It’s the middle of January and we’re harvesting enough salad greens to feed the entire community from our greenhouse. The abundance is all thanks to the Fall Gardening Class who worked so hard to plant it all back in October. We have rows of bok-choy, parsley, swiss chard, a few different lettuces, radishes, spinach, beet greens, dill, cilantro, claytonia, and mustard greens. it’s a wonderful mix, and such a treat to be able to have in the middle of winter. Just today at lunch we had a great big salad picked fresh from the Greenhouse.

Our winter theater class will be putting on a fully-portable street production of "Hedwig & the Angry Inch" this February (dates TBA). This rock musical tells the story of "internationally ignored song stylist" Hedwig Schmidt, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock n' roll goddess who also happens to be the victim of a botched sex-change operation.
Senior student Olivia chose ans is directing the play. Students involved have shown much enthusiasm. Emma is playing the Rent-obsessed back-up singer Yitzak and says the plays score is, "awesome." Meg is playing the suave American Luther and looks forward to incorporating the audience during performances. Devin is playing Hedwig in his early years and says hes excited for the rush of stage fright. Caleb, playing sellout sensitive boy Tommy, is excited about the shows creative directions. Lamont is playing Band the Angry Inch's groupie and is excited about the whole thing.
This is the first time EVER that "Hedwig & the Angry Inch" has been performed by a high school ensemble.
As we hear more about the dates and time we'll keep you posted. Sounds like its going to be a good one!

Has winter finally arrived? More importantly, is it here to stay? The Competitive Games exercise class hasn't had to have a game inside yet because there's been no snow to stop them from using the athletic field, and its January! Yesterday was the first "storm" we've had all year, and we didn't get any snow. A storm left the campus coated with a half inch of ice, and left us in the dark for 12+ hours. It looks like winter might hang around with reports of temperatures in the single digits tonight, and highs around 30 degrees for the rest of the week. These are big changes from just a week ago when you could catch some bulbs coming up in front of the Art Studio. Its seems like the bulbs will be fine as long as we don't continue to have such drastic changes. Some of our trees wont make it out as well. Two large branches cracked under the weight of all the ice last night, and several others could be heard falling in the woods. Luckily nobody was hurt from the falling branches, but we have some clean-up work to do at Work Study. Here's hoping that the winter weather stays around for a while, and maybe we can get a little snow!

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Day
"I want you to go home and put down your weapons. We must meet violence with non-violence. We must meet hate with love." -MLK

The Meeting School students and staff are taking this day to remember Dr. King, and to participate in proactive activities such as letter writing, an random acts of kindness to our neighbors. There is also a film being shown. The plan was to attend a workshop in Northampton, MA for the day, but the weather forced us to use the almost better than plan A backup plan.
As is becoming the tradition, we began the day with a big brunch in the Hindmarsh Dining Room that included cinnamon rolls, hash browns, scrambled eggs, fruit salad, yogurt, and juice.
Students have split into three groups and are rotating through the three activities for the afternoon.

1. In Thomas House Sheila is showing the movie Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin. The movie shows the life of Rustin and his work behind the scenes putting together the March on Washington of '63.
   
2. In Bliss House Tracy is leading a Deliberate Acts of Kindness activity. Like last year this group is baking treats for our neighbors. At the end of the day a group will walk around and deliver the treats in hand made boxes with notes. Last year we received thank you notes from some of the recipients.
3. Finally, in Red House Fredrick is hosting a Letter Writing Campaign. Students will have an opportunity to write letters to their elected officials on whatever topic they deem most important.

"I believe firmly that love is a transforming power that can lift a whole community to new horizons of fair play, goodwill and justice"
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The school’s drum set has been repaired recently by the parent of a current student. With a lot of effort from Lex, and Devin in the form of fund raising, Meghan’s dad was able to repair the drum set to a usable state. Until the set was repaired there wasn’t anyone in the Music Studio this year. Now you can hear the drums being used throughout the day, and at night until curfew. Thank you to everyone who pitched in to help Lex and Devin get the money they needed for the repairs, and especially to Mr. Prouty for making it all happen.