Page 5 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 1 Fall 2012

Bogle-Lechner Field

An hour before the St. Paul’s School

varsity field hockey team took the field

for a 2-1 victory over New Hampton

School on September 29, the School offic-

ially dedicated the year-old 140,000-

square-foot synthetic turf facility at

the corner of Silk Farm Road and Dun-

barton Road.

The project, which had long been on

the School’s radar, was approved at win-

ter 2011 meetings by the SPS Trustee

Finance and Buildings and Grounds

Committees as well as by the full board.

The SPS field hockey team played its first

game on the field on October 12, 2011.

The dedication of the Bogle-Lechner

field honored the donors who made the

facility possible, including Trustees John

Lechner and Emily Bogle and their fam-

ilies, who were present at the event.

“This field does a couple of things,” said

Bogle, who was joined at the dedication

by her husband Harold and daughter

Courtney ’08. Daughter Lily ’14 was also

in attendance, dressed for her imminent

game with the SPS varsity field hockey

team. “This gives the School a fantastic

facility, particularly for field hockey

players to develop their skills on this sur-

face. Also, having a facility like this raises

the reputation of the athletic program at

St. Paul’s and shows the School’s dedica-

tion to athletics.” Not able to attend was

Kelsey ’10, who also played field hockey

at St. Paul’s.

The 15-minute ceremony included

remarks from Rector Mike Hirschfeld ’85,

Athletic Director Scott Heitmiller ’81, and

longtime SPS varsity field hockey and

girls lacrosse coach Heather Crutchfield.

Hirschfeld thanked the Bogles and the

Lechners for their generosity and leader-

ship and spoke of the turf as an addi-

tional place for students and faculty to

build relationships.

“This may look like a field,” said Hirsch-

feld, “but it’s really a classroom for inno-

vation and collaboration. This is a place

where healthy, strong relationships are

built. It’s a

wonderful

classroom.”

John Lechner, father of John ’07, Liz ’09,

Julia ’12, and Duncan ’15, joked that the

SPS founders had chosen a “terrible place

to have a School [weather-wise], but I

hope this makes up for it in some way.”

Spud Rent

Produce can’t get much fresher than this:

Each week, local farmer Larry Pletcher,

who operates the Vegetable Ranch in

Warner, N.H., picks, washes, and packs

produce on a five-acre plot of SPS land

on Silk Farm Road.

In exchange for the land, Pletcher pays

“rent” to the School in the form of approx-

imately eight percent of his yield. This

year’s 10,000 pounds of potatoes translated

to a payment of 800 pounds of the crop to

SPS Food Services. The onion crop pro-

duced 3,000 pounds, 250 of which will go

toward the annual land rental.

Also this fall, Pletcher and the 10 Vege-

table Ranch employees who help him

cultivate the SPS land have packed 10

individual produce boxes each week. The

recipients are St. Paul’s families, who have

joined the School’s Community-Supported

Agriculture (CSA) program.

“They pay in advance for produce,” ex-

plains Pletcher, a tall, kindly gentleman

wearing a soil-covered “Life is Good”

T-shirt. “It’s certified organic, so they are

guaranteed access to very fresh local pro-

duce at a reasonable price – every week.”

It costs less than $20 each week for the

variety pack of fresh produce that SPS

community members pick up on the steps

of Memorial Hall, a bounty Pletcher esti-

mates to contain an average of $28 of

organic vegetables.

Among Pletcher’s customers for the fall

CSA session is Rectory Chef Adam Stock-

man, who incorporates the home-grown

vegetables into the Rectory menu as often

as possible.

“We use this for administrative lunches,

student lunches, trustee luncheons,” Stock-

man explains. “We work these vegetables

in wherever we can.”

With the help of an irrigation system,

the Silk Farm plot enjoyed a fruitful sum-

mer, yielding the aforementioned potatoes

and onions as well as broccoli, lettuce,

cabbage, cauliflower, beets, carrots, and

other veggie staples. The fall crop was

expected to include turnips, parsnips,

rutabaga, and a variety of other produce.

Summer Makeovers

Summer is a time for rest and reflec-

tion. On the grounds of St. Paul’s School,

it is also a time for construction.

Summer traditionally presents an ideal

window for the School to complete capital

JANA F. BROWN