Comm unities

Inspired by my iconic, generous, beautiful sister, Edie Moon and my outstanding, kind, faithful brother in law, Jack Moon who was “Mr. Moon” (teacher, coach, Sunday School teacher, basically everything) long before he was my brother in law, “Jack”. My heart is heavy but full with the gratitude of thousands you have fully seen these many years. You taught them with love and to love.

Poem for the Moons Red Moon

By Jennie Purvis '83 High School Counselor

Burning through the early morning haze

The full moon startled me

As if waiting.

Suspended between night and day I knew it would disappear

So I stood and welcomed the surprise the joy of witness to its full color winter’s last yeonton glowing in a cool spring sky. A red rose or spotlight on the stage. We held each others’ gaze. A warm eye teaching me to be all of me and more.

Some say, “Don’t be like the sun Be like the moon, calm and cool.” Wisdom comes in darkness and in light The moon moves us when cicadas sing in summer heat and snow falls on black crow wings. Full and empty, seen and unseen Brother. Sister.

Shine bright on your journey around this small globe

Return and return, faithful and true

We hold all your gifts as close as these moments that astound, inspire, ignite and endure

Creation’s sermon on the fullness of time. A story I tell because you taught me how

From the beginning…

In July of 1988, Hye Sun Woo sat down for the first time in what has become her familiar perch peering toward the stairs and out into the Autirum. It was the first year for the middle school and SFS was proud to open a brand new building. Mrs. Woo was the first Administrative Assistant hired for the new building, working with the first middle school Principal, Jonathan Borden.

35 years have passed since that July, approximately 3,000 students have passed through the middle school, hundreds of faculty members have worked in the building and four different administrators have guided the school, yet one constant has remained. Since the building’s opening in 1988, Mrs. Woo has been inseparably linked to the middle school. Sadly it is now time for us to say goodbye to her after three plus decades of service to our students and faculty as Mrs. Woo will retire at the end of the school year.

Having worked with Mrs. Woo for the past nine years, I have seen the impact she’s had on our middle school community and the relationships she has formed with so many students. While I am never surprised by the numerous visits she receives from past students, I am always touched by students’ found memories of Mrs. Woo. She rarely forgets a name or face, even if it has been