YMCA Camp Coniston worked with the Grantham School District to explore options for reopening schools. We offered our property to the school district to run open air classrooms. Even though our space wasn’t needed knowing we were there to help mean’t a lot. Read a special note of thanks from the superintendent below.
Dear Camp Coniston,
Kristen and I were both recently discussing Camp Coniston, and having some concerns about the fact that our teachers opted not to take advantage of your incredible offer this fall to use your space.
I should have written this letter sooner, but I hope you know that your outreach to us and your willingness to help us through this horrible situation meant the world to us. Even though it didn’t work out the way I think we all imagined, your kindness and generosity was truly a bright shining light and a source of hope during a time where we were lost.
The school board’s decision to open in hybrid and our teachers’ decisions to stay in the building this fall had nothing to do with how incredible and wonderful Coniston is. I think we were all trying to strive for the most normalcy we could find in this situation, and our staff was already facing too many uncertainties. They were focused on navigating their own spaces in a completely different way every day with our new protocols, and I think the prospect of navigating yet another space was just too much.
There’s no doubt in my mind that our staff and students would have benefited immensely from time at Coniston. You have a special and beautiful place there — one that exudes a feeling of goodness, even just walking around taking a tour.
I hope you understand the perspective of the precarious state we were in with reopening. I also hope you know that — even without an actual program developing there — that the impact of your kindness resonated with many and will always continue to be one of the truly positive things that’s happened during the pandemic.
Again, I should have written all this to you sooner, and for that I apologize. I’m not sure where you stand with your programming for this coming summer, but my hope is that you’re able to get back to some sense of normalcy. Thank you for the work you do with children and for all the good you do for the community. To use one of my very favorite quotes from Maya Angeou, “Good done anywhere is good done everywhere.” There’s no question that the Consiton good ripples out into the world.
With thanks,
Sydney
Dr. Sydney D. Leggett, Superintendent
Grantham School District, SAU 75