The Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a series of events and activities planned throughout the 2018-2019 school year. A centennial gala will be held at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park this Saturday, October 13 from 6:30-10:30pm. The event will include dinner, cocktails, dancing, and an auction to raise money for the school.
The school for grades K-12 turned 100 on September 25 and kicked off the year-long festivities with a special Founders Day Assembly. Staff and students buried a time capsule that included a 2018 yearbook.
Throughout the year, the school will also be doing a 100 Book Read Aloud (to coincide with the anniversary) that will look at the best of children’s books by decade. Senior students will use their artistic skills to create a centennial-themed mural outside of the school for the public to see.
The Kew-Forest School opened to local children on September 25, 1918 with the mission “to exert all its energies, to use every means at its command…to make every child an efficient worker, helpful citizen and a power for good.” There were 50 children in attendance on opening day, and today the school has 250 enrolled students.
“The school was originally founded as a neighborhood school because there wasn’t an option in Forest Hills for private schools that children can attend without leaving the borough,” says Carla Jantos MacMullen, head of The Kew-Forest School. “The 100 years has allowed us to really shift as Queens has grown. We still have neighborhood children who attend the school, but it draws from a much wider geographic area.”
The school has produced some notable alumni over the decades, including scientist Catherine Skinner, class of 1948, mission architect for NASA, Casey Heeg, class of 1969, and actor Hank Azaria, class of 1981.
Image Courtesy The Kew-Forest School
