Picnics
The Harker Family & Alumni Picnic is a tradition dating back to 1951, when the first picnic was held on the grounds of the Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA) campus. Today, it is one of the most popular events for Harker families and other members of the community.
At PAMA, the picnic was held in October at the end of the first full month of school. The Father’s Club sponsored the event, and proceeds funded the cost of monthly awards and trophies. Fried chicken was the traditional fare, and the picnic included a father-son softball game, the mothers’ 50-yard dash, an egg toss and a tug of war. The bike drills were a memorable part of the picnic, as each cadet decorated his bicycle for the event.
With the merge of the two Palo Alto schools and their move to San Jose, the picnic tradition continued at Harker Academy. The Father’s Club still planned the fundraising event and proceeds now provided a major source of funding for various needs at the school. In 1978, the raffle was added to the picnic, with a family donating a trip to Hawaii for two. The early ‘80s brought rides, live entertainment and a yearly theme. Themes over the years have included the circus, U.S. bicentennial, a beach party and starships.
As the school became The Harker School in the 1990s, the picnic changed as well. The now-famous Grand Auction from the annual black-tie dinner was combined with the picnic, and a silent auction was added. In 1997 and ’98, the picnic took place in the spring instead of the usual fall. While most picnics have been held in the fall, spring picnics reigned from 1997 to 2003. One year, 2003-04, we even held two picnics, as we moved the tradition back to fall!
Harker’s expansion continued with the addition of two more campuses, and the picnic followed suit. In 2001, Harker celebrated the picnic’s 50th anniversary by donating all the proceeds from the event to the Harker Teacher’s Fund, which helped offset the rising high cost of Bay Area housing. The 2006 “Picnic Down Under” allowed visitors to pet both a kangaroo and an alligator. A big change for the picnic came in 2007 when the event location changed from the Saratoga Avenue campus to Harker’s then-new middle school campus on Blackford Avenue, largely to accommodate the capital expansion project underway on the upper school campus. Appropriately themed “Blackford or Bust!” the wagon-wheeled, way-out-West theme – and the new, spacious location – was a huge hit.
Related Articles
Harker News, Fall 2010, "Picnic Makes History from FantaSea 2000 to Peace and Love in 2010"
Harker News, Summer 2010, "Harker's Family and Alumni Picnic Turns 60"
Harker News Online, By Catherine Snider, Aug. 14, 2009, "A Condensed History of the Harker Picnic"
Performing Arts
Harker boasts over a century of excellence in performing arts. “The Princess,” adapted from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem of the same name, was performed by the juniors and seniors of Miss Harker’s School for Girls in 1907, and is the earliest play program held in the archives.
It’s clear that performing arts was an essential part of the girls’ education from the school’s inception. The 1928 school catalog notes that the goal of oral and dramatic arts expression is to, “develop self-control and emotional mastery, adaptability, initiative and poise, and to furnish an incentive for the establishment of beautiful speech as a medium of human intercourse.” Annual spring performances included “Women – Ancient and Modern: A Farce in Three Acts” in 1911, “Prunella” in 1919, “Rhoecus” in 1920 and “The Arrow Maker” in 1921. During the 1930s and ’40s, the school produced one Shakespearean play each year, including “Much Ado About Nothing” (1929) and “As You Like It” (1934). As the school expanded to include younger students, they also performed in various holiday programs and fairy tale adaptations, foreshadowing the current annual grade 2 show, The Ogre Awards.
In the 1950s, principal Alice Williams personally wrote many of the plays, and the summer program always included a drama workshop for the primary through junior high students. In 1978-79 the student newspaper reported that the Drama Club presented “Scaredy Cat” and “Good Manners and Bad Manners.” In 1981, The Harker Academy hosted the first Junior High School Drama Festival, which was conceived by drama teacher Erskine Morgan. Competing against Crittendon, Castilleja and Aptos Junior High, Harker won Best Play for “The Rockabilly Nowhere Man.” Morgan also produced a musical in 1981, “Let George Do It,” and the Harker spring musical tradition was born.
Harker’s musicals have won high acclaim; in 2002 the spring musical cast won first place in San Jose’s American Musical Theater High School honors competition for “Oklahoma!” and The Harker Conservatory was first nominated for the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, in 2006, performing “Urinetown: The Musical.” Their second nomination came in 2011, when they performed “Pippin.” Laura Lang-Ree joined Harker in 1995 as performing arts department chair to teach acting and public speaking. Production has grown from 20 performances each year to a staff of 18 performing arts professionals who produce 73 performances each year, including instrumental programs, choir concerts and Conservatory productions.
The school is especially indebted to Howard and Diana Nichols for their support and passion for the arts, reflected today in a vibrant program that offers comprehensive K-12 programs in dance, drama, vocal music, instrumental music, technical theater and musical theater.
