(From NOLA.com, Dec. 15) Alvin Edinburgh’s 90th birthday party last Sunday was a celebration both of a remarkable man and of the values he used to inspire generations of children.
The large, joy-filled luncheon took place at the parish hall of New Orleans’ Trinity Episcopal Church, where for 46 years Edinburgh has been director of an extraordinary summer program melding academics, creative arts and more traditionally camp-like activities such as hiking, tubing and wildlife-center visits. Serving two age brackets of economically disadvantaged elementary-school children, the Trinity Educational Enrichment Program, or TEEP, has a distinguished history of spurring campers to reach previously untapped potential. As higher-ed studies and anecdotal evidence both show, New Orleans is full of community leaders who credit TEEP and Edinburgh with putting them on the right path.
When Edinburgh finally retired after the 2024 summer program, this newspaper did a wonderful feature on him wherein he expounded on the five core principles he has spent half a century instilling in the student-campers: “respect, responsibility, reciprocity, restraint and redemption.”
“From the very first day they get here, I greet them with a firm handshake every morning and ask them in return to make eye contact with me,” Edinburgh said. “It’s a way of teaching good manners.”
What I want to offer here are some long-standing behind-the-scenes observations, along with broader lessons for civil society writ large.
It was 45 years ago, in 1979, that my friend Clay Beery and I, having just finished our freshman year of high school, were working as helpers for a construction crew doing renovations at Trinity. Ninth grade boys are notoriously hard to impress; but as TEEP proceeded all around us while we scraped up old paint and hauled sheetrock, we were astonished and uplifted.
The then-45-year-old, ramrod straight Edinburgh’s very presence seemed to have a near-magical power over dozens of happy, utterly engaged children. The most stunning occurrences came when Edinburgh wanted to introduce the whole camp, often during the lunch break, to a particular visitor, or to announce some change in plans for the afternoon…. [My full tribute to this amazing man is here.]
