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Lauren de Moll

The media is telling us that we just "survived" the snowiest February in the history of the region. I must admit that there were times in the past few weeks when I felt like survival was a good and reasonable aspiration to have. For the most part, though, having so much snow this past month at SRV felt more like a great opportunity and cause for celebration.

The obvious opportunity provided by so much snow on campus was for play. Most of the children currently enrolled at SRV have never seen this much snow in their lives. We had sledding, snowball fighting, and fort and even snow sculpture building for weeks. Childhood is so precious and so fleeting – what better way to invest in our children's health and well–being than to allow them to play, even to wallow in snow up to their waists?!

The children and teachers had to get creative about how to get around, and what else one can do outdoors when it takes effort just to walk. We had tunnelers – not just the children who dug "caves" into the snow banks, but little ones who literally got themselves forward head–first! Mike led hilarious games of "trudge" the bases and capture the flag. Children slid down snowy slides and banks on their tummies like seals. And icicles were used to decorate fairy houses and even to make windows in forts.

Of course so much snow necessitated lots of snow gear! In the half–day preschool groups, that meant dressing and undressing all of those children up to three times in four hours, providing opportunities to practice both self reliance and community interdependence. Children learned to pull on their own stubborn snow pants, boots, mittens, etc.. Teachers of other groups pitched in. I even saw one three year old help another with a pair of stubborn boots.

Finally, there was so much snow, and snow removal was taking such an unexpectedly large bite out of the budget, that we had an opportunity to engage the community in helping. It was a tribute to our families' dedication to the school and their community spirit that so many came to help us dig out. It was a fun day, with students and alumni working side–by–side with parents, teachers and board members. We had pizza and hot chocolate, a lot of laughter and sore shoulders. And we got it done!

This past February was challenging, tiresome, and costly. But it was also exciting, inspiring and fun. Thanks, everybody, for your patience and support. Here's to another recordbreaking February... er, maybe in a few years?