Leelanau School’s Hoods retire
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
Laura and Bruce Hood have finished their teaching careers at the Leelanau School after 31 years. Bruce delivered an emotional graduation speech at the school’s 93rd commencement ceremony on June 1 that included these words: “I believe our lives, like careers, are made from the moments, the unpredictable times that happen when you are together, that fill in all the time between the milestones, those moments that you will remember for the rest of your life, the ones that shaped who you are and set you on a course for who you will become. Our challenge is to live those moments, to understand them for what they are before they become only memories…” What a bunch of moments and memories these master teachers have shared with more than three decades of students!
It all started in 1993 when Bruce took a job at Leelanau teaching summer school. They were living in Marquette while he was getting his teaching certificate at Northern Michigan University, and Laura was supporting them by working as a nanny. He stayed on as instructor of Biology and Environmental Science in the fall, and Laura joined the staff as Spiritual Life teacher and librarian. They were Residential Life dorm parents and coaches, bringing unique skills and a special creative energy to Leelanau. As Headmaster Rob Hansen puts it, “At a small school, the faculty create new things from their particular strengths, ideas and teachings that become new traditions that are relevant for today’s students.”
By the end of that first year, Bruce was also teaching Chemistry, which he continued for 25 years. As a hands-on guy, he started teaching pottery in the Art Center. At least one of his students, Elliot Vartian, has gone on to pursue a college major in pottery, and many are still throwing pots. Then Bruce directed the building of a greenhouse on campus as part of his sustainability initiative. The school cafeteria continues to harvest fresh produce from that greenhouse to feed students and staff every day, and several students are part of the food-growing and duck-tending daily activities in the school greenhouse.
Laura Hood’s contributions are just as varied and remarkable. Her college degree from MSU was in music (French Horn and Guitar), so she started a full-time music program. Students with some musical background, along with those who wanted to learn an instrument from scratch, were nurtured and encouraged, and their talents led to the formation of the band Mighty Snappy, which plays several school functions and tours around the area every spring to Greenspire School, Pathfinder School, and Cherry Republic, among other gigs. Many students have continued as musicians because of Laura’s patient instructions and encouragement. (Actor/producer Ramon Rodriguez, the star of the TV series Will Trent, played piano in Mighty Snappy during his senior year at Leelanau!) Laura also composed the song Eddy Up that is performed every year at Commencement. It uses the metaphor of paddlers resting in an eddy on a river before continuing on in the current and into the future. It’s the perfect song for what students have experienced at this school that is bisected by the Crystal River.
As a coach, Laura started and led the Footsteps program, an alternative to competitive sports teams (all Leelanau students participate in after-school physical activities) that includes biking, hiking, running, and paddling canoes or kayaks. “Over the years students have paddled pretty much every river in northern Michigan,” Laura says. Before the Hoods arrived, back in the 1980s, school dean Clark Shutt had initiated the Leelanau Challenge, a foot race around Big Glen Lake. Many locals like Tim Nichols were regulars, but few students participated. When Laura arrived, the Challenge hadn’t happened for several years. So she recreated the Leelanau Outdoor Challenge as a triathlon for Leelanau students, either as individual competitors or as a team, starting with paddling the Crystal River from Fisher Lake to just below the culverts, followed by biking up over Miller Hill, and ending with a two-mile running loop on the school campus. Most/many of the students at Leelanau have been part of the Leelanau Outdoor Challenge now for almost three decades.
The Hoods have also played a pivotal role in the expansion of the school’s Orientation and Exploratory Week programs. Seniors go to South Manitou Island every fall to do group initiatives and learn how to work together. The younger students in every grade also go to the Leelanau Outdoor Center (part of Camps Leelanau and Kohahna near Pyramid Point), or Camp Daggett near Petoskey, to climb in the ropes courses and to bond as a group. For many years every fall the seniors would also go to the Le Cheneaux Islands near Cedarville in the U.P. to paddle the school’s Voyageur canoes. (Both voyageur canoes were made by students in the school greenhouse!) That tradition continues these days with a two-day October paddle/camp near Indian River.
When students return in January, the Leelanau School does a five-week Winter Term, with many half-day hands-on classes to choose from, from Food is Love to Snow Sports. Bruce and Laura have taken students to Crystal Mountain for years now, and 10 students have earned level one status through the PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors Assoc.) and the AASI (American Association of Snowboard Instructors.)
The Hoods have clearly left the Leelanau School better than they found it 31 years ago. “We have a better sense of mission now,” Bruce says, “and both students and staff understand what that mission is, to have a safe, loving, accepting community that respects diversity.”
Laura adds, “All of our students go to college, but they are also prepared for life beyond Leelanau, wherever and whatever that turns out to be.”
Headmaster Rob Hansen puts it this way: “The Hoods retirement is a big loss of talent, of connection and compassion for students and staff, a bit like pulling the keel out of the boat. But they have taught us well, we stand on their shoulders now, and we will go on with confidence.”
So what’s next for Bruce and Laura Hood? “We’re gonna ride our bikes along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Banff to the Mexican border, leaving Banff the third week of July,” Bruce says. “It’ll take us more than a couple of months until early October.” When they return home, Bruce plans to build a pottery studio at their home at the Telford Farm north of Cedar, and Laura will continue to teach private lessons and play music with the Benzie Symphony and the Manitou Winds. Hats off and congratulations to Bruce and Laura Hood for 31 years of jobs done very well at the Leelanau School.
