The Secret History of Pinwheel Day

For years, the origins of Pinwheel Day have been shrouded in mystery. Who started it? When was the first Pinwheel Day? How did it become an annual tradition? This year, in honor of our first #virtualpinwheelday, we connected with a person who can credibly claim that she established Pinwheel Day as we know it, and she shared her story.

WAKING UP TO FOUNDERS GREEN blanketed by colorful pinwheels that have appeared overnight as if by magic is such an intrinsic part of springtime at Haverford, it’s hard to believe Pinwheel Day began only a little more than 20 years ago. The tradition was born, at least as a recurring annual event, in spring 1998 thanks to a conversation between a stressed-out first-year student and a kindly alumna admission officer.

“It was the era of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, and of El Nino wreaking havoc,” remembers Mairead (Widby) Reinhard ’01 , who now celebrates Pinwheel Day in Northern California. “I was a freshman living in Gummere. The dawning of spring was utterly magical to a California girl who’d just gotten through her first winter on the East Coast.”

With her mother visiting, Reinhard dropped into the Admission Office to visit with then-Assistant Director of Admission Sarah (Ketchum) Baker ’91 , who mentioned that a year or two earlier on a beautiful spring day, someone had planted pinwheels on Founders Green. And that gave Reinhard an idea.

She and her mom headed to Mapes in Ardmore and bought the store out of pinwheels. That night, she set all 200 of them out on the green, ready to greet the morning sunshine and her fellow campus denizens.

“I woke up early the next morning to watch for a bit, and it was magical,” she recalls. “I was so glad that the weather cooperated. With all the spinning and sparkling, it seemed like there were more than 200 pinwheels. The day was calm, happy, filled with beautiful spring vibes. At twilight, I headed back out to pick up all the pinwheels to store them for the next year.”

She put those pinwheels in a basement storage space on campus and, inspired by the good feelings they’d delivered, decided to set them out every year. For the next three years she continued the practice, hauling the pinwheels out of storage and inviting a few friends to help her put them out and clean them up at the end of the day.

Before graduating, she decided it was important to pass the torch so that Pinwheel Day could continue after she was gone. “My senior year, I approached three juniors who weren’t close friends but were very involved with campus life and asked each of them to continue the tradition,” she says. “I left my bags of pinwheels in a campus basement for them and crossed my fingers. “

All these years later, pinwheels are still an important part of Haverford’s campus life every spring. We still don’t know who placed the very first pinwheels on Founders Green in the mid ’90s, the story of which inspired Reinhard in 1998. But there is no doubt Pinwheel Day owes its legacy to her desire, during her first spring at Haverford, to celebrate the changing of the seasons with her new community.

“Life should be filled with joyful surprises,” she says. “And I’m happy that Pinwheel Day continues to delight and entertain.” —Rebecca Raber

Mairead (Widby) Reinhard ’01 started Haverford’s Pinwheel Day tradition in 1998.