Dear Lawrence Academy Parents,
 
Happy summer!

I hope this letter finds you and your family safe, healthy and well. Despite the fact that summer is in full-swing, and many of you are likely in various parts of the globe, we at LA are thinking of all of you and looking forward to seeing you in the fall.

Speaking of the fall, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and share some opportunities for you to connect with other members of the LA community throughout the rest of the summer.

This is my eleventh year at Lawrence Academy and as the Director of Parent Advancement, I work with parents in all aspects of the LA experience through programs, volunteering and philanthropy.

Parent energy and commitment are critical to both the school’s identity and success , so I am excited to reconnect with returning families but also welcome and get to know our new families so that I can identify the best ways for you to be involved with the school and the rest of the parent community.

This year will likely look a little different than past years, but we are excited to find new and interesting ways to expand on our long standing partnership with families.

While I am sure you have been receiving a number of communications from the school over the past couple of months, I wanted to bring your attention to a few upcoming events.

Book Groups

We will have two LA parent book groups this summer that we invite you to participate in. They include the following ( links in red ):

  • Our all-faculty read for this summer is The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin. I will be co-hosting a book group discussion with Raquel Majeski, the Assistant Head of School for Equity and Community Life, on August 11 at 7:00 PM. A Zoom invitation and more details will be sent out the day before this event.
  • The second book we will be reading this summer is The Parents We Mean to Be by Richard Weissbourd. I will be co-hosting this book group with Libby Margraf, the Assistant Head of School for School Life on August 18 at 7:00 PM. A Zoom invitation and more details will be sent out the day prior to this event as well.

Volunteering

Parent volunteers are a very important and much appreciated part of our community.

We would love to have your help with any one of the many parent-driven events that occur during the school year. While the execution of our typical events is likely going to be different this year, particularly if many of them will have to be virtual, we are confident that through creative and flexible planning we will still have a strong volunteer program and great participation.

To get involved, just fill out the linked form and one of our parent leaders will be in touch as soon as school starts. If you have any questions before then, feel free to reach out to a member of the Parent Executive Board or reach out to me directly .

I look forward to connecting with as many of you as possible over the summer and once school begins in the fall. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime. My email is hswartwood@lacademy.edu and my cell phone number is 978-505-0299, which I am using until I am back in my office in late-August.

All my best,

Hellie

Director of Parent Advancement
978-505-0299