoln Investment Planning, a national,family-owned company specializing in retirement plans for educators, managing the client base of one ofthe top producers. We love the Philly area, the Jersey shore, and the Phillies!”

Bill Adler ’59 kindly donated use of a condo heowns in Florida for the silent auction portion

of the Gala last April. It was purchased byAndy Griscom ’75, and he and his family used

it for the long weekend in February, Bill re-ported in an email. Another February eventcaught Bill’s attention. He wrote, knowing

about the northern bouts with snow, “I’m cer-tainly not one to rub anything in about the

weather, but I’m getting ready to head over toDaytona tomorrow for all the racing through

Sunday’s Daytona 500. My biggest problem ishow to take enough sunscreen. Every day from

Thursday to Sunday is projected to be sunnyand in the mid to upper 70s. This is spectacu-lar even by our standards!” Newly retired, Bill

and his wife, Alice, live in Tampa.

Facebook can do truly wonderful things when you’re inthe business of finding lost alumni, as was the casewhen, upon reviewing the members of the Pine PointFacebook page, we found that John Anderson ’63 hadsigned up! He had been lost to the School for quitesome time. After graduating in the first 9th grade classat Pine Point, John went to Northfield Mount Hermon,received his B.A. from Washington College, and hisM.B.A from Georgia State. Having spent time holdingsenior positions in the two largest recovery audit firms inthe world, John started his own company, GMG RecoveryServices, in Concord, MA. “I am currently living in Con-cord with my wife, Christina. Besides my own business, Iteach Employee Training and Development, Human Re-sources Management and Organizational Behavior atMount Ida College in Newton, MA. We were fortunateenough to live in London, England from 1996 until 2004,where I was working for Profit Recovery Group, as Man-aging Director for their European and South African op-erations. We have two children, a daughter, ColbyElizabeth, who was graduated from Wheaton College inNorton, MA in 2006; and a son, Christopher Taylor, whogoes by Taylor, who was just graduated from The GeorgeWashington University in May 2010. I’m pictured heresailing off the coast of France on a gaff-rigged ketch inthe mode of a typical Breton fishing vessel.”

Individuals listed in italics beneath class years serve as classagents for Pine Point.

Please contact David Cruthers (dcruthers@pinepoint.org or860-535-0606, Ext. 133) if you’re interested in serving as aclass agent.

Class Notes

ViewPoints 45

1964Michael Petty, 1007 McCeney Avenue, Silver Spring,MD 20901, sundancepetty@gmail.com

Lloyd Miller sent along good news about one of hissons. He wrote, “Captain Hugh Miller has recently re-turned from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan withhis unit, 4th Infantry Division, where they were stationedin the Kunar Province, which is located in the northeastportion of Afghanistan along the Pakistani border. Hereceived two Bronze Stars, with one for valor, and isback now at his duty station at Ft. Carson, Colorado.”

1965David Hemond, 81 Silas Deane Road, Ledyard, CT06339, davidlhemond@yahoo.com

Susan Blair reports that her son Alex is a freshman atGettysburg College.

1966 - 45th Reunion!Starr White Snead, 1359 North Edgewater Drive,Charleston, SC 29407, 1stStarr@bellsouth.net

1967Lea Jewett, 227 Vauxhall Street, New London, CT06320, hl_juet@sbcglobal.net

Diane Corwin Seltzer, 9 Cove Road, Westerly, RI02891-4407, dcorwinseltzer@gmail.com

1968Ellen Humphreville McGuire, 203 Glenwood Avenue,New London, CT 06320, Pigel@ct.metrocast.net

1969David Smith, 30 Spruce Street, Westerly, RI 02891,robndav@cox.net

1970Kassy White, 42 Centre Street, Dover, MA 02030,KassyWhite@aol.com

1971 - 40th Reunion!Paul Marshall, 63 Duck Cove Road, North Kingstown,RI 02852-6240, imagesideas55@hotmail.com

1973Cynthia Stein Therrien, 47 Paag Circle, Little Silver, NJ 07739-1738, Therriens@Comcast.net

Lisa Card Rapoza is a reading specialist at Dunn’s Corner School, Westerly. Brian Wood is ProductStrategist for the NetWeaver group at SAP, a market and technology corporation focusing in busi-ness management software. He previously worked at Gartner, where he was an analyst and researchdirector responsible for corporate performance management, business intelligence, corporate gov-ernance and compliance, and customer relationship management. Before working at Gartner, hespent over 20 years in consulting, systems integration, and development roles at IBM, KPMG,Capgemini, and Answerthink. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA in internationalbusiness, both from the University of Rhode Island, and has worked and lived in several dozencountries. In his spare time he enjoys mountain biking, body surfing, and wine, and, as Brian freelyadmits, he’s a “consummate technology geek.”

Hugh Beach ’65 wrote at the end of 2010: “I’m still Professor of Cultural Anthropology atUppsala University in Sweden and still very much involved with reindeer herding and Saamirights (ViewPoints, Annual Report, 2003-04). At the same time, I am fortunate to lead aninternational research project in Siberia funded by the US National Science Foundation. Theproject concerns post-Soviet transformations of resource allocations and recognition of eth-nicities. In the picture I am teaching a class (actually the school hosts a number of classesin one classroom) in a small Evenki village in Siberia.”

Regarding his personal life, he reports: “Annie, my wife, continues her consulting andteaching on the rights of children in combination with a new passion for the sewing ofsheep-fur blankets. Ellinor, our oldest daughter (soon 21) works for a number of differentcatering and waitressing firms, while our second daughter, Elisabeth, is soon to graduatefrom Swedish High School and is applying to colleges in the US. This may well prove ru-inous to her parents, but it may bring with it the opportunity for us all to spend some timeback in my home country should I prove successful in obtaining a sabbatical.”

Anne Chimento McMahon ’65 wrote,“Remember I wrote a while back that I

named a horse after a deceased classmate,Lindsay Miller? The horse, Lindsay’s Point,

won a race last August at Saratoga RaceCourse, and won a race at Aqueduct. The

first Lindsay would have loved her. ThePoint is for Pine Point, of course!”

Brian Williams ’72 sent in this great phototaken over the December holidays. It showsBrian seated next to his classmate MarciaSchaller ’72, with Brian’s sister Sybil ’71 in theback. He wrote to Pine Point, “I recently cameacross an old ViewPoints in a stack and readthe piece about Elizabeth Jordan’s (’99) PeaceCorps experience in Burkina Faso. It took meback and was well written, and since we areboth Pine Point, Peace Corps and LoomisChaffee grads, I dropped her an email to thankher for the piece and she emailed back. I recallreconnecting with Drew Maddock in the sameway after a ViewPoints story. So – you connectpeople! Thanks.”

Marcia sent along her news. “My husband,Steve, and I moved to West Lafayette, IN, fromthe West Coast nine years ago. Steve is a Man-aging Director at Purdue University and I teach

Power Vinyasa Yoga at a local studio. I love the fact that there are 40,000 students at Purdue – there are alwaysnew faces in my classes and their enthusiasm, energy, and spirit never cease to amaze me.”

Sybil wrote, “I am still living in Brookline and keep very busy volunteering for various arts organizations,e.g. the MFA, the Boston Symphony, Celebrity Series and the Greater Boston Food Bank. It was great getting achance to visit not only Brian and his kids for Christmas but to see Marcia and Steve the day after Christmas.Steve is a fantastic cook and he prepared a nice cheese fondue and bruschetta for us. We all had a great time!”

ViewPoints 46

RegisterThe Pine Point website has aspecial place just for alumni togo to update their profiles,leave messages for classmates,and see what’s going on withtheir friends. In order to do allthis, you must register, and todo that, you need a registrationnumber.

If you have yet to register, please e-mail David Cruthers, AssociateDirector of Development, at dcruthers@pinepoint.org, and he willsend you the number you need to get started!

