Maplebrook School Class of ‘21 celebrates graduation

AMENIA — Even as the weekend forecast predicted days of rain and COVID-19 guidelines restricted the number of ceremony attendees, this year’s graduating class at Maplebrook School persevered in celebrating not only their own scholastic achievements but also the school’s 75th anniversary on Saturday, May 29.

Totaling 19 graduates, the Class of 2021 featured 14 graduates from the Academy (Maplebrook’s high school) and nine graduates from the Institute of Collegiate and Career Studies (ICCS), the school’s post-secondary program. This year’s graduates also represented nine different states and three different countries.

Though the rain fell as predicted, Maplebrook School Executive Director Lori Hale said it didn’t slow them down. In fact, she said they had planned to hold the graduation ceremony outside anyway due to COVID-19 guidelines, and while it was the coldest graduation she could remember in her 39 years at Maplebrook School, Hale said the graduates, staff and family members were well protected against the elements.

“Like COVID-19 and everything, we persevered and got it done, and it was the 75th anniversary, so the fact that we were able to be together was special,” Hale said.

With graduation scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, family members watched with joy as their graduates filed into the tent set up on campus, the music of bagpipes playing in their ears. The Academy graduates entered the tent dressed in green and white gowns while the ICCS students dressed in grey gowns.

Equating the school’s three co-founders, Majorie Finger, Serena Merck and Sunny Barlow, to “educational trailblazers,” Maplebrook School Head of School Jennifer Scully spoke with pride about what the school had done over the years to carry out the founders’ hopes and dreams since it was first established 75 years ago.

“All of us who are connected to Maplebrook have been given a great gift,” Scully said. “We were born at the right time and in the right place, and thank goodness fate provided this school built in 1945 in the little town of Amenia, New York.

“When we have departed campus today, I hope that you’ll look back on 2021 with a sense of pride and recognize it as a point in our history when the spirit of our community burned with a radiant brightness that transcended adversity and carried out the mission that was born 75 years ago,” she said.

Scully then introduced sisters Trina Whitridge and Olivia Farr, the granddaughters of Serena Merck, as the commencement speakers — both of whom marveled at the significant changes that have taken place in the world since their grandmother co-founded the school as well as how the renewed sense of hope and optimism connected to Maplebrook has remained unchanged, not to mention the values and concepts that have guided the school from its beginning.

“In the most of unusual times, you students have persevered to fulfill your requirements and receive your diplomas today,” Whitridge said in congratulating the graduates.

At last, it was time for the students to receive their awards and graduation diplomas, and it was indeed worth the wait to see the joy on their faces as they approached the podium to hear the applause from their teachers, mentors and family members resonate throughout the tent.