The Class of '58 thought long and hard about an appropriate project to honor NMH and our 50th Reunion. The result is that we have two projects:
One honors our memories of and affection for the Northfield campus by bringing a piece of Northfield to the unified campus, a fund to move the carillon that has been housed in Sage Chapel since 1924 to the tower (specifically designed for it) in the new Rhodes Center for the Arts (below, as seen in February '08).
The Greenfield Recorder published this update in April (reproduced courtesy of the Recorder, Recorder.Com, Reporter Arn Albertini and Photojournalist Peter MacDonald).
The cost of moving is $500,000. Success will mean that the school will name the tower for the class, where "success" is defined as raising half that cost.
Photos by Ellie Payzant
Please help '58 bring the carillon to the Rhodes Center for the Arts. You can view a donation form and learn much more about the Rhodes Center at the School's site.
As the form (above) indicates, we are also working on a Class of '58 Scholarship Fund to address the needs of young people who lack the resources to share the opportunities from which we've so benefitted over the past 50 years. While the escalation of costs to attend NMH have been modest compared to those at some schools, the fact remains that -- as it was in our days -- many potential students, future shining stars in the firmament of alums, simply cannot pay the full cost.
Gift Officers, personally and through their solicitations of large donations, have made a strong start on both projects. They plan to report interim results on or about May first. Please join us in making sure we meet both challenges.
Contact your Reunion Committee with questions about (and, of course, commitments to) the Funds: Joan Walker at jbmwalker@comcast.net, or phone until May 15, more or less: 352-463-6149 (future phone, TBD); Bart Ferris barton.ferris@msn.com; John Stone jwstone@blackpointventures.com, 1-860-287-9620, or NMH's director of Advancement Initiatives, Bill Rowe, '83, at at browe@nmhschool.org, 413-498-3601.
NMH Class of '58