The Family Weekend at Upper Columbia Academy (UCA) began Nov. 17, 2017. In the past, parent weekend and grandparent weekend were at different times in the year. This year was the first merged Parent/Grandparent weekend. Families gathered together in worship and to celebrate the talents and efforts of their children.
The weekend began with the FoundationOne Awards Banquet during which student recipients were awarded more than $110,000 in front of their families and friends. Families then attended the UCA meet-and-greet reception for socializing, cider and cookies.
The vespers program followed with student presentations of Scripture, prayer, octet vocal performances, the trumpet quartet and a video presentation. Community members joined UCA families in the viewing of the film I’m Not Leaving, presented Kevin Ekvall ’02, who developed and produced the documentary on the faith experience of Carl Wilkens during the 100-day Rwandan (Tutsi) genocide of 1994. The afterglow service was a question-and-answer time with Carl Wilkens ’76.
Gary Blount presented his inspiration and work on the life story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Sabbath School. The movie Blount produced, Come Before Winter, was screened Sabbath afternoon. Saturday evening festivities began with the senior class serving dinner, a boys’ and girls’ clubs combined silent auction and Amateur Hour. The variety show was filled with vocal stylings, instrumentals skits and several rounds of the Family Feud game. The Family Feud participants were different UCA families against one another trying to guess the top answers of the 100 UCA students surveyed.
Sunday morning, while parents and teachers were in conferences, students participated in the interactive filming workshop led by Ekvall. The weekend was a celebration of potential — the potential God has placed in each one of us. The potential to share talents and creativity or just have the courage, no matter how difficult the circumstances, to stand for Jesus.
Sarah Kozachenko ’19 and Melvin Brazil-Geyshick ’20 share a Western-themed skit, "Baking a Cake."
The trumpet quartet is comprised of Keira Johnson '19, Chris Kime '21, Jared Wallen '18 and Walker Johnson '18.
Jillian Lopez ’19 performed "I Dreamed a Dream" by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil.
Curtis Anderson, UCA choir director, leads Hymn Fest during Sabbath worship.
Hannah Stafford '18, accompanied by Danny Stratte '18, offers a retro music styling of "My Funny Valentine" by Chet Baker.
Grace Ahola, class of 2019, captured the audience with a soulful rendition of "Time to Say Goodbye" as arranged by Patrick M. Liebergen.
