By Daisy Moriarty ’25
Recently, The Frederick Gunn School had its first “Live Like Fred” weekend of the 2022-2023 school year. According to Mr. Fladager, “Live Like Fred Weekends are an opportunity to embody our founder’s beliefs in community, education, and time outside.” Each term, students have the opportunity to put these values into practice as they sign up for one of the many activities offered.
On this “Live Like Fred” weekend, there were sixteen activities for students to choose from, including apple picking at Averill Farms, making scarecrows for the Washington Harvest Festival, and white-water rafting.
Victoria Rubbo, one of the twelve students who went on the white water rafting trip, stated that “When we started paddling, it was much more challenging than we expected, but we decided to go for the hardest route right away. After paddling for a few seconds and getting to the rapids, I fell out of the boat. At first, I was scared, but I quickly realized how safe my life jacket was. Luckily, one of the guys in the boat saw me fall overboard and pulled me back in.” The group went down the rapids a few more times, and then began practicing white-water rescues. Victoria explained that, “One person would be tied to a rope and jumping in, another would be holding the rope on the shore, and the last would be jumping into the water and playing the victim.”
The group that made scarecrows created them by stuffing second-hand flannel shirts, khaki pants, and jeans with hay. The students had to get creative and problem-solve to build the scarecrows; they even ended up using the khaki pants as faces!
As the community looks forward to the next “Live Like Fred” Weekend, Mr. Fladager provides information on how the events are picked, stating, “I choose the events first based on what interesting things are happening in our surrounding communities…Then I take suggestions from the faculty and from students.”
“Live Like Fred” weekends are an opportunity for students and staff to participate in activities that the school’s founder, Frederick Gunn, would have enjoyed. The activities help students bond with people they might not be able to spend time with on a regular basis. “Live like Fred” weekends are important to the community because they set time aside to focus on Frederick Gunn’s beliefs, making the conscious decision to take part in activities that he valued.
The Highlander 