A Day (& more) of Peace at NGFS

Last night we had our annual Community-wide Peace Picnic at our Pleasant Ridge campus. This has become a tradition at NGFS. It allows us to "lift up" for one day what we live throughout the year at our school. That is that resolutions, small and big, come best through peaceful methods. We stress throughout each day, and each year and our history the importance of thoughtful listening and reflection to work out solutions together, not by physical strength or majority rule.

We say in our Statement of Quaker Beliefs, about Peace: Friends are committed to settling differences in all human relationships in a peaceful manner.

So we do as a school community live this each day. Coming to non-violent resolution is not the easy way often, but we are convinced it is the right way. Therefore, we celebrate this Day of Peace as one component of the bigger picture at NGFS. We do encourage all in our community to take a moment next Tuesday, September 21 (the official International Day of Peace) to think about how you can create more peace in your life, in the life of your family and community.

Roots & Connections

Three events in the recent history of the school lead me to write this blog: a workshop I co-led at our staff retreat looking at the history of the school to help us build the curricular future, my first class with the upper division Quaker seminar students about the history of NGFS, and the work of the Diversity Action Group of the Board to connect with our first home, Persimmon Grove AME Church on Dolley Madison Avenue.

There are so many incredible people and places involved in the history of New Garden Friends School, but I would like to highlight the congregation of Persimmon Grove AME Church today. Back in 1971 when NGFS was just an idea, with many people trying to make it a reality, the congregation of Persimmon Grove AME Church opened its arms and its doors to provide NGFS with an initial home. Without this gift, who knows whether our school could have ever found its feet - to get to the place now where our students are able to soar.

What trust and faith the Persimmon Grove community had to welcome a new school into its facility and into its collective heart and conscience. NGFS was only there for a brief period, wanting at that time to be more centrally located in downtown Greensboro. But what a great start this provided the school.

Now, almost 40 years later, both communities are working to reconnect. On September 14th we will welcome friends from Persimmon Grove for a visit to our Guilford and Pleasant Ridge campuses and to have lunch with a group of our students. We are excited about this event. We hope to do more with the congregation in late October as a part of their "Friends & Family" celebration.

I want to thank the Persimmon Grove community for giving NGFS its start. Those roots are so vital now to our ongoing growth. I hope that our reconnection will be one that is long lasting, and that this part of our history will become a part of our future.