The Trees of Our Lives

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Pictured here is one of the recent additions to the Hilton Dr. campus. It’s a tree nursery.  

Strange? Not at all.  With bad winter weather and various tree-killing bugs in the last several years, the total campus (Heights and NDA) has lost nearly 50 trees.  The sign on the enclosure makes the joint effort clear.  Several people from both communities are engaged in the endeavor as well as a number of outsiders interested in reforestation.  This fall may see more transplanting of young trees, but these babies won’t be in the running.  They will need a few more years in the nursery before “going to school” or convent.

Here’s what Mr. Joseph Gray of NDA faculty has to say in the Panda Press Newsletter:

“We are developing a long-range plan to reforest the Heights and Notre Dame Academy properties and to develop an educational program to create an “arboretum” styled somewhat after the arboretum in Boone County on Camp Ernst road.”

This is part of the pursuit of quality in the environment that is inherent in SND and NDA heritage.  Our physical environment determines so much in our lives and demands our attention and respect.   That’s all it takes to be valued by us here at 1699 Hilton Dr. 

Fifty Years and Holding

Well, our big day, October 29^th, came and went into our 50+ year history last week.  It was quite a program celebrating 50 Years on Hilton Drive, not long, but full of nostalgia on the part of graduates attending and interest on the part of all attending including students. The general feeling of contentment and cheer was palpable.  The service consisted of greetings from our president Sr. M. Lynette Shelton, and principal Dr. Laura Koehl, and a brief prayer of thanksgiving and request for continued blessings from two student representatives.  Graduates were invited to tell of their coming to Hilton Drive on that fateful day of October 29^th, 1963.  Several grads responded and the students listened with wrapped attention.  This, one got the impression, was part of the students’ in-tuneness with the significance of the event.  We have tried to instill in them a sense of the school’s history and what that means to them—educational roots, sense of pride in their someday alma mater, and a feeling of belonging to this place and these people.  One of the last pieces of the day’s assembly was the invitation to the faculty and staff alums to stand together and sing the school song which we gladly and proudly did—about 15 of us.   One more milestone in what we hope will be a long history with all that it will mean to us and to future generations of young women.  As we say at our athletic events, “Go, Pandas!”

   AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG

                                                                                      Remember?                                                             

In the top photo above, the person on the right is Dr. Laura Koehl, our first lay principal.  The fifth person from the left in the black suit is Sr. M. Lynette Shelton, our president.  Of course you don't need to be introduced to the attire in the bottom picture unless you are a fairly new comer to our fair school's history.