1974Sharon Butler, 9 Pearl Street, Mystic, CT 06355,butsharon@gmail.com

Jon Wool reports that all is fine and steady with himand his family. Son Greg graduated in the spring andis now living in NY and pursuing an acting career.He signed with a good agency and landed a role in aproduction of Macbeth right off the bat along with anumber of TV and theatre auditions. With his showhaving closed, he is temping for a financial houseand doing some catering at night to pay the bills.Daughter Alana is doing well in her sophomore yearin Denver. Work with Finesse (Jon’s catering busi-ness) has been solid. Finesse was featured in a num-ber of industry magazines and continues to receivevery strong response from clients and guests. He’sbeen teaching at Kendall College’s School of Hospi-tality Management, doing a lot of work with studentsof DePaul’s new hospitality program. In the fall, Jonwas the featured speaker at an entrepreneurship con-ference at Ohio State.

1975Ashley Powell Hanson, 242 Ocean Avenue, Apt. 1,New London, CT 06320, abpow@conncoll.edu

1976 - 35th Reunion!Cindy Jason Sullivan, P.O. Box 90, Higganum, CT06441-0090, csullivan09@snet.net

In late February, Adam Fritzsche wrote, “What a win-ter! The kids will be in school through August!We’re moving into our rebuilt house in May. Life isgood. We’re looking forward to seeing fellow alumniat the event at Mystic Aquarium to honor PaulGeise.”

1977Betsy Trimble, 3 Heron Road, Mystic, CT 06355,IETrimble@sbcglobal.net

Amy Cleveland Bowman sent a Christmas note toClass Agent Betsy Trimble this past year, and Betsyasked Amy if she could share the news with theirclassmates. “I own several horses, primarily Mor-gans, my favorite. I used to teach and train horsesprior to all my physical issues, however. I’m just nowstarting to teach a little bit now again. I’ve had achallenging past seven years or so, starting with aserious head injury in 2003. Then I broke my leftankle. Then, a right hip replacement due to severearthritis; I fell two weeks after I was home from sur-gery and I got to do it again! I gave my husband aNewfoundland puppy a couple of years ago, and hada fall with him and fractured my left hip this time!Things are going a lot better for me now, fortu-nately. Life is pretty good here in Colorado. I used torun a children’s horsemanship camp on my farm, andI look forward to starting that up again in the future.In the meantime, I do some volunteer teaching downthe road in a little town called Hygiene in their ele-mentary school.” Chris Wood manages his variousproperties and loves his life with his three girls.

Sabra Smith ’74 (farright) is shown withfriends making valentines.“Before Valentine’s Day Ihosted an Etsy Meetup inPhiladelphia with othercreative types and we metat a Victorian ice creamparlor to make valentinesthat were distributed byCitymeals on Wheels.(Etsy is a website devotedto buying and sellinghandmade or vintageitems, sort of like eBay.)We ate ice cream sundaesand I was able to send120 handcrafted valen-tines to Etsy HQ inBrooklyn.

“I’m working with the National Park Service now, with the job title of ‘Historian’ (though the world’s timelineis much too vast for me to feel like I could ever be an expert in history). I work on National Historic Landmarksand one of my biggest projects right now is trying to keep the ex-USS Olympia off the bottom of the ocean. Thecurrent owner can’t afford to maintain it anymore and it’s 20 years overdue for dry docking. We’re planning aworkshop soon to develop preservation strategies — and the project manager for the Charles W. Morgan fromMystic Seaport will be coming to help us out. Any Pine Pointers that would like to rally behind the cause wouldbe welcome! Any new entity that takes on the Olympia and its archive will need a lot of support – and $$. Moreinfo at the website of Independence Seaport Museum.

“Like the plight of the Olympia, my blog, My Own Time Machine (http://myowntimemachine.wordpress.com/)established to allow me to dabble in historic preservation after I was laid off, seems to regularly feature the ef-forts of some local group to keep some very old, very important building from being torn down. Preservationistsmust be eternal optimists, otherwise I don’t know why we’d ever get into this line of work.

“My two kids are thriving at school – the eldest in seventh grade has a history teacher he very much admiresand it seems the two are inspiring each other. The youngest has created a company with friends in afterschoolcare and he regularly fills me in on corporate doings — the contract they had to write up when one of the prod-uct divisions wanted to break off, the activities of the various product managers and so on. Can fourth graderstake a company public?

“I opened a shop on Etsy recently and though my intent was to sell vintage goods, I seem to have launchedselling things I made. I’m hoping any income from this effort will help pay for my kids’ Lego and Nerf habits (ormaybe college?).”

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Charlie Buffum ’75 and his diving partner, Craig Harger, have discovered the remains ofwhat they believe to be the USS Revenge, a 14-gun schooner that sank on the reefs offWatch Hill on January 9, 1811. At a press conference at the Ocean House two days beforethe 200th anniversary of the disaster, the pair showed photos of cannons and other arti-facts. The Revenge was commanded by Oliver Hazard Perry, a native of South Kingstown,RI, who was court-martialed after the disaster, but later exonerated when blame fell to theship’s pilot. The outcome of the accident and its ramifications proved vital in Americannaval history, as Perry was transferred to the Great Lakes as a result. His defeat of aBritish naval squadron in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812 was the first timethat a squadron of that type had been forced to surrender.

(Photo by Dana Jensen, courtesy of The Day)

From left: Harvey DeMovick III ’87 and Harvey IV ’20; Bob Petrocelli ’81 and Alison ’20; Anne Fix ’76 and Alexander ’15 and ChristopherBowdler ’12; Doug Wood ’81 and Quinlan ’13 and Nicola ’15; Adam Wronowski ’87 and John Paul ’17; Matt Rousseau ’94 and Peyton ’22; brothersEllery ’85 and Andy Griscom ’75, with Andy’s children Liam ’13, Bella ’14, and Blythe ’18, and Ellery’s children Dillon ’19 and Maclan ’22 in front;Jim Buffum ’75 and Ashlyn ’13; Betsy Trimble ’77 and her step-son Cooper Feltes ’11 in the rear; and Julie Wright DelPrado ’89 and Diego ’19

Shown in a later pictureare: Charlotte Harvey ’13and Peter ’75; and Geb

Daukas ’12 and Galan ’78.Unfortunately, Charlotte’s

mom, Peter’s wife AnnHallberg Harvey ’73, was

home with the flu.

It’s always hearteningwhen alumni return totheir hometowns, andit’s especially excitingand affirming whenthey choose to enrolltheir children at PinePoint. Currently, thereare 15 alumni whosechildren are attendingPine Point frompreschool throughgrade 9. Those 19children make up 8%of the student body.In December theygathered in the L/TCfor a quick photo,some snacks, and anopportunity to catchup with one another.

FamilyAll in the

Irene CarlsonRitter ’78 poseswith her son,Charlie ’17, whojoined the thirdgrade in February.

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1978Chris Knisley, 175 Beech Street, Wrentham, MA02093, knisley@thekofflergroup.com

Irene Carlson Ritter’s son, Charlie, has followed inhis mother’s footsteps and enrolled in the 3rdgrade at Pine Point! Irene is a legal assistant atHoops & Jensen in Groton, and her husband,Scott, is a copy editor at The Day in New London.

1979Meredith Jason, 6130 31st Street NW, Washington,DC 20015, crcmlj@msn.com

1981 - 30th Reunion!Lauren Edelstein Park, 1519 5th Street, Boulder,CO 80302, lparkco@yahoo.com

Sean McGill continues as president and owner ofMcGill Chevrolet in Pawcatuck. Doug Wood stillenjoys Pfizer and keeps himself fit by teachingspinning and weightlifting.

1982Dan Wood, 156 Ludlow Street, 3rd Floor, New York,NY 10002, dxwood@work.ac

1983Karen Church, 1951 Canyon Drive, Los Angeles,CA 90068, karen.church@tvc.cbs.com

Scott McGill is Associate Professor of ClassicalStudies at Rice University, where he is teachingcourses in Roman civilization and Latin poetry.Eric Mitchell teaches physical education to theprimary school students (K-3) at Woodward Acad-emy in College Park, GA. Woodward is the largestindependent day school in the continental UnitedStates with 2,800 students in pre-kindergartenthrough grade 12 on two campuses. Eric’s wife,Marci, is the Director of Marketing and Communi-cations. Outside of school, their life is enriched bytheir six-year-old daughter, Samantha. MatthewRobb is Director, BBA Program in Design andManagement, Parsons The New School for De-sign. He and his wife, Audra, have a four-year-oldson, Caleb.

