Matt Burgy, Head of School

September 11, 2026

Dear Oakridge Family,

For some of us, September 11 marks a day we will never forget. In 2001, I wasn’t an educator yet. I was building houses. Moira was working on her Ph.D. in Political Science, and our daughter, Katie, was two years old. I remember that morning with remarkable clarity. I had just dropped Katie off at her babysitter’s house and arrived at a job site. I turned on AM 1310 The Ticket, and I’m pretty sure George Dunham, Craig Miller, and Gordon Keith were lamenting something about the Cowboys. It was, after all, the Quincy Carter era. Then the conversation changed. I remember the confusion in their voices as the first reports came in. I remember standing in an unfinished house, listening. I remember the smell of the lumber around me and the feeling that something had changed, even before any of us fully understood what was happening. I was supposed to fly to Ohio the next day to visit my grandmother. We never made that trip. And one of my most vivid memories from the days that followed was the silence, the strange absence of airplanes in the sky.

Years later, while traveling with our Oakridge choir in New York, I visited the 9/11 Memorial. Standing there brought back those memories, but it also reminded me of something else: the extraordinary way people came together in the days that followed. Neighbors cared for neighbors. Strangers helped strangers. First responders ran toward danger. Communities discovered again how much we depend upon one another. Our students know September 11 as history. For many adults, it is a memory. That distinction makes our responsibility important.

We remember not simply so that a younger generation knows what happened. We remember because there are lessons worth carrying forward: empathy, courage, service, gratitude, and the importance of community. Perhaps that is one way we can honor this day at Oakridge. In the everyday choices we make to care for one another. To notice someone who needs help. To choose kindness over division. To understand that community is not simply something we belong to, it is something we create together.

Twenty-five years later, those lessons still matter. And together, we remember.

Sincerely,



Matt Burgy
Head of School