For the third year in a row, 625 Boys’ Latin students participated in One Laker | One Love Day on Friday, April 7 to celebrate the importance of healthy relationships.
The annual all-day event aimed to teach values beyond the classroom and to inspire the boys to seek true excellence in all that they do.
“Our third annual One Laker | One Love day was a meaningful and successful day for our boys in all divisions. Building on the success of the past two years, boys of all ages engaged in meaningful discussions that highlighted our commonalities and our differences,” says Megan Kenney, school counselor and One Love Club advisor. “By offering developmentally appropriate activities that challenged each boy to act with courage, integrity and compassion, we built stronger individuals and a stronger community.”
Throughout the day, students and speakers addressed ways to build healthier relationships. The lower school focused on getting to know their classmates better; the middle school focused on self-awareness and self-expression; and the upper school students heard from Cometry, an organization that uses comedy, poetry and improvisation to show how students can better connect with one another while honoring what makes each person unique.
The One Laker | One Love event grew out of a student-led initiative and partnership with the One Love Foundation, which was created by Sharon Love, mother of Yeardley Love, the Baltimore native and University of Virginia student who tragically lost her life at the hands of her former boyfriend in 2010. BL was the first school in the nation to create a student club. Called the One Love Club, it strives to raise awareness about healthy relationships and identify the warning signs of relationship violence.
The school believes that these conversations should begin early and engages the entire K-12 community in One Laker | One Love Day. As a visual representation of the school’s solidarity behind this mission, all students came together for a one-school aerial photograph mid-day before participating in small group activities and discussions.
One Laker | One Love Day concluded with a varsity baseball game vs. Annapolis Area Christian School. Both teams showed their support for the One Love Foundation by wearing blue armbands. One Love Club leaders also said a few words about BL’s continued work with the OneLove Foundation.
“One Laker | One Love Day is a special time for our community and represents the collective efforts of the Parents’ Association, school administration, students and faculty,” adds Kenney. “We consistently receive positive feedback on the day and are excited to celebrate another successful event.”
About Boys’ Latin
Boys’ Latin is Maryland’s oldest, non-sectarian school for boys. For more than 170 years, Boys’ Latin has instilled the core values of courage, integrity and compassion in each boy as embodied in our motto, Esse Quam Videri (to be, rather than to seem). By understanding how boys learn best, our talented faculty fosters enduring personal relationships and empowers each student to strive for academic and personal excellence. For more information, please visit boyslatinmd.com.
Media contact: Cathi Hilpert Communications Coordinator The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland 822 West Lake Avenue Baltimore, MD 21210 410-377-5192 x1182 chilpert@boyslatinmd.com
