Dianne Beebe Barske, Class Reporter
dielbarske@gci.net

I am writing this on February 19, and my request for class news has brought a chorus of cold!  I related that Alaska had been breaking all kinds of heat records, which means temperatures in the mid 40s in mid February, and what little snow we had has been melting fast.  Pat Vozar Bailey chimed back, “People in Virginia would pounce on you for that news.  We had wind chills of minus 20 last week.  It’s a balmy 13 today!”  My roommate, Barbara Cubberly Smith, reported, “People in NC wouldn’t be too happy, either.  Winter has arrived now that spring bulbs are about to bloom.”  And Barbara Morgan Herron ’67, jumped in from Maryland.  “It’s been brutally cold in Baltimore, too, with minus-degree wind chills.  It’s a balmy 10 this morning, February 17, with more frigid air on the way.”  I guess I’d better keep quiet, but here in Anchorage with our big winter carnival looming and the prospect of no World Championship Sled Dog races, we’d love some of that real winter.  The ceremonial start of the Iditarod Sled Dog races has been moved to Fairbanks from Anchorage, but even Fairbanks can’t boast a lot of snow.

Speaking of the Iditarod, every year for over 20 years, a group of Alaskan Hood alums have held a reunion potlatch dinner on Iditarod Eve, March 6 this year.  We are a small, but mighty group.  For many years LaVonne Blattenburger Vogt ‘69, came with her husband, Bob, but they moved to NC a few years ago.  This year Jill Stanley ’69, and her husband Adam, will be hosting, and the group will consist of me and my husband, Elliott: Meredith Howard Parham ’67, and her husband, Bruce; Penny Taylor Morton ’69; and Chris Laborde ’96.  We marvel that so many of us were on campus, overlapping in the 1960s, and are always on the lookout for other Hood Alaskan alums to join us.

Since I just referred to LaVonne Blattenburger Vogt, I’ll mention a note from Bonnie Scull Hawkes. She bumped into LaVonne aboard ship, on a cruise to Sidney, Australia this past fall.  “What an incredible discovery way out here in the middle of nowhere!”  The found each other as they were approaching Pago Pago, American Samoa.

My emailed request for news brought several emails in response, and I’m always grateful for every one of them!  Harriet Rudman Weiner wrote, “At this stage of our lives, it’s all about the grandchildren.  Alan and I have six, three from each son – three boys and three girls.  Alan is in his 12^th year of retirement and I am in my 8^th.  Work was varying degrees of enjoyable, but retirement is much better!”  Joan Theobald Wentling and Charlie have become snowbirds, happy to be leaving for Florida for six weeks after their burst of cold winter. She hears from Sally Fairfax ’65 and from Kate Jenks Powell ’64.  Joan and Charlie have four grandchildren living close by, “and they are a huge part of our lives.”  Patricia (Patty) Welton Schutt also shared weather-related news and verified my report of lack of winter in Anchorage.  She wrote, “My younger daughter is in the Army stationed in Anchorage (although she just left for Kuwait for nine months or so.)  She couldn’t believe how little snow there was there.”  But Patty stated that her daughter was constantly oohing and aahing over our mountains.  And Patty couldn’t resist mentioning the record-breaking winter she had been experiencing in Boston! Good news is that Patty and Gerry Silver Fernandez are already making plans to attend our 50^th Hood reunion next year.  She adds, “It’s such a treat to be close to my freshman-year roomie.  We both remember each other as younger, thinner, more energetic.”  Susan Worth Fiala shared wonderful news related to the recent Oscars.  Her youngest son, Bill, headed the production team for “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” nominated for best picture and lots of other awards. Her oldest son, John, just completed the lead on the new Denver International Airport website. And middle son, James, just opened a music store in Baltimore, called Hamiltones.  Sounds like a very creative family!  “Good news, all around,” Susan added.  Speaking of creativity, Janet Lott reports that she is still an avid Argentine dancer and dance teacher.  She lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where she teaches the Alexander Technique.  She summarized, “My two sons are healthy and happy. Life is good.”  Carole Ann Kemp Lovett plans to join classmates gathering for our 50^th Hood reunion.  She exclaims, “Egads!  We are approaching our Big 50^th!! Very exciting!”  She and husband Bill will be celebrating their 47^th anniversary this year.  (Elliott and I will be celebrating our 48^th, Carole Anne, so we were married one year earlier.)  She adds that she met her husband when he was just 13 and she was 12, at the local swimming pool.  They have been retired 16 years, spending that time remodeling houses, moving relatives, caring for mothers “and enjoying our paradise here at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland.”  She also volunteers at a local hospital.  Then there’s grandparenting.  Granddaughter Autumn is 7 and there is “no shortage of the joy and laughter she provides Granna and Papa.” Carole Anne and Bill plan to join the snowbird crew and spend March through May in Florida.  Very exciting news came in an email from Nancy Frederickson Sherlin.  She and husband Grover are planning a November trip to Madagascar, and will be visiting with Pat Chapple Wright there at CentreValBio, the research center Pat created at the Ranomafana National Park.  How I wish I could go along!  Nancy recommended Pat’s new book, “For the Love of Lemurs: My Life in the Wilds of Madagascar.” I couldn’t agree more.  I, too, have a copy of the book.  Included in this same trip are visits to Zula Nyala Safari Park in Hluhluwe, South Africa, Victoria Falls and Cape Town.  Last January she and Gordon cruised from Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires, including four days of cruising through Antarctica, “but we are just over the moon about seeing lemurs in the wild and getting to visit with Pat.”

