The ReMarker | February 2021

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The ReMarker • February 5, 2021

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Counselors

A profile on the school’s two new counselors, one in the Upper School and one in the Lower School. Page 14

Father-Son

A look into the unique dynamic between a fatherson pair in the school’s alumni network. Page 15

Study Abroad Checking in on past foreign exchange students from Spain and Japan to see where they are now. Page 18

In brief ORCHESTRA Nine members of the Upper School Orchestra earned a place in this year’s Texas Private School Music Educators Association (TPSMEA) All-State Orchestra, including violinists senior Varun Trivedi, junior Jedidiah Kim and sophomores Akash Raghunathan, Svanik Jaikumar and Branden Song; violists seniors Charlie Zhang and Rishi Mohan; and cellists sophomores Aadi Khasgiwala and Miller Wendorf. Due to COVID-19, the students will not convene as an ensemble for a three-day clinic and a following performance in the last days of January.

DEBATE Freshmen Ahsan Tahirkheli with Sid Bidare and Liam Seward with Anish Guddati won the John Edie Holiday Debate Tournament virtually hosted by The Blake School Dec. 18–23 as co-champions. Two weeks later, senior David Yang and junior Max Chuang made it to the round of 16 in the Billy Tate Southern Bell Forum Jan. 2–4, hosted virtually by Montgomery Bell Academy. In late January, senior Yang and juniors Sal Abbasi, Zayn Bhimani and Chuang competing in the Barkley Forum for High Schools hosted virtually by Emory University.

MATH TEAM This fall, the Upper School Math Team competed in a single-elimination bracket competition called Math Madness.

The competition was divided up into multiple divisions. The team competed each Saturday to advance to the next round, ultimately winning their division over Winter Break. The team does not have major competitions in the following weeks, but in the down time between events, the team is practicing its skills in addition to participating in informal competitions among students.

CS DRIVES The Spring Basket Drive will take place March 8-29 to benefit The Jubilee Center, the West Dallas Community Center, Genesis Shelter and Jeanie’s Place.

Following health guidelines, the Community Service Board has made adjustments to the drive to circumvent multiple people handling the baskets. Basket items and procedures will be explained as the drive approaches. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the blood drive will not take place this year due to an increasing number of cases and the presence of the new strain of the virus.

McDonald’s Week

A week to last

FEASTING During McDonald’s Week, students typically eat in participating restaurants to raise more money for Austin Street.

However, because of health regulations, these dinners will not be offered this year.

In a highly irregular school year, a modified McDonald’s Week will still take place during the first week of March.

A

mong the most prominent traditions here is McDonald’s Week, an annual weeklong fundraiser delegated to the Junior Class for Austin Street Center.

The phrase “McDonald’s Week” traditionally conjures images of raucous poolnoodle battles, spectacular chemistry shows, frigid ice baths, huge t-shirt stands and piles of food – a decisively pre-COVID-19 atmosphere.

For the Class of 2022’s McDonald’s Week co-chairs – juniors Sal Abbasi, Ashvin Nair and Alex Nadalini – adapting to the unexpected is nothing new. But adapting to the seemingly impossible is a different challenge.

Since their initial appointments over the summer, the co-chairs have been altering their plans for this year’s McDonald’s Week to the ever-evolving situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the school and surrounding area.

“We were in that mentality of expecting the unexpected,” Abbasi said. “We were trying to be ready for anything that was thrown at us.

We were meeting fairly often, just getting our basic plans down. I think our biggest job this year is to be as flexible as possible and to be as receptive as possible to the situation.”

Though McDonald’s Week has been officially pushed back to the first week of March, the co-chairs had been planning for a regular McDonald’s Week in November. The delay simply gives them time to plan further.

“We were planning for November because the worst-case scenario is we planned for the spring and it’s in November,” Abbasi said. “So we were planning for November, thinking that if we were planning ahead of time, that can only be good.”

EARLY YEARS In a proto-McDonald’s Week at Grandy’s in 1989, Athletic Trainer Robert “Doc” Browning (right) hangs out with high school students.

Interestingly enough, the McDonald’s Week community service drive didn’t start at McDonald’s at all. Athletic Trainer Robert “Doc” Browning took part in the inception of the event when it first began to take place at a Grandy’s restaurant location. However, in just a few years, the event moved to its namesake location.

“After the third year, Grandy’s was going into bankruptcy. There’s a few of them you’ll find around, but that one’s gone away,” Browning said. “When McDonald’s moved here, they learned of Grandy’s Week. We had

Grandy’s Week in the fall of that year, and then the first McDonald’s Week was in the spring, and then McDonald’s took over the fall. It’s been McDonald’s ever since.”

Since those early years, McDonald’s Week has changed and morphed into the event it is today. One new change the co-chairs are trying to make this year is greater involvement from Hockaday in the event, but this does not mean there will be a comparable event at that school.

“The idea was to get Hockaday more involved because, in the past, they’ve typically been present at McDonald’s Week, and it adds to the atmosphere, to the experience, and it adds donations to Austin Street,” Nadalini said. “It benefits both the experience and Austin Street.”

