MIDDLEBURY — Bridge School in Middlebury on March 22 celebrated its 33rd annual Collar Day. Collar Day became an Elizabethan custom after Queen Elizabeth I first commanded her court to dress up and then presented them with awards.
 
Students at Bridge School celebrate the day by getting dressed up, wearing past Collar Day awards and family awards and medals. Parents and children are encouraged to make awards of excellence for each other. At a formal school ceremony before a large audience, teachers present awards of excellence related to school experience to each student. The awards given this year are:
Lois Alberts, Reliability and Contribution; Maxwell Alberts, Dialogue Writing; Declan Anderson, Expressive Reader; Callan Boulanger, Friend to All; Diana Chapin-Parker, Learning to Read; Bridger Counter, Extraordinary Openness to New Adventures; Tayden deMeuers, Joyous Writer; Eryn Diehl, Excellence in Collaboration and Leadership; Louis Favreau, Math Regrouping; Jahnu Gibbs, Distinguished Service as a Role Model of Clarity; Ben Graham, Mathematical Mind; Jacob Graham, Spelling; Owen Heminway, Excellence and Equilibrium in the Face of Transitions; Remy Howe, Skating; Zoe Howe, Excellence in Reading Fluency; and Larkin Kenney, Project Focus.
Also, Ethan Kent, Distinguished Service as a Unifying Voice; Josh King, Attention to Detail; Noah Manns, Reflective Learning; Nat McVeigh, Peregrine Falcon Investigation; Jake Mitchell, Sounding Out; Jack Rizzo, Handbells; Anna Scharstein, Grounding Presence; Peter Scharstein, Excellence in Active Learning and Problem Solving; Stirling Sidaway, Math Thinking; Leeya Tudek, Conduit of Clarity; Ada Weaber, Figure Drawing; Henry Weston, Creative Math; Grace Widelitz, Character Development; Keresha Williams, Prolific Writer; Silas Wisell, Grounded Performance in the Holiday Show; Eme Zelis, Thai Enthusiast; and Luke Zelis,Creative Problem Solving.