1984Bob Anderson, The Dormers, 3 Everett Avenue, Watch Hill, RI 02891, anderboard@cox.net

Giselle Potter is illustrating yet another children’s book, while her husband, Kier Kinsella, is selling hisfurniture at an upscale studio in NYC. Both their girls, Pia and Isabel, are thriving in school.

1985Amy Leadbetter Higgs, 87 Fernbank Avenue, Delmar, NY 12054, tahiggs@nycap.rr.com

Todd Mitchell and his wife, Tracy, continue to enjoy life in California. Todd works construction in thewarmer months and in the winter you can find him in one of South Lake Tahoe’s ski shops.

1986 - 25th Reunion!Elaine Anderson, 42 South Street, Middlebury, VT 05753-1316, elaineavt@gmail.com

Elaine Anderson enthusiastically wrote, “We’re enjoying our life in Vermont! Elizabeth is happy to be abig sister to her younger brother Christopher, who was born four days before Elizabeth’s birthday, onApril 20, 2010.” Nathan Robb is now working in the Office of Government and Community Affairs,Columbia University.

Alumni ReunionCalling the Classes of 1952-2005!

Please join usto renew ties with old friends.

August 6, 2011 at 6:00 pmin the Alicia Z. Russell

Memorial Garden.Please RSVP to David Cruthers

(dcruthers@pinepoint.org)or register online!

Lauren Edelstein Park ’81was delighted that HughMarshall ’81 stopped inBoulder for a visit lastAugust after finishing amotorcycle tour throughColorado and Utah. Lau-ren wrote, “We had agreat time catching up! Itook him for a hike in theBoulder foothills – he didvery well for a low-lander!Hugh has been living inNew Hope, PA, for thepast 26 years and is theowner of a successfullandscaping and designbusiness. He has beenmarried to Donna for 17years, and has two chil-dren – daughter Autumn(11) and son Kelsey (8).

“After his visit, Hughsent me a sweet email: ‘I reflected on the fact that it doesn’t matter where you go in life, you are who you are as thesum of your experiences. Seeing you brought that to my attention again. You, Pine Point and etc. helped to shape me.That sounds obvious, but it’s true. That’s why you never forget your friends and where you came from.’”

Trip Powers ’85 returned to Pine Pointto work with the 9th grade as the year’sfirst guest in the School’s Moral Leader-ship Program. The topic was the demiseof civilization on Easter Island and theparallels between that disaster and theperils facing present-day Earth as awhole. The conversation between Tripand the students showed that the 9th

graders had done their homework, andall who spoke showed great insight onthe topic. Trip teaches History and Cul-tural Anthropology and is Director ofAcademic Technology at MillbrookSchool in New York.

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1987Thanks go out to Angela Kanabis for opening her family’stwo Mystic restaurants (Bravo Bravo and Azu) to thePine Point community on February 8th, and donating 15%of the restaurants’ receipts back to the School! Therewas a great turnout at both restaurants, with a niceshowing of alumni, current and past parents, and faculty.Eric Montemarano stopped by in the summer and visitedwith Lower School Head Susan Kozel. Eric and his wife,Julie, live in Franktown, CO. He is a pilot for CitationAir,a charter airline. Chloe Potter and her husband, GeorgeSchreiner, had a second child, Felix, in January 2011, abrother to Adelita, and a first grandson for Dan Potter’60 and his wife, Marya Ursin. Both she and George con-tinue to craft their lives as artists in Vienna.

1988Erica Eppinger Fox, 309 Denison Hill Road, North Ston-ington, CT 06359, eeppfox@gmail.com

Martin Griswold, along with his brother, Matt, had abanner year last year. Their perennial farm in Old Lyme,Judge’s Farm, has continued to increase its profits inspite of the economy. Solar panels are used to providemuch of their energy needs. Jonah Salsich is a 3rd gradeteacher at Dean’s Mill School in Stonington, and wasfeatured in The Westerly Sun during the winter about theblog that he and his class publish. The blog was nomi-nated for a 2010 blog-of-the-year award byedublogs.org, the blog’s online host. The class blogsabout their goings-on in the classroom.

1989Meredith Michaud Hargus, 140 Castle Hill Road,Pawcatuck, CT 06379, Meredith.Hargus@genzyme.com

1990Vanessa Oat Ghantous, 1278 Kawili Way, Makawao, HI96768-9555, ghantoat@live.com

1991 - 20th Reunion!Alexandra Johnstone Wood, 861 Foxdale Avenue,Winnetka, IL 60093, awood1226@gmail.com

In the fall, the 1st gradersdrew pictures of their par-ents. On the right is ElleryGriscom ’85 and his wife,Kristi, drawn by their daugh-ter, Dillon ’19. Ellery worksas Director of Client Serv-ices for InfoUSA, a companyspecializing in marketing,

Heather Wright ’87 and herhusband, Jon Ford, welcomed ababy girl to the world on August29, 2010. Annalise Ford is shownhere with her proud grandpa,former Building and GroundsDirector Charlie Wright.

Another birth from the Classof 1987 was that of Lila MarieVan Frachen (shown below),daughter of Laura Kahler ’87 andher husband, Eric Van Frachen.Lila entered the world less thanfour hours after Annalise, onAugust 30, 2010. Lila arrived twoweeks early on the first day ofschool, surprising both her(teacher) parents, who had agreat reason to miss the first dayof school! This picture of Lilawas taken in early November.

If you’re a Facebook member, type Pine PointSchool in the search box, and join our newpage, which is listed as “Pine Point School,Non-profit Organization” rather than the“Group” page. If you are a member of the“Group” page, please switch. We want to bringour latest news directly to your homepage, and you’ll receiveit by “liking” our new page. You can also send your news tothe School and your friends through the page!

“Like” us on Facebook!

To the left, Juan and JulieWright DelPrado ’89 arerepresented in a work bytheir son, Diego ’19. Julie isteaching art at Pine Point!

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Alumni Reunion

Lea Jewett ’67 and DickHumphreville ’65

Brothers Nick ’00(center) and T.J.Capalbo ’98 arejoined by Nick’sfiancée, RyannaMcfadden

Ana Ursin-Nichols Tiwathia ’95 with sisters Ashley Wood ’95 and AmandaWood Lopardo ’89

Denise Paddon ’98, T.J. Capalbo ’98, Nikea McDonough Killam ’97 and her husband, Tim, Tiffany BarresFoley ’98 (holding her son, Marshall), Whitney Oat Verraneault ’96, Bridgette Barres Cahill ‘96 (holding herson, Colton), and her husband, Chad Cahill

The Class of 2000 celebrated its 10th Reunion in style with James Eppinger, Arianna Funk, TaliaMortrude, Justin Rosenberg, Ashley Barres, Nick Capalbo, Beth Abbiati, and Leland Smith on hand.

Members of theClass of 1977(from left), BetsyTrimble, TomGoehring, andKristin PowersHarkness, withTom’s daughter,Liana

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Over 75 people – by far the largest Pine Point Reunioncrowd ever – came together in the Library/TechnologyCenter last August for fellowship, food, and fun! Alumniranging from the Class of 1960 to the Class of 2004 (whichbrought ten people to their first reunion – the largest singleclass in attendance) enjoyed reconnecting with old friends.Although these photos are from last year’s event, whichoccurred at press time, we still wanted to share them withyou. Members of the Classes of 1952-2005 should save thedate of August 6, 2011 for this year’s event!

Head of School Paul Geise introduces StarrWhite Snead ’66, who spoke to those gatheredabout being an alumnus/a of the School.

Sabina Ksiezopolska ’04, SaraGroton ’04, and Katie Geise ’03

Members of the Sprecace family stand before the L/TC’s fireplace and mantle given in memory of MauraSprecace Dunn ’75. From left: Adam Sprecace ’85 and his wife Jean, Lee Sprecace Clark ’78, cousin RonaldWidmann, and Siobhan and David Sprecace ’76

Tiana Baker ’99 and Sage Grigg ’95

The Class of 2004 turned out in force! In front, Sara Groton, Bailey Briggs, Samantha Luca, and SewellRobinson. Back row: Danny Shiling, Sabina Ksiezopolska, Conor McNeil, Brian Abbiati, April Collier, andDavis Knox

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1992Zach Oat, 214 Haviland Drive, Patterson, NY,12563-1326, zachoat@gmail.com

Zach Oat’s book Pop Sculpture: How to Create YourOwn Action Figures and Collectible Statues, cameout in October, and has been getting a lot of praisefrom the sculpting community. It was co-written withveteran toy sculptors Tim Bruckner and Ruben Pro-copio, two of the most prolific and respected namesin the business. Zach is still working at Television-WithoutPity.com as a television and film critic.