Hockaday junior Sarah Roberts is leading the way as the contact person and organizer for all things McDonald’s Week-related at Hockaday. As someone who personally participated in some of the auxiliary McDonald’s Week events, she hopes more Hockaday students will get involved to help Austin Street.

Roberts hopes Hockaday involvement also becomes a regular part of the event and that her position is similarly filled by that year’s juniors.

“I really hope that it does continue in further years,” Roberts said. “I obviously won’t be in charge, but I really do hope so because I think that Hockaday and St. Mark’s could really work together, do even more with these McDonald’s Week events than they have been doing in the past and help Austin Street Center even more.”

Though the circumstances for this year’s McDonald’s Week are extraordinary and limit possible events, there is a precedent for such circumstances. Following the destruction to the Preston-Royal McDonald’s following last year’s tornado, McDonald’s Week took a much different form last year.

“The co-chairs were running around for weeks trying to come up with new ideas when we didn’t even know if we were going to be able to hold the fundraiser,” former McDonald’s Week co-chair and senior Gabe Bines said. “I was super anxious and stressed, but as the weeks went on and we started to brainstorm more and more as a class, my anxiousness turned into excitement because I saw our class come together to defeat an obstacle that seemed impossible.”

With flexibility to ever-shifting circumstances, the co-chairs believe last year will give a good template of what this year’s McDonald’s Week will look like.

“I think it’s going to look parallel to last year’s where most of the stuff will be happening on campus,” Nair said, “but there’s going to be separation between the different schools this time because of COVID. But overall, nothing really is going to change from last year.”

Storytime with Doc

Having been with the event since its inception, “Doc” Browning has several stories related to McDonald’s Week from throughout the years. Here are some of his stories in his own words: Jamie Alexander [the director of Grandy’s’ public relations] told me that they got over 200 requests a month for stuff like this, but, when she saw our proposal, it jumped off the page at her like nothing she had ever seen. We said that we were going to do something for you. We’re not just coming in and saying, ‘Give us something.’ We will pack your restaurant for a week and increase your receipts and increase your business and give you publicity. All you have to do is something for somebody else.

Somewhat early on at McDonald’s, we would designate each day as a special day.

We had Hockaday Day, we had Lower School Day and, on Fridays, we had community leaders come down. We actually had the mayor, Lamar Hunt, and local congressmen come to Grandy’s, just to join in on the celebration and all of that.

McDonald’s corporate now offers what we do to other schools around the country that are in close proximity with other McDonald’s. This program that we have done here has flourished and blossomed beyond the borders of St. Mark’s and beyond Dallas. It’s become a model for other programs around the country.

The various possibilities of what McDonald’s Week could look like are essentially funneled through the Health and Safety subcommittee, chaired by junior Adam Wang. This subcommittee helps manage what regulations and restrictions need to be put in place for a safe McDonald’s Week.

“We’re thinking there are three possible ways McDonald’s Week could look,” Abbasi said. “It could either look like how things are looking right now – no visitors, we can’t have any people in contact at all, no large groups.

We have a better scenario: maybe some visitors and larger clusters of people. Then there’s the miracle scenario where COVID essentially goes away, and we can have a near-natural McDonald’s Week. Those are the three ways we’ve been planning this event.”

STORY Axel Icazbalceta, Jamie Mahowald, Will Spencer PHOTOS Jerry Zhao, Collin Katz, Courtesy Robert “Doc” Browning

Talking with the co-chairs

Quick responses from the event organizers on why they’re doing it, their favorite McDonald’s foods, and more Ashvin Nair co-chair

Sarah Roberts Hockaday contact

Why did you want to be co-chair?

When I came to St Mark’s in ninth grade, McDonald’s Week was an event where I got to meet the rest of the Upper School. It’s been a special event for me since then. During ninth grade summer, I had some experiences working with the homeless, so that’s why this cause is really meaningful to me.

What’s your favorite McDonald’s menu item?

My favorite menu item is definitely the fries.

What’s your favorite McDonald’s menu item?

I really love McDonald’s fries, especially when they have extra salt on them.

What’s your favorite McDonald’s Week memory?

I really like the dinners last year in the spring. A couple of my friends from track, we would all go to the dinners after practice. It was a really good excuse to get out, and it was also a fun way to raise money.

Alex Nadalini co-chair

Sal Abbasi co-chair

What’s your go-to McDonald’s order?

I usually go with a 20-count, a Big Mac and a McFlurry with some fries. It doesn’t make me feel good later on, but I like it in the moment for sure.

Why did you want to be co-chair?

Growing up at St. Mark’s, I always knew it was a big deal and a lot of fun. I just want to help out and help make it run smoothly in a year where it’s really important, and I just want to be a part of it.

What’s your favorite McDonald’s menu item?

The cookies. They are so cheap, you can get three for a dollar. They’re so good, and you can order them warm too. The cookies, not even a question.

What’s your favorite McDonald’s Week memory?

My favorite memories of McDonald’s Week have been my walks with Doc to campus, and just watching everyone have such a good time.