Alice Strong Award Recipients

THE ALICE STRONG AWARD (NAMED FOR ONE OF EASTSIDE PREP’S FOREMOST VOLUNTEERS) IS presented each year to one or more members of our community in appreciation for their contribution of time and effort to the people and programs of Eastside Prep. This last spring two members of the EPS community were recognized for their efforts over the prior school year.

CINDY GOETZMANN

By Kim Eng, Director of Athletics

The Goetzmann family joined Eastside Prep in the 2017-2018 school year and Cindy Goetzmann quickly found opportunities to support the community through her volunteer work. She first joined on to support the hospitality efforts of the Parent Association through events such as Fall Harvest and the New Parent Welcome Event. Goetzman also pioneered our new Parent Association position of Lead Sports Booster. Goetzman works tirelessly behind the scenes rounding up team parents for each of our Middle School and Upper School sports teams. She works with our EPS coaches to find out their needs and wishes for the season and then communicates with parents on how they can best support our coaching staff and our athletes. In addition, Goetzman helped gather a committee of parent volunteers to plan and decorate for the Upper School Sports Banquet. Having both a Middle School and an Upper School athlete, Goetzman is great at getting parents excited about sports and spreading the Eagle spirit! She understands kids, parents, and our EPS culture.

Goetzman has a gift for rallying support of other parents—they genuinely want to work with her because she is so kind, funny, passionate, and approachable. It has been a complete pleasure working with Goetzman this year and I can’t wait to work with her again next year!

LENI KARR

By Brian Hutcheson, Director of Fine and Performing Arts

The Karr family joined our community four years ago and I remember vividly the first time I saw Ryo Karr on stage acting as a ninth grader in a lead role in the Importance of Being Earnest. By their second year at EPS we had recruited both Karr students into our all-school musical production of Man of La Mancha and convinced Leni Karr to join the team as the Parent Volunteer Coordinator. From that production forward, Karr has served in that role on each of our musical productions emailing parents, attending production meetings, lending a hand with costumes, setting up food, attending rehearsals…and the list goes on. We often talk about students catching the acting bug and I think Karr caught a bit of it too as she has had an insider’s view into the magic of theatre. In addition to the incredible generosity of her volunteered time, Karr’s support of the program has always been given with thoughtfulness and grace. Her work as the Volunteer Coordinator helps us to harness the goodwill of parents to best serve each production, enhance the overall student experience, and allows the faculty and staff team to focus their attention on their primary role.

The Fine & Performing Arts team is incredibly grateful for the consistent and robust help Karr has provided over the past four years!