Our Wildwood, Volume 52

DEAR FRIENDS A Letter from Landis

This issue of Our Wildwood had largely been put to bed by the time the Palisades, Eaton, and other fires devastated parts of our city, yet some of the themes feel entirely sympatico with this idea of coming together and engaging and collaborating with others in community, as evidenced in both our Civil Discourse work outlined on page 16, and in our Institute work featured on page 20. I hope that, by reading this issue, you too will feel what I sensed was important for those joining that alumni Zoom back in mid-January: a connection to Wildwood School and to our city, inextricably tied and beneficial to us all.

There were 15 or so of us on a Zoom in those days after the Palisades and Eaton Fires had done the worst of their damage. Those gathered represented a range of class years. All were former students whom I’d known as upper schoolers or younger, and they were scattered around the country, all wanting to connect with folks in Los Angeles, and specifically at Wildwood. Several of the alumni on the call had family members— parents, grandparents, friends’ parents—who’d lost houses in the Palisades. They’d joined the alumni Zoom to connect with others. Several noted that as much as their friends in New York or Boston were trying to be compassionate, they just didn’t understand how big it all felt. I felt for those who were in other parts of the country, seeing their great hometown city going through such a catastrophic event. It seemed to me that we were coming together for a variety of reasons—to grieve, remember, plan, support. To reorient in the context of what was happening. Alumni told stories of evacuations, of homes lost and spared, and of support extended and accepted. When I shared that my partner and I were then still holed up for what would end up being more than a week in the guest room of the parents of a class of ‘11 alumnus, one said, “Yep. That’s Wildwood.” It was then that it became even clearer to me that a big part of the reason folks wanted to connect was simply to be in community—with one another as part of the Wildwood community, but also as part of their Los Angeles community through the lens of their experience at Wildwood.

With warm regards,

Landis Green Head of School

OWW WINTER 2025

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