What’s your definition of family? Although the dictionary has different definitions of family, the meaning of the word is special to the individual. The Orchard School Families Project was designed by Orchard's Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lisa Pryor, in collaboration with the Diversity Committee, as a way to build connections and celebrate the families we have in our community. The project is very simple, what does family mean to you? We asked some families to answer very simple and fun questions that explain what makes their family unique. We hope you will take the time to get to learn more about the families that make up our community. After all, we are all a part of the Orchard family!

 

 

The Hungerford family includes Colleen, David, Vivienne, Rett, and Jack. This is their first year as an Orchard family with Vivienne joining our second graders in Jamie Belmont's classroom, Rett joining Caroline Glowacki and Amanda Land's Kindergarten classroom—the Fireflies, and Jack joining Kai Armstrong and Becky Bradley's preschool classroom—the Deers.

 

For the Hungerfords, family means “creating a space for us all to grow, create, learn, and thrive, together. Family means laughter and tears, struggles from which we grow, joy from which we learn, hugs, high fives, communication, and lots of fun! We come from large families and the thing that holds us all together is how we continue to grow and adapt together regardless of time or distance.”

 

The Hungerford family loves to celebrate! One of their favorite traditions is to celebrate half-birthdays. They do something fun as a family like bowling or going to the park, and have either a donut or pancakes with candles. Over the winter holidays, they love to travel, heading to places like San Francisco or Chicago to really soak in the holiday spirit! Their 4th of July celebration happens with their larger family and brings people together from places like California, Arizona, Texas, Indiana, and Colorado. This gathering has up to 40+ people! They also celebrate Christmas, Easter, Greek Easter (on a different day), Thanksgiving, and New Years, and like to acknowledge and celebrate other holidays such as Lunar New Year. 

Their favorite family memory was their cross-country move over the summer from Los Angeles, California to Indianapolis. They spent 9 days in an RV and engaged in so many new experiences like tubbing down a river in Denver, visiting the World's Largest Czech Egg in Kansas, eating BBQ in Kansas City, paddle boating in St Louis, and seeing the Arch. 

 

When asked what makes the Hungerford family the Hungerford family, they shared, “We love to laugh, we love adventure, we love dance parties and hugs and high fives! We are a Californian family now living in the Midwest and loving every moment of it (yes, we know the cold is coming! ;) ). We love the Dodgers and the Lakers and now we claim the Colts. We love sports, art, and animals. We are uniquely us, we are a menagerie of cultures (Greek, Italian, Irish, English, Mexican, German...and who else knows!) and we love to celebrate those cultures through food and learning as much as we can about every part of who we are.”

 

The Hungerfords also shared this message, “We are so so grateful and thankful to have found Orchard, it has made such a beautiful and impactful change in our children. They are getting to be themselves and also explore what that means, they are getting big wide open spaces and support. It's such a magical place.”

 

Thank you, Hungerford family, for joining and sharing your family with our Orchard community. We are equally grateful to have you with us!

More stories here.