First Build-Day of the school year, September 11, 2022
The first time I volunteered at Mount Vernon was chaotic as best. I had signed up to help on a set day. There was a gentleman watching kids paint a forest on paper, one of the older girls was covered in green paint. One group was sorting fabric and trying on hats; another group was using power tools. My husband wandered towards the power tools, and I went as far as I could in the opposite direction. Behind the stage, I found moms and a grandmother working on souvenirs to sell during intermission. I could help do that. Soon my youngest daughter, who had a friend visiting from out of town, ran up to us. She had brown paint on her nose and was excited because she had painted a squirrel in the trees.
What I loved about that moment was the different ages coming together to make something magical.
This past weekend we had some of that magic again. Surrounded by kids from Upper, Middle, and Lower School as well as several parents, we worked on reindeer and set pieces, designing what would become a marble floor. There were two nutcrackers involved. The 3rd graders can now tell you how the large format printer works, and I promised them some 3D printing next time. The Lower School students worked with Upper School students to paint, and with parents to use the jig saw to cut out the reindeer’s body.
Our MS student helped direct traffic and kept the US black-box clean while kindergartners rolled up patterns in between putting coats of paint on the Nutcracker. That little girl covered in green paint is now a senior and managed to get black pain all over herself. The pure joy she expressed made it worthwhile.
I want to thank the volunteers who joined us this weekend for bringing back the magic I discovered in my early days at Mount Vernon. COVID stripped us of these traditions for a little while, but it was fun to see them back. Thank you again!
Join us at our next Build on Saturday, September 24th at 10:00 – please bring the kids – they make everything so much fun! (Spoiler alert, they’ll be building dinosaurs…). Following that, we have even more dates coming soon, so join us one weekend and bring the whole family.