Brand New Bears

At Riverbend, there are lots of students that have been going to school together since Kindergarten or even preschool. However, with Spotsylvania being so close to several military bases and the Federal government, many students have moved around a lot due to their parent’s jobs. Growing up as the daughter of a Marine, I moved around a lot on the East Coast. I moved every year or so, and was forced to switch schools, make new friends, and settle in just in time to move to yet another military base. Thankfully, it’s a small world and the military community is even smaller, and every time I moved there were people I already knew. For example, the Booren’s have known my family through the military since before I was even born, and Wes Gobar and I went to the same Quantico military base elementary school before both of us relocated to Spotsylvania.

On the other hand, there are students that move for other reasons and transfer in the middle of the year to Riverbend. Renee Geyer, a freshmen, began her year this Riverbend after switching from Fredericksburg Academy. She transferred because she said FA was becoming “too small”, and she “likes Riverbend way better”. The biggest change Geyer says is that Riverbend has so many people. Geyer says Riverbend’s theatre program is much larger, and she enjoys the more diverse classes and clubs that the school offers. Alex Garcia, junior, and brother Brayan, sophomore, transferred from Massaponax High School a few months ago. Although they both miss their friends from Ponax, and found it hard at first to make new friends, they both agreed that Riverbend is “better”. The brothers both played soccer for Ponax, and attend YoungLife, so they said that it was nice to know a few people at Riverbend prior to transferring.

Riverbend has over 200 new students or transfer students per year, and most students can name a new student that they have met since attending Riverbend. Trust me, starting a new school not knowing anyone is a really scary experience, so saying hi to a new student in your class could really make a difference to them. After all, one can never have too many friends.