Foxcroft School Centennial: Keep Up with the Times, Pile on the Traditions — and Don 't Forget "Drill"
Middleburg, VA (PRWEB) April 24, 2014 -- When Charlotte Haxall Noland started Foxcroft School in 1914 with “24 girls and three day scholars,” she never imagined that more than 1,000 people and the U.S. Army would be on hand to celebrate the School a century later. At times in the early days, “Miss Charlotte” must have wondered if her dream of a school that “girls would love to come to and hate to leave” would make it at all.
It did. Today, Foxcroft is one of the preeminent boarding schools for girls in the United States, draws students from around the world, and has a leading-edge academic curriculum, outstanding student body and faculty, first-class athletics and riding, an enviable financial profile, and a 500-acre campus with three state-of-the-art buildings erected in the past five years.
And girls and women do indeed “love to come to” Foxcroft: Hundreds of alumnae from nine decades and more than 70 graduating classes will converge with students, faculty, family, and friends on the School’s Middleburg, VA, campus this weekend for a Centennial Celebration honoring tradition, innovation, and 100 years of joyful, girl-centered education.
Among those alumnae will be the chairman of one of the world’s largest food companies, an Olympic bronze medalist, the first woman to lead the Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnae, and a member of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame – just a tiny sample of the School’s illustrious graduates.
At Foxcroft's 15th anniversary in 1929, Miss Charlotte advised: "Keep up with the times. Don't be narrow. Have two rules: hard, good work and much fun. And pile up traditions." Saturday's Foxcroft: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” program (which is open to the public) reflects all of that and include one especially unique event. At 2 pm , 40 alumnae from the ‘50s and ‘60s will revisit their student days with a demonstration of military drill, accompanied by the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps and reviewed by retired four-star General Crosbie Saint.
With many of the participants in their 70s and beyond, this may be the last Foxcroft Corps’ last hurrah and they plan to make Miss Charlotte proud: Organizer Sheldon Withers, Class of 1961, sent out a YouTube video of the routine, demonstrating every precise move using a Swiffer sweeper (in lieu of the wooden “pieces” they will have Saturday) weeks ago and a two-hour practice session is scheduled for Saturday morning. A number of alumnae are coming back just to march,
"Keep up with the times" highlights on the schedule include:
--Saturday, at 1:20 pm: “The STEM Initiative: Super, Tantalizing, Energizing and Mezmerizing”
Foxcroft’s cutting-edge, girl-oriented science, technology, engineering and math program, discussed by Department Chairs Dr. Maria Eagen (Science) and Ms. Susan Erba (Math).
--Virtual Alumnae Art Show (Saturday,9am-3pm): More than 100 works of art in all media from 28 artists (spanning six decades) in 12 states, D.C. and the UK, will be displayed -- almost all virtually on huge video screens.
-- Campus Tour featuring Stuart Hall, Saturday, 11:15: See Foxcroft's award-winning "green" dormitory and learn how Foxcroft Goes Green.
-- Diversi-Tea, Friday, 4:30pm: Foxcroft’s history of diversity will be celebrated with a special gathering of those who have enriched and been enriched by the School’s multicultural community. The School’s first two African-American graduates will be there, along with international and ethnic trailblazers, to connect across generations and with current students.
Cathrine Wolf, Director of Communications, Foxcroft School, http://www.foxcroft.org, +1 (540) 687-4511, [email protected]
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