We can still recall when Colin, the life of our family, approached us about leaving home for a junior boarding school at the age of 12. We’d known about Cardigan from our older son, Rich Jr., who’d once played against the Finnish hockey team when they were visiting The Point for their annual tournament with Cardigan.
While Colin had some choices as to where to attend middle school, he recognized where his values were matched, and so Colin (we) enrolled at Cardigan.
However, how would our family survive without him? How could he manage on his own? Would his values change?
Little did we know how much Cardigan would become a center point in our lives and how it would influence Colin’s life. These concerns were initially allayed on the very first day of school as families gathered in the theater and listened to welcoming remarks from then Head of School Mr. McCusker. These remarks made a statement that carries on at Cardigan today, “We will know your boys and we will love your boys.”
Those words have been fulfilled in more ways than we could imagine. From the moment we heard from Dave McCusker, to having John Bayreuther advise our son for three years, to Ryan Sinclair assuring us that traveling to South Africa was the right way for Colin to spend a summer, to Kris Langetieg creating a trusting environment on the search for Colin’s next school, and to the seamless transition of Chris Day taking on the role as head of school…we have witnessed great growth and unimaginable opportunity for our son in a loving and caring environment.
As a Cardigan Family, we have experienced firsthand the School’s determination to stay focused on several capital improvements to complement the already pristine campus. The building of McCusker Hall was a center point of those efforts and our son Colin was blessed to reside there in its inaugural year.
The future is bright for current and future Cougars! You can trust that the Board of Trustees is always envisioning new additions while preserving the core values of a Cardigan education.
Cardigan is a very special place for Colin where brotherhoods are created. I recall every detail of our drive on drop-off day for seventh grade. As we approached Exit 17, I could feel my eyes well up with tears, and just when I was about to tell him how much we would miss him…he had had a big smile on his face and began to clap as he told us how excited he was about this next step in his life.