Quasicentennial.
Hard to say, easy to celebrate!
Saturday night's 125th Gala for Christ School was a birthday party for the ages and a proper way to send off Family Weekend 2025. Close to 300 guests dined and danced underneath the stars here on campus, including all four living Heads of School – Sean Jenkins, Paul Krieger, Russ Ingersoll, and Peter Conway.
"Just look around for a moment. This is Christ School," Board of Trustees President Steve Young '82 told the crowd.
"This is what 125 years of mission, mentorship, and meaningful connection looks like. Each of you, in your own way, has helped write our story — and for that, we are profoundly grateful."
Dr. Jenkins spoke next. An excerpt from his comments:
"Thank you for joining us for this special evening. We gather tonight in the company of extraordinary people, in a spectacular setting, at a moment of exceptional history and opportunity for Christ School. We are here to celebrate Christ School’s 125th birthday – a remarkable founding of vision, courage, and sacrifice – and to celebrate those men and women who have served and stewarded Christ School since 1900."
"We marvel at our growth, from 20 Appalachian students on 4 acres in an original cedar shingle red schoolhouse, to 308 boys from 17 states and 11 countries, on these magnificent 500 acres. Our students are thriving — learning what it means to grow from boyhood to young adulthood, and to not only be prepared for college but to live lives of meaning and consequence in today’s world."
"Our mission remains clear: We are committed to developing the whole boy — intellectually, spiritually, socially, and physically. We remain anchored in our Episcopal Tradition and to our Four Pillars: Leadership, Spirituality, Academic Rigor, and the Dignity of Manual Labor. These pillars are lived out every single day on this campus."
From the return of Grandparents Day, faculty masterclasses, and form gatherings to once in a lifetime treats like a speaking engagement by one of the world's foremost experts on masculinity and the Gala itself, this was quite the weekend.