Karin Ninesling Infuso
910-400-5137
kinfuso@aol.com

Nancy Schneider Alder volunteers at a local hospital, church, and nursing home and sees her five grandchildren as often as possible. Her daughter recently was married on the beach with perfect weather. For Marj Menchey Bernstein, the highlight of the summer was an Alaskan cruise with her partner and his family. After the cruise, they took the “breathtaking” Rocky Mountaineer train across Canada. Marj will travel to Naples, Florida in January for a Hood event and will attend Andrea Chapdelaine’s inauguration as Hood’s president. Ada Karen Blair and her husband, a long-time Minnesota Twins fan, visited Minneapolis, Minnesota, seeing the new Twins Stadium was on her husband’s “bucket list”. Kari was busy selling a house in NC and will close this fall. Kari lives 30 minutes from Karin Ninesling Infuso and enjoys seeing Karin’s daughter and grandson. Marianne Clark Cordyack reported on the reunion of her Hood friends Joanna (Dody) Corey Crutchley, Marianne Fisher O’Meara, Veronica George Freiberger, and Susan Pendell Johnson at Carolyn Johnson Houze’s home in Cody, Wyoming. The group started meeting in 1996 and planned to meet every five years. But the reunions, filled with talking, shopping, eating, and sightseeing, became an annual event in 2012. This year’s reunion included Yellowstone National Park, since Lynn’s house is only 53 miles east of the park. Vickie Smith Diaz loves retirement and spends 5-6 months in Florida enjoying outdoor activities and shell collecting. She will return to Maryland for the holidays, host Thanksgiving for her daughter and her boyfriend, and travel to NYC. Lauren Frankel still runs her consulting firm working largely with non-profit agencies. She is active in Planned Parenthood of Pasadena and completed three years as board chair. Her daughter Elizabeth is married and lives in Minneapolis which allows Lauren to explore the Twin Cities. Lauren was sorry to miss our reunion, but she was visiting Martha Herbert Bounoure and her husband in Nimes, France. They also spent a few days in Barcelona, Spain. Myra Holsinger visited Elaine Hubert and her husband in South Burlington, Vermont and enjoyed the view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. Denise Howard Mason reports that she is still working full-time but also travels with her sister Donna-Sue Howard, Hood ’74. In July, they spent 3 weeks in the Black Hills and the Badlands. Denise visited Pine Ridge Reservation and met with several descendants of Chief Red Cloud. Denise received veterans’ recognition at Mount Rushmore with a female Army veteran who served in Iraq. Denise hiked around Devil’s Tower and participated in a dinosaur dig. Her sister made a significant find and is recorded as the finder. Karin Ninesling Infuso and her family took a trip to southern California that included Los Angeles, a short cruise to Mexico, and the Pacific Surfliner train to San Diego. They visited a college friend of her husband, whom he had not seen in 46 years. They planned to visit Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone NP, and Grand Teton NP but cancelled the trip because their first grandchild arrived six weeks early. After two worrisome weeks, mother and baby boy are fine. Margaret Muncie traveled to New Mexico with her husband to visit friends from his college days at Miami University in Ohio. They will take a trip to Amsterdam and a tulip time river cruise next April. Peggy fondly remembers our reunion; when she looks at the photo book we gave her, she is reminded that she had “great classmates at Hood”. Pamela Nesbit and her husband continue their anti-bullying program at a school in Wisconsin. She is inspired by the students and states the work, is “life changing”. In May, Marianne Fisher O’Meara also became a grandmother to a baby boy and loves the grandparent experience. Anne Parkin Pierpont mentioned our reunion and is amazed that none of us ever “really age”. After 26 years, she still works at Stuart Day School in New Jersey where she runs the after-school, summer, and auxiliary programs. Her husband’s health has declined, and Anne works hard to balance his needs with her own. Anne’s daughter is a free-lance film producer. Anne thanks the classmates who attended the reunion with special thanks to Marj Menchey Bernstein for hosting a lovely reception and to Mary “Sam” Ryan Reeves and Marj who are “the glue that keeps us together”. In July, Sam Reeves became a grandmother to a baby girl. She attended a Hood gathering in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, hosted by Linda Allan and saw Ellen Sands Smith there. Ellen Sacks and her husband visited Sam at her beach house in South Bethany Beach, Delaware. Thank you to the classmates who sent information for this column.