The School Says Goodbye to Harry, Jim, and Phil

As Harry, Jim, and Phil prepared to retire to Animal Nation, Cathedral students worked together to create one final project as a goodbye to our feathered friends. Upper School students in Mr. Delacey’s advisory group began by painting a peacock on a large canvas, which would become the background for a fabulous community work of art.

Working in cross-divisional pairs, Upper School and Lower School students gathered together on the morning of Thursday, January 19 to read Feathers for Peacock by Jacqueline Jules, with illustrations by Helen Cann. In this story, a group of birds comes together to help a friend in need—this is why peacocks are so colorful, thanks to the kindness of others! After the story, Ms. Corbin shared an additional tale—the medieval tradition of “The Vow of the Peacock,” in which banquet guests placed their hands on a peacock feather and promised to uphold the values of courage, honor, justice, and a readiness to help others. Ms. Corbin then invited all students to think of their own vows by focusing on one particular Core Value for the rest of this year. Each student colored and decorated a peacock feather before writing this Core Value and signing their name on the back. 

After these feathers were collected, faculty and staff members helped arrange these feathers on the canvas, and the finished work now hangs in the 1st floor hallway near the entrance of the School—a wonderful symbol of our love for Harry, Jim, and Phil, our unity as a Cathedral School community, and our shared commitment to our Core Values. Please see photos of the project in the right-hand column.