Each year grade 10 students sojourn to the Bucknall campus to meet up with their grade 3 Eagle Buddies at the lower school’s annual Pajama Day Assembly.
The event, held in the gym, celebrates a grade 3 service project in which students collect items for the Pajama Program, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
Over the past nine years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated thousands of items to the program, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.
Although the drive is primarily a grade 3 effort, all lower school families are invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby. Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urges parents to encourage their children to help the less fortunate by donating a new pair pajamas or book to the program.
This year’s assembly occurred on a special-dress pajama day a couple of months ago, when all students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school. Butch Keller, upper school head, kicked off the assembly by reading the book “Courage,” a story about bravery by author and illustrator Bernard Waber.
Students enjoyed hearing the story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller in his robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read a book with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who also had been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.
Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for lunch, socializing and field games.
“Being an Eagle Buddy is a lot of fun!” said Ellen Minkin, grade 10. “Today we’ve had a really nice time reading together, having lunch and just chilling out on the field.”
Her grade 3 pal, Bahar Sodeifi, said that she really likes the Eagle Buddies program and always looks forward to having the “big kids” come over for a visit.
Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
The pajama and book drive originally began at the suggestion of Rishi Narain, grade 12, who got the idea for the project when he was in grade 3, after watching the “Oprah” show. The show’s guest that day was Genevieve Piturro, founder of the Pajama Program. Narain was motivated to bring the cause to Harker, where he helped organize the inaugural donation drive.
Kindergartner Aiden Young recently served as the lower school’s “principal for a day,” thanks to an auction item he won at the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic.
Going by the name Principal Aiden, he took his seat behind the principal’s desk on the morning of March 23. His first order of business was canceling a faculty meeting to allow lower school teachers more time to prepare for conferences.
“The teachers were just overwhelmingly supportive in emailing him back with words of gratitude, each of which brought a smile to his face,” recalled Sarah Leonard, primary division head.
Leonard recalled that Principal Aiden passed up an opportunity to have lunch at a restaurant of his choice in favor of eating on campus. There, Chef David prepared him lunch that consisted of his requested grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup and water. While dipping half sandwiches into the soup, he rated the lunch as “very delicious,” said Leonard.
Later on in the day, Principal Aiden met one-on-one with Chris Nikoloff, head of school, followed by a meeting with the operational team of administrators, who each offered a summary of their respective roles at Harker.
At the end of the day, Principal Aiden directed a craft activity in his homeroom. Under his instruction, his peers made bunny ear headbands. Their determined work was rewarded with small packets of gummy bunny treats that Principal Aiden happily passed out at dismissal time.
The recent 20th Annual Ogre Awards, with its timely election year theme, marked two decades of entertaining performances by the grade 2 Ogre Academy.
“The Ogres are over, and the results of the election are in. The winner is grade 2!” said Danny Dunn, who serves as the show’s writer and director, as well as technical director of the Bucknall Theater.
Sponsored by the lower school library department, this year’s ceremony took place on “Super Thursday,” the afternoon of March 17, in the Bucknall gym. The second graders enthusiastically portrayed an array of colorful characters, including enchanted royalty, witches, fools, tricksters, heroines, villains and magical objects, based on the folklore of cultures from around the world.
Before the lights dimmed, audience members scanned their programs in eager anticipation of the production. They read about how, in the enchanted kingdom of Harker, a general election would be held, with one story elected to the highest office in the land – and subsequently named Best Story. “Candidates from 21 folk and fairy tales have thrown their hats into the ring in the hopes of securing the vote. It looks like a tight race!” stated the program.
The road to the Oval Library began with primary elections, whereby candidates lobbied for their literary party’s nomination. Once they had chosen their candidate, they faced off in the general election. There, 88 delegates of the 2016 Second Grade Ogre Electoral College decided who won the Best Story of 2016.
Lower school librarian Kathy Clark served as the storyteller and mistress of ceremonies for the show, which was created in 1996 by former library director Enid Davis, who retired four years ago.
“I have been lucky enough to be part of The Ogre Awards from the start, when Enid Davis first put the idea forward of a comparative folklore curriculum for the second graders. From the very beginning, we felt that this particular age was still eager to listen to stories and be old enough to have opinions about the archetypical characters,” said Clark.
