On January 26, StarShine Academy celebrated its’ tenth 100th
Monkey Breakfast. As far as I am concerned, it was one of the best, primarily
due to Lynn Ericksson’s preparations, our well-behaved students, first class
chefs and world-class speakers.
What is a 100th Monkey Breakfast?
The StarShine 100th Monkey Breakfast is based off
Ken Keyes Jr. book titled, “The 100th Monkey.” In short, the 100th Monkey is a phenomenon in which a learned
behavior spreads instantly from one group of monkeys to all monkeys and a
critical mass is achieved.
StarShine adopted the theory and started the StarShine 100th
Monkey Breakfast as a ‘thank you’ to all of the StarShine supporters who are
spreading the StarShine philosophy and sowing StarShine seeds around the world.
This year we were honored to have 3 chefs volunteering with
our students to create, serve and clean up breakfast. I walked into our kitchen
around 7:30 to find the students studiously working with our guest chefs to
prepare the breakfast. It was amazing to see Stephen Toevs, the Executive Chef with the
Ritz Carlton, teaching students how to create an
oven on top of the stove. And on the other side of the kitchen watch Ingrid,
our other guest chef, instructing students on the preparation of the egg dishes.
We had about 100 people attend from many walks of life. TrishMcCarty welcomed everyone, Steve McCarty opened with a song and Vernon Swaback
spoke about the new property. The highlight
was when two parents, Regina Saldana and Janelle Ginter, spoke about StarShine.
The two mothers explained how StarShine supported and nurtured their children
and families. Frank Dawson’s class recited a wonderful and humorous poem.
Whenever we have an event similar to this one, I am reminded
that a school is more than a building where students attend class. A school is a community that is
filled with like-minded supporters, volunteers, teachers, parents and students.
A school like StarShine.
If you enjoyed reading this inspiring story about the school –
StarShine Academy then you will want to read:
