December 12. 2024
Hello, All. I hope this note finds you well as we rush towards Winter Break. So much to do in the next 10 days – the middle school play for all, the Winter Concert for chorus and band families, and a host of events in each division for the students therein, ending with an all student assembly and buddy time on Friday, December 20. A not to be missed event. Take a deep breath, it is going to be a hustle to the end.
Last Thursday, December 5, our weekly high school assembly hosted Barbara Martinez, LREI ‘74, and a long-time HIV/AIDS activist. Barbara was in NYC for a host of World AIDS Day (December 1) observances and made time to visit her alma mater. She spoke about her work in Latin America advocating for the rights of AIDS patients and working to bring healthcare to this group. She spoke of her loved ones and friends who died of AIDS and of the early days of the struggle to bring care and comfort to those she loved. She spoke of visiting LREI in 2019 and meeting fellow alum and winner of our Distinguished Alumni Award, Jeffrey Friedman, writer and director of Common Threads: Stories from the AIDS Quilt, winner of an Academy Award.
Barbara was inspired by this conversation to create her own film chronicling the efforts of Brent Nicholson Earle who ran the perimeter of the United States, roughly a marathon a day for 20 months in what he called The American Run for the End of AIDS. Itself an award winning documentary, the students watched this film and had the opportunity to hear from Barbara and to ask her questions.
One of the questions, asked by a tenth grader, inquired how Barbara found her inspiration and another student asked what the students could do to become young activists. Barbara shared that it was her personal experiences that launched her work and the immense need as what sustained it. Her message, as it evolved over the course of her comments, seemed to be that if you are inspired, passionate, driven, and have support in developing the necessary skills, you can accomplish so much. Barbara’s example – a successful professional inspired to tell an amazing story, supported by those who could teach her the skills she needed all leading to this wonderful film.
We see your children developing these skills and passions. We see it in lower school class projects including the second grade canned food drive. We see it in middle school classroom and extracurricular activities and in high school students creating “X-Blocks” (student activities/groups.) We see it in the work of our high school student led community service group – Engage for Change. We see it with the countless ideas shared in academic classes – the combination of optimistic ideas, hard work, and skills.
Barbara’s latest project began, as I shared, at her 45th LREI reunion. The class of ‘25 will celebrate their 45th reunion in 2070. When we see them in 2070 what passion will have driven the “student’s” lives in the years since graduation? What stories will they tell of their journey? What will they share with me during that visit about what they remember from their time at LREI that they carried with them along the way? I cannot wait to hear these stories.
