Eastway connections and alums in iTunes, San Francisco galleries, and Sevilla.

On Sunday, December 16, a group of sophomores put aside their studying to prepare holiday dinners for ten families from Eastway Elementary School. The Wittman, Peterson, Coleman and Spatola advisories have been visiting Eastway for their Community Service, and have been extremely impressed with the students and faculty at the school. The project was not restricted to these four advisories and many other students from the sophomore class donated their time and their cooking ability to make this project a success. The administration and families at Eastway were very appreciative and it was truly heart-warming to see our students commit their time and their energy to come in on a Sunday for this very worthwhile project.

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Monika Lind (DA '03), "recent USC graduate and Hollywood hopeful," wrote this week to share news of a project called "Band Together: To Fight Measles:" "My friend Mat works for the American Red Cross and compiled a benefit CD to sell on iTunes. He invited me to be a part of it, and I was thrilled. My song is called "Better Angels" – I wrote it and sing it, my brother Jason plays the guitar, and my favorite film composer Dave Stanton arranged it. So please please please check it out on iTunes! Just search "Monika Lind" or "Better Angels" or "Band Together: To Fight Measles." It's for a great cause (the American Red Cross Measles Initiative), and I would really appreciate your support! Just 99 cents!

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John Arnold, DA alumnus and loving son of our own Jennifer Potts, had a show opening is week at San Francisco's Babylon Falling, a "concept-driven independent bookstore with a focus on the spirit of Revolution." To see a video interview of John and his work, click to http://www.babylonfalling.com
and scroll back to the blog entry labeled "Studio Visit with John Feliz Arnold III.

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Davidson College junior and faithful Community Matters reader Anne Stevens (DA '05) returned recently from a semester abroad in Sevilla, Spain. To read her reflections in the Davidsonian Online about learning language and culture across barriers of all kinds, click here.

On Sunday (12/16) Durham Nativity School presents its Mid-Year Performance at 3pm in Kenan Auditorium. Writes DA parent of alumni and DNS Board Chair Joe Moylan, "The young men have been working extremely hard to prepare. Please invite your families and friends. Our support to the boys and their families remains a key to their success."

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A nice reminder that our students have all kinds of rich experiences outside of school. Here's senior Yates Sikes with a newborn llama at his home. Here's the report from his mother Laura and father (recent assembly presenter) Jim: "We have had a new arrival. Billie Holiday gave birth to a bouncing 27 lb. baby boy cria on Thursday afternoon at 205 p.m. He stood up at 45 minutes and finally nursed in a little over 3 hours. He is quite rambunctious. He now weighs almost 30 pounds. Mama's milk must be pretty good!"

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With colleges around the country going on break, we'll likely see a lot of recent DA grads on campus next week. Among them might be Cam Chambers '07, now honing his basketball skills during a PG year at New Jersey's Blair Academy (where Costen Irons did a PG year and Mike Ronco began his teaching career). Click here for more about Blair's powerful hoops program, which has produced three current NBA players including Duke's Luol Deng.

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The schedule for the 2008 Upper School Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration has just been published. Among the highlights: the debut of the DA Gospel Choir, a keynote address from Duke's most eminent professor, stories from DA faculty graduates of historically black colleges, an exhibition of Durham Civil Rights artifacts, a citywide parade, Freedom School seminars, and two student service projects. Click here for the details and prepare for another exciting and educational week.

Salsa in the gym, Student U. in the gallery, Debate in Greensboro

The DA Salsa Club (sponsored by CSI) meets on Fridays during lunch. Each week thirty students join Bela Kussin in the Upper School Gym (45 students have signed up) sharing lunch, making new friends and learning Puerto Rican Style Salsa (ChaCha, Merengue and Danzon, too). A fun way to end the week. Gavin Walker serves as the Salsa Team Leader.

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Dan Kimberg wrote the following message to Ginger Young, who hosted the Student U. cohort at her Chapel Hill Gallery:

"Thank you for providing our students with an incredible experience this past weekend. They were so engaged in the art work and fascinated by all of the different ways to create a masterpiece. It was great walking around hearing students ask you questions as well as take the initiative to pick up various books around your house and start reading about art.

The students loved Clyde, especially Jared, a self proclaimed artist who seemed to be in awe of Clyde. I made sure Clyde and Jared had a couple of minutes to talk and Clyde provide Jared with some valuable life advice. Jared ran up to his mom when she came to pick him up and told her about the exciting encounter.

Thank you for welcoming us into your home and sharing your passion with our students and teachers."

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DA Debate Update: "Assistant Coach Todd Cobb took the team to NW Guilford HS last Saturday, and they had a great time. A lot of the competitors were new to the debate team -- we have more beginners on the team now than we have ever had. The new crop of public forum novices served notice on the competition, and DA took 2nd place in the small school sweepstakes competition! Worth Newman and Max Young-Jones took 1st in novice PF and were the only undefeated team. Leslie Ogden and Brooke Brown were close behind in 2nd, and David Fowler and Tristan Swedish completed the trophy haul by placing 5th. In other events, Josh Erb took 5th in varsity Linclon-Douglas, and Nathaniel Donahue took 6th in impromptu. Both Ale Tomasi and Ariel Katz were in the top six in original oratory, but the tournament limited awards to the top three. We have a tournament this weekend, again mostly for the newbies, and then we're done until January, a very important month for the varsity."