In Chocolate We Trust by Peter Kurie

Author:Peter Kurie [Kurie, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Philanthropy & Charity
ISBN: 9780812249873
Google: TEdMDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2018-04-02T05:08:44+00:00

CHAPTER 4

THE SCHOOL

SUNDAY MORNING ON THE CAMPUS of Milton Hershey School. Students, school employees, and visitors gather in the marble rotunda at Founder’s Hall, in front of a bronze statue of Milton Hershey placing a fatherly arm on the shoulder of a young boy. The words inscribed on the base of the statue read, “His Deeds Are His Monument. His Life Is Our Inspiration.” Beyond the statue, doors open onto a large, modern auditorium that seats around six hundred. There is no sign of the cross, no Bibles, no pews. Scores of young people shuffle in—an equal number of boys and girls ranging in age from six to eighteen. They are ethnically diverse: Latino, African American, white. Some of their faces and bodies bear traces of hard lives: scars, disfigurations. The majority look vibrant and spirited, laughing with friends before taking seats. Houseparents—married couples who supervise student home life—take seats among them.

The service is led, as it is most Sundays, by Pastor Bill, a kindly man with short-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and a German last name not uncommon in south-central Pennsylvania. Brass orchestral music, performed by a “middle division” student band, marks the start of the service. Elementary-aged students read brief, assorted Bible passages, and then the pastor begins to speak. The theme today is gratitude—“being grateful and saying thank you.” The pastor gives examples of what he is thankful for: the assistant pastor, who chose the students to recite the Bible passages; a “bodybuilder” who is his friend and not his enemy (a light joke that elicits some laughter). He illustrates the importance of saying “thank you” with a passage about Jesus’s cleansing of the lepers (Luke 17:11−19). Jesus healed the lepers without their having to do anything, he explains. The lepers walked on after being healed and did not thank him, except for one out of the ten. When the one leper thanked Jesus, his response was, “Where are the other nine?”

Pastor Bill directly addresses the audience, which includes senior students with less than one month remaining in the institution: “Most of you, once you graduate, will never express gratitude,” he tells them sternly. “Nine out of ten of you will leave when you graduate and never look back. But that’s not what God wants you to do.” He continues, delivering what I am told is a typical Sunday-morning message at Milton Hershey School:

God wants you to express gratitude. You can express it in words, by saying “thank you”—to your houseparents, to your teachers, to Mr. and Mrs. Hershey. Or if it’s a little weird to say thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Hershey, you can show your gratitude in your deeds, by what you do for others. Remember there are always people who have it worse than you, and you can help them. Remember that you are fortunate to be a student at the Milton Hershey School. An observer might not notice that you’re fortunate—because a lot of the time I look out and I see dour faces and I hear complaints that you have it hard.

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