1993Noah Bean has been nominated for OutstandingActor (Large Theater) for his role in Bus Stop by theElliot Norton Awards, Boston’s equivalent of theTony Awards. The ceremony will take place on May23, after press time. We will report the results in ournext issue. Travis Bellicchi is in California going toWestern University of Health Science in Pomona.He is in the Doctor of Dental Medicine programand reports it is going very well.

1994Kate Murphy Gardner, 1460 Church Street NW,Washington, DC 20005, KGardner@winston.com

Sarah Banister checked in from Salt Lake City, whichshe refers to as SLC. “I am working on my mastersin teaching right now. I actually am almost done. Ihave been student teaching for the past few months.I graduate in April and continue the family traditionof working in schools. I really enjoy teaching ininner-city, Title 1 public schools. Although there area lot of added challenges that come with that, I lovethe population. I have students from all over theworld in my classroom and I love that! I continue tobe very involved with the Bhutanese refugee popula-tion here in SLC – the Bhutanese are a Nepali-speaking minority group from Bhutan that have beenliving in refugee camps in Nepal for the past 20years. I teach an English class once a week, translatefor the school district, and generally get involved intheir lives. I feel like I am eating Nepali food atsome Bhutanese family at least once a week. I loveit!!! It is a great bridge between what I do in Nepaland my life here in SLC. We have gotten a lot of ski-ing in, as usual, it is hard not to out here!!! I startedtele-skiing last year, so I have been trying to get upinto the mountains as much as possible to work onmy turns! My fiancé and all of our friends tele-ski,so I thought I would join the crew. It has been agood winter snow-wise. We had 44 inches in 2 dayslast weekend!!!” Ana Ursin-Nichols Tiwathia is liv-ing with her husband, Aditya, in Khartoum, Sudan,where he is working for the UN, and she is begin-ning work on an MA, as well as volunteering for aradio project through UNESCO and working in theinternational community as a yoga teacher. In No-vember, they spent their “break in service” time inIndia, using Delhi and Aditya’s parents’ home astheir home base, and travelling out and about fromthere, filling their eyes and hearts.

Jessica Moffett-Rose ’94 is deeplyinvolved in the world of microfi-nance, a career that takes her tofar-flung corners of the world. Sheemailed us on her way back fromCambodia, where she was work-ing at a microfinance institutionwith which her company, Develop-ing World Markets (DWM), part-ners. Jessica joined DWM in 2009.She is a member of the private eq-uity team, primarily responsible forfinancial modeling and monitoringof equity investments in emergingmarket financial institutions thatspecialize in microfinance andsmall business lending. Jessica alsoserved as Operations Manager atPartners for the Common Good(PCG), a nonprofit loan fund, from2003 to 2004 and later workedwith PCG as an underwriting consultant. In 2009, Jessica was appointed to PCG’s Loan Advisory Committee. Shealso spent a year in Nepal where she worked with Pact’s Women’s Empowerment Program to promote village bank-ing and microenterprise development. She and her husband live in Manhattan and enjoy what the city has to offer,when time allows. Jessica finished her email by writing, “I always enjoy hearing from Pine Point. While my timethere was short, it was a formidable period in my education and one upon which I look back very fondly.” Jessica ispictured here with her husband, Thom.

Kate Murphy Gardner ’94and her husband, Bryant,sent news that “KatherineElizabeth Gardner,‘Bessie,’ joined us at 8:44AM on January 25, 2011,weighing in at 7 lbs, 11 oz,and was 20 & 1/4 incheslong!” Here, Kate intro-duces Bessie to “her bigbrother Partlow.”

Alyssa Olsson Gaus ‘94 and her hus-band, Gregory, welcomed Gavin GregoryGaus into the world back in September.Gavin enjoys playing with older brotherKyle. Alyssa wrote, “Greg and I got mar-ried last March (it was one of thosebeautiful spring weekends). We had asmall ceremony on my parents’ property.My father actually married us so it waspretty special. Our son Gavin was born inAugust. I love having two boys. Theyhave already become such good friends.Greg is originally from Mystic but movedto Ft. Lauderdale 12 years ago to becomea yacht captain. Right now, we are livingbetween both places (CT & FL) trying tofigure out if relocating is the best option.Our roots are in CT so something tellsme FL will have to be a second home. It’stoo hard to just up and leave everything here, especially the grandparents. I am continuing as Lead Data Managerfor Client Associated Businesses, Inc., a data management company focusing on pharmaceutical corporations.Here is a family photo for Class Notes. It’s always nice to see where everyone is and how they are doing.”

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Pine Point has made it easierfor you to support the School.

The site is administered throughPine Point’s partnership with

Greater Giving, one of the premier onlinegift processing firms in the country, so youcan make your gift with confidence.

Why not

make your

Annual

Fund gift

online?

It’s that simple!

1995Calan Gibney spent the year teaching in the smallCzech city of Vsetín through the prestigious FulbrightExchange Teacher Program. She swapped positionsfrom her physical education teaching position in Apsen,CO, with a Czech teacher who is a health and physicaleducation specialist. Jonathan Seltzer and his wife, Sil-vana, had a daughter, Ella Marie, on January 16, 2011.Jon continues as a sales operations leader with TheOliver Group, a privately-held, management consultingbusiness based in Pawcatuck, CT.

1996 - 15th Reunion!Heather Honiss Salsich, 224 Mass Ave, #31, Arlington,MA 02474, hhoniss@gmail.com

1997Kate MacCluggage, 16 Park Avenue, Apartment 15C,New York, NY 10016, katemac@gmail.com

James Dixon sent along the following: “I got my Mas-ters in Architecture from Roger Williams University in2006. After traveling around the world with Scott Smithand Jon Evans I started working at Centerbrook Archi-tects and bought a house in New London. I’ve been liv-ing in and working on the house for the past four yearsand spent the past year working at Barun Basu Associ-ates. Right now I’m focused on building a new apart-ment on the first floor for myself. I teach AutoCAD inthe fall semesters at Connecticut College.” Dugan Till-man-Brown has moved back to CT, and wrote, “Whatam I doing? That is an ‘everything’ and ‘nothing’ ques-tion! I am applying to an operating engineers union,getting started on a few different personal businesses,and if I start enough, one is bound to take off! Keepingbusy and loving all the snow! Texas didn’t have much inthat department.” Jurgen Nebelung reports that he has“joined L.L. Bean in marketing and ecommerce. I will beworking on content for the site, specifically the women’sand home part of the site, monitoring site usage inthese departments and making recommendations formore usable navigation and engaging content in the fu-ture. I’m feeling pretty lucky to get in the door; it’ssuper competitive to get a job there.”

Louisa Muller ’97 is thoroughly immersed in theworld of opera, and relates how it all began.

“I think I was always destined to be a director.As a child I often staged my Barbies in plays(there was a rigorous audition process in-volved), and I’m sure my Pine Point classmateswill attest to the fact that I had a certain amountof bossiness that needed a focused outlet. I al-ways had a great love for performing as well,and so during college at Lawrence University inWisconsin I trained as an opera singer while si-multaneously studying directing. It wasn’t until Iwas in the middle of a masters degree in VocalPerformance at the University of North Carolinaat Greensboro that I realized singing wasn’t theright path for me and decided to focus on di-recting full-time after graduation.

“As soon I finished school, I moved to Texasand began a year-long Stage Management in-ternship at Houston Grand Opera. The following year I started assistant directing there, andin 2009 I began freelancing at companies such as the Metropolitan Opera (where I’m now onstaff), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera.As an assistant director, I do a variety of jobs during rehearsals including scheduling, keep-ing track of all the staging, acting as a liaison between the production and the company, andoften helping to stage the chorus and supernumeraries. I stay through the run of the show,watching every performance, giving notes, and preparing the understudies who very oftenhave to go on.

