HEBRON – The Hebron Academy community gathered recently to celebrate Founders’ Day and officially begin its year-long bicentennial celebration. Upper and middle school classes, faculty, staff and friends listened as students read journal entries, the school’s charter, and other materials from the school’s archives.

“Happy 200th birthday Hebron Academy!” John King exclaimed, as he welcomed guests to the event. “Today we begin the celebration of our school’s bicentennial and its future.”

The academy is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school. Two hundred-fifty students from local Maine communities, the United States, and the world attend grades six through postgraduate.

Hebron was granted a charter in 1804 by the General Court of Massachusetts, 16 years before Maine became a state. To mark Founders’ Day and provide listeners with a sense of the school’s rich history, students recited a former teacher’s diary entries, descriptions of school life in 1860, and original school rules and regulations.

The program included a retelling of events in 1819, when the academy’s only school building burned to the ground and a stirring speech by one of its founders, Deacon William Barrows, thwarted an attempt to move the school from Hebron.

Though it is one of the nation’s oldest endowed boarding schools, Hebron’s mission and core values have remained consistent with the charge contained in the original charter, that students be taught liberal arts and sciences and educated to revere life and to respect and honor individuality. Under King’s leadership, the academy recently reaffirmed its mission to inspire and guide students to reach their highest potential in mind, body and spirit.

Students performing in the Founders’ Day program included: Molly Curtis, Turner; Bum Seek Kim, Seoul, Korea; John Slattery, Minot; Elizabeth Cole, New Gloucester; Jamie Frederick, Cumberland Center; Ben Sukeforth, Litchfield; Algerson André, Bronx, N.Y.; Amy Shackford, Madison, N.H.; Sarah Irish, Buckfield; Noah Love, Portland; Gabe Rubenstein, North Yarmouth; Katherine Stewart, Gray; Kala Granger, New Gloucester; Emma Roy, Auburn; Delton Hulbert, New Gloucester; and Jordan Ramharter, Bethel.

Cynthia Reedy, a language arts and science teacher at Hebron who organized the event, provided closing comments. Hebron Academy is planning many bicentennial events throughout the year. For more information, phone 966-2100 or visit www.hebronacademy.org.