Hancock, Then and Now

Step inside our first post-pandemic Hancock weekend—and step back in time through Hancock’s history...

It’s September 25, 2021, around 7:00 p.m., and nearly every Commonwealth student, teacher, and staff member is sitting under the stars.

Wrapped in winter coats, next to Lake Tarleton and surrounded by New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the crowd’s collective gaze is fixed on a porch-turned-makeshift-stage, strung with lights and electric with talent show performances. From a hauntingly restrained acoustic version of “Hotel California” to a horror story reading that is simply haunting, from improvised musicals to improvised kazoos, from soaring faculty solos to a band of seniors rocking out, each act enjoys a rapt crowd punctuating their performances with full-throated cheers.

In this era of COVID, such events remain a rare occurrence at Commonwealth. (We’re still holding recess virtually, and the few in-person events we have hosted had attendee limits, vaccination requirements, and other safety measures.) But that cheery, supportive, and—because we were outdoors, unmasked—crowd felt blissfully normal.

The rest of the weekend, our first “real” Hancock in two years, also felt much like the Hancocks of old, with kayaking, crafting, and playing board games. Preparing massive meals. Apple picking and pie baking. Cocoa and s’mores around a firepit. Movie nights (Ratatouille and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie). And the general giddiness of running around in a darkening wood. Of course, precautions like masking indoors, HEPA filters buzzing in cabins, and an afternoon of supplemental rapid antigen testing served as reminders that, indeed, a global pandemic continues on. But there was a simple joy in being together, reminded of the depth of our connections beyond Commonwealth’s classrooms. Just as Hancock was always intended to do.

Hancock Through the Years

Hancock dates back to the school’s earliest days, when the school’s founder and then-Headmaster Charles Merrill, Jr., brought all students and faculty to his family’s farm in Hancock, New Hampshire, for a rustic school-wide bonding adventure designed to teach students about shared responsibility and the value of cultivating relationships, skills, and interests outside academics.

Since then, Hancock has remained one of Commonwealth’s most enduring traditions, with the school embarking on twiceyearly trips, every fall and spring, with those same goals and same sentimental “Hancock” name, though the location has changed several times. In particular, the fall Hancock is a time to reconnect with old friends and colleagues after the summer while welcoming the newest members of the Commonwealth community into the fold. The spring weekend is generally more of the same, with the graduating class savoring their final Hancock and the rising juniors learning from them what it takes to lead. It all happens over fireside chats, hours of meal prep, ambitious hikes where (almost) no one gets lost, and, once upon a time, “corvée” duty of chopping firewood and even shoveling latrines.

After settling into cabins or tents, students spend their mornings engaged in planned activities, like marathon reading sessions, apple picking, tie-dying, and games of various stripes (on boards, fields, courts, etc.). Afternoons are free time often used for swimming, boating, and hiking. The weekend usually includes dancing and the aforementioned talent show on the final night, too.

Between these frivolities, students, faculty, and staff are responsible for the work of Hancock as well. With minimal faculty oversight, student organize meals (for ~200 people, largely made from scratch), clean-up crews, and activities, growing into leadership roles over the course of their years at Commonwealth.

For decades, Hancock weekends came and went largely without incident—save for a few trips to the ER and that time a raccoon got stuck in the ceiling. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and it quickly became clear that the spring 2020 Hancock weekend could not happen as scheduled. But with quarantining deepening the hunger for connection, the school rallied to organize an event befitting the times, with a morning of virtual happenings; an afternoon of masked, outdoor, distanced, and cohorted activities; and an evening talent show over Zoom. Subsequent “Hancock-in-the-City” events became the pandemicera alternative to weekends in the woods, grounded in the community-building ethos of Hancock.

As the fall 2021 semester got underway—fully in person and with ninety-six percent of the school community vaccinated against COVID-19—reviving the traditional Hancock weekend was a priority. And after planning on an ever-shifting foundation of public health stats and safety recommendations, the school set off for a weekend in the woods, once again reveling in all that Hancock represented. Toiling over pancakes and pie crusts. Giggling in the darkness after lights out. Shaking barn floors with dancing feet. Smiling, even behind the masks. t

Turn the page for more memories....

Relive more memories from Hancocks past on Commonwealth’s Flickr page: flickr.com/ commschool

Circa 1959: Mr. Merrill brings all students and faculty to his family’s farm in New Hampshire for the first Hancock trip. 1961: The first class of students graduates from Commonwealth.

1981: Charles Merrill retires as Headmaster, though Hancock weekends at the Merrill family farm continue until the school outgrows the space. 1997: The school begins a long relationship with Camp Winona in Bridgton, Maine— though the “Hancock” name remains. 2007: Experimenting with a day trip rather than a full weekend away, the school travels to Provincetown, Massachusetts, for the spring Hancock weekend. Verdict: Full weekends are vastly preferred. 2008: Experimenting with an earlier spring Hancock weekend, the school travels to Camp Wing in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Verdict: April is too soon for Hancock.

2009: Spring Hancock returns to Camp Winona in Maine.

2020, spring: As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commonwealth community gathers for the first virtual Hancock, with events such as a Bollywood watch party, pet show-and-tell, Hip Hop Appreciation Seminar, and talent show via Zoom.

2020, fall: With the school engaging in hybrid learning (only half of the student body in the building at a time), Commonwealth conducts the first Hancock-in-the-City, a day-long event with virtual morning activities like Pandemic Mnemonic Poetry, a Hangry Hancock food chat, and Overly Complicated Board Games, with an afternoon in-person scavenger hunt and kickball game. 2021, spring: A more robust Hancock-in-theCity event sees the school taking over Daisy Field in Jamaica Plain for small group activities like croquet, friendship bracelet making, and a “Bad Fiction Appreciation Chat.” The following day, the senior class (now vaccinated!) journeys back to the Merrill family farm in Hancock, New Hampshire, for a special overnight trip (less corvée, though, due to social distancing…). 2021, fall: After months of cautiously optimistic planning, consulting with epidemiologists, and carefully watching COVID-19 vaccination and infection rates, Commonwealth goes on the first Hancock weekend away in two years, also the school’s first to Kingswood Camp for Boys in Piermont, New Hampshire.