“Life got crazier last year when my fiancé got a job as a pianist and conductor at the Vi-enna State Opera. In August 2010 we moved to Vienna, and since then I’ve been racking upfrequent flier miles flying to Houston and New York for work and back to Vienna whenever Ican to see my fiancé (and my cat). Happily, the opera world is a small one, so in every newcompany I go to I inevitably already have friends. It’s a full, exciting life, and I’m so lucky tobe able to do what I love in the company of some of the most talented directors and musi-cians in the world. To document it all, I take lots of photos, and I write about my life atwww.littlemsbossy.com.

“I am so grateful to all my teachers at Pine Point for nurturing my talents and interests ata young age and for encouraging me to be myself. I have especially fond memories of KitJohnson’s joyous music classes, where I learned to read music and to appreciate every style ofmusic, from Beethoven to the Beach Boys and everything in between.”

Destined to be a Director

Sarah Jump ’97 contactedthe School last fall andsent along this photofrom long ago. She stillhad the K-1 Quilt from1988 and donated it backto Pine Point. (Back tothe Point, December2010). “I am currently inmy 8th year as a residentof Portland, ME. I’mworking at a restaurant inPortland, Local 188, which I helped to open up about four years ago and havebeen there ever since, serving, assisting with the wine program, hiring/trainingfront of house, etc. The flexibility and night hours of restaurant work allow meto finally finish up my bachelor’s degree. I’ve taken a rather unconventional ‘col-lege road,’ but am finally deciding to wrap it up this year, finishing up my bach-elor’s degree at University of Southern Maine. Much to the dismay of myparents, I put off finishing my B.A. to pursue other interests, but I’m back tofinish up two remaining classes and then they can ‘pass happily into the nextlife’ (a direct quote from my mother, Sandra). I am looking forward to connect-ing with others from my class, since it has been years (and years!).”

• Go to Pine Point’s website• Then to the Giving Section (Annual Fund)• Look for the online giving icon

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Scott Smith ’97 was married tohis wife, Meghan, in the summerof 2010 in Rangeley Lake, ME.As you can see, Pine Point waswell represented in the Mainewoods. In the front row are: JonEvans ’97, Brett Smith ’00,Scott, James Dixon ’97, andJurgen Nebelung ’97. Seated inthe second row are Scott andBrett’s grandmother, and Dr.Smith’s mom, Kay Hill; David ’69and Robin Smith; Carol Roper;and Susan Kozel. Back row isRobin Rice, Jeannie and GaryWilliams, Peter and LindaLindquist, and Mark and DianeSeltzer ’67

Alumni ReunionAugust 6, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Calling the Classes of 1952-2005!Please join us

in the Alicia Z. Russell Memorial Gardento renew ties with old friends.

Meet Pine Point’s new Head of School,Stephen Bennhoff

Please RSVP to David Cruthers(dcruthers@pinepoint.org)

to let us know you’ll be there!

Register on-line athttp://www.pinepoint.org/page.cfm?p=152?

A group of Pine Pointers made the trek toBoston in April to see Kate MacCluggage ’97 ina virtuoso performance as Portia, oppositeF. Murray Abraham, in The Merchant of Venice.The production, which originated in New York,had traveled to Chicago before reaching Boston;Santa Monica was the final stop on the tour. TheNew York Times lauded Kate’s talent: “As Portia,Ms. MacCluggage radiates a forthrightintelligence inflected with both humor and, whenshe has declared her love for Bassanio, aglowing warmth.” Judging by the crowd’sreaction, she was second only to the Oscar-winning Abraham as they roared their approvalfor her at the play’s end. Those sentiments wereechoed by the Elliot Norton Awards, Boston’sequivalent to the Tony Awards, which nominatedKate for Outstanding Actress (Large Theater) forher achievement. Those who witnessed a trulywonderful afternoon at the theater included(from left), former teachers Peter and LindaLindquist, Vince Nappo (Kate’s boyfriend andLorenzo in the cast), Kate, fourth-grade teacherJudy Christoffersen, English teacher HamiltonSalsich, history teacher Gary Williams, artdepartment chair Jeannie Williams, their sonGraham Williams ’02, Jak Cruthers, andAssociate Director of Development DavidCruthers. Fifth-grade teacher Barbara Pattendenalso attended the show.

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1998 Tiffany Barres Foley, 2310 Rock Street, #6, MountainView, CA 94043, tfoleyram@gmail.com

Gillian Sulick, 97 Hancock Street, Apt. 2, Cambridge,MA 02139, gbsulick@yahoo.com

Kalin Bellicchi reported, “I am currently doing a GeneralEntry Master’s of Nursing Program at Rush University.The GEM program is going very well, and we just hadour pinning ceremony to signify our entry into the fieldas junior colleagues.” T.J. Capalbo has great news! “I re-cently became engaged to Perrilea Phoenix and we arelooking forward to an August or September of 2012wedding. Work in the law office has been going well andwe have just welcomed my brother, Nick ’00, to thefirm.” Nate Clough is in his last year of law school andworking hard. He also plans on getting an MBA, too.Kate Eppinger wrote in February, “I am working as afield instructor for Pacific Quest, an internationally rec-ognized wilderness therapy program for struggling teensand young adults. The program offers a multi-discipli-nary curriculum which includes sustainable gardening,health and wellness, critical thinking, Hawaiian historyand culture, life skills and academics emphasizing thesciences. I worked for eight days, and then had six daysoff to enjoy the Big Island of Hawaii, which I am thor-oughly enjoying. The job is challenging, but equally asrewarding due to the amount of individual growth I seeeach week with the kids. Mahalo to everyone back atPine Point. I am loving life and my new, very interestingjob!” Ben Williams wrote, “I had a wonderful time athome for the holidays with Mom, Dad, and Graham. Imiss it – there’s no place like home! I’m wrapping up mylast semester of law school. It has been a fantastic expe-rience – I’ve learned so much inside the classroom, butalso outside through volunteering locally and in NewOrleans, leading the school’s LGBT organization, serv-ing as an editor of the Law Review (a student-run aca-demic journal), and participating in internships with afederal judge and an international judicial relationscommittee. There’s just so much to see and do and I’vetried to take advantage of as much as I can – including acareer conference, where I ran into Erin Wright ’91 andher students! Next up for me is graduation in May andthen starting work in the fall. I’ll be joining the commu-nications, media, and privacy practice in the DC officeof a large international firm. I was there last summer andI’m thrilled to go back. The people are incredibly kindand the work is fascinating; I get to leverage my back-ground in technology on some very novel legal issues. Ifeel quite lucky and fortunate for the opportunity. I hopeall is well at Pine Point – I loved visiting and seeingfriends, family, and all the new developments.” RobbWilliams sent along the following news: “I’ve beenworking in IT Consulting for 5+ years since graduationfor Accenture. I originally started out of the Boston of-fice, but have been in Atlanta the past 3 years. The con-sulting involves a good amount of travelling so I’veworked in London for 5 months and typically travel be-tween Boston and Atlanta each week. Being on the PPSwebsite spurred me to send the e-mail since I felt badabout missing the Boston Williams/PPS reunion.”

Dear Pine Point Community,

Back in 2006 when my husband David and I moved from Colorado to California fora little “one year adventure,” we had no idea of all that was in store for us. Davidbegan working for a construction management company and we quickly got connectedwith a Stanford Campus Ministry called Kingdom First, which was created to mentorstudent athletes with one-on-one discipleship and community gatherings. Inspired byExtreme Makeover: Home Edition, it wasn’t long before they desired to create an av-enue for the students to get involved with the surrounding communities in the form ofservice. The organization that grew out of that involvement is called 2nd Mile, whichbegan as a small renovation project of an elderly paraplegic woman’s home in EastPalo Alto (which sadly has the highest murder rate per capita in the country). Theproject was a huge success, and volunteers began joining the 2nd Mile Community,serving many of the local under-funded schools, ministry houses and non-profits overthe past eight years.

We began to volunteer immediately and fell in love with the vision of loving yourneighbor through service and action. Finding ways we could help using our talents, wereally felt connected not only to the people we were serving, but to the people weserved beside. Early last year, a new opportunity for the directors of Kingdom Firstgave way for David and me to take over 2nd Mile, and through much prayer and a leapof faith, David quit his job and began as executive director while I joined on as projectcoordinator part-time. You can learn more about our work at www.2ndmile.org.