Clark added that past Ogre Academy participants often reminisce fondly about the stories they represented and their roles. All participants receive a mini Ogre Award for their participation. “I know that many still have theirs, including Harker alumni!” she said.
The Ogre Awards show originally began as an evening performance. A few years later, it expanded to four shows (one per homeroom) until the production evolved to its current format.
There were plenty of election references at this year’s show, including talk of secret ballots, campaign headquarters, town hall meetings and mudslinging ads. According to Dunn, the clever idea of having characters campaigning for their awards had been in the works for a long time, “but of course we wanted to save it for an election year.” Elections seemed to work very well as a theme, she said, because it gave the characters a chance to explain why and how their stories were winners and best represented their categories.
Each year all but one of The Ogre Awards are bestowed upon fairy tale characters. A special Ogre Award is given to a member of the Harker community who provides exceptional service or support to the Harker libraries.
This year that honor went to Diann Chung, who became the lower school admission director in 2015. She came to Harker as a grade 1 teacher in 1995 and went on to teach grade 2 and serve as the K-2 department chair. More recently, she also took on the role of academic principal for the Camp+ summer program.
Chung said she was thrilled to receive The Ogre Award for Lifetime Achievement. While accepting the award, she shared that one of the things she misses most about being a teacher is story time. “Keep reading!” she urged the students. “Books are a wonderful magical transport.”
As the show came to an end, and the polls came to a close, it was time to announce the winner for the new term in office for Best Story. The much-anticipated Best Folk or Fairy Tale Award went to “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship,” a book illustrated by Uri Shulevitz that retells a Russian fairy tale of the same name. The win was especially notable given the fact that this is the first year the book has been a part of The Ogres.
Before concluding the awards show, Clark informed the cheering audience that The Ogres were made possible by a dedicated team of faculty, staff and parent volunteers.
“I am very proud to be part of a long tradition of Ogres!” said Dunn.
Physical education took on new meaning for lower school students on March 4, thanks to the annual Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser held during regular P.E. for K-5 students.
“No one had to be an experienced jumper to join in. It was good fun for a good cause!” recalled Jim McGovern, who works in the lower school’s P.E. department and spearheaded the event, which raised $9,589 for the American Heart Association.
Students were able to participate in a concurrent Hoops for Heart effort on the outdoor basketball courts during the first six periods, until rain forced everyone indoors, McGovern noted.
Some staff and faculty members also got in on the action, jumping rope in the Bucknall gym. Students and grown-ups alike had a blast showing off their double dutch moves in support of a worthy cause.
They also had fun playing with hula hoops and participating in a raffle for T-shirts, jump ropes and other gifts. Participants also signed their names on a special heart table to show their support for those afflicted with heart disease.
For the past few weeks, the lower school – under the leadership of the grade 1 students – has been collecting toys, collars, kitty litter, food, blankets and monetary donations for the animals at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley.
On March 21, the first graders helped carry the donations, which had been stored in the Bucknall gym, out to a car for delivery to the Humane Society.
“We had a lot of donated items. Some of the first graders did extra chores at home to earn money to donate. The total monetary contribution to the animal shelter was $486.86,” reported Rita Stone, grade 1 teacher.
Right before the service project began, the first graders took a field trip to the 80-year-old nonprofit animal shelter. There they enjoyed a tour of the facility and learned what the organization does, as well as how best to care for their own pets.
On the evening of Jan. 22, about 40 kindergartners and their families gathered in the lower school gym lobby for a festive Valentine’s Day-themed party. After enjoying a yummy pizza dinner, participants enjoyed making Valentine’s Day-related arts and crafts.
Thanks to a recent lower school dress drive, the holiday season was made a little brighter for at-risk and underprivileged youth at the Starbird Youth Center in San Jose. The items collected became part of a larger donation of more than 500 gifts that were handed out to clients of the center.
“There were about seven bags of boys and girls party clothing donated,” recalled Tere Aceves, Harker’s director of event fundraising. Last month the lower school hosted a holiday cookie decorating event, at which parents were asked to bring in gently used children’s dress clothing for the drive. About 60 parents heeded the call for such items.
