We are St. Mark’s strong

On Oct. 30, 2019, just 10 days after the tornado hit campus, students returned to school. An all-school assembly was held in Spencer Gym. After Reverend Arbogast prayed, Dini and then-student body president Taylor Hopkin spoke.

Hopkin ‘20: I think the coolest part about my role during that whole thing was a lot of the stories were funneled to me for whatever reason. There were some awesome stories of people going above and beyond, helping other people out, staying up late, helping people that they’ve never met clean up their yards for hours, or driving around looking for different food items or different construction tools to help them get their stuff done. Hearing those stories for the week that we were off was one of cooler experiences in my life. It was a moment where you’re like, man, I’m happy I’m at St Mark’s.

Eventually the chapel bricks were replaced, the Lower School roof was replaced, Spencer Gym was renovated and the landscaping took shape, filling the void of the trees lost to the storm. The school was different—it looked different and felt different. Those 10 days and the weeks that would follow made the community stronger than it had ever been.

Carden: The tornado was in a lot of ways preparing us for an even bigger challenge, which was Covid. In a way, we were able to kind of say, ‘okay, we’ve done this before. Let’s go back to that same playbook,’ and it kind of helped prepare us.

Ashton: I look at those photos sometimes, and there’s still this sort of emotional response, a lump in my throat. But it’s not because it was a sad time. It actually, for me, is because it’s just so powerful, the sense of community that responded to it. All those photos are of people and what they did together. To be a part of a place where that’s what we do, and that’s the people around you, it fills you with intense gratitude and appreciation.

Lissemore: I learned that our community is resilient, that we’re tough and that we can overcome anything. And we did. I know as faculty members, administrators, coaches, we were concerned about what we needed to do to ensure that we were delivering from a program standpoint. But, I remember looking at the boys and they’re like, hey, we’ll get through, we’ll figure it out. And again, just a testament to the culture here.