You are used to testing, but not like this one. Your world, already so virtual, just became even more so. But you also need to appreciate that we are now witnessing Norwalk at its best.
Our mayor and superintendent of schools are confronting the dread and uncertainty of this global health crisis with purpose and decisive action. And just like those of us at Carver who know and deeply respect your abilities, our city leaders also have every confidence in your physical and moral courage to endure.
While we will all become impatient long before the all-clear signal, we are sure that Norwalk will serve as a national model for perseverance and civility. This invisible virus will make visible your true strengths. It will reveal the ways in which we all can and will work together to achieve the greatest good.
The farther we remove ourselves from each other in our effort to keep everyone safe, the more we will need each other. Mutual distancing need never become a mindset. Our way of living may be upended, but not our commitment to each other’s well being.
To mitigate we must also collaborate to allow our health-care system to cope and keep pace. You will cook at home, and you will study your school work at home, but we also know you will reach out more, at least on the phone and through email, online school platforms, and social media. You need to stay safe, but we are confident that as we all look back on this time of crisis, it will have been a time when you and all of Norwalk drew one another closer in a lasting way.
While disorienting in the present, we trust that this crisis will prove to be reorienting for our community. When this is all over, we will be all that much stronger, and our confidence in your many strengths and abilities will be all the more overflowing.