Friendship Tree Fund

To the GEMS SWITZERLAND community,

Audrey Peverelli will be leaving us for pastures new at the end of this school year. She started working with GEMS in 2013 and opened the school in September 2013. The school opened with the “Tree of Life” unit with 60 children and teachers, and everyone made their own creative representation of “ If I were a tree” as seen in the video linked here https://vimeo.com/7538026. To mark her legacy as the founding head of school, we will be planting a "friendship tree" which will be a red Acer Tree and around it will be benches for children, teachers and parents to sit. The tree will be located at the front entrance to the school and marked with a plaque. The “friendliness” of our GEMS community is something we have all experienced which has been inspired by Audrey and her teams.

The tree will be dedicated on Tuesday 21st June with an “apero" around the tree from 17h00-18h00. The 21st June is a GEMS day of community service which will involve all children, teachers and many parents. All of our GEMS community will be invited and Audrey will be presented with a handmade book filled with photos and comments and letters from the children, teachers and parents. Any messages or photos you would like to have included in the book can be left with Michele at the front desk or given to your class parent reps by Monday 6th June.

As a community of 160 families, we would like to raise around CHF 3,500 over a two week period from Monday 23rd May to Monday 6th June to be able to purchase the tree. For your information a tree of 2.75m-3m will cost around CHF 2,300 and a tree of 3m-4m will cost CHF 3,500. The more money we raise, the bigger the tree can be. Our special thanks go to the parents of Dominique Ruttledge (Grade 3) for their support and expert advice on trees.

Please give any amount you wish as your kind generosity is much appreciated.

We hope you all agree that the planting of a friendship tree is a fitting tribute to our respected founding head who has done a tremendous job.

Thank-you for your support. (GEMS PARENT GROUP)