The 50th anniversary of Lamplighter Layers was celebrated at The Lamplighter School by the current fourth graders and their teachers, and over Zoom by dozens of alumni, including many members of the class of 1971, on Tuesday, December 8.

In the fall of 1970, The Lamplighter School’s co-founder Sandy Swain had the sudden inspiration to help enable students sell eggs from chickens they raised themselves, and the Lamplighter Layers Corporation was born. Since the beginnings of Lamplighter Layers, the business has grown with the school’s mission, supporting and enriching studies in science, math, literacy, and the fine arts.

Speaking to the assembled students and alumni, math teacher Kathey Tobey Beddow ’63 remarked that being a member of the Lamplighter Layers Corporation teaches young people the importance of working together, being responsible, solving social problems, using math to predict egg production, and above all giving back to the community. This year, the corporation donated nearly two thousand dollars to Chalk4Change, a charity run by former Lamplighter graduates that benefits the North Texas Food Bank.

Lamplighter alumni from the class of ’71 and after added their own remembrances via Zoom. Liz Cullum Helfrich ’90 recalled there was once a Layers officer known as the “sergeant-at-arms” whose role was to call on others who wished to speak during business meetings. Eric Lombardi ’73 said that he loved his teachers at Lamplighter so much he became one, and even brought the idea of having the students sell eggs to his own school, Fort Worth Country Day!  And Julie Hyland Ambler ’71 shared that one day while collecting eggs, “I was so excited to get to my task I fell on the sidewalk and got a scar on my knee. And to this day when I see that scar, I smile and think of that day and how excited I was... I can’t say Lamplighter without smiling. It was a wonderful, wonderful school experience.”