“Benedictine Military School is a phenomenal place. It’s a phenomenal place. There’s no question about that. Great people. Benedictine is a great environment that allows boys a chance to find themselves without the external pressures and teaches them how to be leaders in the community. The great thing is I still have a text chain with some of the friends that I graduated high school with. You don’t typically have that, particularly when you’re not living in the (same) city. But we still manage to keep in touch with each other and check in, see how the school is doing, and just be involved with each other’s lives. Benedictine teaches you brotherhood. That’s a big thing that sometimes can get lost, the character trait of being loyal to each other, making sure that you’re checking in on each other and holding each other accountable for what you’re supposed to be achieving. I think that’s a lot of what BC taught me in terms of going through life. Being loyal and buying in and selling out to something. I think that’s a trait that a lot of people are afraid of in this day and age.

“Fr. Anthony (Wesolowski, O.S.B.), his Latin class, I remember that because when I first got there, oh my goodness, there was a lot more studying that I had to do. I started going to get tutored in Latin. I brought my grade up from something very lacking, I think it was a D, and brought it to an A. And I never looked back after that. I took Latin I and II. Fr. Anthony was very inspirational, always very motivating. Coach Tommy Cannon was (at BC) and not only was he the disciplinarian and my government teacher, but he was the basketball coach. And I was a basketball player. I’d get it in school and then at practice. He’d have me run until I got tired. I’d say the discipline from Coach Cannon, a lot of the things he said to me at the time kind of went over my head but as I got older, I understood it. (Former BC Headmaster) Fr. David (Griffin, O.S.B.), some of the things he said at the time went over my head at the time but now I understand it. Even Fr. Meinrad (Lawson, O.S.B.), he helped me get my first job by just suggesting that I go fill out an application. He showed me how and said, ‘All they can say is no.’ That showed me that regardless of whether you think you’re going to get it or not, put your hat in the game. Just go ahead and try and let’s see what happens. So many lessons. It was a smaller school then so even if you didn’t have a person for class, you still were around them, in their presence. When I talk to my students, I relate to them with lessons that I learned in the classroom at BC. I was no honor student at BC but all those lessons and techniques that I picked up from my teachers, when I take that into the classroom that’s honors-level teaching that I’m giving them. I really appreciate that. Note-taking skills. How to study. I learned how to study at BC. My junior year in college, I really began to see a big difference, a big gap, in what we did at BC and what we were doing even (at Savannah State). And even when I was getting my master’s degree, and my specialist (degree). The things I learned there in high school, I use even today in the adult world in just how to present findings, your thoughts, how to talk to people. We learned public speaking. Brother Tim (Brown, O.S.B.) had us learn how to take notes. I learned to take notes in a very orderly way. I still use that system. I teach that system to my students and it helps them organize their thoughts.”

“I don’t know if I would be where I am today if it was not for BC. I am dyslexic and my teacher from St. Mary’s Catholic School wanted me to go (to BC). I never thought about going to BC, but she knew my struggles and stuff, and she told me and my parents, and cried, ‘Don’t send him to any other school! Send him to BC because he is going to backslide if he doesn’t get that structure!’ If it wasn’t for BC with the structure, and I got to learn study skills that I took on with me to college, I don’t think I would be where I am today. The coaches meant a lot to me. The staff as well. I was the first African-American Most Valuable Player on the football team. Coach Harry Deal, Coach (Jim) Walsh, Coach (Tony) Orsini, Coach (Tommy) Brennan, Coach (Tommy) Cannon, those guys really shaped me into a pretty good football player and person. I owe a lot to BC. The BC family has always been gracious and awesome to me. I will always love the BC family.”

One man’s urban forest waste is the Daly twins’ treasure.

James Daly IV and Madison Daly, identical twin brothers and graduates of the Benedictine Military School Class of 2011, are steadily building an empire in South Carolina and Georgia. Their mission is to repurpose urban forest waste, consisting of tree and landscape debris, into usable landscape products to beautify our communities.

They founded Daly Organics (https://dalyorganics.com) in 2016 in Hardeeville, S.C., and also serve the Savannah, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, and Charleston areas. Their motto, “a different shade of green,” not only depicts their company’s process of turning “green” vegetative waste into “different” soils and colored mulches but also represents their company’s eco-friendly practice of repurposing urban forest waste into landscape products instead of landfill disposal.