During Christmas of 2009 we all celebrated in some way.  This was a gathering of NPS and DNC employees to express their Christams sentiments and enjoy a potluck together.  This was sponsored in part by the local Yosemite Chapel and the nativity performance was staged at the local Yosemite School.  The school is nestled near the government housing area and is showered upon continually by the steady roar of the famous Yosemite Falls.  Many people were there and some drove up the curvy 140 road from El Portal to celebrate.

We sang Christmas songs and ate delicious food and visited among the gathered crowd.  Eventually at the end of the evening Santa Claus appeared and we watched the children tell Santa their Christmas wishes.

The Yosemite School is for grades K - 12.  If I were a child I would love to attend school their.  I can't think of a more beautiful setting than this where I could learn and grow.  This school will probably produce the next set of Park Rangers and Foresters and Ecological Environmentalist.  Housing in one of the classrooms is a completed project, one that I always wished I had the time to do:  a mobile of a thousand origami cranes floating in the air.  These cranes arranged in a group of a thousand according to Japanese legend, are a living symbol of eternal peace.

They also have a community project in the works.  It is a story of Yosemite and this large circular mosaic tablet will be placed on the front entrance wall of the Yosemite School.  Eventually.

If I were a teacher i can not think of a more wonderful place to teacher.  All the children are bright and enthusiastic because of the positive environment and the encouragment of all the teachers.  This school will produce exceptional people who have been educated in an exceptional location...Yosemite National Park.  How great thou art....