ROCKPORT — The Riley School is 50 years old this year and to start celebrating, it is inviting all alumni, as well as past and present Riley Family members, to pack up their family and camping gear, and gather on the wide-open campus for the weekend.

From August 12-14, the school will be reliving past times with classmates and faculty while re-connecting with current Riley Family members.

Various activities will be offered over the weekend, including art projects, music, dancing and of course, stargazing with Friday and Saturday night being peak nights for watching Perseids Meteor Shower. 

Pen Bay Pan will perform live by campfire on Saturday night starting at 6 p.m., showcasing their sound and talent after making our campus their new “home base”.

Riley School is also excited that its director, Kyle von Neumann, has joined the staff recently as music director for Riley.

Pen Bay Pan is a steel drum band consisting of Midcoast Maine community members and the ensemble has been around for 20 years. The steel band, or steel orchestra, is an art form developed in Trinidad and Tobago in the middle of the 20th century and the group plays a mix of traditional Caribbean music genres, as well as American jazz standards.

Through their classes and performing ensembles, most recently the Lobster Festival in Rockland, Pen Bay Pan seeks to provide a group music making experience that is culturally edifying, engaging for all musical skill levels and just plain old knock-your-socks-off fun. 

If you are, or know of, alumni or family member of an alumnus, and would like to sign up for the camp out, contact Riley School at Outreach@Rileyschool.org with your contact information and detailed information will be sent. 

Riley School is at Glen Cove, Rockport, a small inlet on Penobscot Bay.

The school was founded by Glenna Wade Plaisted (1927-2013) in 1972, with the goal of providing children with a learning environment where intellectual fulfillment, self-esteem and responsibility for self are continually nurtured.

Each child is supported in expanding his or her creative, intellectual world through a series of coordinated, meaningful and challenging experiences that lead to academic success. Riley is not an exclusive environment, but an inclusive one which uses the diversity of its children and adults to achieve a sense of genuine community. For more about Riley School, visit rileyschool.org.