The Oliverian School Board Receives Donation

These were the words of Tom Townsend as he and his wife, Jeanne, announced their gift of $500,000 to those assembled at the most recent meeting of the Oliverian School's Board of Trustees. The Townsends' donation, the largest single gift in the School's history, was made to honor the memory of their son, Alexander Boone Townsend '08, who was killed in a tragic single car accident in February 2010. The Townsends' gift has been earmarked by the donors to provide specific financial support to Oliverian to assist with the ongoing operations of the School.

As part of her emotional presentation, a grateful Jeanne Townsend shared her thoughts regarding Alex's Oliverian experience with both the Board and the School's senior administrators:

"As many of you are aware, our son Alex came to Oliverian in the fall of 2004 as a member of its charter class. Alex was sophomore in high school, barely sixteen, and a young sixteen, and espoused to have hated every day of school since kindergarten. He was a very bright, creative, introspective child who often confounded both his teachers and his peers. In Kindergarten, instead of playing soccer with the other boys at recess, he sat alone in the sandbox and built giant, intricate villages of sticks and sand. He drew complicated mazes that most adults couldn't solve. He spent the majority of his time in t-ball looking for ladybugs and chasing butterflies. When we sent him to day camp at the beach, while the other children were playing organized games, he set a goal for himself to find a hundred sharks' teeth, and proceeded earnestly to comb the beach for hours until he had accumulated all one hundred. In first grade, Alex's teacher complained to me that when she polled each student about whether they wished to use black or gray felt for a project, Alex replied that would like to use red. At open house, the same teacher posted the children's essays on what they wanted to be when they grew up. While all the other children wrote about their aspirations to become surgeons or lawyers, Alex wrote simply that he wanted to paint pictures on the beach. He had an incredible ear for music, and sat at the piano or his drum set for hours working out songs and rhythms. He was a consummate collector--his room at home is like an archaeological dig, with his many collections from various stages of his life meticulously on display, beginning with the rocks and fossils, through the Titanic and sports memorabilia, to an impressive World War II collection, to the most exhaustive collection of everything related to the Simpsons I have ever seen.

As Alex grew older, he continued to be a dreamer-- which characteristic came to be diagnosed as an attention deficit, and he also became very spirited. Although he was occasionally lucky enough to have a teacher who understood him-- and those teachers usually described him as being an old soul-- in general he simply drove his teachers, and many of his peers, crazy. They couldn't comprehend his complete inability to conform, his endless questions, his hyper focus on certain topics, and his lack of focus on topics which he deemed insignificant. Because of his gentle nature, he became an easy target for bullies and was picked on incessantly. He began experimenting with various ways to fit in, and quickly discovered that he could garner some respect from his peers by being the class clown. All of this was really frustrating to us, because we knew Alex as a sweet, kind boy with a huge heart, a sophisticated sense of humor, and a keen intelligence and curiosity. But we felt as if we were the only ones who could see this. We suffered with him through middle school and through his first year of high school, at which point he had become disillusioned and beaten down. We went through a period of searching frantically for a better alternative, and we found Oliverian.

At Oliverian, Alex finally found a group of adults, other than his parents and grandparents, who connected with him and truly appreciated his gifts. Equally as important, they helped him to acknowledge and tackle those behaviors that often got in his way. They nurtured him, loved him, and guided him, and when he made mistakes, they held him accountable, but continued to nurture, love and guide him.

They helped him to learn to maneuver successfully within his peer group. He became an integral part of the Oliverian community. Oliverian enabled him to gain the confidence he would need to figure out who he was and how he would embrace and navigate through life. Oliverian became his home away from home, and the people at Oliverian became his family. In his early days at Oliverian, he was looked at by his peers as the little brother who needed to be protected. As an older student, he became someone who the other kids looked up to; a leader in his own right. He wasn't simply accepted by his peers, he was actually respected. By the time he graduated, he was no longer the scared little boy who we dropped off in the fall of 2004; he was a 6'5" young man who had the requisite maturity, confidence, and courage to begin the next chapter of his life. The people at Oliverian who loved him, and invested themselves so fully in him over the years he was there--Barclay, Greg, Carl Stagg, Lauren Estebanell, Kim McManus, and Abby Hood, to name a few--were in large part responsible for that transformation. And don't get me wrong; his journey at Oliverian was not always smooth, and his transformation was not overnight--it was gradual, and sometimes painful, filled with baby steps and sometimes backward steps. But the people at Oliverian never, ever, stopped believing in Alex, so he never gave up on himself. More than anything, he did not want to let those people down. Alex left Oliverian knowing that he had been part of something truly special and unique, having forged many deep and lasting friendships, and appreciating every single thing that Oliverian had given him.

Alex went on to complete a semester with the National Outdoor Leadership School in New Zealand, and then became a graphic art and advertising major at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He fell in love with Savannah and SCAD, and made a beautiful life for himself there. He had a large, very close knit circle of friends, a beautiful girlfriend, and good grades. In the early hours of Sunday, February 14, 2010, he was killed in a single car collision. Thankfully, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend time with Alex on the Thursday and Friday before his accident. He was in a really good place at the time, and after leaving him I texted Tom that we needed to just let him be who he was, that he was going to be just fine. Barclay happened to talk to him the day before the accident to arrange a visit, and found him to be happy, confident, and excited for the visit.

When I received the news of Alex's accident, I found that the first people I wanted to call were the people at Oliverian. I realized they had spent more time with him and loved him more deeply than just about anyone on this earth, other than family. Barclay and Greg delivered profoundly moving speeches at his memorial service in St. Louis. Their words and support helped us immensely to get through those next dark days and weeks. Our Oliverian family proceeded in the challenging months that followed to become a huge source of strength for us. I don't know what any of us--Tom, me, Nate or Laura--would have done without them.

Tom and I have always been passionate about and supportive of Oliverian and its mission, but the turn of events of last February awakened in us the desire to give back in a very significant way-- a way that would enable us to keep Alex's legacy at Oliverian alive indefinitely, and would enable Oliverian to keep helping kids like Alex. And by that, I mean kids who have so much to offer the world, but for whatever reason have had a difficult journey and have struggled in a more traditional setting.

This pledge has been months in the making, and will come as no surprise to these incredible people, but I'd like now to present Randy with a check for $167,000, which is the first of three installments of a $500,000 gift to be made over the course of the next three years. And I give you this gift, Randy, with deep love and gratitude, and with the complete confidence that you will use it wisely to continue to carry out Oliverian's critical mission with the integrity, passion and dedication that all of you have demonstrated over the seven years that I have been associated with this school."

In thanking the Townsends for their transformational gift, Oliverian's Director of External Affairs, Carl Lovejoy wrote, "Your incredible support, which comes to us each day in so many ways, will help to ensure that Oliverian continues to grow in the years to come, and remains a safe and supportive place for young boys and girls to find their path. In doing so, you also help to ensure that Alex's legacy will live on here in Pike. The two of you and, especially, Alex will be forever linked with Oliverian's formative years, and without the three of you, the School's foundation would not be nearly as strong. My colleagues and I are humbled by the faith that you have demonstrated in us."

Tom and Jeanne Townsend live in St. Louis, MO with their son, Nate, and their daughter, Laura. Tom is the co-founder of the advertising agency Rodgers/Townsend, and serves as the firm's Chief Creative Officer. Jeanne, a former maritime law attorney, has recently been named the Chair of the Oliverian School's Board of Trustees. Tom lends his vast expertise to the Board as Chair of the Marketing Committee.

The Oliverian School is an Alternative New England Boarding School for Students greades 9-12 who have been experiencing difficulties and want to transition to a college preparatory setting.