-
Conservation Easement for Midland!
The State of California Wildlife Conservation
Board on Thursday, November 20, 2008,
awarded the Land Trust for Santa Barbara
County (Trust) a grant that
will be used to purchase a conservation
easement on Midland School's property. The
Trust has worked in conjunction with The
Trust for Public Land and the California
Transportation Commission on this project. The
easement will ensure that no future
development may occur on 2,727 acres of the
2,860-acre property, and will preserve
valuable watershed and oak habitat as well as
protect rare and endangered species of flora
and fauna. Midland will continue to
provide the hands-on, college preparatory
learning experiences and utilize its land as
an outdoor classroom as it has for 76 years.
-
Mascota Students: On Tuesday, November
18th, the Gelles family hosted its annual
"Chocolatada" for the Mascota students and
their Midland student hosts, as well as
Mascota teachers Martin and Pati. Hot
chocolate, cookies, and brownies stimulated
cross cultural conversation and then a "sing
off." Miranda '10 and Jessica '09 challenged
the Mascota students with a beautifully
rendered Christmas carol. The Mascota girls
responded by singing a romantic "banda"
ballad. Chinese students Libang '10 and Yu
Chen '12 then got in the act by singing in
Chinese! A good time was had by all.
-
Health Club:
With inspiration from Midland's Health
Director, Donna Williams, a Tuesday evening
"Health Club" is taking hold at Ireland
House. Marguerite Graham, Intern Gillian
Kinnear '04 and Donna invited interested
students to gather around the Graham's dining
room table for a "dinner party" prepared and
served by Donna, Marguerite and Gillian.
Using as
much produce as possible from the Midland
garden as well as grass fed beef from the
ranch and in a relaxed atmosphere, the group
focused discussion around health and
nutrition and invited students to suggest
ways to expand the conversation into the
community. Future clubs may include ideas
for healthy snacks, discussions about healthy
lifestyles, human sexuality, and ultimately
looking at answers to the question about how
we can choose a diet that the earth's
resources can sustain and that can best
sustain our bodies.
-
This past weekend November 14-16, Midland had a
booth at
the 7th Annual Green Festival in San
Francisco.
Thanks to Nora
Livingston
'07, Yaena Park '04, and Kathryn Lino
(current parent of Beau Lino '10) who all helped
out at the booth. We also saw Claire-Laure
Belt (current parent of Elora Belt '09) and
several other Midland fans!
Midland
was at the Western Boarding Schools
Association (WBSA) School Fair in
Portland, OR, on Monday, November 17th.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Thanksgiving at Midland: See Midland's Thanksgiving
Invitation for details and a
schedule.
2008 Green California Schools Summit:
December 9-10, Midland will have a booth at
the 2008
Green California Schools Summit &
Exposition in Anaheim, CA.
Midland's booth
will be in The Green Curriculum Showcase,
which is a special, highlighted area on the
floor with a focus on examples of green
lesson plans, curriculum, supplemental
materials, and much more.
* Free tickets are available to the 2008
Green CA Schools Summit for Midland community
members who wish to attend. Please contact
Karen Readey for tickets.
Paul Gelles took his Spanish II students,
with the help of Shawn McVicar and Gillian
Kinnear '04 as drivers, to the Santa Inez
Mission where they were given a tour of the
church and other rooms inside the mission
while being taught about the Spanish and
Mexican roots of the area. The students also
got to visit a market and a bakery, where
they studied and consumed some Mexican food
products.
Athletics:
For the first time ever, Midland's Boys Cross
Country team advanced to the Southern Section
Finals after a great race on Saturday at the
Southern Section Prelims. Midland took third
place in their heat, narrowly losing to the
state's third-ranked team Poly Pasadena by
two points. Midland had the 6th best team
time out of the 36 teams competing. Patrick
Holstein '09 led the Midland pack with a 6th
place finish. The other top finishers for
the team were Sheridan Stegner '09, 9th, Evan
Kidd '11, 17th, Joey Hermosillo '09, 18th and
Ross Kellogg '09, 22nd. This is a huge
improvement from last year when only two
runners from the team were in the top 25.
Seven teams from the Southern Section Finals
will advance to the State Finals in Fresno on
November 29th so wish the boys good luck!
See Midland's sports section
online for a full schedule of upcoming Soccer
and Basketball games.
Six students (Ross, Sophia, Jessica, Colin,
[seniors] William '10, and Meghan '11), along
with faculty members Will Clark, Rob
Hopkinson, and Derek Svennungsen, have just
finished reading and discussing Cormac
McCarthy's The Road. They will be
moving on the McCarthy's epic Blood
Meridian next.
Bread for the Masses: Evan Klein,
Baker and a Chef at Full of Life Foods
(Flatbread in Los Alamos), has
started a
baking club with students on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. Students have helped Evan prepare
dinner rolls, pie crusts and pizzas. Look for
freshly baked rolls by Evan next week at
Thanksgiving!
|