Related Articles
Harker News, May 2004, "Harker's Theater History Spans Century"
Harker News, April 2004, "Put on Your Dancin' Shoes for Harker's History of Dance"
May Festivals
May Day festivals, held annually, heralded the arrival of spring at Miss Harker’s School, Harker Day School and the Harker Academy. A 1956 article in the Palo Alto Times reports that the annual May Festival and French Fete was celebrated by children in grades 3-6 winding ribbon around the Maypole, French classes performing songs and folk dances, and an aquacade by both Harker students and Palo Alto High School students, held in the pool. At Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA), the annual Alumni Field Day Exercises were held each May; this event allowed cadets to participate in exercises and competitions that showed their individual or platoon accomplishments for the year. Crack squad exhibitions, bugle competition, manual of arms competition and the decorated bicycle drill were all part of this event.
In 1972, when the two schools merged and moved to San Jose, the May Festival continued as a combination of events from both of the former schools. The event is referenced as the annual May Festival, annual Family Festival and annual Family & Alumni Festival in various newsletters and calendars. The description of the day from a 1975 newsletter says, “May 10th was a perfect day for dancing and singing, and that is just what many of the Harker Academy grades did! Other groups exhibited skills learned in physical education and rode decorated bicycles in drill patterns. It was of course, the Annual Family Festival! Over eight hundred people enjoyed the entertainment which was climaxed by a parade of the Cadet Corps and the traditional dancing around the maypole.”
The last May Festival was held in 1981 but the historic winding of the maypole took place once again at the 1993 Family & Alumni Picnic as part of Harker’s 100th birthday celebration.
Summer Programs
Summer fun has been a part of our history dating back to the 1920s, when Palo Alto Military Academy’s summer program brochure described a schedule of morning academics, followed by military drills, calisthenics, swimming, baseball and hikes. PAMA also hosted a recreational camp at Camp Eldorado at Lake Alpine in the Sierra, where the boys slept in tent cabins and ate in a log cabin mess hall. Fishing, archery, swimming and campfire programs were offered, and popular activities included bike and horseback riding, bugling, rifle practice and boating.
During the 1950s the Miss Harker’s School summer program featured Puppet Pantomime, an original variety show presented by the children, Aquacade in the school pool, arts, crafts and woodworking. By the 1960s – after Major Nichols purchased the school – the Harker Day School featured a six-week program of “Academics, Recreation, and Just Plain Fun!”
After the move to the Saratoga campus in 1972 and into the 1980s, Harker’s summer school continued to offer academic enrichment, recreation and sports for boys and girls in both boarding and day programs. Activities included archery, dance, drama, martial arts and weight training, and an ESL program was added with boarding students coming from around the world.
In the ’90s Harker began offering extended summer trips such as Fields of Dreams – A Midwest Baseball Tour and Excellent Adventure in San Diego. Non-academic classes such as Hands on Science, Friendly French and performing arts workshops were offered in the morning. A three-week Club Harker session was added at the end of the original five-week camp, offering families even more options. This camp was a bit more relaxed, and also featured World Camp, an intensive English instruction that ended with a road trip through California.
Modern summer camps include KinderCamp for incoming kindergartners, the traditional K-8 camp, a four-week camp for grades 1-5, two-week project-based and thematic sessions, and the Summer Institute, featuring academic courses for middle and high school students.
Related Articles
Harker News, May 2003, "From Calisthenics to Climbing Walls, Harker Has a History of Summer Fun"
Auctions & Fundraisers
The Harker Academy Fathers’ and Mothers’ Clubs were the core of the fundraising efforts in the early years of our school. These clubs sponsored spaghetti dinners, holiday dances, boutiques and candy and bake sales to support the costs of facility and faculty needs. Projects funded by these events included building the sports and recreation center, renovating the science labs, automating the library and hiring additional teachers in special subject areas. The annual spaghetti dinners, held in the spring, were both prepared and served by parents. The evening featured family-style dining at red and white checkered tables, live entertainment and the first raffle drawings at Harker. The selling of raffle tickets gave everyone a chance to be involved in fundraising efforts for the school.
Holiday boutiques and bake sales were held by the Mothers’ Club before and after award ceremonies, all school assemblies or performances. Parents raised funds by selling homemade crafts and baked goods along with gift baskets filled with fun items to suit the time of year or theme of the event. Poor boy sandwiches or pizza were sold to raise funds at the annual May Festival. For several years, in the early 1980s, the parents held a See’s Candies fundraiser, selling the local brand in December and using the dorm dining room as the distribution center. Many parents bought See’s as holiday gifts and the sales were a huge success.
