Signing Off

Dear Usdan Community,

Today, the act of running my fingers across the keyboard elicits a bittersweet feeling. For the foreseeable future, this musing will be the last. The time has come to turn our attention fully to the forest and to the expressive and creative children coming to inhabit it.

Tomorrow, when we welcome hundreds of grown-up dancers, actors, musicians, writers, and visual artists onto campus for staff orientation, the summer season begins. 

Thank you to all of you who have stayed connected to Usdan and to me via these musings over the past 14 months.

On a Saturday in April 2020 I woke up and wrote to help myself make sense of how in this suddenly altered world, we as parents and educators were going to keep the spirits of our children lifted. Over the months, the musings expanded, and together we wondered about whether our society could be filled with equity, sustainability, community, good health and safety, and of course oodles of youth creativity. 

Usdan is a world where we seek to treat everyone fairly, where we aim to live in harmony with our natural environment and its critters, where we strive for everyone to enjoy each other’s differences, where we have good health and feel safe, and all of this allows children to be who they truly and uniquely are as people and as artists who unashamedly and courageously express themselves. 

My goal is that we show the children of Usdan that a better world is possible and actually exists.

As parents, caregivers, supporters, and friends this world is possible only because of you. Thank you. 

Hugs,

P.S. Though the musings will pause, this is not goodbye. I hope you will stay in touch in some of the following ways this summer.

In-Person

Attend the Summer Gala on Wednesday, July 21. 
Tickets will be released at a later date. If you'd like tickets in advance, email Stella Shepherd at sshepherd@usdan.org.

Attend an outdoor performance in our Amphitheater. Performances will be limited and safe. If you are not a parent or caregiver and interested in attending, please reply to this email.

Virtual

Follow along throughout this summer via our Instagram and YouTube accounts.

Watch performances live streamed from the Amphitheater throughout the season. See our calendar for dates of performances that will be live streamed.