The Brunswick Trust “With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding”

Brunswick boys spent the holiday season and the winter months practicing gratitude and kindness and reflecting on respect for self and for those around us. We are grateful to the boys for their care of our Brunswick family and our surrounding communities.

Character & Leadership

Middle Schoolers mailed missives of gratitude to friends and family in November after gathering for a Gratitude Assembly that got them thinking about the benefits of gratefulness, as well all kinds of things to be thankful for.

Brunswick Trust coordinator Kate Duennebier was moved to put together an assembly on gratitude after thinking about the Thanksgiving holiday — a celebration we trace back to the Pilgrims but one that was actually enshrined on the calendar by Abraham Lincoln during the height of the Civil War.

“Think about the holiday for a moment,” Duennebier said to the boys. “We all pause. All of America. It’s not a religious holiday. It’s an American one, and we get to share in it together.”

Duennebier also conveyed some of the science of gratitude. She pointed to three scientists who have shown that being thankful and saying so helps others and especially ourselves.

“It’s a long way of saying that research has found that expressing gratitude not only boosts our own happiness, but also has lasting effects more than most anything else,” she said.

Boys did more than just learn about gratitude. They also practiced it.

They broke into advisories to write letters of gratitude to friends and family — the letters went out in the mail just before Thanksgiving.

They further kicked off a “Gratitude Journal.” continued on page 2

“This is probably the most common (and easiest) method of becoming a grateful person,” Duennebier said. “It’s simple. You write down three things you’re grateful for every day. The idea is that in the beginning you’re naming the big stuff. But as time goes on, you have to pay more attention. Observe.