The Informer - the International School of Stavanger

From the Director:“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life bywhat we give.”It was my pleasure to be invited by the folks at NATO lastweek to celebrate the spirit of volunteerism that is alive andwell in our community. The US Military contingent sponsoreda tea in conjunction with National Volunteer Week, whichis observed in the US April 19 th -25 th . I used that wonderfulquote above by Winston Churchill in my remarks at that event.The sentiment is the same as I extend it to all of our parents aswell. The International School of Stavanger lives, breathes andrevels in the volunteerism that we have watched in action formany years. We have many “high-profile” volunteers here atISS and many others who perform their work quietly behindthe scenes—literally avoiding the limelight. And to all thoseindividuals, I have a special responsibility to see that they arenot forgotten.Perhaps a point that I should mention is that everyone who haschosen to enroll their children at ISS is a volunteer. You havevolunteered to place your most cherished possessions—yourchildren—in our hands for some of the best hours of their lives.We are not the only educational option for you in this town andon a daily basis I am grateful for that vote of trust.It is very important that I do not take the generous gift of timethat so many devote to the school for granted and so I extenda very, very sincere thanks and debt of gratitude to all current,past and future volunteers. We are a better school because ofyou!Have you ordered your yearbook yet? Our yearbook staff andtheir wonderful advisor, Ms. Kaatje deGruyter, have once againmade all their deadlines in perfect timing and the publishingcompany is currently doing their work so the books will arrivein time for the end of the year. The yearbook staff is nowworking on a CD of pictures of all the spring activities thattake place too late to be included in the hardback publication.The yearbook staff will be running another pre-publicationsale, and so we recommend that you order ahead to avoid beingdisappointed should they run out. Given the success of lastyear’s book, plus the quality of what I have seen as it has beenprepared for publication, I believe everyone will be delightedwith the result of the staff’s hard work.ISS students in action in the 17th of May parade last yearAnd just why might you be interested in having a yearbook...well, you just never know when one of your classmates turnsout to be famous! An example that I’ll share today is a studentwho we called Jay Rathbone when he attended ISS in 1992-1995 when he spent 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th grades here. Today, he isknown throughout the world as Jackson Rathbone, and forJasper Hale, the character he plays in the “Twilight” movies.Never heard of either Jackson Rathbone or “Twilight?” Asknearly any available teenager and they can probably fill you in!His second grade teacher at ISS, Mrs. Jeanene Gay is not theleast bit surprised by the 841,000 hits that come up on Googlefor him, “How could anyone forget Jay! He was one of the starsin our ’Shoemaker and the Elves’ Christmas production.” Socongratulations, Jay/Jackson—we wish him continued successand it was great fun looking him up in the ISS yearbooks.2 · The In f o r m e r 29 Ap r i l 2009 www.isstavanger.no