Harker parent Erin Vokey (Miles, grade 1) is the youth activities supervisor at the Starbird Youth Center and is in charge of the center’s day-to-day activities, as well as its literacy programs.
“We are an after-school program that works with at-risk and under-privileged youth. We help them by providing food, homework help and a safe place to go after school. We also do a program called The Good Choices, which is a basic moral guide that teaches them what are the right choices to make to lead a better life,” she said.
At the time of the dress drive, the center also had partnered with the Family Giving Tree to distribute gifts to clients and their families for its annual Christmas event, Vokey explained. “We set up a room where children picked out clothing from the holiday dress drive. This is the second year we have had the dresses there and it was a huge success. Fellow Harker parent Julie Carr (Aiden Harshman, grade 1) and her family volunteered to hand out all of the dresses to the youth in our community. It was an extremely heartwarming event,” recalled Vokey.
Another Harker parent, Stephanie Black (Chloe, grade 1), is the program director at the Starbird Youth Center. “Without her none of this would have been possible,” added Vokey.
Carr and her son (Aiden Harshman, grade 1) agreed that it was wonderful to see the joy in the kids’ faces when they got a beautiful dress, jacket or new shirt. “Stephanie, Erin and the entire staff at the center made it so easy for us to come in and volunteer. We are very grateful for the work they do and proud that we got to represent Harker’s philanthropy,” said Carr.
Carr noted that a fun, unexpected perk of being at the event was meeting the woman who does the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, who was there to donate a pinball machine for the kids. “It was a Simpsons-themed machine and the kids loved it!” said Carr.
“There’s nothing more inspiring than seeing kids learn how to make good choices in life,” said Cartwright, noting that one of the reasons she wanted to achieve success in her own work was so she would have the means to help others.
Of his experience volunteering, Carr’s son, Aiden, reported that it was “really cool.” He said that there were lots of games to play with at the center and that he enjoyed seeing the kids get toys. “It made me feel good in my heart.”
In December the lower school hosted a festive and fun holiday cookie decorating event for parents. Coffee and a light breakfast was served. Parents had been asked to bring in gently used children’s clothing for donation to the lower school’s dress drive, to help make the holidays more special for kids in need in the community. The middle and upper schools held their cookie decorating events together at the upper school campus, with both parents and students invited to attend. An unexpected side benefit of the activity was that it proved to be a great stress reliever for the high school students, who were able to relax in between taking their finals. In fact, it was so effective that talks are already in the works to bring it back next year during finals!
On the morning of Dec. 12, lower school students welcomed the holiday season by gathering for a beloved annual outing – the Lower School Skating Social. The event was held at Downtown Ice, a seasonal outdoor rink across the street from San Jose’s Plaza de Cesar Chavez. After the skate party ended, many families wandered over to the plaza to enjoy the festive Christmas in the Park exhibits and decorated Christmas trees, and to get a quick bite to eat at one of the food stalls. Among the displays was the Little Harker School House, where students were able to see what an old-time schoolhouse was like. There was also a tree decorated by Harker’s grade 2 Girl Scout troop. A great time was had by all!
The holidays will be a little brighter for a many underprivileged local families, thanks to the lower school’s annual toy drive. A grade 4 community service project, the effort began on Dec. 7 and ended on Dec.17. This year’s donations, totaling over 400 items, will be going to St. Justin’s Community Ministry and Sacred Heart Community Services.
“St. Justin’s Community Ministry is currently serving thousands of families and individuals each month at its location in Santa Clara, providing food, clothing and the basic essentials families need to survive. Each Christmas season, St. Justin’s, in conjunction with Sacred Heart Community Services, provides deserving families the opportunity to ‘shop’ and select the perfect toys for their children and family,” explained Ken Allen, lower school dean of students.
A group of students assisted Harker faculty in the counting and loading of the toys, as well as with their ultimate delivery to St. Justin’s. There they had the unique opportunity to meet with the director of the outreach program.
Although the effort was primarily a fourth grade service project, all lower school families were invited to participate. Children were asked to bring new, unwrapped toys to school, which were then deposited inside the fence located in the gymnasium lobby until they were delivered.
“We are grateful for your continued and generous support of the service projects on our campus!” said Allen in a letter to lower school parents thanking them for their donations.