Palmer Trinity School

EDITOR'S NOTE For this 40th anniversary edition of the Aerie, I can't help but look back. At Palmer Trinity School, we strive to honor our past as we continue to build on our future—a sentiment I believe is apparent in this issue, as we admire our growth over the past forty years. In our history, we have taken two separate schools and built one, inclusive, landmark institution. We have brought together two communities, always with a keen eye on conservation. Through our efforts, we have expanded our notion of what it means to serve one's community and to honor one's own spirituality. This history makes me think of the word collective. Our school is a collection of entities that both share and are motivated by a common objective—this objective being to create a learning environment that nurtures and sustains everyone in its community. Over the past four decades, this has developed in a myriad of ways. Think of a tree. The roots began forty years ago with the inception of Palmer School in 1972—later developing more roots as Trinity School opened in 1983. (For a comprehensive list of moments in our history, please check the Perspectives highlight on page 24.) Even with the severe damage inflicted on our current campus, caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, our tree grew back stronger, grew back faster, and it grew back with a determination to succeed. Branches developed: academics, faculty, staff, athletics, library, music, drama, art, community service, sustainability, and Alumni. Now the tree is fuller and can provide students with both shade and oxygen. It's worth noting that a tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches forty years old, ultimately clarifying the air and improving the environment on which it stands. Today, our school is a 40-year-old, glorious tree that protects and sustains us. It has weathered various physical storms, it has been patient as growth occurred all around it, and it has nurtured the comings and goings of students for the past forty years. It will continue to stand after each graduating class moves on, providing shelter, stillness and peace for students in our future. "If we represent knowledge as a tree, we know that things that are divided are yet connected. We know that to observe the divisions and ignore the connections is to destroy the tree." —Wendell Berry, American academic, cultural and economic critic, man of letters, and farmer Our collective community is forty years old. We celebrated in September with PTS Gives Back, an enormously successful event in which our students, parents, faculty, staff, grandparents, and Alumni participated in several service projects, both on and off our Palmer Trinity School campus. We came together again in November and December to celebrate the holidays, and we look forward to ending the year with our annual Reunion Weekend—an exciting event that invites Alumni back to campus to bask in the memories of their time at Palmer, Trinity Episcopal and Palmer Trinity School. As we continue to build on the past—as we do throughout this issue of the Aerie—Pat Brockway, an amazing individual who has had a hand in Palmer Trinity School since the early days, is the perfect Visionaerie. Her first child graduated from Palmer School in 1982, her second in 1985, and now she has five grandchildren attending PTS. We honor her, and the entire Brockway legacy at Palmer Trinity School in her profile on page 18. As for our collective, I've been a proud part of it for the last 7 years. I am enthusiastic about its future, and I am excited to watch as more branches grow, and our tree continues to blossom. Happy Reading, Suzanne Gottlieb Calleja W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 / 1 3 1

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