Students, faculty, and staff spent this past weekend exploring and enjoying St. Andrew’s 2200 acres with the school’s annual Pond Day event. Each October, one Saturday morning is set aside as time to allow our community to celebrate our land, water, and other natural resources, and to connect with sustainability initiatives both within the school and in the wider world. 

“Pond Day is a celebration of place,” said Sustainability Coordinator Bertie Miller, who organized the day. “To truly know and love St. Andrew’s campus is a remarkable thing; to find the hidden corners on the water, to decide where your favorite spot is to read, to bike the far reaches of the cornfields, or even to spend your first afternoon out on the Front Lawn. As a scientist, I like to say that having a personal relationship with land generates data, and this type of data, this way of knowing a place, can be passed down year to year. For example, when I was a student, it was older students and friends who first showed me how to navigate all the way around Noxontown Pond. Generations of St. Andreans have come to love these acres, and as our students grow and learn and live here, they will come to know and love the rhythms of this land, too. Pond Day is a day dedicated to that love.”

Faculty and staff lead students in outdoor activities across campus; this year’s Pond Day activities included:

• Early morning bird watch
• Fishing on Noxontown Pond
• Bootcamp workout in the deep woods
• Beehive tutorials
• Mountain biking to the haystacks
• Mushroom hunting on the trails
• Frisbee, trail run, and outdoor martial arts 
• Sauerkraut fermentation tutorial
• Outdoor guided meditation
• Wood chopping
• Canoeing, kayaking and paddleboarding on Noxontown Pond
• Trailblazing the remainder of the South Pond Trail
• Outdoor letter writing to your congressional representative
• Planting daffodils 
• Exploring Lewis Farm
• Watercolor/sketch in the Organic Garden
• Outdoor poetry writing
• Geology history of St. Andrew’s campus
• Tree identification tour
• Nature photography
• Cyanotypes (sunprints) and making leaf art

“Pond Day this year was definitely a success,” said Environmental Stewards co-head Allaire Berl ’21. “I sat around a fire pit at the Honsels’ house and shared music and cider with friends while basking in the beauty of our school. As I walked around campus, I got to see so many happy faces running, biking, painting, hiking, and so on. M. Miller did such an amazing job organizing this day—and I think Pond Day really shows just how important getting outside is to all of us.”

This year’s Pond Day sign-up sheet also erroneously listed “move a big rock”—an activity that was included on the 2019 sign up sheet when one of St. Andrew’s campus farmers did, in fact, require assistance moving a large rock on his property. A few students signed up for this activity, but rather than shuffling these students around to other activities, the enterprising Mr. Hayes (the school’s sports information officer) saw this as an opportunity to move a large cardboard cutout of The Rock—homemade by Mr. Hayes on Friday afternoon—around campus, just for fun. And they did, in fact, have a lot of fun.

“On this year’s Pond Day,” Miller noted, “students watched migratory birds, discovered the fungi growing in our woods, biked, fished, did beekeeping, wandered, read, listened to music, and took in the world. From the ridiculous—carrying The Rock around campus—to the introspective—meditations outdoors—we try to offer space for everyone to savor this earth. In the end, Pond Day is a day to celebrate the outdoors, and to find connection with each other while we do it.”

“I spent Pond Day reading outside,” said fellow Environmental Steward co-head Pearl Mallick ’21. “Bundled up for the chilly morning, my friends and I silently read on the Front Lawn, overlooking beautiful Noxontown Pond and all the surrounding woods. This time to reflect and slow down, to think about how lucky I am to witness the earth around me, was precious, and exactly what we aimed to do on Pond Day. Many thanks to all those who spent their time helping students get outside and appreciate the world around us.”