Eighth Grade Students Create Inspired ‘River Table’ From Beloved Campus Tree
The following text is excerpted from The Table, a book chronicling the year-long eighth grade service learning project by students Arthur Milligan ‘26, Charles Long ‘26, Henry Cronin ‘26, and Astra Bernardo ‘26 to create a community “river table” using salvaged lumber from Friends Academy’s campus Beech Tree.
“We were asked at the beginning of eighth grade: ‘What do you want to leave behind?’”
– Charlie Long ’26
It started with an ending.
As eighth graders, we would soon have to say goodbye to Friends Academy. We wanted a way to leave an impact on this school.
We connected this with another ending. Our beloved Beech tree had to be cut down. Many of us grew up under its coppery leaves. So we did something. We asked permission to use the salvaged wood to build a River Table.
The small question “What do you want to leave behind” turned into a really big project only because of the clear concept hatched, outlined, and proposed by Arthur Milligan.
As our team (named “The Woodchucks”) planned, we found several Friends Academy analogies were captured by our purpose. Perhaps most easily recognizable, we embraced our actual river, the Paskamanset River, and “Peace Like a River,” a spiritual anthem that’s often sung with the whole community. (We’ll never forget Mr. Murdock and All-School Meeting.)
It was always a community project.
No surprise, we had a lot of help with the planning, fabrication, and funding. We had the time, skill, and creativity of a master carpenter (Peter Milligan P’21 ‘22 ‘26), the guidance of a design coach (Mark Bernardo P’26), the support of fellow students, advice from a local legend, and many nods and enabling hands lent by FA faculty and staff.
This table might be our legacy project, it might help keep the memory of the Beech tree alive, but it’s also a pretty good table. It needs to be used.
It’s for meeting and eating,
writing and ping pong,
standing on
(maybe not),
or hiding beneath.
It’s meant for many things, but most importantly, it’s a challenge from us to you: Do something big! (Even if you’re just a group of eighth graders.)
Farewell, Friends Academy. You’re in our hearts.
“This is not off limits. You can accomplish anything. We hope that you feel inspired. You only do eighth grade once, so make it count.”
-The Woodchucks
Download The Table (ebook) to read the full story and view more photos of the river table’s production.