For the past three years, Brookstone School has honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Make your Mark week in 2019, Voices of Change week in 2021, and Leading with Love Week in 2022. This year’s theme will be One School: Many Stories as we celebrate the various cultural backgrounds of our Brookstone family, along with kindness, equality, and positive contributions to society.

We were thankful for all of the beautiful entries for our Celebrating Cultures: One School, Many Stories mural contest. We received submissions from students in every division, and all of the thoughtful designs were excellent representations of celebrating the various cultural backgrounds and stories of our Brookstone family.

Congratulations to our four winners for their designs:

Preschool:                         Charles O’Hara and Naina Potini, PreK

Lower School:                        Joy Boswell, 2nd Grade

Intermediate School:              Rosie Riley, 4th Grade

Middle School:                       Laila Lindsey, 7th Grade

Upper School:                         Beverly Brooks, 12th Grade

This year’s theme was a perfect fit for the Shared Journaling our PreK students are doing. Several times each week students share stories from their own lives and the whole class writes about one of these stories. A couple of weeks ago, Naina shared a story about a meal of puri and potatoes she shared with her family at her grandmother’s house, and Charles’s representation of Naina’s story captured the essence of her family’s culture. After all, food is culture, and the tradition of families gathering to share food is almost universal in all cultures. One of the goals of Shared Journaling, and of Celebrating Cultures, is the development of empathy, compassion, and an appreciation for the diversity of our experiences. Each of our stories are like pieces of fabric that, when woven together, create the gorgeous tapestry that is the Brookstone community.

We also love the description 7th grader Laila Lindsay wrote about her design. It so beautifully illustrates the meaning behind this year’s theme:

The brown dots floating around are seeds. The seeds represent new students with new and untold stories to tell. The seeds in the dirt represent students who have been here for a couple years and those students’ stories are still being told and welcomed into Brookstone. The short flowers that have already sprouted represent students that have been here for years, but their stories aren’t done yet, that is why they’re not fully grown. The big B flower in the center represents Brookstone School, it’s so big because it leads every younger flower/seed beneath it and hopefully every flower/seed will look up to find Brookstone, a good example. As you can see every flower has a different petal color, this is supposed to represent that every student has their own great personality, character, and culture. If you look closely, I made the flowers’ leaves different shapes, that is supposed to represent that every person looks different and acts different, and that’s wonderful! Lastly, if you look closely in the dirt, you’ll see the big B flower’s roots reaching out to every seed and root, and those roots are reaching out to other roots and seeds. That is supposed to represent Brookstone reaching out to every student and helping those students, and those students reaching out and helping other students, and the little meadow/school keeps growing and growing.   

At the end of the week, we held an all school assembly to celebrate this theme together. In addition to honoring our mural winners, We enjoyed two performances by some special guests – GTQurbani, Georgia Tech University’s Non Profit, Student Run, All Male, Competitive Bollywood Fusion Dance Team and the Fountain City Nupes from Columbus State University’s Eta Theta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. It was a wonderful way to wrap up such a special week! Enjoy this brief video showcasing the many ways we are One School: Many Stories!