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Laughing our way to success

On Saturday night, our community will gather for BPC’s annual spring benefit, and as per usual the amount of work and effort that has gone into it has been inspiring. It is pretty clear that we are teed up for an incredibly successful event that will allow our teachers to receive grant funding for all sorts of amazing ideas and plans for the future of the Berwick program. I also know that we are going to have some fun on Saturday night coming together and enjoying each other’s company during such incredibly busy times.

I am under strict orders not to reveal too much about the video we have created to unveil our Fund A Need project to improve parking this year. But I just need to say that I had a chance to watch it a few days ago and simply laughed out loud. I mean by myself, sitting in front of my computer screen, laughing out loud. Whatever ultimately comes of the effort in terms of fundraising, it was a moment of seeing once again how much our parents and employees care. It was also a moment to see how people at Berwick generally don’t take themselves too seriously and know how to laugh. I actually think this is no small thing in education nowadays, and I trust that this spirit is transferred down to Berwick students as well.

Humor is arguably the most effective life-coping skill we have – as kids and as adults. Being able to notice and appreciate humor offers psychological perspective and physiological healing. Usually it is only about two or three times a year when I have one of those moments with a friend when I literally can’t breathe on account of laughing so hard. They are moments when I begin to weep, and when my friends see me crying in laughter, they only laugh harder themselves. It is like an unstoppable tornado of joy when it happens like that – a twister of humor that arrives usually at the most unexpected of moments and almost always with the people we care about most.


So while I am obviously excited for a successful spring benefit tomorrow, I am even more excited about the laughter and humor that our community loves to display along the way. Continuing to pump this spirit of laughing (both at ourselves and with each other) to our children will be more important that any dollar goal we might achieve. Looking forward to seeing you Saturday….come for the video if nothing else.

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