CAMPUS LIFE
Living like fred n May 15, science
teacher Steven Bailey P’09 led a group of about 40 students onto the lawn behind Conroy House, the home of Head of School Peter Becker and his family, for a stargazing party. It was a low-key affair, one of several outdoor activities planned as part of the last Community Weekend of the school year based on the theme, “Live Like Fred.” Starting in October, on the weekend before School Walk, students participated in outdoor activities with their cohorts on designated Friday evenings and Saturdays. The groups rotated through different activities throughout the year. From Bailey’s star lectures and firepits on the KovenJones Glade to night hikes at Steep Rock and the Macricostas Preserve, fishing, canoeing and kayaking from Beebe Boathouse, navigating low ropes and camping at South Street Fields, these weekends fostered a sense of community among boarding and day students while connecting them to our founder and his love of the outdoors. Peering through a telescope, Bailey said the students he accompanied could see why Mars is called “the red planet,” and were
22
The Frederick Gunn School Bulletin
intrigued by the craters and mountaintops on the moon. Afterwards, they were treated to hot chocolate and s’mores, and enjoyed a relatively technology-free evening around the firepit with glow sticks. What struck Bailey was the simplicity of the event, and how spending an evening like this, outside in the spring air, could have easily transpired during Frederick Gunn’s time. “The students really liked doing it. Many of them have never looked through a telescope before. A lot of them said, ‘Even the moon looks spectacular!’ You can see the mountaintops. You can see where the sun is hitting a mountaintop in a dark area. It was great to see their reactions,” Bailey said, adding that students also played bean bag games and jumped on a trampoline. “It was pretty homespun. They were having a great time, talking to each other and moving from activity to activity. It was just a really enjoyable evening without screen time, for the most part. Some of them
took pictures on their phones but it was mostly no technology,” he said. “It was really fun.” One of the silver linings of this challenging year was the way the community embraced the benefits of spending time outdoors, said Jim Balben, Director of Residential Life, who planned and organized the Live Like Fred weekends with Rebecca Leclerc, Director of Outdoor Programming. From eating meals on the dining hall terrace and the Koven-Jones Glade, to countless firepits, weekend fishing trips at Beebe Boathouse, and multiple hiking and camping trips, Frederick Gunn School students and faculty epitomized the ideals of Living Like Fred. The Dean of Students Office plans for this new tradition to continue in the 2021-22 school year.
