An Unusual Spring
May 23, 2020
It’s not exactly Spring here yet. It is 38 degrees as I write this at 7:30 a.m. on a Memorial Day Weekend. But lovely daffodils have bloomed in front of Kathy and Travis’s fly shop and that is all the proof I need. One timid goldfinch has come to my feeder and that brief blaze of yellow lights up the gray morning. Most of all, Spring is announced by the sound of lawn mowers and the smell of fresh cut grass.
Conspicuous in their absence are Spring events in the town. Especially the Ovando School Graduation. We have good reasons to be proud of our Ovando School, which this year is 7 students, K through 8, with four part-time pre-K kids. This is not a one-room school but a two-room school for Upper Grades, taught by Leigh Ann Valiton and Lower grades, by Andrea Tougas.
Leigh Ann has put her creative imprint on the school since 1993, when she began there as a teacher’s aide and then after a break to get her college degree, returned as a full time teacher to shape the school’s unique program, adding to her own teaching with outside specialists in art, science, music and drama classes. I have seen a very shy little girl who never spoke a word as a young child become the star of one of Leigh Ann’s memorable school productions!
Sadly missed will be the May Day Tea. In one that I attended, after the children had served tea and cookies to audience members seated at tables, they presented—in art, essays and dances from around the world—the fruits of their studies that year. It was amazing! Every child in the school participates with lively enthusiasm. They taught themselves the dances watching videos. Physical education classes are covered in winter by cross-country skiing trips once a week and the children raise money in the community by selling candy or other items to fund a trip to places like Washington DC. She makes every child blossom. Added to this, as in all things, is substantial support from the community. Here is a 2014 “Place-Based Fun and Learning" event taking full advantage of the town’s rich resources, human and natural!
During the pandemic, Leigh Ann has continued her classes online, including one-on- one sessions with the students. “We are actually ahead!” she says.
The Ovando School Graduating class of 2020 is Aiden, whom I met at the Blackfoot Store when he first arrived with his family. He was shy in the beginning but ended up starring, with his sister Emma, in two Christmas Plays! There would also be a ceremonial graduation for Silas, the graduating Kindergarten class. At the end of April, Leigh Ann sent out this message.
The Ovando School Graduating class of 2020 is Aiden, whom I met at the Blackfoot Store when he first arrived with his family. He was shy in the beginning but ended up starring, with his sister Emma, in two Christmas Plays! There would also be a ceremonial graduation for Silas, the graduating Kindergarten class. At the end of April, Leigh Ann sent out this message.
Hello Ovando Community,
As you know, we have had to endure some tough times as of late. Hopefully we are getting closer to what we knew as normal soon. However, I do not believe schools will resume for the remainder of the year causing the students to miss some of the most memorable events of the year. A couple of those events are 8th grade Graduation and Kindergarten Graduation, both big crossroads in a child’s life.
This year Aiden McNally is our only 8th grade graduate, he will be going to Drummond High School next year. He is an excellent student and an enthusiastic athlete, in fact he played in the All-Star Basketball game earlier this year. He will also miss the track meet in Deer Lodge, a very important county wide competition. Also, Silas Hessler is our only Kindergarten graduate. He is a delightful, eager student as well as a budding sports star.
Every year I have several people ask who the graduates are and when graduation will happen. We have such a wonderful community as they like to see them though to the next level of their education. Due to the Coronavirus, we will not be able to have a graduation for either student. If you would like to send them a card or gift, I know they would be greatly appreciative.
Neither student asked for this, in fact they have just come to the conclusion that there would be no ceremony and that was that. We all have to sacrifice important events due to the Covid-19 shelter in place mandate, but if we could still make the graduation special for these guys, I know they would be surprised and grateful.
Sincerely
Leigh Ann Valiton
As you know, we have had to endure some tough times as of late. Hopefully we are getting closer to what we knew as normal soon. However, I do not believe schools will resume for the remainder of the year causing the students to miss some of the most memorable events of the year. A couple of those events are 8th grade Graduation and Kindergarten Graduation, both big crossroads in a child’s life.
This year Aiden McNally is our only 8th grade graduate, he will be going to Drummond High School next year. He is an excellent student and an enthusiastic athlete, in fact he played in the All-Star Basketball game earlier this year. He will also miss the track meet in Deer Lodge, a very important county wide competition. Also, Silas Hessler is our only Kindergarten graduate. He is a delightful, eager student as well as a budding sports star.
Every year I have several people ask who the graduates are and when graduation will happen. We have such a wonderful community as they like to see them though to the next level of their education. Due to the Coronavirus, we will not be able to have a graduation for either student. If you would like to send them a card or gift, I know they would be greatly appreciative.
Neither student asked for this, in fact they have just come to the conclusion that there would be no ceremony and that was that. We all have to sacrifice important events due to the Covid-19 shelter in place mandate, but if we could still make the graduation special for these guys, I know they would be surprised and grateful.
Sincerely
Leigh Ann Valiton
I have no doubt their post office boxes will be full.
An update: Our friend 99 year old Capt. Tom Moore, who walked 100 miles in his backyard to raise money for first responders, (and who won the heart of Zinaida Korneva of St. Petersburg and is now presumably wearing the socks she knitted for him), has been knighted by the queen! “Don’t be too heavy with the sword” he said, since knighting involves the laying of a royal sword on the right shoulder. But the queen is herself over 90 so will likely be mindful of that.
