Bold and Audacious

Once upon a time, before I became Ms Julie, the admissions and marketing officer at Touchstone Academy, I spent my working hours as an academic historian. My days were filled with thinking, writing and talking about the 17th and 18th century people who left their familiar European towns and villages behind, embarked on arduous journeys, and ultimately, all pitched in together to create unique self-governing communities on a new continent. They came for many different reasons, and brought with them a diversity of skills, expectations and goals. The communities that they forged as fledgling colonial settlements have now become established urban hubs like New York, Boston and Toronto, making it easy to forget that the decision then, to cross the ocean for a “New World,” was loaded with risk, bravery and hard work. For each and every person, it was a bold and audacious move.

It might seem that my old academic world bears little connection to the concerns that fill my weeks now. But this year, as Touchstone celebrates a milestone anniversary, I have been tasked with helping to tell the story of how this small community of parents, teachers and kids took shape, grew and has sustained itself over the past 20 years. And I’ve suddenly realized that I recognize the people that fill this story!

In the year 2000, a tiny group – just 10 families –  embarked on a mission to open an independent elementary school that would fulfill high expectations and would provide the best possible learning experience for children in the Kennebecasis Valley. That also was a bold and audacious move.

In the two decades that have passed since then, hundreds of families have followed in their footsteps. Gradually, these families have established an incredible tradition of extraordinary learning inside our little red building in Rothesay.  Throughout the years, each family, in choosing something new, something different, in choosing to help build something better, chose to be bold and audacious. 

It has been my privilege to know many of these moms, dads and kids, and to be a part of their lives. My role has been to share information, to answer questions and support them as they encounter new experiences and as we work together to make our school the best possible place that it can be. I’m always impressed by their high expectations, their enthusiasm and their commitment to being contributing members of our extraordinary school community. I recognize their bravery and hard work, a spirit that is unchanged across centuries, and I feel right at home among these bold and audacious people.