This year has proven to be both challenging and amazing. From late night meetingsat the dinner table after the kids are in bed, to choosing to have faith over fear in des-perate need of a miracle – nothing is more rewarding than knowing you are doingwhat you were made to do. This year alone we have completed three successful proj-ects, raising over $220,000 and gathering over 1200 volunteers over the course ofthree separate weekends! We have done everything from complete school renovations(painting all the buildings, re-landscaping, redesigning and furnishing classrooms,teachers lounges, offices) to a ranch clean up, to fixing up a home for veterans. Wehave countless stories of how this ministry has changed people’s lives, and has re-stored a sense of hope in the goodness of strangers. People often ask, why are youdoing this? Our response is that we are told to love our neighbor and this is how weare responding.

We are growing our family quickly! Noah (2.5 years) and Marshall (1 year) are goingto be big brothers again as we are expecting our third child at the end of summer. (Ifigure, let’s get through the diapering stage as fast as we can.) Although I’m the onlyfemale in the house, I’ve grown to enjoy building train sets, playing in the dirt andwatching Bob the Builder. Much of what we enjoy involves family outings, visiting withfriends, and enjoying all that California has to offer.

in the Goodness of Strangers

Tiffany Barres Foley ’98and her husband, David,are running a non-profitorganization called 2ndMile. We asked Tiffany totell us about their work,which she has, in theform of a letter to thePine Point family.

Hope

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Ariel Mitchell ’00 has had a busy 2011 so far. She was accepted into an artist’s residency in Finland,where she will live for five weeks in April and May with other artists, writers, composers and musicians.A few weeks after her acceptance letter came in the mail, her boyfriend proposed to her, and now theyare happily married in San Diego, sharing life along with their two dogs. Her husband, Ryan Dillon, isan avid sailor, and together they recently purchased a sailboat that will take them to the islands off ofSouthern California. Eventually they would like to participate in the famous, good-natured race; the BajaHaha, from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Ariel has also started teaching art to kids through aprogram called A.R.T.S: A Reason To Survive, and her own work is flourishing.

Mel Collier Meek ’01reports great news. “InMay of 2010 I marriedAndy Meek. We had alovely small May wed-

ding by the pond inour backyard. Along

with our families, bothJessica Williams ’01

and Betty Helbig[mother of Nicholas’16 and wife of Ron

‘81] were there to helpus celebrate. I’m quite

busy in the midst ofmy graduate studies at

the NEAG School ofEducation at UConn,and we are enjoyingour newlywed bliss!”

Emily Geise ’01 works for the State Department and volunteered in the summer of 2010 in NewAkrade, Ghana, a small village 90km east of Accra and very close to the Volta region. Askedabout the experience, she wrote,“I was so fortunate to be able to be a part of this communitythrough a volunteer program called Global Volunteers. For two weeks, five other women in mygroup and I worked with the school, health clinic and construction crew in the New Akrade com-munity. I fell in love with the land, the village and mostly the people. It was a life changer. I’m nowworking as the Public Liaison for the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabiliza-tion which deals in civilian conflict prevention and response in areas like Sudan and Kyrgyzstan.My job is to tell the story of what our expeditionary diplomats are doing in those places. I did areally cool webcast where the ambassador of our office was talking about our work. I’d love to goback to Ghana at some point, but I have no plans in the near future. I still keep in touch with thepeople I met there, I definitely miss it.”

Chris Fiftal ’02 wrote back in February about the premiere of his new skateboard-ing video. “I spent the last two years traveling around the country, filming skate-boarding and trying to grow Emulsion (the apparel company I started last year).

What used to be a hobby became a full-time job – 24 hours a day, 7 days aweek... what better than traveling the world with your friends, documenting the

stranger side of life and working with talented artists on apparel design? I feel verylucky to be doing what I am. We spent a month editing Sea Level, and premieredit in Boston on Jan. 22nd to a crowd of 500+ people – a very rewarding experi-

ence after an intense two-year project. With that finished, I’m about to embark ona two-month roadtrip across the country with my business partner to get Sea Level

out there to the skateboard community, as well as growing Emulsion by getting itinto shops around the country. I’ll be going to NY-DC-Key West-New Orleans-

Colorado-California for a month. I’m psyched!” Chris compared his love of pho-tography and filmmaking with the silk screening process used to make his clothesfor Emulsion. “I mainly create images using film and photography, which are gen-

erated by a light-sensitive emulsion on celluloid, exposed to light for a certainamount of time. The same is true for the silk screening process itself, which uses

a different type of emulsion to create a positive image from a negative.”

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Jason Carbonneau ’02 is engaged! He and his fiancée, Melanie Lazar, will be married on August 21, 2011, onKeuka Lake, NY. Jay reports that “Melanie and I have been busy making plans for the wedding, includingmaking all of our flowers out of coffee filters. We’ve completed all of the major tasks, i.e., venue, ceremony,date, bridal party selected, registry, wedding dress, honeymoon, and probably something I’m forgetting! Sheis the love of my life and I couldn’t be happier!”

“I came out here mainly because I wanted to check out the city. After graduating fromBoston University, I didn’t have a secure job anywhere else, but I also got a position as anAmeriCorps member in an inner-city school. I’m working at the Mission Dolores Schoolas a tutor and teacher’s assistant, but a lot of my time is spent trying to create my after-school program and make it into a non-profit.

“Shred Francisco, the name of the skate club, is an after-school skate and arts club.First we had the kids paint their own skateboard decks. Then, after raising enoughmoney, we managed to buy all of them complete skateboards as well as pads and helmets.Now, finally, we’re getting on our shred sleds and ‘rippin’ the gnar.’

“I think skateboarding isnot only a relatively construc-tive and healthy alternative toother adolescent pastimes, itis also a useful mode of travelin urban areas. As urbaniza-tion and infrastructure such aspaved roads increases aroundthe world, people must findways of transport that are bothhealthy and cost effective.Skateboarding provides this,while at the same time allowing one to develop skills (learn tricks, etc.) that aren’t aspossible with bikes. I also want to teach the kids how to use social media and technology.Along with skateboarding, children will be taught how to make videos of themselves, cre-ate a blog, and promote their cause through social media.” If you’d like to learn moreabout Shred Francisco, please visit our blog at http://shredfranciscomd.blogspot.com.

Shred Francisco

1999Tiana Baker, 45 Auburn Street, Apt. 4, Framingham,MA 01701-4849, tiana.baker@gmail.com

Brianna Carbonneau continues to work at GeorgeWashington University for three deans in the LawSchool.

2000Arianna Funk, 72 W. 69th St., Apt 5E, New York, NY,10023, ariannafunk@gmail.com

Ashley Barres continues to sit for a family that hastwo children. She is pursuing her AA degree, hopingto finish this May after wrapping up her final course,in sign language. She also has a budding modelingcareer. Arianna Funk writes, “I am in my last semes-ter of a Visual Culture: Costume Studies masters atNYU, interning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,and working in theaters in the costume area and aftergraduation in mid-May I will move to Uppsala, Swe-den!” Jonathan Rapoza is the manager of the proshop at Richmond Country Club.

2001 - 10th Reunion!Kathy Coss, 180 West 8th Street, #3, Boston, MA02127, audriie@hotmail.com

Cindy Morren Griffin, 405 Gardiner Road, WestKingston, RI 02892, cindymorren@yahoo.com

Jessica Williams, 180 West 8th Street, #3, Boston,MA 02127, jessicaswilliams87@gmail.com

Margot Barres did a complete career change in 2010and is now teaching 6th and 7th grade math at a mid-dle school in New Smyrna Beach, FL. While shelooks for a place to live she commutes to and fromwork from her family home in Ormond Beach. KateBrewster-Duffy works for KSM, Inc. in New York asan assistant to Sting.

After graduating from Boston University in May with a degree in anthropology, Diptesh Soni ’03decided that he needed to check out a different part of the country. With that, he packed hisbags and headed to San Francisco where he immediately immersed himself in the community.For those who know Dip well, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he took his skateboard withhim and that it’s a central part of his life, and his work, in the Bay Area.

