Spring 2021 Newsletter

SPRING 2021

@ @ FCDS UPDATES FROM FORSYTH COUNTRY DAY

A Note From Gardner

In this Issue:

HEAD OF SCHOOL Dear Furies,

What a year it has been! If you had told me when this in-person school year started that we'd make it to May with no unplanned virtual days, I'd have said you were crazy! But we did - with not a single case of on-campus community spread of COVID-19. Students learned on campus all year and were able not only to see one another (masked and distanced, of course) but to participate in sports, the arts, homecoming, blood drives, and spirit weeks, to name just a few. Check out a few pictures in Celebrating our Wins .

Invested: The Cain Family Celebrating Our Wins Unearthing Our History

With the release of the vaccines and their distribution this winter and spring, we were able to open up even more, relaxing some restrictions so that by the end of the year, we were able to have in-person concerts, gatherings, and spectators at outdoor sporting events. One special event—held outdoors in the Infinity Amphitheater—involved our first-grade journalists interviewing longtime Head of School Gordon Bingham, founding teacher John Danforth, and me. Read all about that in Unearthing Our History. Those kids asked some tough questions!

Finally, nothing we did this year would have been possible without the support and encouragement of our school families. Read about one family—the Cains—and their broad and deep FCDS experience in Invested: The Cain Family. I think you'll find their story inspiring and affirming.

We're at the finish line of this school year now, and yes, it's been a wild ride. If we are patient, stay the course, keep masking, distancing, and following public health guidelines, life and school as we know it will look a whole lot more normal next year. Have a wonderful end of the year and a great summer!

Take care and be well,

Gardner Barrier ’97

Invested: The Cain Family With five Fury children (three alumni, two current students), few families are more invested in Forsyth Country Day—and in one another—than the Cains.

Dad Randy, Mom Cynthia, alumni Hamilton ’14, Grant ’16, and Olivia ’18, and current students Victoria ’22 and Preston ’25 came to Forsyth nine years ago and have been deeply involved and connected to the school community ever since.

Randy, who has enjoyed three successful decades in investing—a field in which he continues to work—also serves as pastor of Zion Memorial Missionary Baptist Church.

“I still work in investing, no stop,” Randy said. “But, in my ministry in the church, I loved teaching Sunday School and Bible Study, not knowing that God was ultimately calling me to be a pastor.” Randy finished divinity school at Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury and took over the spiritual leadership of Zion Memorial in East Winston in 2017. Randy is currently pursuing the Doctor of Ministry degree at Duke University Divinity School.

“It’s the church that Cynthia grew up in,” Randy said. “I had a neighbor who would bring me to that church as a child...and my future wife was sitting there. I never imagined I would later become a pastor there.”

But the decision to enter the ministry was not one he made alone. “What we have done we have always done as a family,” Randy said. The family moved many times for his career—living in Boston, Charlotte, New York, Geneva, Switzerland, Durham, and Atlanta—but the decisions were always made by Randy and Cynthia together. “There has been nothing that we haven’t gone into together. If it’s good for me but not her or it’s good for her but not me, it’s a no,” Randy said. “Only if it’s good for both of us does it make sense.”

Cynthia agrees. “We learned to work together and support one another,” she said. Whether she is supporting Randy or her children, Cynthia has learned the secret to her own success. “They are all individuals and I see myself as a support person for them. I found that it’s not my dream that I want them to accomplish—it’s their dream. I found success in letting them find their niche and then I support it.”

One niche where the Cains all fit was Forsyth Country Day. After attending different schools—from Montessori to public—in other states and abroad, the Cains first considered FCDS for their eldest son, Hamilton, when he was a junior in public school. “We toured and we were like, ‘Let’s get everyone over here’,” Randy said. “Getting people on campus is huge because Forsyth offers so much in its own space, and everyone can find their niche.”

“[At Forsyth] the bar is raised at every level.”

- Randy Cain

Cynthia most values the community her family became a part of. “The staff is phenomenal. You would go to games and look up and see the teachers,” Cynthia said. “The teachers are foundational.” Ann Kimmer advised four of their five children, and Cynthia fondly remembers Pattie Stoltz, Laura Brown, Lorna Hogan, and many others. “It feels like family,” she added. “Forsyth Country Day really does have that sense of community.”

The Cains also see how the school has benefitted each of their alumni children.

Hamilton, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College and worked as an analyst in investor relations at The Home Depot, is doing some preparation for a new business Randy is looking at launching. “He has an understanding of what investors want and need, and I’m looking forward to potentially getting to work with my son,” Randy said. Forsyth helped Hamilton prepare for college and his career by instilling discipline and sticktoitiveness in him. “[At Forsyth] the bar is raised at every level,” Randy said. “AP classes are at college level, honors classes are almost at AP, and regular classes are taught at honors level.”

