Greenwood Friends School

Robert Lentz, the Interim Head of Greenwood Friends School, received Bloomsburg University’s Humanitarian Award for community service at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., banquet on February 2. Since moving to our area nine years ago, Bob has served as a member of Bloomsburg’s Task Force for Racial Equity, and the Task Force submitted Bob’s name for consideration for the award. Bob came to Central Pennsylvania after retiring as a high school principal in suburban Detroit, where he participated actively in efforts in that metropolitan area to foster interracial trust and understanding, both in schools and in the community at large.

 As a member of the Task Force, he has worked on the planning of events including the High School Diversity Conference, which draws more than 150 students and 20 teachers from eleven school districts including Bloomsburg, Central and Southern Columbia, Millville, Danville, Benton and Berwick. While serving six years on board of the Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble, Bob supported efforts by the Task Force to help teachers who wished to have their students see BTE’s “Laramie Project”, and he worked to strengthen BTE’s Project Discovery, the Theater’s outreach to students in grades 10 through 12.

“I believe progress has occurred in our area,” Bob says, “and we can take quiet pride in the role that the Task Force has played as at the same time we consider what we can do to address the significant challenges that still exist.”

Since coming to Greenwood Friends School in the summer of 2007, Bob has provided much support for the school’s long-standing tradition of a multi-cultural curriculum, staff, and student body. Leading by example, Bob lives the principle that Greenwood has always stood for: “reaching out to the local and global communities, believing that each person can make a difference in the world.” All of us in the Greenwood family congratulate Bob on his award and express our gratitude for the energy, enthusiasm, and wisdom he has brought to the school this year. 

At this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr., banquet, Greenwood 4th-grade student Maggie McCarty received the second place award in the annual poster contest for her entry “Diversity Makes Harmony.”