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2002Julian Douglas has headed south! “I spent the last5 years living in Burlington, Vermont. While inVermont I received my bachelor’s degree inwildlife biology from UVM, and I spent most ofmy spare time hiking in the Green Mountains andplaying the drums. I performed with a couplegroups in Burlington of various styles, but prima-rily I focused my effort into a local rock bandcalled the Feverbreakers. Formed in 2007, westarted out playing small house parties and dormi-tories, and eventually performed at some greatvenues like Nectar's in Vermont, and Sullivan Hallin Greenwich Village. We recorded an album, ti-tled Accentuate Your Face which was released lastMay, and was featured in the Vermont newspaperSeven Days. Anybody interested in hearing it canstream the entire album for free at www.thefever-breakers.com in the ‘music’ section. I recentlymoved from Vermont to south Florida, where I amtaking classes at Nova Southeastern University inFort Lauderdale in their graduate program for ma-rine sciences. In May I will pursue a masters incoastal zone management, studying at Nova'soceanographic center in Dania Beach. I'm excitedto get started on the next chapter of my academiclife, and I'm eagerly anticipating my first trip outon the Atlantic to do some fieldwork in the southFlorida sunshine.” Tracey Mack is at New York LawSchool. She’s loving school and the city and raninto Calvin Utter during Fashion Week with hermother, Johnatha. She had the 5th highest gradeon her midterms out of a class of 145. Her familycredits the great teachers at Pine Point for thestudy ethic she developed and her drive to excel.She still rides and was recently reserve nationalchampion in her division, and placed second inthe ARIAT National Adult Medal finals in 2010 onher horse, Fernway Park.

2003Sarah Hallberg is working for an advertising firmin New Canaan, CT, Wishbone, which specializesin medical products. She makes the reverse com-mute every morning from her new home in Man-hattan.

2004Samantha Luca, 4 Seagull Lane, Mystic, CT06355, Lukky555@aol.com

Sewell Robinson, P.O. Box 1671, Gambier, OH,43022, robinsons@kenyon.edu

Tori Carbonneau is attending Mitchell College,pursuing Early Childhood Education and businessmanagement aspects of the daycare business. NateFunk is working on his thesis for a Physics BA, fo-cusing on modular lasers. He had a great finalrugby season, and despite being injured in thefirst six minutes of the first game, was able toscore two tries as part of their winning season.He’ll be graduating at the end of May. StephenQuallich is a senior at RPI and is planning to goto graduate school in biomedical engineering.

2005 Will Hagen, 27 Chriswood Trace, Ledyard, CT06339, will_tucker@comcast.net

Jonathan Barres is busy balancing school and fa-therhood. He’s in his third year of engineeringand tries to go home on weekends to spendtime with his one-year-old son, Bradley. ForChristmas vacation in 2010, he took full care ofBradley, experiencing first-hand all that that en-tails. Jonathan’s mother, Pauline, wrote,“Bradley loves being around his other cousinsand is growing like a weed. He tries to talk up astorm, and is a very easy going little boy. I knowJonathan misses him being away so much, butthey try to make up for it on weekends.” WillHagen is enjoying his junior year at the Univer-sity of Washington. He’s currently serving asVice President and Chaplain of his fraternity,and he’s involved in the school’s chapter of theCollege Republicans and a local ministry group.He’s also become involved in local GOP poli-tics, and hopes to intern with Washington’s At-torney General Rob McKenna this summer.

Danielle Robertson ’06 continues her stud-ies, and in the winter started working in abeautiful locale. “As a sophomore at John-son & Wales University in the Baking andPastry Arts program, I am required to do anexternship for one semester. For my winterexternship I was accepted at one of the top10 resorts in the country – the Sun ValleyCo. in Sun Valley, Idaho. I stayed on the re-sort campus in the employee dorms, whichare about a third of the size of a dormroom at college. I worked at the InnBakeshop baking all sorts of pastries on adaily basis − everything from croissantsand bear claws to quiche, cookies andmuffins. I even assembled a Black ForestCake every so often. Being away from homeover Christmas was tough, especially sincethat is the resort’s busiest time and the bakeshop was in chaos. But after the holidays were over and things calmeddown, it wasn’t too overwhelming. Although my stay was only 13 weeks long, this was an experience that I will neverforget and it will be a major part of my résumé and references for my future career experiences.” She is standing infront of Bald Mountain over the Big Wood River. The River Run Ski Lodge is to the left.

Molly Hannon ’06 (right) checked in. “On March 4th-6th, I danced for30 hours in Northwestern’s Dance Marathon. Each year, over a thousand stu-dents come together to raise money for charity and then dance. The benefi-ciaries this year were Children’s Heart Foundation and the EvanstonCommunity Foundation. My partner Kate Jaruseski and I danced with oursorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, and with the help of the Pine Point community, weraised over $1200. For the first time in its 37-year history, NU DanceMarathon raised over a million dollars, which is absolutely amazing. I can’teven begin to explain how fantastic this experience was for me. After 30hours, I was exhausted and it might have been that I was delirious, but Icouldn’t hold back tears when it was all over. Thank you again to everyonewho generously donated!

“As for the rest of my life, I’m still playing club lacrosse, volunteeringeach week at an afterschool program in Chicago and working in a CognitiveNeuroscience lab on campus. I’m also helping to plan Artsfest, which is aspring arts festival on campus for Northwestern and local Evanston artists.This spring I’m taking a class on War and Peace. We’re taking three monthsto read the book and doing extensive analysis along the way. It reminds meof the months I spent reading A Tale of Two Cities, which is still my favoritebook, with Mr. Salsich before our trip to France. I’m also continuing to studyboth Spanish and Psychology with a focus on Cognition and Neuroscience.”

2006Elma Burnham, 43 Wilcox Road, Stonington,CT 06378, eccburnham@gmail.com

Mariél Rice Frechette, 57 Denison Hill Road,North Stonington, CT 06359,m.frechette@comcast.net

Marshall Barres is enjoying college at the Uni-versity of Florida after having a rough first year.He has joined a Christian fraternity and has set-tled in with a great group of friends. He contin-ues to pursue a major in finance, and is doingan internship in California this spring. MelissaDush is in her second year at Washington &Lee, and earned dean’s list status for the fallterm. She spent last summer volunteering atThe Westerly Hospital, helping out with theironline auction, and working as a nanny. She alsotook a trip to Turkey, and spent time with Victo-ria Daukas, daughter of J.B. Daukas ’77. LauraHagen contacted Pine Point from the Universityof British Columbia in January. “I had a greatholiday season; it was so relaxing to get awayfrom all the usual chaos and just spend time

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Amber Weinberg ’07 wrote, “On November 10, 2010 I was sent tothe hospital for an emergency Caesarean section due to a conditionthat they found three days prior, toxemia, also known as pregnancyinduced hypertension. My daughter Kayleigh arrived two monthsearly. The next day she was breathing completely on her own; shewas a fighter from the beginning! She was hospitalized for onemonth then sent home for Christmas. We are both doing great andcan’t wait until she becomes part of the Pine Point family.”

Joe Holt ’08 (far right) reported that he, Jake Mortrude ’08, CodyWilliams ’08, and Parker Verhoeff ’09 have formed a band calledBear Garden. “We’ve played at a few local parties and we played atthe Mystic Indie Theater in November, and will be playing again inthe summer. We practice a lot whenever I come back home fromSt. James School in Maryland, which is over Thanksgiving, Christ-mas, March break, and summer. But the main time we play is overthe summer, which is why we haven’t played at many places yet.Last summer we recorded a demo and we have two songs from thaton our Myspace page, at www.myspace.com/beargardenmusic. Weplay most kinds of music, but mostly originals. The covers we playare usually classic rock, like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin,and Black Sabbath, but we’ve also played songs by more modernbands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Muse. I’m headed to BerkleeCollege of Music in Boston (where Jake’s dad went).” Jake will beattending URI, while Cody hopes to go to Oberlin.

Jake Mortrude ’08 played his final homebasketball game for the Westerly High

School Bulldogs in late February, and washonored along with other seniors. Here he

is shown with his parents, Kindergartenteacher Laurie and father Jeff. In March,

Jake headlined a talent show at Pine Point.He wrote a paper for his Senior Class Proj-ect entitled "Healing with Music.” To com-plete his project, in addition to his paper,

he sponsored the concert to raise funds forProgressions Music Therapy, a center inQuaker Hill. Money raised will be desig-

nated by Jake but options include: buyingnew instruments, helping to pay for music

therapy sessions for those with limitedfunds, funding a workshop, etc.

