A happy and healthy New Year to everyone. My thoughts turn to those classmates who may have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. Our hearts particularly go out to Leslie Gardner Longo and her family who lost their entire home on the New Jersey shore. I am sure there are more of you out there. Mary Calhoun has taken on a Facebook project of finding Hood classmates and Hoodlums who live along the New Jersey and New York coast who may be in need of help. Laura Jones said she lives about one mile from the beach and luckily had no damage from the storm other than one downed tree. She did have to live through eight days of no power or heat. Laura works at a hospital that had generator power so she went to work every day to get warm and charge her cell phone and Kindle. She said the loss of power was a very small inconvenience compared to what other people experienced.

Mary Calhoun was busy this summer painting the exterior of her home. She had several Hood girls visit her this year, including her Hood roommate Laura Schauer and her daughter Torrie, her other Hood roommate Eve Erwin Deitch, and a former Coblentz Hall neighbor, Marcea Horton Cotter ’82. After three years of hospice care, they have decided her husband no longer needs their service. They simply could not certify him as being in the last stage of his life. In other words, at age 102 (he will be 103 in January), he is too healthy to qualify for hospice care. What a hoot! He continues to amaze everyone. She welcomes anyone from Hood traveling through the mountains of Western North Carolina in 2013 to stop by for a visit. Congratulations to my roommate Leigh Moomaw McBride who will be a new grandma in June. It really is the best job in the world. Leigh is past president of our Hood alumni executive board.

Malinda Small sent a note to let us know she is now the president of the Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation in Baltimore. Her 5-year-old daughter is in kindergarten at Friends School in Baltimore. She recently saw Sharon Gravatt Kulesz at her daughter Lauren’s wedding shower in Virginia. Sharon will be the mother-of-the-bride in a March wedding in South Carolina. Maggie Park shared her big news––she has a new grandson Lloyd Emerson Elihu Nickerson, born in August. Her daughter Molly and her husband Moses have two foster children as well, so they now have a very busy household with three children! Maria Garvey-Tara is a Spanish teacher and librarian at a K-8 school in Parker, Colo. Her daughter is a junior in high school and her son is a freshman. Her husband is a partner in a consulting firm in Denver. They vacationed in Spain this summer and hope to return to Europe next summer.

Beth Darroch Coggins P’11 has spent some time with Donna Smith Mecca, Becky Lennen Crocket ’80 and Marcy Kelley Fedalei ’79, who all enjoyed a relaxing reunion this past July at Marcy’s lake home in South Carolina. They picked right up where we left off over 20 years ago. A special moment was shared as they toasted our beloved classmate Maureen Kelly Hess with a drink and favorite Hood snack. They vowed not to let another 20 years go by before their next get together! Beth and KC have moved into a new home in Prosper, Texas, where she is teaching special education at a middle school. Her daughter Kristina Coggins ’11 is working in the hospitality industry, having finished a season in Alaska, and currently working at Copper Mountain, Colo. Her youngest, Julie, is spending her junior year abroad in Brussels, Belgium, studying international economics and French. Corrine Durdock was an adult education student at Hood and her oldest son Andrew Durdock, M.A.’81 received his master’s degree from Hood. At that time, they were reported to be the first mother-son duo to receive diplomas at the same ceremony. Corrine’s granddaughter Rebecca Rieser ’16, is a freshman at Hood. She is a member of the Blazers’ volleyball team. Corrine lives in Emmaus, Pa., and loves getting immediate information about the team by logging onto the Hood athletic website. The reports and the photos allow her to be a fan of the team even though she cannot be present in the gym.

Rebecca Levine wrote in to tell us that she took a cruise to Alaska this past summer with her husband Yehuda and son Isaac. They stayed in Seattle, Wash., for several days, and enjoyed outdoor adventures and great food. When they returned from the trip, Isaac left for his new yeshiva––Ner Yisroel, in Baltimore. After having to put their beloved dog to sleep this past year, they hope to find another Belgian Shepherd in need of rescue. Rebecca and her husband are planning a trip to England this summer.

Class Reporter: