While most of us are on Spring Break, the Admission Office is busily preparing to mail decisions to 400 applicants. On the assumption that many of those who receive good news will be checking out the website, I am recycling several past Corners that speak to the mission of the school and the make up of the community. The page that follows first appeared on December 14.

Ceramics students sold elegant bowls, plates, cups and vases at lunch on Monday, and--in assembly--presented $350 in cash to Morgan Saunders, who has been raising money for local needy families.

Nobody asked Morgan to raise the money. Nobody told students to make and sell their pots; they just did it.

The popularity of winter sports left the afternoon dance activity with only a few souls...not enough to justify the program...so Kyle Tremblay came up with a new idea: Dance Club. Meeting in the evening, and during free time on Sundays, volunteer dancers have been rehearsing. On Thursday, they delivered five superb, holiday-inspired routines.

They're not getting credit for this. Nobody asked them to do it. They just want to.

Ives House surrogate dorm parent Sarah Whitehead organized a Christmas cookie-making party the other evening, and Bev Berton followed up with a gingerbread house-making project. There is nothing in their contracts that suggests they do this for the girls in Ives House. They did it because it's the right thing to do.

On Wednesday evening, about one hundred alumni/ae, parents, past parents and friends of the school gathered at the World Trade Center in Boston for a celebration of Proctor. When Mike Henriques spoke, he pointed out that Edna Peters, our baker, and bookstore manager Lida Beaudoin had come down for the event, because they wanted to reconnect with the dozens of former students in attendance. No one told them they should do this, but--Mike pointed out--it reveals something very special about this community. Here's the Chamber Ensemble entertaining at Boston.

What it revealed is this: the adult community here has established an ethic that exceeds professional expectations. It yields the intangible, something Mike calls the soul of Proctor.

One past parent came up to me and gushed, "We sent our children to three fine prep schools, but there's something about Proctor that sets it apart...."