December 2005 -- It's All in the Family

When we talk about “family” at PDS, we are referring not only to our current students, parents, grandparents and employees. The Day School family has always included alumni/ae and their parents and grandparents as well as former faculty, administrators and staff. And whether someone has been part of the PDS community for a long or short period of time, as far as we’re concerned, they are forever part of this—our extended—family.

In mid-November we learned that the unthinkable had happened. For a reason that no one can even begin to fathom, Caitlin contracted meningococcal meningitis. When she died from this disease soon thereafter, all of us here at PDS—as well as, I’m sure, her teachers, friends and family at home on Long Island and at Marist—were stunned. How could something like this happen? Why Caitlin? Why now?

While contemplating these eternal and inevitable questions, we can, perhaps, draw some comfort and strength from the PDS community that surrounds us. And even in this time of tragedy, our PDS family has been extended and enriched. Professionals from the Dutchess County Department of Health, including senior health advisors Linda Squires and Andrew Evans and health commissioner Dr. Michael Caldwell, banded together with our own team of teachers and administrators to confront this complex and difficult situation quickly and sensitively. We are most grateful to them for doing so and welcome them into our community as new members of the PDS family. As one faculty member who never met Caitlin, but who reflected on how the community responded, remarked: “It was a situation where anger at the source of the health threat to the community might be a reasonable first response, but compassion for a stranger won out.” If ever any of us are in doubt about what is at the core of our PDS community, it is times like these that affirm our identity.

This season, our students are continuing to demonstrate their commitment to expanding the definition of “family” by reaching out to others through a variety of community service activities. Our peer counselors are sponsoring a toy and gift collection in conjunction with the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which addresses the needs of children with life-threatening conditions, while students in the 20/20 CS have hosted a food collection for the local community as well as a “Skip a Meal Day” fundraiser, the 1-2 classes have sold lemonade to benefit childhood cancer research and the list goes on; each week brings a fresh initiative from members of our community to push us to reach beyond ourselves.

I ask that when you come together within your own immediate families to celebrate this holiday season, you pause to think about others in our larger community, some of whom we have come to know just recently, a few we got to know just a little and others we hope to know in the future. All are and forever will be part of the PDS family.

Sincerely,

Liz Vinogradov