The Harker Academy’s Gala Spring Auction began in April 1984 and was held in the gym with elaborate, fun items and adventures that were put up for bid by a professional auctioneer. Homemade Italian food was prepared by Harker parents and Harker faculty worked as waiters. Each year the gala became grander and although it moved off campus in 1986, the Harker staff continued their roles as waiters at the event. The staff usually dressed for the theme of the evening (New York, New York in 1986, and Juke Box Saturday Night in 1987, for example) and these first-class events brought the entire Harker community together to raise money for the school.
Harker’s Family & Alumni Picnic is a decades-old tradition in which the entire Harker community gathers together each fall to celebrate the beginning of the new school year and enjoy a day of fabulous family fun. The grand drawing is a picnic tradition that allows everyone a chance to contribute to the fundraising efforts by selling raffle tickets before the event. In 1989 auctions were added to the Family & Alumni Picnic celebrations, allowing picnickers to bid on trips, vacation homes, teacher packages and more to raise funds for the school.
The annual fashion show is the newest Harker fundraising event. This exhilarating and elegant event, held each February, includes a lunch and a dinner show that involve more than 200 students, faculty and parents. The runway show is punctuated by fun, high-energy entertainment from our talented student performers. The dinner show is followed by an exciting live auction and dancing with a live band. Each year the proceeds from the fashion show are directed to a selected Harker program or project.
Related Articles
Harker News, March 2004, "Affairs to Remember – Harker Auctions & Fundraising Events"
Boarding Program
From the earliest days at Manzanita Hall and Miss Harker's School, residential life was an integral part of the schools' programs. Both schools offered the boarding option to the upper school students. The Miss Harker's girls benefited from a rich residential program, with double-occupancy dorm rooms, outdoor sleeping porches and a lovely library. The 1951 brochure describes field trips to cultural events in San Francisco, evening study groups and colloquia, and even a student bank which encouraged the young women to manage a budget.
The boarding program at Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA) was an option for students in K-9. The 1921 brochure description of the daily school life included regimented wake-up calls (“bugle call” at 6:40), a brisk 10 minutes of setting-up exercises, personal appearance inspections before marching into breakfast, room inspections and study halls. “Taps” sounded at 9 p.m. Cadets were segregated in dormitories according to grade and age. Each cadet had a roommate, and this brotherly companion helped give a homey feel to the dorms. There was a housemother or faculty member in each building. A 1956 brochure put more emphasis on extracurricular activities the boarders could enjoy, such as marbles, baseball, swimming, bicycling, horseback riding and rifle practice.
The boarding program continued when the Palo Alto schools merged and moved to the Saratoga campus in 1972. As the new school phased out the cadet program, the dorm daily routine was also relaxed, and things like bugle wake-up calls, marching into meals and standing for personal inspection were dropped. The Harker Academy coed dorms housed up to 120 boarding students ranging in age from seven to 14 years, with separate living quarters for boys and girls and shared recreation, television and dining rooms. The evening study halls, supervised by houseparents, reinforced and supplemented academic skills learned during the day. During free time boarders could join others in the community areas to visit, play games such as Ping-Pong and air hockey, or take part in special nightly activities that included open gym or field games. The dorms provided a family element to the school over the years, and with breakfast and dinner served each day to the boarding students, Harker encouraged faculty to come early or stay late and spend time with the boarders. Increasingly, boarders were international students, mostly seven-day boarders in grades 6-8, studying in Harker’s ESL program. With their parents far away, the dorm staff truly became their family and weekend staff and activities were increased to fit the needs and interests of our international teenagers.
In 2002, due to the continuing space needs of Harker’s expanding K-12 program, the decision was made to officially close the dorms at the end of the school year. Caring, capable staff took care of the health, academics and social lives of approximately 1,377 school year boarding students and approximately 2,100 summer boarding students when the program was at its height.
Related Articles
Harker News, June 2002, "Boarding Program Closes Leaving Great History and Fond Memories Behind"
Harker News, February 2004, "A Flurry of Great Ski Trip Memories"
Graduations
Commencement exercises represent the most celebrated of school traditions – the end of a journey and the beginning of a new chapter. Manzanita Hall graduates were assured a spot at Stanford, something certainly worth celebrating, even in 1895! Students of Miss Harker’s School for Girls gathered on campus under the Commencement Oak in their white dresses to mark the completion of a rigorous course of study that prepared them for the world ahead, whether at Stanford or while pursuing “domestic life.” Graduating PAMA cadets were honored at a campus celebration with parades, marching band performances and myriad awards.
Through the years Harker has retained a formal and awe-inspiring tone to its graduations. Dressed in dark suits or tuxedoes and white dresses, Harker Academy graduates continued the tradition. With the addition of the upper school, promotion ceremonies are held for the highest grade on each campus and the formal graduation ceremony is reserved for the upper school.
