The children’s book “Beatrice’s Goat”, based on the story of alumna Beatrice Biira ’04, has been adapted as a musical. In the story, Beatrice is a young girl in Uganda who, through the gift of a goat provided by Heifer International, is able to lift her family out of poverty by providing an additional source of  income. The story has been transformed into a a 30-minute musical by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi (of “The Lion King” fame).  Read more on the author’s blog.

Geraldine Baum ’73, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, was in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001 during the terrorist attacks. On the anniversary of the attacks, Baum has penned some remembrances of the scenes.   Read more.

NMH basketball alumni are taking over Germany, Macedonia, Honduras, and Czech Republic. NMH will have 7 alumni playing professional basketball this year.  Ty Nash ’07 (Notre Dame), Tony Gaffney ’04 (UMASS), Jerrell Williams ’07 (LaSalle) and Joe Wolfinger ’05 (Washington) have all signed professional contracts and are wrapping up their pre-seasons this week for different teams in Germany.

Clive Weeden ’07 (Dartmouth) is a pro in Macedonia. Alvin Lewis ’05 (Oklahoma City) is playing in the top league in Honduras and Boris Meno ’04 (Davidson), who got married in August, is continuing his pro career in the Czech Republic.  Ty Nash, Tony Gaffney, Jerrell Williams, Clive Weeden, Alvin Lewis and Boris Meno were all captains of their teams in their senior year in college.

Todd Sutler ’94 has published an op/ed piece in the NYTimes’ new SchoolBook section. In a letter to the school, Sutler writes, ” I thought of NMH often while drafting this piece. I hope I finally did Professor Block proud… I am very proud and excited to have this message shared with a mainstream audience.” Read, “A Teacher Waits for Waiting for Superman, Part 2″  here.  Sutler is a 5th grade teacher at Community Roots, a constructivist charter school in Brooklyn.

S. Prestley Blake, Mount Hermon class of 1934, and co-founder (with his brother Curtis Blake) of Friendly’s ice cream has donated copies of his book, A Friendly Life (Brigantine Media), to every student at NMH.  The books were handed out at registration on Friday, August 26 and Tuesday, August 30.

The book’s opening scene shows Blake standing up in a 2001 shareholder’s meeting and demanding accountability from the company’s CEO for letting Friendly’s debt rise while stock prices and employee morale plummeted. “I guess you can see I’m stubborn,” Blake admits later in the book. He describes how the business started in 1935 during the Depression: Blake and his brother, Curtis, received backing from their parents, bought their first chairs for $8 from a second-hand store, and kept their records on the pieces of cardboard from laundered men’s shirts. Blake doesn’t hide his early mistakes, such as letting ice cream drips fall on the countertop but rather uses them to demonstrate how he and Curtis honed a business model for what would become a restaurant operation with more than 500 locations.

Among his other school-related philanthropy, Blake previously donated ice cream equipment to the NMH farm.

Kimmie Weeks was a Transition-Year Program PG at NMH ’01 and received an honorary Doctorate Degree from Amherst College at their commencement this past May, according to the college.  Other honorees at the ceremony included France’s current minister of economy, finance and industry, Christine Lagarde, and Former Chairman of American’s Federal Reserve Bank, Paul Volcker.

Weeks, a Liberian activist, was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters (Litterarum Humanarum Doctor).  According to a press release, the college noted that Weeks was being honored “. . . not merely for impressive humanitarian achievements, but also especially for believing in the transformative power of education and activism across borders.”  read more and hear Weeks speaking here.