And then it was August, and then Autumn…A sincere note of appreciation to all the families and parents who chose Lexplorations for your children this summer. By all accounts it was a wonderful six weeks of learning and fun. It was an honor to get to meet some of you and to be inspired by, and learn from your children. Our summer Lexplorations is a point of pride for Lexington Community Education and is a glorious and shining (like the sun) start to the experience of life-long-learning of the best kind…not for grades or status but for the pure joy of getting lost in the realm of imagination and possibilities with friends.
Thank you to LCE Children’s Program Coordinator and Lexplorations maestro and master-mind, Shirley Choy for curating classes and content, hiring and scheduling our amazing teachers and support staff, adapting to, with, and around summer building cleaning schedules, booking and scheduling a small army of high school student aides each week, embodying vast intelligence, imparting steady and fearless optimism, and juggling 10,000 more nitty-gritty things, too; and LCE Registration Manager Amy Sullivan for single-handedly processing 2118 registrations (each by hand) with care and impossible (for me) accuracy; and LCE Accounts Payable Manager Deniele Pozz for ordering and getting all the classroom supplies ordered and received (and there were ALOT) before programs started…and for getting all the bills and all the teachers PAID!; and to LCE Adult Program Coordinator Julian Calleja for beautifully designing the Lexplorations print catalog….and for working to schedule Autumn 2025 while Lexplorations was in full swing! Thanks to Jessica McGarvie for once again joining our Lexplorations team this summer and offering wise counsel and an inexhaustible, heart-centered, student-centered work ethic that leaped ahead of possible problems to cut them off before they could grow. Thanks always too to Claire O’Connell our Lexplorations nurse for once again handling bumps, bruises, bee stings and many other things. Thanks also to Shawn Price for his help with Lexplorations students in need of extra care this year.
And thanks to our amazing support staff keeping the Lexplorations sun burning…from arrival to lunch and recess and dismissal. Many hands make for a lighter (and safer) lift! To Ryan Shea and the custodial team at Hastings for being always present, pleasant and quietly heroic. Special thanks also to Hastings Principal Chris Wai, and Rachel Gauthier for their hospitality and support in making Lexplorations (and us) feel at home, and just like family at Hastings Elementary.
A very, very special thanks to all of our Lexplorations teachers…without whom we would have nothing to say here. “When the flower blooms, the bees come.” 
And then it was August, and then Autumn…
—
Craig Hall
Director, Lexington Community Education
A Self Supporting Program of the Lexington Public Schools
(pictured above from left to right: Craig Hall, Shirley Choy, & Jessica McGarvie from LCE & Ting Fang and Yingying Cui from New Legacy Cultural Center)
