April 14, 2008 – Although spring is still slowly making its way to campus, Spring Family Weekend was upon us this past weekend. The morning began with Team Coffees where parents had the opportunity to get to know or re-connect with other parents from their students’ academic team over coffee and continental breakfast. At 10:30 a.m. parents gathered at Anderson Hall for a state-of-the-school update with Mike Cooper. Following Cooper’s remarks, the audience was treated to two musical numbers by cast members of the recent West Side Story production.

Photos of the Weekend.

Throughout the day parents of juniors had the opportunity for appointments with representatives from the College Counseling Office. In the afternoon, junior and sophomore parents packed the Link amphitheater to learn about the college admissions process from college admission officers. The panel included representatives from Bowdoin College in Maine, Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, and the University of Vermont.

Parent-teacher conferences were ongoing throughout the afternoon.

In the evening, families enjoyed dinner in the dining hall and then tried their luck in the “Estabrook casino” where faculty and administrators dealt the cards, rolled the dice, and spun the wheels, while gamblers of all ages tried to amass chips that would be turned into prizes at the end of the night. Who was lucky? Tom Holstrom’10 (with a lot of help from his entire gambling family) and Mason Maddox ’09 were pretty lucky, ending the evening with the second and third (respectively) highest amount of chips. Tom won an iTunes gift certificate, and Mason won a gift certificate to Brewster’s Campus Store. Luck was really on the side of history teacher Craig Churchill, however. Craig turned in over “$100,000” in chips to win the evening’s first prize, which was a pizza party for a dorm. Craig doesn’t live in a dorm, but there were rumors that the girls of Spencer House will be the lucky recipients of his gambling efforts.

On Saturday, parent-teacher conferences continued throughout the morning as did college counseling appointments. Dean of College Counseling Laura Duffy also offered a seminar for parents of juniors, which explained the college admission process and the role that Brewster’s Office on Counseling plays in helping students throughout the process.

Athletic contests were limited this weekend, due to weather, however, the boys’ and girls’ varsity lacrosse teams saw play on Friday afternoon. The boys played to a 15-7 win over New Hampton while the girls took a 15-3 loss to Holderness. The boys’ junior varsity lacrosse team had a big win on Saturday (14-0 over New Hampton).

After a short break, students return to campus Tuesday evening.