Dear TCS Community,
As I reported in my January 6 News Notes letter, the Touchstone marketing task force has been working with a talented creative firm to tell our story in new and more effective ways. A key piece of that work included creating a pithy tag line to capture Touchstone’s distinctive mission and practice. The new tag line (“Engaging. Inspiring. Empowering.â€) was in full evidence at our January 7 reunion for alumni in high school and beyond, and their parents; the event gave us new insights about the lasting power of a Touchstone education.
The reunion did not have auspicious beginnings. When we created our 2010-2011 calendar, we chose to delay setting a date for the event. We did not have a lot of volunteer help on the event. But as we moved through the fall, we realized that we simply shouldn’t do without an early January reunion for alumni and their parents. The energy that surfaced that night demonstrated the three newly named TCS elements in unexpected ways.
- Engaging–After many of the alumni and parents had arrived, Seth Mansur, our OSP aide and student teacher, announced that he had just installed the new chicken coop between the compost bin and the greenhouse that will house two chickens from his brood and will provide us with the newest sustainable teaching space on campus. When Seth invited people to look at the chicken coop, half of the gathered group flocked with him. Our alumni are so quick to invest themselves in a learning activity and to support a great one that is just getting off the ground.
- Inspiring—Fred Chassman, a parent of three alumni (and uncle of a fourth) came all the way from Bow, New Hampshire, to express his thanks personally for the inspired work they did with his children, now young adults. Parents of the first OSP graduating class came with their children, while still other parents of our newest alumni showed up to tell us the stories of how their children have flourished in their lives after TCS, paying our work forward in dramatic ways.
- Empowering—Chad Minnich and Sarah Kipp, current parents and members of the marketing task force, arranged for a Grafton public television cameraman to film Sarah’s interviews with alumni and their parents. We thought we might have difficulty getting people in front of a camera. Instead, the invitation tapped a reservoir of energy within parents and alumni alike, all in pairs or small group interviews—proof that TCS helps people find their voices in unexpected ways.
The power of Touchstone’s education emerges from the connection between our mission and our practice, and alumni and their parents are some of the best judges of that. As tired as I was when I left the building and as dark as the winter evening was, I noticed that the lights on the gazebo were illuminating the hope banners much more brightly than ever.
Warmly,
Don Grace, Head of School