Happy Birthday, St. B's!

Founded on October 4, 1904, St. Bernard’s turned 109 years old on October 4, 2013, marking the 110th school year.  In celebration, the entire school headed to Central Park’s East Meadow, where Bruce Schwarz, photographer extraordinaire and father of an Old Boy and student, took a celebratory photograph of the school standing in the formation of “CX.”  (Twenty years ago the school celebrated its 90th anniversary with a similar shot in “XC” formation.)  The fun occasion lasted an hour, and it is one for our memory books.

While we were standing in the CX arrangement in the grass, it was hard for us to imagine how the photograph would turn out.  Who knew it could be so complicated to arrange 385 boys and over 100 faculty and staff members?!  Janine St. Germain, school archivist, prepared us for the big reveal at this morning's all-school assembly by taking us through a visual history of the school with photographs, a video of sports day from the 1930s, and historic objects from the school archive including a papier mâché helmet from a production of Julius Caesar, and a school chair that was found hidden inside the walls!  When the final shot was revealed to us on a big screen, our immediate “oohs” and “aahs” made clear that we approved.

Many thanks to Bruce Schwarz, Stephen Sechrist, and the Central Park Conservancy for making this special photograph possible.