Hi, my name is Larry Foulk. My wife Susan, Cupper Dickinson, Milly Rixey, and I are the River Group, and we thank you for this opportunity.

In the beginning, a few people were trying to decide upon a location for a girls' school. One evening as they gathered at a residence in Tappahannock, they witnessed the moon rising over the Rappahannock River. It was in this moment they knew the property along Water Lane and adjacent to the river would become the home of their school.

The motto, "As we grow in age, may we grow in grace," has guided this school through many eras, and each era has presented the school with a unique set of challenges as regards educating girls. Each era has also had its share of "fresh eyes" to help discern the path the school should walk to best live through its mission.

Our era presents us with some of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced, and the decision the Founders of our school made nearly one hundred years ago has positioned us at the cross-roads of multiple opportunities. Our geographic location, intellectual capital and potential community-based partners position us to educate girls for a world that demands she "...make the best of herself, and in so doing, make a better world." This quote is taken directly from our Mission Statement and powerfully speaks to the task of educating girls in the 21st Century.

We must play forward the charge that we inherited from the Founders, to age with grace. A new era in time has inspired a new era of school leaders with "fresh eyes" to help us realize the potential of our geographic location, intellectual capital and community partners, and if we do so we will enhance our leverage in the areas of development, admissions and programming.

Some of you here worked to bring into focus the possibility of creating a path along the river for the purpose of making accessible and beautifying the back lawn of our campus.

This work has played a critical role in the development of the ideas we wish to share with you here today.

With the help of people like Cary Jamieson, Director of the Bryan Innovation Lab at The Steward School, a few of us believe we have begun to unlock the power of our school's potential in the world of private, independent boarding school education for the 21st Century. This power is perceived by "fresh eyes" that see multiple opportunities to achieve multiple successes in the areas of development, admissions, and programming.

Just a few days ago the River Group along with Lindy and Nancy met with Cary to review the plans for a path across the back lawn which were drafted in 2007.

We would like for you to take a look at the following photos and contemplate the possibilities! Think about our geographic location for a moment. How can we do more, be more? What are the opportunities?

Think of the possibilities!

Consider the opportunities!

So, nearly one hundred years later, now "what?" What are the possibilities? What are the opportunities?

About the same time last year that you all were preparing to announce Lindy as our new head of school, the four of us came together to discuss the business of us living into our full potential as a school along the Rappahannock River.

And we would like to share with you our vision for what just may be the most important opportunity we have to become an authentic leader in the independent, all girls' boarding school world for this new era in time, indeed, for the next one hundred years and beyond of our school's life.

We see a River Walk that will allow us to engage our environment in more meaningful and purposeful ways. The River Walk we see will be a curricular vehicle that renews our commitment to educate girls as well as an engine for sustainable financial health.

You should know that before Cary became Director of the Bryan Innovation Lab she was Environmental Stewardship, Sustainable Design, and Global Sustainability Coordinator for the University of Richmond's Office of Continuing and Professional Studies. Indeed, Cary herself has told us that landscape design has changed radically even since 2007, much less the mission of educating for the purpose of achieving a sustainable future.

So, what is this River Walk that we see?

Accessible outdoor space along the river, to the river and into the river. Our riverfront goes largely unvisited by the majority of us and our visitors. Landscape design of a sustainable nature can help us maximize our river front space by inviting people to engage our scenic river setting as well as experience it and learn from it.

I might add here that when some of our historic buildings were constructed their front doors opened up to the river. The River Walk will help reorient us to our historic identity.

Multi-disciplinary outdoor learning labs or stations will be set up along the River Walk, providing teachers and students the opportunity to conduct experiments, re-enact portions, if not whole plays, participate in discussions about the colonial or steamboat era and how rivers like ours shaped man's experiences.

Adjacent to the science classrooms in the basement of the CTC the River Walk will include stations to not only purify water but also study issues of water quality in a hands-on, or in this case "feet-on," way.

In conjunction with water quality studies, the River Walk will integrate additional projects like a bio-retention pond so that water can be captured and filtered by natural processes before simply running off into the river.

The River Walk will connect us to launch spaces like this one which will benefit our crew team as well as other club activities.

A storage facility will help us care for equipment that currently is exposed to the elements. Imagine the potential we create to run a robust summer program that incorporates river front activities. Think of the prospective families who will send their daughters to our camps because we have such opportunities to offer them.

Educational kiosks will be designed to educate students as well as visitors about the natural environment we inhabit. We will also us these kiosks to help tell our school's story and the history we share with our town and the larger Chesapeake Bay Watershed. These kiosks will be equipped with QR codes so that people can learn even more about us by linking up with information found on our website simply by using their mobiles devices.

The River Walk will naturally include sustainably designed gathering spaces for quiet reflection or group engagement. As a school community, we will conduct chapel outdoors, for example.

Some of you may know about "Stewardship of Creation," a Diocesan program designed to help the faithful live through their spiritual mission to be good stewards of the environment.

I attended "Interfaith Conference on Living Waters" at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in the Fall, and there I spoke with Statesman Tayloe Murphy as well as Mr. Tal Day. Both of these men are integrally involved with our Diocesan efforts to reconnect man on a spiritual level to that which supports all life. Both men believe we can be a leader in the field of education in terms of collaborating, particularly with our brethren in Region 2, to evoke God's message to be stewards of His creation.

Public-private partnerships will be fostered to help us share with our students the practice of giving back. What a wonderful way to invite our neighbors to learn about and enjoy our natural resources?! Additionally, such action will speak volumes, we think, about our invested interests not simply in our own but in all.

To connect ourselves with these resources - our geographic location, intellectual capital and community partners means we reconnect ourselves with what has given us the opportunity to meet the challenges of our era. It's those same resources that inspired our Founders nearly one hundred years ago.

We are sitting at the cross roads of environmental and human resources on a magnitude that others schools like ours can only dream about. To act, means we seize the opportunity to harvest our own best future and gain a strategic advantage in the marketplace. Inaction is a non-sustainable choice.