FriendsMail - 4/26/26

The first of May will culminate this upcoming week, which means the end of the school year is drawing closer at rapid speed. This past Friday's temperature during our Earth Day Festival really made Summer feel within reach.

The next few weeks of school will be packed with end-of-year field trips, ERB testing for Lower School, our Night of Friends celebration, PreK Water Days, and so much more. Hang on tight because this ride is gonna start moving fast. We're almost to the finish line, Friends!!

This Water Conservation Relay Race was just one of many fun activities that took place during our
4th Annual Earth Day Festival on Friday!

With their buddy groups and Middle School helpers, students rotated between 8 different stations and learned about many different ways to care for our planet and local environments.

Check out our Earth Day Festival Highlights section below for more photos of this incredible event!

On Friday, our community gathered to celebrate Earth Day, fittingly observed on National Arbor Day, through a day of learning, service, and connection to the natural world that sustains us. On our beautiful campus, students and faculty were joined by partners from the North Carolina Composting Council, Cape Fear River Watch, Carolina Beach State Park, and Plastic Ocean Project. Together, we explored not only the richness of our local environment, but also our shared responsibility to care for it with intention and respect. These partnerships brought expertise, energy, and inspiration, helping our students see that environmental stewardship is both local and collective.

Experiences like these do not happen by accident. I want to express deep gratitude to our Environmental Education Coordinator, Karen, whose vision and dedication made this day possible. Karen’s work ensures that environmental learning at Friends School of Wilmington is not a single event, but a thread woven throughout the student experience. From cultivating our campus as a living classroom to fostering meaningful partnerships with organizations doing critical work in our region, she helps our students develop both knowledge and a sense of responsibility that will stay with them long after they leave our school.

At FSW, this work is deeply rooted in the Quaker testimonies of simplicity and stewardship. To live simply is not merely to have less, but to live with intention, to recognize the impact of our choices and to seek balance in how we use the Earth’s resources. Stewardship calls us to go a step further, inviting us to care for the world not as owners, but as responsible guardians of a shared and sacred trust. Quakers have long understood that tending the Earth is an expression of faith in action, grounded in a belief in the interconnectedness of all life. In a time when environmental challenges can feel overwhelming, these testimonies offer both clarity and hope: that small, mindful actions, taken together, can lead to meaningful and lasting change.

Ticket sales are now live for our long-standing, favorite tradition of Night of Friends, and the Silent Auction bidding has commenced!

Each year the parents, faculty, and staff gather for an evening of cocktails, hors d'oeurves, music, trivia, Silent Auction, and good times! You know you want to be there.

Click the button down below to grab your ticket, then check out our Silent Auction website to get a feel for what you might like to bid on.
Silent Auction ends at midnight on 5/16.

Keyword: fswauction26

On a beautiful Friday afternoon we celebrated our annual Earth Day Festival, an all-school event held at Longleaf Center! Students rotated between eight interactive stations led by environmental educators from area organizations as well as our very own school community. Along the way, students learned about water conservation, the impact of plastic pollution on sea life, the life cycle of food and importance of composting, the wonders of carnivorous plants, the dynamics of Cape Fear River food chains, the power of "zines" in education and activism, and the critical value of our native plants. They also enjoyed popcorn and apples at our eco-friendly snack station.

Thank you to our amazing station leaders: Lyndsay Schubert (water conservation relay), Emily Mulvihill and Hannah Johnson (Plastic Ocean Project), Patrick Bradshaw (Native Plants), Kat Polk (NC Composting Council), Marissa Blackburn (Carolina Beach State Park), LJ Hammer (Cape Fear River Watch), Amy McGlinn, Meghan Sweeney, and 8th grade students (zines and caring for the Earth), and David and Theresa (eco-friendly snack station).

Thanks also to FSW faculty, staff and many parent volunteers for leading student groups, supporting station leaders, setting up and taking down tents, managing gates and parking, and handling all other logistics. Hats off to our Environmental Stewardship Committee (Skip, Julie, Marsha, Landis, Caroline, Michaela, and Martina) for planning our festival and recruiting station leaders. Wow, our community rocks!

Founded in April 1970, Earth Day was first conceived by Senator Gaylord Nelson (Wisconsin) as a series of "teach-ins" on college campuses to raise awareness of pollution and conservation issues. We are proud to continue this tradition at FSW, not only through our annual Earth Day Festival, but also in our everyday environmental education lessons and projects in classroom curricula, on field trips, and across our campus!

Seven months of hard work, problem-solving, after-school prep, and teamwork, all culminating in one incredible weekend. The State Science Olympiad Tournament in Raleigh was a true celebration of everything our FSW scientists have worked toward this season.

Our middle school team took on 25 science and engineering events across two action-packed days, showcasing skills that ranged from hands-on builds to deep scientific knowledge. Whether designing hovercrafts, analyzing ocean systems, solving forensic cases, or exploring quantum physics, they rose to every challenge.

What stood out most wasn’t just the competition, it was the resilience, collaboration, and joy our students brought to every event. We were also proud to cheer on many FSW alumni continuing their Science Olympiad journeys at the high school level.

From a highly competitive field of 45 teams, we were proud of all our students’ performances, and excited to celebrate these standout medal results:

Coverly Correll & Indira Caton - 2nd Place, Metric Mastery
Lila Harrell & Kat Wright - 6th Place, Crime Busters
Henry Laudadio & Sam Cox - 8th Place, Dynamic Planet
Coverly Correll & Sam Cox - 8th Place, Entomology

A fantastic finish to an incredible season and we couldn’t be prouder.

Earlier this week, our facilities manager Mike Cook installed our permanent sign at our Chimney Swift Tower. It looks beautiful against the backdrop of false indigo (Baptisia australis), now blooming in several color varieties around the tower. Thank you, Mike -- our sign is spectacular!

Thanks to Page Turner of NC Wildlife Federation and Emiily Meyer of Vacker Sign for creating this sign for our tower. We are grateful to Cape Fear Audubon for constructing our tower and to Amy McGlinn's middle school art elective students for painting it last spring (2025). This project wouldn't be possible without our generous funding partners, Women's Impact Network and Duke Energy. Our tower is one of three installed in the Wilmington area last year; the other towers are at Willowdale Farm and Maides Park.

Chimney Swifts are neotropical migrants that travel between eastern North America and the Peruvian Amazon. By late October, most swifts have already migrated to South America where they will spend the winter months. We hope to welcome a nesting pair of swifts soon, but recognize it may take several years for our tower to be discovered. For more information about Chimney Swifts, check out Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

We're always looking for volunteers to help with our monthly dinner shifts at Good Shepherd Center! Follow the link HERE to sign up for any of the upcoming shifts, now through August!
We serve on the 3rd Thursday of each month from 4:30-7:00 PM at 811 Martin Street.
Come lend a hand and be part of this meaningful community effort!