The Faces of Homecoming

We had spectacular Homecoming festivities over the weekend with most sports teams winning, glorious weather (thanks due to our Chaplain, Rev. Malcolm Wilson), and a great sense of energy from our students, returning alumni and families.

This is actually the first Appleby Homecoming I’ve attended where the weather wasn’t problematic. I was starting to get a complex, so I’m glad that particular streak is broken.

Some of the highlights included: hosting the 50 Year Reunion Club and the Class of 1989’s 25^th Reunion at our home on Friday lunch and dinner, respectively; the re-opening of the Memorial Classroom Building after a complete renovation over the last three summers; and the student house trivia competition and pep rally on Friday and Saturday. (I’ll put some of the more interesting questions from the former in my next post. BTW - Powell’s House won the trivia competition.)

On Saturday, we help the Reunion Dinner in Schlesinger Dining Hall. I realize that hearing from the Principal is not the #1 priority for returning alumni, but I shared a few thoughts anyway. In addition to providing an update on recent Appleby successes and encouraging them to support the school, I made the following reflections on Homecoming:

“I have been struck by 5 sets of Appleby faces that I saw over Homecoming.

The first was the face Robert Fleming who drove in from Kingston, walker and all, for his first visit in many decades to attend the luncheon at our home yesterday from grads of 1964 and earlier – the 50 year club.

With his twin brother Louis, Robert first came to Appleby 80 years ago in 1934 as a nine-year-old boarder.

Over lunch, Robert talked about how he ended up here from England to a school of fewer than 80 boys. He remembered how wonderful and kind Headmaster Pervical Wickins was, but how he sadly and suddenly died of cancer at the end of the school year after only telling people a couple of weeks before. Robert explained that he and his brother shifted to Lakefield to finish high school. After pausing for a bit, he then exclaimed – with his blue eyes twinkling and a big, broad smile – that on reflection, the happiest years of his life were in boarding at Appleby.

The second set of faces I that struck me were of the faces of many, many members of the class of 2014 who came back after having graduated just three short months ago. They were also smiling and full of joy about seeing classmates and former teachers.

But speaking with them, I get the sense that they are different people. The have the confidence of adults coming back to their alma mater, rather than the proud yet nervous grad about to leave the nest to take a giant life-step. I heard stories about how well university is going, and how they look back on their teachers and on their experiences – be they in the classroom, on the playing field, sleeping in a quinzhee in Temagami, or helping build a school in Kenya – they look on these with an emerging sense of broader perspective, and, as a result, much deeper appreciation for what their Appleby experience was all about.

The third set of faces that I think about are the 5 faces of the soldiers of the sculpture “Remembrance and Renewal” in front of the Memorial Classroom Building. We officially re-opened this morning, 65 years after it was first opened in 1949. It has been completely renovated and is a spectacular example of what leading edge learning space should be. And the statue, which we dedicated last June 6 (the 70^th anniversary of D-Day) is a variation by the same sculptor of the centrepiece of the Juno Beach Memorial. Remembrance and Renewal’s dual purposes are 1) to remind us that the Memorial Classroom Building was built as a tribute to the AC men who fought and died in WWII, while also 2) inspiring alumni and students to exhibit those same values – sense of service, duty and commitment to bettering society throughout your lives. Each of the five faces of the sculpture shows a different emotion. It is a beautiful piece and you should make sure you take the opportunity to look at it lit up at night, and also see how the building has been transformed since your time as a student.

And the fifth face that I remember well is that of a young boy I chatted with this afternoon. He is maybe two or three and was all hyped up on ice cream, noise and excitement. When I asked him what he was doing, his brown eyes got really big, and he had one of those earnest faces (coloured with Appleby-blue facepaint),and he told me in a loud voice with a blend of great gravitas and bursting pride that “This is my Daddy’s School!”

I don’t know who was prouder – the boy or his father. But it captured for me how a great school is about community beyond just what happens here on campus.

Those five sets of faces capture much of what was great about Homecoming today.”