Page 3 - Oak Leaf

LETTER

fr om the

PRESIDENT

Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends:

At last the long-anticipated return of the OAK LEAF has arrived, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Rex
Blackburn, our English Department Head & Marketing Advisor. Many years ago, this publication helped
to keep our Alumni informed and abreast of the happenings at “The Ridge.” We are all very excited
about the rebirth of this publication.
With the looming threat of the COVID pandemic, new challenges have been met by our acade-
my. Cadets now wear masks, have single rooms, and practice social distancing in classes where teachers
all wear face shields. Many parents who have been dealing with “in home” or “virtual” learning have de-
cided that our academy is offering a better learning environment for their student, resulting in increased
enrollment. Currently we have an enrollment of 78 cadets with realistic projections of 100 by January.
Considering that most military academies are experiencing a 30% decrease in this year’s enrollment, we
are headed in the right direction! But our greatest improvement has been the quality of student that has
decided to attend ORMA. Our current students are committed to our vision in such a way that many of
our students have even chosen to stay at ORMA during breaks for leadership training. Our future looks
very promising.
Our athletic department is also benefiting from our increased enrollment. In recent weeks, our
basketball program has begun to practice with 23 cadets reporting, allowing us to floor varsity, junior
varsity, and middle school teams. We also have plans for baseball, softball,
volleyball, flag football, and even a swim team! We’ve also re-established a
drum and bugle corps.
Much of this progress and success can be attributed to our Admis-
sions team: Major Rob Forde and Nathan Freeman. Also indispensible
have been our Marketing Director and IT Specialist, Gary Holbrook; our
Commandant, CSM Terrence Lewis; our Academic Dean, Caroline McK-
aughan; and Ms. Sandra Bush in Alumni Relations. This is without ques-
tion the strongest staff I have ever had the privilege to work with and the
results that we are experiencing show this to be true.
Our academy can only continue to grow with the ongoing support
from our alumni. Your continued financial and emotional investments are
always noticed and appreciated. I urge you to belong to the Battalion
Commander Club today.
Thank you for helping to make our academy a faithful contin-
uation of its grand heritage.

Sincerely,

Dr. Thomas Steve Wilson,
President, Oak Ridge Military Academy