We lost a tall tree in the straight line storm that hit Duluth in July of 2016. Much to my neighbor's
amusement, I used a small electric chain saw to cut the branches and remove the limbs from the road. That saw was no match for the mighty trunk, however, so I hacked at that for days, using an old axe with a loose head. Then, one day, the trunk was gone and the earth was groomed where the tree once stood. To this day, I have no idea who pulled it out, but the act is still meaningful as it made this East Coast transplant feel as if I was part of the community, and that Duluth was a place where people just did what needed to be done.
I end this school year more appreciative than ever of our community. Together we achieved something special. Our COVID planning team began using the term "social compact" early last summer, asking families to agree to a shared set of rules, including some which necessitated sacrifice and inconvenience. Little did we know we would be asking this of you for a full year. In this final Community Conversation, I write to thank you for this show of faith. Your willingness to enter into this compact has been the secret of our success. Further still, it inspires and restores hope; specifically, the hope that our country can reunite for the greater good.
This week we will give the Centurian Award to students who have accumulated 100 hours of community service this school year. But, let's face it, we wouldn't have to stretch the definition of community service too far to honor each and every Marshall family with the award. When you skipped social gatherings, cancelled vacations, quarantined voluntarily, and wore your masks in public, you were putting in hours and doing our community a service; you were doing what needed to be done so we could stay in person.
Like the mysterious good Samaritan who pulled the stump from my front lawn, Marshall has a number of community members who toiled with little thought of reward this year. To list a few is to run the risk of missing the many, but Brianna Vander Heyden in External Relations quickly comes to mind when you realize just how frequently she volunteered to take on a task outside her job description. And then there is history teacher Sorrel Kaspszak who was seemingly everywhere-all-at-once this year. And let's not forget Brandon Hieb and our maintenance team who had the school ready for us day after day. I could go on for paragraphs, but you get the point. For us to remain in person required so much behind the scenes work, work that just had to get done.
At its best, Marshall runs on a combination of sweat equity and collaboration. When the school first opened and resources were scarce, for instance, the founding trustees loaned personal vehicles to coaches so our athletes could get to away games. This year, we embraced that ethic and took collaboration to another level. When we did so, our fellowship was even more pronounced. As difficult as this year has been, it has also been especially gratifying to know we leveraged this strength of community. From all of us inside the school, thank you for doing what needed to be done.