Grant, a Morehouse Man like his brother and father, is working in sales at Dell Technologies as a Business Advisor in Nashville, Tennessee. One key to his success? In addition to his supportive family and talents, the Cains credit FCDS. “It has been the discipline he learned at Forsyth along with the academic rigor and the development of the whole person,” Randy said. “He benefited from that and he’s been very successful.”

Olivia, the third Cain FCDS alum, a rising senior at Spelman College who just joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated at the Mu Pi chapter concurred.

“Forsyth prepared me so well for college,” Olivia said. “I am so grateful for that experience.”

“Forsyth prepared me so well for college.

I am so grateful for that experience.”

- Olivia Cain '18

Olivia recently finished as a finalist in the Miss Spelman contest, running on a platform that sought to connect current Spelman students with alumni in a manner that’s inclusive of all. Her impressive campaign and passion for fostering relationships led FCDS to invite her to serve on its recently formed Alumni Council.

With Victoria and Preston still at Forsyth, the Cains are looking forward to continuing the Forsyth journey. “Because we moved so many times with five kids, there have been lots of schools,” Cynthia said. “Once we came to Forsyth, we never regretted it.”

Thank you for supporting the Forsyth Fund!

Look for our 2020-2021 Impact Report this summer.

First Grade Journalists Unearth FCDS’s History of Community With the April sun shining through the trees, a group of first graders—clad in their best Fury gear, nametags, and armed with notepads and pens, gathered at the Infinity Amphitheater by the pond on April 20. They were prepared with questions and ready to get some answers about FCDS’s history.

There to helm the press conference were Head of School Gardner Barrier ’97, former Head of School Gordon Bingham, FCDS’s longest-serving head, and Forsyth Country Day founding teacher and coach John Danforth, who worked at the school for 43 years and is widely known as “Mr. Fury.”

First, Mr. Barrier wanted to clear one thing up. “Some people call me G.B. You know my name is Gardner Barrier, so my initials are G.B.,” he said. “But I’m not the real G.B. The real G.B. is Gordon Bingham, who was my head of school when I went here.”

The first grade journalists took in that information with interest, but they had burning questions, and this pint-sized press corps would not be denied. Who started the school? (Ten families, prominent among them Rod and Sue Lowrey, for whom the Lower School is named, and Julian Scarborough, the first chair of the Board of Trustees, and his wife Alice Ann.) When was it started? (The school was founded in 1970, but parents began meeting about it in 1967, because it took some time to put the plan together.)

“They had to find a place for the school and hire teachers and raise money to pay those teachers,” Coach Danforth said.

Another burning question: “How did you learn things without the internet and computers?”

Students were astonished to learn that, back when the school was founded and even when Mr. Bingham was head of school and Mr. Barrier was a student, the internet hadn’t been invented. “We had to look up the information in books, so students used the library,” Mr. Bingham told the shocked crowd. “Over their time here, students developed close relationships with our library staff, because they helped them find the information they were looking for.”

Another jaw-dropping fun fact: the school’s first library (created when the school was housed at nearby Trinity United Methodist Church) contained just 75 donated books. Today, the library has 40,000 physical volumes and a world of information available virtually.

Although a great deal has changed in 51 years, one thing about Forsyth Country Day School has stayed constant: the importance of those relationships. “I’m going to tell you a word and I’m going to spell it for you so you can write it down,” Mr. Barrier said. “It’s C-U-L-T-U-R-E—culture,” he said. “Mr. Bingham helped create a school culture that allowed us to develop great relationships— with our friends, our teachers, and the rest of the school community.”

Mr. Bingham said his favorite part of being at FCDS was the relationships his sons, who are both alumni, formed with their teachers and friends and the ties he formed with his students, colleagues, and the parent community. Coach Danforth and Mr. Barrier agreed.

“I know two friends who were in first grade, just like you, and they were best friends,” Coach Danforth said. “Their names were Lou Baldwin and David Rogers [both Class of ’82]. They are still best friends to this day.”

The students looked around at one another—would they still have the same best friend when they grew up? Would they remember their teachers? It was a question they hadn’t thought to prepare.

Coach Danforth couldn’t let them go just yet, though. “OK, first grade. We need to wake these Upper School students up. On the count of three, Go Furies! One, two, three...GO FURIES!”

Celebrating Our Wins Homecoming Court

Blood Drive

Girls' Swimming State Champions

In-Person Performances

Monarch Butterflies

The Color Run The Drowsy Chaperone

After going virtual in March 2020 and curtailing many in-person events in accordance with CDC guidelines and state mandates after we returned in the fall, we adapted quickly and were able to deliver an incredible school year with both virtual and in-person events.

Spirit Weeks

5501 Shallowford Road Lewisville, NC 27023

www.fcds.org

FCDS Class of 2021