“THE TIGHT BONDS WE AS PARENTS CREATED DURING SOCCER PRACTICES, PARK PLAYDATES, BIRTHDAY PARTIES, AND BEACH DAYS CONTINUED INTO THOSE WEEKS AWAY FROM SCHOOL TO BRING JOY TO OUR BOYS’ DAYS.”
Jared Narvid, who organized some of the earliest outdoor meet-ups, says, “a major theme has been finding old and new ways of being outside.” Jar ed organized bike races and outdoor Halloween and birthday events, and even found ways for boys to “help” wash his car (no word on whether they were compen- sated). John-Austin Saviano ’88 summarized what many felt throughout the year: “We’ve been in awe of and incredibly grateful for the efforts of so many of the fellow parents who have led on soccer and other activities for the boys.” For some, social gaming such as Roblox and Minecraft provided an additional avenue for the boys to socialize—playing collab- oratively while talking to each other on FaceTime: “They were just chatting away, pretty happy about the situation. Even if our role was little more than setting up the FaceTime call, the image came to mind of parents and kids sort of stumbling our
way through to something that I’d chalk up as a Covid success,” says Kyle Forster. The Class of 2029 was certainly on a “try-hard mode” (video gaming term, according to my son) when it came to in-person birthday celebrations as things began to open up. In April 2021, Bodhi Shah ’29 celebrated his birthday with the entire class at a park. Bodhi’s parents and grandmother were busy serving exquisitely prepared (individually wrapped) corn dogs, falafel and chicken shawarma sandwiches, making everyone feel as though things may be getting back to normal—even as we were ready to disperse in case we unwittingly exceeded some unknown quota for outdoor gathering. The class came together again for the birthday celebration of Joshua Burns ’29 on a rainy day, and Louise Conner noted that “I was really very impressed that everyone rallied for that birthday and stayed
18 | CATHEDRAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online