Community

Community events came back with new life in 2022–23 thanks to easing restrictions and regulations ushered in by the pandemic. Our Opening Day Ceremony was a surreal experience: all grades, from First through Twelfth, were finally able to gather under the canopy for one of our most important festivals of the year. We welcomed the youngest students into the Grades, and we celebrated the beginning of the final year of schooling for our Seniors. This joyous moment was followed quickly by a fiery and courage-filled Michaelmas, confirming once again the importance of coming together to celebrate the turning of the seasons. Waldorf Wednesdays also brought Parent Partnership (formerly “Parent Education”) content back to our parent body and included topics ranging from the who, what, how, and why of our Gardening and Farm curriculum to the developmental rhythms and milestones as understood by an anthroposophical child development. The spring auction–gala, Come Together!, furthered this celebratory reunion mood with a 70s-themed party (to harken back to our earliest days on this land) hosted in a far-out and utterly transformed Linden Hall. The generosity of our parents and of the wider community was evident and felt during the auction–gala but also acutely during our Community Workdays, which were revitalized and hosted by our Parent Guild. Through giving and expressing our connection to SWS with our actions as well as our words and wallets, we were able to make tangible impacts on the school that we all love and treasure and on its phenomenal community members, whom we love with all our hearts and souls. Nothing compares to being a member of the SWS community, and we hope that this feeling of connection and interdependence grows, develops, and thrives in the future.