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JULY 2023 FREE
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BRHS top 10 grads look toward the future By JOe EManSKI
Farmer Jonathan Francis with one of the goats raised locally by The Shepherd’s Pasture.
The Shepherd’s Pasture: Grown out of a love of nature By JOe EManSKI Lydia Francis did not necessarily intend to become a farmer when she started volunteering for Fernbrook Farm’s CSA program in 2005. “I just like being outside,” Francis says. “I wanted to work on the farm to understand a little more about growing the food
that we eat.” Now, nearly two decades later, the Bordentown resident is the driving force behind The Shepherd’s Pasture, a small farming operation that raises animals and grows and sells produce, plants and other natural products at farmers markets throughout the region. Francis started The Shep-
herd’s Pasture in 2007, when she and husband John purchased a greenhouse and started growing herbs and native plants. Her desire to start a farming operation grew from the positive experience she had with the Fernbrook CSA. CSA stands for communitysupported agriculture. In a typiSee PASTURE, Page 10
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This year’s graduating seniors have had a high school experience that no one before them has ever had. They were freshmen in 2020, during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. In the ensuing years, the Class of 2023 endured more Covid-19-related disruptions and inconveniences than any other class. School closures, remote learning, mask mandates — they saw it all. They could be forgiven if they ever worried that nothing would ever be normal for them again. This was true for seniors at Bordentown Regional High School, same as it was for most of their counterparts throughout the State of New Jersey. Fortunately for them, school and life has gradually settled into something closer to normal. On June 20, when grads celebrated their commencement on the BRHS football field, they never had to worry that it might be canceled or indefinitely postponed because of a virus. Only time will tell how the pandemic experience will define them. No student in the state, from 12th grade down to kindergarten, can say that they were unfazed by Covid-19, and the aftereffects can be expected to linger for a decade more.
This year’s seniors will be the first, though, to complete all four years of high school in a post-pandemic world. How that experience shapes them is something we — and they — will look forward to seeing. As it does every year, the Bordentown Current has collaborated with the high school to present this year’s Top 10 graduating seniors from a standpoint of academics. We offer special thanks to Kamilla Milewski, who helps us distribute questionnaires and gather photographs of these students. Every year, the Current is contacted by one or several readers who believe that the media honor sporting achievements above scholastic accomplishments. Although we always strive to celebrate both, and believe that we do a pretty good job, we still sympathize with both parents and students who feel like academic all-stars deserve their due. This annual feature is just one of many ways that we look to do this. So please turn to page 6 to see what this year’s top graduating seniors have planned for the future. And please join us in congratulating them, and all Class of 2023 graduates, on their many fantastic achievements. See ToP 10, Page 6
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