By Jim Beers
CHESTER – Approximately three months ago Chester Grade School Principal Tim Blair and his wife Ariel Blair announced that they were expecting their first child. That created much excitement and anticipation at the school among teachers, staff and students.
For the past three months, everyone at CGS wanted to know if the couple wanted to know what the gender would be and if they would share that information with the CGS Family and the Chester community once the gender was known.
There was much speculation throughout the school and some classes even held contests guessing the gender and using the topic in the classroom to do research and chart popular opining regarding the gender. This teaching tool quickly became the popular center of discussion and interest.
All classes at CGS were involved in an exciting project to guess the gender of “Baby Blair”. The entire CGS Family soon began counting, graph-making, guessing, charting, and general prognosticating, regarding the gender of the baby soon to arrive. The project brought the entire CGS family together for a common cause or prediction.
CGS Assistant Principal, Dr. Kristin Petrowske, and Administrative Assistant Danielle Conway were the overall coordinators of the project and teachers and staff jumped on board to implement the activities. The final culmination of events was a “Gender Reveal” assembly the morning of Friday February 20 in the CGS gymnasium.
All classes were instructed to vote the week prior to the assembly. The choices were 1) the baby will be a boy; 2), the baby will be a girl; or 3) the baby(s) will be twins. Assistant Principal, Petrowske was the official “keeper of the Gender”. She was the only one who knew the gender going into the assembly.
On Friday February 20 students were directed into the gymnasium as soon as the bell rang at 8 a.m. Everyone was asked to wear either blue or pink clothing to indicate their gender request. Once everyone was seated, Dr. Petrowske announced to the assembly that Principal Blair and his wife Ariel were going to have a baby. She added that the “Special Edition Assembly” would be brief and that the purpose of the gathering was the reveal the gender of Mr. and Mrs. Blair’s baby.
Throughout the entire project, Dr. Petrowske was the “keeper of real gender answer”, and the “Keeper of the confetti cannon” which would be used to reveal the gender of the baby. At the time of the actual reveal, the confetti cannon would be discharged with either blue (boy) or pink (girl) confetti to indicate either a boy or girl to come in July.
Ms. Petrowske discussed with the students the previous week’s prediction activities which achieved the “prediction outcomes” to be released that morning. Results of these prediction activities are as follow: The majority of votes predicted that Baby Blair was going to be a girl (54 percent). A prediction of a baby boy to arrive was indicated by 42 percent of the population. Just four percent predicted that Mr. and Mrs. Blair would have twins.
Kindergarten classes and second grade classes created graphs to demonstrate their predictions. Kindergarten graphs indicated that Baby Blair was going to be a girl, while 2nd Grade graphs indicated the Baby Blair would be a boy.
Danielle Conway, Administrating Assistant, then took the floor to “pump up” the audience prior to the BIG REVEAL! Conway had the entire audience do a “baby wave” from one end of the bleachers to the other. As students did the wave, they were told to make the “sound of a baby crying” as the wave approached each section of the bleachers.
Principal Blair was then asked to come onto the gym floor and join Dr. Petrowske and Mrs. Conway on center court. Mr. Blair was very surprised and proud to be able to reveal the gender of his first-born child. Blair announced that his baby was due to be born during the upcoming summer on Saturday July 4th.
Conway then called for a drum roll by everyone in the bleachers, and Dr. Petrowske shot the confetti cannon as Principal Blair watched in anticipation. The cannon exploded with a large shower of “BLUE” confetti as the crowd cheered with a loud scream “IT’S A BOY!!!!!”
Mr. Blair then announced that he and his wife Ariel were naming their son, “Ezra”, and that they were very excited and anxious for his arrival on July the 4th, 2026. The assembly ended at approximately 8:10 a.m. with lots of excitement and good greetings for Mr. Blair, his wife Ariel, and their first born child, a son, “Ezra!”
CGS Assistant Principal, Dr. Kristin Petrowske (left) and Administrative Assistant, Danille Conway (right) get the students and staff “fired up” at the Baby Gender Reveal assembly Friday February 20. Jim Beers Photo
CGS Principal, Tim Blair (left) watches intently as CGS Assistant Principal, Dr. Kristin Petrowske (right), fires the confetti cannon to reveal the gender of Mr. Blair’s expectant baby. The confetti were BLUE, so Baby Blair, first child of Tim and Ariel Blair, will be a BOY. Principal Blair stated that his son will be named, “Ezra”. Jim Beers Photo
Chester Grade School Assistant Principal Dr. Kristin Petrowske welcomes students and staff to the Gender Reveal Assembly at CGS Friday February 20. The event was to reveal the gender of CGS Principal Tim Blair’s first-born child. The event was very exciting and both staff and students were on hand to congratulate Mr. Blair when Mrs. Petrowske revealed that Mr. Blair and his wife, Ariel would be welcoming a son, Ezra, on Saturday July the 4th. Jim Beers Photo