50th Anniversary Logo Unveiled at Ben Franklin School

He’s more than 8,000 miles away, but that isn’t stopping Ben Franklin Elementary School Principal Chris Turnbull from helping teach students in Lawrence Township.

Turnbull traveled halfway across the world over the weekend as part of a delegation from Sustainable Jersey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that all this week will be sharing environmentally-friendly and sustainable practices with officials in Taiwan. Turnbull is keeping in touch with students back at Ben Franklin by way of Skype and a daily blog he is writing about his trip. In the blog, he has challenged students with some math questions about the distance and duration of his journey.

As part of the trip, Turnbull on Monday visited the Jian-An School and, together with administrators there, signed a “sister school declaration” linking Ben Franklin with the school in Taipai, Taiwan. Turnbull delivered many gifts from the Ben Franklin community, including a flag bearing Ben Franklin’s new 50th anniversary logo that was unveiled during a special ceremony held at the school last week.

The school held a contest inviting all Ben Franklin students – present and past – to design a new logo for the anniversary which the school will celebrate with a series of activities during the 2011-2012 school year beginning in September.

The winning submission was created by Aditya Shringi, a current third-grader at Ben Franklin. During the ceremony on June 8, he was presented a “certificate of excellence” by Turnbull. Also recognized during the event were three other logo competition finalists: current Ben Franklin student Jared Cox and former students Sarrah Tennant (who now attends Lawrence Intermediate School) and Drew Patel (of Lawrence High School).

Mayor Greg Puliti – proudly sporting a tie created by Ben Franklin students in 1997 for the township’s tri-centennial – read a proclamation from Lawrence Township Council honoring the school on its 50th anniversary. Councilwoman Pam Mount, also part of the Sustainable Jersey delegation to Taiwan, spoke about the upcoming trip and the “sister school” relationship the Ben Franklin students would soon have with students in East Asia.  

(Video of the entire ceremony – including all speeches and the logo unveiling – are available in the media box above).

“I can vividly remember when I found out I was going to be the principal of Ben Franklin. There’s a mystique about Ben Franklin. I think everybody in the room knows that. It’s not something that happened this week; it’s not something that happened this year. It’s something that’s developed over those 50 years. So to be part of this tradition is an honor. And I want to share that pride that I have in Ben Franklin,” Turnbull said moments before he – aided by a countdown from the audience – pulled away a sheet to reveal the new school logo.