Kate Lane

The past few weeks have been tremendously challenging for our boarding students, our Ashbury community, and our world at large. With Ukrainian and Russian students living in residence, along with others from neighbouring countries, the tragic events in Ukraine have hit very close to home. The sense of hopelessness and uncertainty can be overwhelming; we are doing our best to simply ‘be there’ in support and solidarity of our students and help them get through these deeply unsettling times.  

As one student shared with me last week, it is nearly impossible to see the good right now, nor listen to news about upcoming activities – this can serve to minimize the very real situation that is happening to their families and country right now. In light of this revelation and to honour these sentiments, I will pause on sharing our additional events until April. While there is little we can do to make this right, or make someone feel better in exceptionally troubling circumstances, showing empathy and compassion is always available to us.  

Highlighting what some students have done, I was so proud of those who attended the peaceful protests in Ottawa the past two Sundays. A few students shared their pictures from this event, as well as images of their families’ communities at home in Ukraine. We keep all of those impacted by this tragic war in our hearts over the March break and moving forward.