In a long-awaited ceremony on Sunday, August 2, The Lamplighter School honored the Class of 2020 with an outdoor graduation on campus, followed by the School’s iconic Senior Parade. During the socially-distanced event, families surrounded the playground hill on Lamplighter’s campus and were inspired by the graduation’s guest alumna speaker, Stella Wrubel ’16, co-founder of Chalk4Change and Jingle Bell Mistletoe, two initiatives that raise money to support the North Texas Food Bank. The School’s fourth grade Seniors made a generous donation to Chalk4Change based on funds raised through the Lamplighter Layers Corporation, their chicken-raising and egg-selling business. Wrubel was asked to serve as this year’s speaker to thank the graduating class of 2020.

The student-run Lamplighter Layers Corporation was established in 1970 with the goals of providing young students with the opportunity to practice cooperation, communication, respect, and responsibility in an entrepreneurial format. From its earliest days, the business has grown with the school’s mission, supporting and enriching studies in science, math, literacy, and the fine arts. In recent years, student stockholders have voted to share a portion of their dividends with charities such as UNICEF, the World Wildlife Fund, and Scottish Rite Hospital.

At the conclusion of the 2019-2020 school year, members of Lamplighter Layers, run by the Class of 2020, met virtually to determine the recipients of this year’s proceeds generated from weekly egg sales. The organization’s members voted to donate $1,935 to Chalk4Change, founded by four Lamplighter young alumni, graduation speaker Stella Wrubel ’16 and her three classmates Trevor Godkin ’16, Isabella Dickason ’16, and Quinn Graves ’16. These four rising ninth grade students have been raising money for the North Texas Food Bank since 2012 as part of Jingle Bell Mistletoe, a fundraising effort focused on selling mistletoe during the holidays to support the North Texas Food Bank. Their newly formed Chalk4Change initiative was developed this spring to continue supporting the North Texas Food Bank beyond the holidays. The four Lamplighter alumni launched Chalk4Change by “chalk bombing” messages of hope on driveways and sidewalks amid the COVID-19 global pandemic. The donation provided by Lamplighter’s Class of 2020 via the Lamplighter Layers Corporation helped the Chalk4Change team near their $10,000 fundraising goal.

In her graduation remarks to the Lamplighter Class of 2020, Wrubel reflected on her own experience at the School, noting “Lamplighter gives us all our own unique light and sends us into the world equipped to make it a brighter place. Any alumni will tell you that Lamplighter gifted us special tools which would serve us for the rest of our lives: teamwork, curiosity, creativity, willingness to try new things, to step out of our comfort zones, a voracious desire to learn, and incredible amounts of compassion for others.” Wrubel went on to share the impact that the Lamplighter Layers donation made on the community by providing more than 5,000 meals to individuals and families in need during the COVID-19 lockdown. She concluded by thanking the Lamplighter Class of 2020, noting, “This generosity is a beautiful example of the Lamplighter light. You have already used it, and I encourage each of you to continue using it every day.”