Victoria Garbo ’08 is shown sewing sutures lastsummer at the National Leadership Conference inMedicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.She graduates from Loomis Chaffee in June and

knows where she’s off to. “I’m going to Smith Col-lege in the fall. I got in early decision, so I’ve known

since December. It felt great to know where I wasgoing so early!” She plans to double major in biol-

ogy and philosophy on a pre-med track. Victoriaalso made the High Honor Roll at Loomis.

with my family. When we first got out to ourproperty up north, it was snowing, but afterthat it poured rain for a week straight. Every-one was talking about how it was going to beespecially cold and snowy this year because ofLa Nina, but it hasn’t really panned out. Itmostly stays in the 40s and rainy, which isn’tmy favorite, but when the sun does come out,it’s stunning to see the mountains around thecity covered in snow. Every time I talk to myparents it seems like you all have gotten evenmore snow; they’re seriously considering buy-ing a plow to mount on our truck for clearingthe driveway! I’ve got a busy semester ahead,but I’m enjoying every bit of it so far. I’ll be ap-plying to both of the programs for my doublemajor this spring, so I’m taking lots of scienceprerequisites as well as putting together myCreative Writing portfolio. I was elected the VPfor Property for my sorority, and I’m playing onour flag football and dodgeball teams. I don’tremember a time when I was ever this involvedor busy, but everything’s going well!”

2007Jay Greenfield, 8 Castle Meadow Drive,Pawcatuck, CT 06379, jayg763@aol.com

Amber Weinberg, 80 Peters Drive, Groton, CT06340, aweinberg89@yahoo.com

Allen Davis is thoroughly enjoying his fresh-man year at Williams College where he is dou-ble majoring in astrophysics and philosophy.

2008Wiley Markham, 150 East Avenue, Westerly, RI02891, wileymarkham@gmail.com

Jake Mortrude, 34 Chester Avenue, Westerly,RI 02891, bosox10mo@hotmail.com

Teddy Benfield is a senior at Berkshire Schoolin Sheffield, MA, and “can’t wait for the col-lege process to be over.” In post-season sportsnews, Lee Cattanach competed in the Foot-locker Cross Country Championships in No-vember at Sunken Meadow State Park on LongIsland. He earned All Northeast Team honorswith a 19th place finish in the senior boys’ racewith a time of 18:38 on a “cold, windy, fairlybrutal course.” The Northeast Region consistsof runners from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine,Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Is-land, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. JamesCrawford has been named to the High HonorRoll at Loomis Chaffee. Duncan Grimm wasaccepted early decision to Trinity College inHartford. Sam Hodgson got into UConn earlyaction, but he is still waiting to hear from otherschools to make any final decisions. In the “it’sa small world” category, he interviewed withMr. Hurtgen for Duke just before Christmas.Sam enjoyed catching up on Pine Point news.

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Catharine Garbo ’10 was recognized for her athletic achievements at herschool. She wrote, “I am so honored to have received the Coaches’ Awardfor this year’s varsity volleyball team, and since I am only a sophomore atThe Forman School, it is a great honor. I hope that volleyball will continueto be a sport that I play in the future and I have definitely grown a love forit! School is going great: this is my second year at Forman and I love everysecond of it. I’m getting all As and working very hard. I sure have missedPine Point and hope that all is well with my Pine Point family!”

2009Anna Holt, 43 Barnes Road, Stonington, CT06378, aeh5678@aim.com

Kyle Sebastian, 65 Coachman Pike, Ledyard, CT0 6339, bradliereels@gmail.com

Hannah Staley, 156 Long Wharf Road, Mystic,CT 06355, prepster245@aol.com

Hannah Staley is having a wonderful year atStonington High School. She wrote, “I havebeen busy working and preparing for the SATs! Ilove coming back to Pine Point to visit everyoneand see all the awesome things going on.”

2010Joseph Rosen, 49 Michael Lane, Ledyard, CT06339, joetheman1@gmail.com

Thomas Benfield is in his second year at Berk-shire School and “loves every second of it.” Inthe fall he did rock climbing for a sport andplayed hockey in the winter. For the second year,he is in the school chorus and men’s a capellagroup. Mark Crawford made the Honor Roll atLoomis Chaffee.

Marion Philippe ’11 (center) had plenty of Pine Point alumni on hand to hear her deliver her 9th grade speech. In atten-dance were: Kyle Sebastian ’09, Adam Verhoeff ’11, Victoria Ferrigno ’11, and Julie Philippe ’09, the latter introducingher sister.

Morgan Buffum ’10 (second from right) is enjoying a greatfirst year as a boarding student at St. George’s School in

Middletown, RI. He was a member of the cross country andswim teams and he hoped to play varsity lacrosse in thespring. He has explored the Classic Guitar Guild, Rock

Guild, Jazz Band and continues with his love of guitars andmusic. He and a St. George’s friend, “Up” Punyagupta from

Thailand, were home for a visit and they had theopportunity to hear Craig Harger and “Uncle” Charlie

Buffum’s ’75 (right) talk on their discovery of Oliver HazardPerry’s wreck of the Revenge on Watch Hill reef.

2011Samantha Linhares broke two records in her first two swim meets atThe Williams School! In their first meet against the Lincoln Schoolshe set the 100 breaststroke record in a winning time of 1:20.18 andin the 200 IM she swam a time of 2:34.22, breaking a record from1997. Victoria White is a Class IV (freshman) student at Milton Acad-emy where she is a member of the Speech Team.

To date, 440 members of the PinePoint family have given $245,000 tomaintain the strength of the School.

Coming

Full C

ircle

Supporting greatteaching is the focusof the Annual Fund.

Chip Riegel Photography

At the heart of the students’ experience at PinePoint is the close interaction with their teachers.Working with an experienced group of profes-sionals, the students at Pine Point develop theacademic and life skills they’ll need to succeed atthe next level, and beyond. In our safe and caringenvironment, students feel confident to take risks and test themselves in a variety of areas for it is only inpushing oneself that they can truly grow and find the resiliency they’ll need in a competitive world.

One of those dedicated and talented teachers playing an important role in the lives of today’s Pine Pointstudents is Julie Wright DelPrado ’89. With a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross in studio art andpsychology and a M.Ed. in creative arts in learning from Lesley College, Julie has returned to Pine Point as ateacher and is well-equipped to offer instruction and inspiration to her 5th and 6th grade students.

In the fall of 2009, Julie and her husband, Juan, became Pine Point parents. Putting into words the newchapter in their lives, she wrote at that time,

“Juan and I are enjoying our new role as Pine Point parents. Our oldest, Diego, started kinder-garten in the fall. I LOVE that Jeannie Williams, my former teacher, is now his dance teacher, andthat he has the same classroom teacher, Mr. T., that his Uncle Matt did. It’s crazy how things comefull circle. I feel so lucky to have Diego in such a nurturing environment, and we hope that Joaquinand Lorenzo will follow in his footsteps.”

Julie is exactly the kind of teacher and person that parents hope to have mentor their children. In this, she isjoined by over forty colleagues who every day focus on providing a quality program for 240 children frompreschool through 9th grade.

Please consider a gift tothe Annual Fund today.

Julie Wright DelPrado ’89 (far left) with her classmates on their graduation

Donors can send a check payable to Pine Point School or they can go to the School’s website(www.pinepoint.org), click on Giving, and then Annual Fund to make an online gift.

Pine Point School89 Barnes RoadStonington, CT 06378-2200

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Old Mystic, CT 06372Pine Point pays the U.S. Postal Service a fee forevery magazine not deliverable as addressed.Please help us manage our costs by informing theSchool of any change of address of members ofthe Pine Point family.

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As part of the evening concert for Peace One Day, current Pine Point parent andConnecticut College Associate Professor of Dance Susan Connelly (second fromright) led her group in a performance of Dansaa, a dance from Mali, West Africa thatis traditionally done at weddings and celebrations. Also shown are Charlotte Rosen,Rachel Potchiba, Jessie English and Khadija Griffiths.

(Photo courtesy of Black Dog Photography)