Craig Gemmell Statement on Today's Peaceful Demonstration

Craig Gemmell

Jun 5 2020

To members of the Brewster community and beyond,

Today’s peaceful and meaningful gathering in Wolfeboro along South Main Street near our campus and Brewster’s DeWolf Field made me incredibly proud. Though this was not a Brewster event, but rather a larger Wolfeboro community demonstration, it was organized and led by our Director of Equity and Inclusion programs, Melissa Lawlor, and countless members of our faculty, staff, alumni, and students felt compelled to participate and help spread the word. Kevin Duffy, Peter Gilligan, and others ensured the area was safe for the demonstrators with traffic oversight and safe-distancing marks to guide people. More than 500 people came, and hundreds more honked and waved in support—demonstrators stretched from the far side of the First Congregational Church all the way to Huggins Hospital.

Thank you all for showing what a peaceful and safe demonstration could be.

As I said in a letter to our community recently, in this atypical spring, I find myself wrestling with the uncertainties wrought by a global pandemic and overwhelmed by the violence enacted on persons of color and the systemic racism that fuels it. I said I was struggling to feel hopeful. Today’s demonstration, which also served as a vigil for those black and brown lives cut short by racist violence, offered a glimmer of hope.

As Melissa Lawlor said today, let us use this moment as a starting point to take the steps we each need to take to dismantle racism and heal racial divides. For some, that comes in the form of educating ourselves by reading and listening. For others, it means donating time, talent, or treasure to the groups who are leading the way for change. For all of us, it means looking inward at our own reactions and understanding of how justice is not administered equally to everyone.

As a learning community that values the joy, understanding, and enriching relationships that diversity brings, we at Brewster embrace the role educators play in growing young minds in a way that dismantles injustice and systemic racism. As our students go on to lead their lives of purpose, I hope in the deepest sense that we have given them the tools to stand up for equality and justice.

Sincerely,

Craig Gemmell
Head of School