Kildonan Founders Day celebrates students’ accomplishments

AMENIA — Kildonan School hosted its annual Founders Day on Saturday, May 14. Founders Day celebrates the school’s founders, Kurt Goldman and Diana Hanbury King, as well as the students’ accomplishments during the year.Founders Day encompasses a range of events, including a student art exhibit, a horse show, a tennis match and a lacrosse game. More than 200 students, parents, educators and other visitors attended.The theme of this year’s event was “My Journey,” which focused on the individual journey every person takes with dyslexia.In support of this theme, the school held a private screening of the film “Journey into Dyslexia,” created by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond. The film debuted on HBO earlier this month and is currently available on-demand.The Raymonds’ son, who is dyslexic, previously attended Kildonan.The movie, which features past Kildonan students, was followed by a panel discussion. Afterward, parents, students and friends were given the chance to film themselves talking about their own journey with dyslexia.“It was a spontaneous reaction to the film,” said Susan Raymond. “I wasn’t aware it would happen that way, but I’m thrilled. Talking about it helps heal you and hearing about it gives the students a role model.”The student art showAnother important part of the Founders Day celebration is the student art show. “Art is a big part of the school,” said academic dean Robert Lane.All students from the school have the opportunity to showcase their work. The elementary students focus on installation art while the middle and high school students complete personal projects during the year.August Hunt was one of the students showing his work in the exhibit. Hunt, an articulate sophomore from Texas, was on hand at the exhibit to discuss his work with the visitors. He had five portraits and a large installation piece on display.The theme that ran through his work was size. The portraits were larger-than-life sized at 6 feet by 4 feet. The installation piece included a panorama made of more than 60 photographs, which, if laid flat, would measure 17.4 feet by 9 feet.The horse showHorseback riding has always been a part of Kildonan School. Students have the opportunity to ride nearly every day.The horse show portion of Founders Day is used to showcase the riding skills of the students. This year, nine students participated, demonstrating their ability to control the horses and playing games on horseback, like “Musical Stalls,” which is similar to musical chairs.The foundersCo-founder King was present at the event, but Goldman, who lives in Florida, was unable to attend.After working at the Sidwell Friends School and Camp Mansfield, both of which had programs designed specifically for dyslexic students, King was inspired to open her own camp.King, originally from England, talked happily about the creation of her first camp. “In the wilds of western Pennsylvania, not far from Uniontown, on top of a mountain, I got a place that was 7 acres with eight little cabins, a lodge, a bar and some outhouses,” she said. “The first summer, we had seven students, and then it grew rapidly to 40 — both boys and girls.” She ran that camp every summer for 28 years.Then Kurt Goldman, the father of one of her students, encouraged her to open a school and offered to donate the money needed to fund its creation.After spending its first 11 years in Pennsylvania, the Kildonan School was moved to Amenia in 1980. It continues to use many of the extracurricular activities — horseback riding, skiing, art — as important elements in the learning plan that was developed in Pennsylvania.King continues to teach and tutor at Kildonan. She also trains other teachers around the world.According to the school’s mission statement, Kildonan strives “to empower students with dyslexia to reach their academic potential and to equip them for future success.” The school uses Orton-Gillingham tutoring, which is a multi-sensory, direct and effective method of one-on-one teaching.According to the International Dyslexia Association, dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.