The upper school Baccalaureate ceremony, held on the Thursday night before Saturday’s graduation, commemorates an age-old tradition; a teacher, chosen by the senior class, delivers a farewell address to students. Modern Harker graduations are held at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, and at the conclusion of the program doves are released as the graduates hear this traditional send-off: "It is time for us to release you into the world. Remember that you are eagles, royal, swift of wing and powerful with great vision. But walk in the world with the kindness and peace of doves. May your future path be safe and filled with joy."
Award Ceremonies
Harker has a long-standing tradition of honoring students with awards for academic excellence, athletic accomplishments, service, citizenship and character. Early PAMA brochures and photos are replete with examples of award ceremonies. Monthly medals, cords or certificate awards were presented for scholastic achievements, conduct, outstanding effort, posture, marksmanship and promotions. The Father’s Club presented a trophy each month to the most improved platoon. The highest monthly award was the Cum Laude Award in General Honors, awarded to the cadet who maintained the highest grade average in the school. In the spring, the same monthly awards were given at an annual family banquet and awards dinner – a formal banquet held off campus at a restaurant or hotel. Near the end of the school year, the annual Alumni Field Day Exercises allowed cadets to participate in exercises and competitions that showed their individual or platoon accomplishments for the year; crack squad exhibitions, bugle competition, manual of arms competition and the bicycle drill were all part of this event.
Harker Day School also gave monthly academic awards. General honors, citizenship, “A” honor roll, scholarship, conduct and effort were included in monthly awards. Special awards were given at graduation to honor students receiving the top awards for the academic year. These medal awards included highest academic average, highest citizenship, French, outstanding effort, sportsmanship, posture, courtesy, personal appearance, swimming and outstanding student.
As the cadet program evolved into a leadership program at Harker Academy, the tradition of honoring student accomplishments prevailed. Harker Academy presented quarterly and semester awards at ceremonies held in the evening. Students received awards for specific areas of academics such as English, math, history, P.E., science, and foreign language along with awards for citizenship, effort, cooperation, leadership, most improved, service, athletics and sportsmanship. Final awards were presented at the graduation ceremony to those students who earned an award three or more quarters during the academic year. The highest final awards, voted on by the faculty, and each given to one boy and one girl, were the Spirit of Cooperation, Outstanding Effort and General Excellence awards.
The Harker School continues to award students with academic honors as well as athletic and citizenship awards in the lower and middle schools. At the upper school awards ceremony, held in May, students receive awards for excellence in community service, along with academic awards in all subject areas. The highest award given at this event honors our former PAMA head of school: The Donald Nichols Excellence in Leadership Award. This award is presented to the students who have taken an active role in bettering the school community, demonstrating the outstanding qualities of vision, willingness to serve, and concern for the needs of others.
Service
“Not to be served, but to serve – Non ministrari, sed ministrare.” This motto from The Harker School dates back to Miss Harker’s School for Girls and represents a core value that permeates our school culture. The school’s founders believed that each Harker student must develop a sense of personal responsibility, “so that, by entering into the welfare of other lives with sympathy and helpfulness, she will become a power for good in her home and in the community in which she lives” (1928-29 school catalog). Over the years Miss Harker’s girls raised money for the Stanford Home for Convalescent Children in 1923, the Red Cross Children’s Relief Fund in 1942 and the World Service Student Fund in 1946.
Service continued to be an important component for students at The Harker Academy, and the current K-12 school. Students at all levels participate in old and new traditions of service. Lower school students plant a tree each year, which began when the Bucknall campus opened in 1998. Other projects include holding a food drive at the holidays, collecting food and toys for animals at the SPCA, and even a joint program with their upper school Eagle Buddies called The Pajama Program, which collects sleepwear and children’s books for families in need. Multiple performing arts take a traveling holiday show to homes for the elderly and children’s hospitals, K-8 children participate annually in the Jump Rope for Heart event for the American Heart Association, and Harker Academy students won an award in 1978 for their involvement in the March of Dimes Walkathon. Upper school students participate in an annual Red Cross blood drive; the Freshmen Service Day, where advisory groups perform community service together; and volunteer at Scott Lane Elementary School. Harker’s Key Club and Global Empowerment Organization (GEO) provide students with many opportunities to contribute to causes both near and far.
Howard's Birthday Tradition
Howard Nichols, president of The Harker School from 1973-2005, kept a cookie jar in his office and maintained an open invitation for anyone – students, staff and faculty – to come by and have a cookie. It was his way of reminding the community that he was always available to give advice, discuss a problem or enjoy some small talk. Mr. Nichols retired in 2005 and passed away in 2008, but the cookie jar still sits outside Mr. Nikoloff’s office at the upper school campus, tempting passers-by. Each year on Oct. 10, Mr. Nichols’ birthday, all three campuses enjoy cookies in his honor.