On the west coast we don’t get hurricanes. I grew up in Oregonwhere the weather is so predictable that it is almost boring. It rains. The rain begins in September and ends in June. It rains slow, drizzly drops that come and come and come, gradually and with persistence. The weather never bursts or surprises. It is not intense. The climate moves like a snail, like a banana slug, and I am pretty sure no one has ever been frightened by a banana slug. So, when I signed my contract to teach at The Island School last summer, it honestly never occurred to me that something like a hurricane could happen here. Though, yes I knew intellectually—factually—that hurricanes hit this part of the world, but I never really connected that fact to my own reality until, well, about a week ago. Continue reading
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Campus Post-Irene
Update from the Cape
Friends and Families,
We have heard that everyone is ok and safe on Cape Eleuthera! Since this morning, Irene has moved on and the winds are steadily dropping. The Island School campus has faired well with no broken windows and no significant damages. The plants on campus have been denuded so we are going to look a little bare for a couple of months.
Everyone is accounted for and happy to breathe some fresh air and stretch their legs after a long night inside. We have plenty of water and are getting our generators up and running. We expect to have spotty communications for the next couple of days as the community recovers and gets back to life as normal.
We want to send out a big thank you to John “Giant” Norris Carey forbuilding some of the toughest buildings in the world.
–The Island School
Irene Has Passed!
Friends and Families,
We have confirmation via text message this morning at 6am that the eye of the storm has passed over Eleuthera. Everyone is staying safe and waiting for the remainder of the storm to pass with the strongest part behind us and the winds tapering throughout the day. With internet and cell phone service wavering in and out, we are getting updates as often as possible and will continue to keep you posted.
–The Island School
Staying Calm as Irene Approaches
Friends and Families,
We wanted to reach out and give you and update on Hurricane Irene from our perspective on the island. We are expecting Irene (http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201109.html ) to pass over Eleuthera as a category 3 hurricane, with winds and rain starting to affect the campus tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. For the 8,000 local residents of Eleuthera, it’s a ritual to buy plywood, batteries, bottled water and bleach, and fuel up their electric generators. For the Island School, Deep Creek Middle School, and Cape Eleuthera Institute, we are cleaning up campus, securing the building project sites, and taking boats out of the water. The Island School and DCMS students have not yet arrived for the start of school, but research at the Institute will be interrupted for several days with the packing and unpacking of electronics, with all of us anticipating some leaks and puddles inside as the rains and wind arrive.
We anticipate losing phones and internet service during and after the storm for up to a few days because of likely interruptions in electricity supply to transmission equipment elsewhere on the island. We are positioning people and resources to be able to help in the community afterwards - often the biggest issues are downed trees and road flooding, and we bring tools and lots of willing neighborly help to the scene.
We don’t expect that people on the island will need extraordinary support after this storm. As always, we stand ready to respond to local requests for medical assistance, and with a full complement of Wilderness First Responders of staff coming off of a 9 day training earlier this month, we have resources to offer in that direction.
We appreciate your concerns and will continue to provide updates when possible via our blog. We are still VERY excited to welcome our 26th semester of Island School students to the Cape on Monday August 29th!
–The Island School
Camden Hills, Day 3
Hello Y’all,
The Island School is an incredible place. We are all enjoying every moment we experience together and we’re really becoming a family. It was our third full day in the Bahamas and the sunburns are kicking in, as well as the chafing. The bugs have attacked most of us… but that’s the lesson of this whole trip: to face the challenges that are thrown at us and embrace the lessons we learn from them. Continue reading
The first Cacique post by Camden Hills, visiting Educational Program
Hello Parents, Teachers, and Friends!
This is our second full day in the Bahamas, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are having one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. It is difficult to describe in words the time we are having, but it is unlike anything that we have ever experienced before. It is not what I would describe as a vacation- it is much more like an expedition. Continue reading
Island School Teachers Sail to The Exumas
[slideshow]
When you smile with a snorkel mask on your face water trickles in through the wrinkles next to your nose and slowly fills up the mask with water. If you are SCUBA diving this means you have to look up towards the surface and breathe out through your nose to clear the mask of water. The more you smile or laugh the more you clear your mask until, if you are playing underwater backgammon against your friend Benny Urmston, you are stuck in a downwards spiral of dice rolling, hand signals (not always polite), laughing, and mask clearing.
Last week, three Island School teachers and a friend sailed from Eleuthera to the Exumas to explore the Land and Sea Park and enjoy a few days off before semester prep. Continue reading
Geoff Walton in the News!
Geoff Walton, Director of Facilities and Systems at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, received some press on the website www.workboat.com. The article highlights the process and hard work Geoff went through to get all of the school’s dive boats to run off our homemade biodiesel. Check out the article here!
Scholarship at COA for Island School Alumni
College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine is proud to offer scholarships to alumni of The Island School. Any incoming student who has attended The Island School and is admitted to College of the Atlantic (COA) will receive a scholarship of $10,000 per year for up to four years. Apply for admission to COA and include a letter of recommendation from a teacher at The Island School. If admitted, you will automatically receive this scholarship for your first year at COA; an additional $10,000 scholarship is available for each of the next three years of enrollment if satisfactory academic progress is maintained. This scholarship is available to incoming first-year and transfer students. In addition, you may qualify for need-based financial aid.
This is an amazing opportunity for our alumni applying for college to consider. If you have any further questions, contact us at alumni@islandschool.org.