If I ever worried that robots or AI would replace us or that virtual reality and the tide of media—social and antisocial—would shape us into their image, those fears have been banished during this pandemic. I am daily astonished and moved by the endless originality and outpouring of gratitude and caring by individual people. I have fallen in love with us! The real people of planet Earth. Here are just some of the multitude of expressions that have been captured. (For which I give great thanks and credit to our technological achievements.)
From India comes a most amazing Flower Drawing video for making Thankyou posters for community first responders: Thank you Poster tutorial.
An artist in California wanted to send flowers to sick people and did this through painting dozens of flowers: Flowers for the Sick.
And the music! My Comadre sent this from Mexico City, again an offering from Spain, which was so hard hit by the coronavirus. Que vuelva, literally translated “that it returns,” reflects the yearning for things that are missing during the quarantine. The artists are Juan Valderrama in collaboration with Mariam Cantero and the proceeds go to the Food Bank. It was released during the height of the pandemic when no openings were in sight. First the lyrics, so you can follow--
An update: Our friend 99 year old Capt. Tom Moore, who walked 100 miles in his backyard to raise money for first responders, (and who won the heart of Zinaida Korneva of St. Petersburg and is now presumably wearing the socks she knitted for him), has been knighted by the queen! “Don’t be too heavy with the sword” he said, since knighting involves the laying of a royal sword on the right shoulder. But the queen is herself over 90 so will likely be mindful of that.
If I ever worried that robots or AI would replace us or that virtual reality and the tide of media—social and antisocial—would shape us into their image, those fears have been banished during this pandemic. I am daily astonished and moved by the endless originality and outpouring of gratitude and caring by individual people. I have fallen in love with us! The real people of planet Earth. Here are just some of the multitude of expressions that have been captured. (For which I give great thanks and credit to our technological achievements.)
From India comes a most amazing Flower Drawing video for making Thankyou posters for community first responders: Thank you Poster tutorial.
An artist in California wanted to send flowers to sick people and did this through painting dozens of flowers: Flowers for the Sick.
And the music! My Comadre sent this from Mexico City, again an offering from Spain, which was so hard hit by the coronavirus. Que vuelva, literally translated “that it returns,” reflects the yearning for things that are missing during the quarantine. The artists are Juan Valderrama in collaboration with Mariam Cantero and the proceeds go to the Food Bank. It was released during the height of the pandemic when no openings were in sight. First the lyrics, so you can follow--
Bring back the kisses, the laughter and voices!
The cheers for the goals
Bring back hugs, applauses, oles;
bring back the children to school
Bring back the movies and popcorn and theaters;
the music and live concerts
Bring back the joy, wave the sadness away.
Sing! Don’t cry!
Let the bad things blow away in sighs..
It’s not worth it to be bitter.
Life is filled with little things
that give it meaning!
Bring back the warmth and people in the street
Toasts in the sun, blown kisses
Bring back good news and waking up with the feel of your touch
Bring back laughter, everyday life; the routine and
Fixing the world in the corner bar.
Sing! Don’t cry!
Let the bad things blow away in sighs..
It’s not worth it to be bitter.
Life is filled with little things that give it meaning!
(Thanks to Yolanda Hay in Mexico City for her translation)
The cheers for the goals
Bring back hugs, applauses, oles;
bring back the children to school
Bring back the movies and popcorn and theaters;
the music and live concerts
Bring back the joy, wave the sadness away.
Sing! Don’t cry!
Let the bad things blow away in sighs..
It’s not worth it to be bitter.
Life is filled with little things
that give it meaning!
Bring back the warmth and people in the street
Toasts in the sun, blown kisses
Bring back good news and waking up with the feel of your touch
Bring back laughter, everyday life; the routine and
Fixing the world in the corner bar.
Sing! Don’t cry!
Let the bad things blow away in sighs..
It’s not worth it to be bitter.
Life is filled with little things that give it meaning!
(Thanks to Yolanda Hay in Mexico City for her translation)
From Cuba, by way of Martha Slattery in North Carolina, comes an international musical collaboration guaranteed to cheer the most downcast quarantiner. The music of Cuba has its very special flavor that is picked up by musicians in Los Angeles, Mali, and Japan. I love the instruments but I also love the people in the backgrounds going about their daily lives. It’s all great fun and great music. Some of you will recognize music of the Buena Vista Social Club.
When I was a child in Rochester, NY—with winters almost as long as Montana’s—a Dutch couple lived on the corner of our street and every spring we would wait anxiously for the first sign of crocuses pushing up through the snow. They were planted to spell the word S P R I N G and the message was greeted with joy. This year, another Dutchman has offered a virtual Spring in The Most Beautiful Flower Garden In The World Has No Visitors For The First Time In 71 Years And I Got To Capture It
This is the first of the 31 photos.
There would be no flowers without the pollinators, so here is an encore by the film-maker of Gratitude, from my previous Letter, Louie Schwartzberg. The time-lapse photography is remarkable and has his special eye for the wonders of nature. You can find more of his work in his series on Netflix - "Moving Art."
| | Now meet two of my favorite characters: Surya (the orangutan) and Roscoe (the hound). I never watch this video without smiling affectionately at both. Not only humans are full of the unexpected! |
A bit of humor from another favorite short but delightful video. I have heard it said that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn, and also to pronounce.
| english_teachers.mp4 |
I always like to leave on a peaceful note, so here is The Inner History of the Day, a poem by Irish poet John O’Donohue.
Please stay well!
Sheri Ritchlin
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