Seton Castle Restoration Ground-Breaking Ceremony Speeches

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January 21, 2005
Speech given by John Wolf

It is a pleasure for us to be here.

The Academy for the Love of Learning has taken a path less traveled in order to cultivate and sustain the natural love of learning which is present in everybody.

It certainly would have been easier for the Academy to construct a new building. Instead, they have undertaken a more demanding commitment in the restoration of Seton Castle. Just as Ernest Thompson Seton was a visionary pioneer, so the Academy’s renovation will be exploring the structural and spiritual mysteries of the Castle.

As the Academy grew out of the collaboration between Aaron Stern and his longtime friend and mentor, Leonard Bernstein, we continue in that spirit of collaboration. Today we embark on a renewed relationship with the earth, the history we know of it, its unknown history, this existing structure, and what we individually and collectively bring to offer.

Wolf Corporation is indeed pleased to be a part of this journey. It is our privilege to be given the responsibility to physically manifest a community hub for the support of the environment, human experience, and the aspiration of sustainable life.

We are here not simply for a ground-breaking. We are here for a ground awakening. We are honoring this land that will support and serve the mission of the Academy and the imaginative foundations upon which it is built.

As a traditional hand-crafted Indian pot, made from the clay of the earth, becomes a vessel of nourishment, an enormous amount of creativity, work, skill, intuition and hard labor will go into the formation of this center that will nourish minds and hearts. We offer ourselves to this purpose, and thus imbue every aspect of those efforts with our dedication.