This past year, Elliott and I have been blessed with real visits, face-to-face happy times, with several Hood friends.  At the end of May we had Jane Dearstyne Veeder (one of my Hood roommates) and husband Chuck visiting us here in Anchorage and got to do some Alaska touring with them.  It was wonderful to be with them.  In August, Elliott and I got to visit with Eva Redvall in Stockhold, Sweden.  I did a happy dance when we saw her!  She drove us around Stockholm, went to a garden lunch with us, and fed us a wonderful Swedish dinner in her home.  (Elliott and I were on a Baltic, North Sea cruise with Sweden as part of the touring.  Other stops were in Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Russia.  It was a Prairie Home Companion Cruise with Garrison Keillor – and, yes, we saw a lot of him.   But hanging out with Eva, an exchange student while we were at Hood, was the highlight for me.  Then, this December when we were visiting our older son and his fiancé in Tucson, Arizona, we got to see Estie (Esther) Paist in Scottsdale, where she recently purchased a condo near her daughters.  She still has her home in Pennsylvania, as well.  We’d been roommates at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where we both went to grad school.  We hadn’t seen each other in over 40 years, but that time gap simply melted away.  Estie states that she is “gleefully retired,” but is still traveling widely assisting colleges and universities with accreditation procedures and implementation of distance education policies.  Thank you Janie, Eva, and Estie, for spending time with us!

And a recent phone call from Anna Buhr Cole gives promise of another special visit with a Hood friend and classmate.  Anna and her husband, Miles, have visited here in Anchorage before.  They liked that visit and the Inland Passage cruise so well that they are cruising to Alaska again, and this time going north to Fairbanks as well.  We plan to get together this June.  Anna mentioned that she had recently been back on the Hood campus.  “It looks so good and certainly has changed.

I’ll end the class news with hopes to see many of you back on campus for our 50^th reunion, June 10 to 12, 2016!  Thanks to our classmates who are on the planning committee – Pat Vozar Bailey, Ginny Wheeler Jones, Sarah Bruce, Susan Worth Fiala, and Judy Messina.  Additional thanks to Judy who recently served on the Search Committee for the new Hood College president.  Committee members recently chose Dr. Andrea E. Chapdelaine to succeed Dr. Ronald Volpe.

Sayre Roney Steere
850-233-0238
sayre1126@gmail.com

Once again, unsolicited, I received an email from Esther Kofod Whitfield, who is practically a neighbor of mine in nearby Tallahassee, Fla. She reminded me that she was one of four “foreign” students at Hood in 1965. She transferred to the Corcoran School of Art in 1967 where she met her future husband, The Libyan, which is the title of her new book. In it she tells of her 5 years in Libya during the horrific years of Ghaddafi’s rule. The book in many ways is a memoir, with actual events, accurately chronicling Libya’s historical and political facts. She has since divorced and is now happily married to Ron Whitfield, a chiropractor. Esther has a son and a daughter and two grandchildren (her time at Hood, by the way, is mentioned in Chapter 2). Another published author is Valerie Dietz Polansky. She recently wrote Quick Review Cards for Medical Laboratory Science as well as updated a previous medical publication. She claims now to be fully retired allowing time for her and Gary to travel in their motorhome. Year 2014 found them visiting the Canadian Maritimes––Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Carolyn “Kip” Cantagalli Dumaresq is also officially retired from the position of secretary of education of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Education–after 45 years in the education system! She and her husband have purchased a new log home on 14+ acres with a pool and a training center for their three Border Collies whom Kip shows in agility. Meredith Owen Atkinson and husband George are both retired allowing them to spend a couple of months each year visiting their daughter and family in Truckee, Calif., and their son in Park City, Utah where the cross-country skiing has been fabulous. Meredith continues to teach a literature class in her hometown of Norwell, Mass. Sue Korff Hammer continues to raise alpacas and drive around in her ’64 GTO convertible! Mary Anne Thune Lasko gets together occasionally with Joy McGinnis, both of whom were stunned at some of the changes on the old college campus. Virginia Pagan Schragel is pleased to announce she has been breast cancer free for five years. Life is good for her and her family. Jill Stanley checked in from Alaska with news that her daughter Rayna Green in her 5th year of studying sacred music at Hebrew Union College will be ordained as a (Jewish) cantor in May. Jill is the director of the local Reform synagogue choir and spends a great deal of time dancing–square dancing, round dancing and Israeli folk dancing. Bettina Smith Tucker has endured a couple of life-changing events recently. She lost her husband Hal almost two years ago and in April 2014 she retired from her 15-year position as a woman’s advocate and court advocate for victims of domestic violence in the midcoast region of Maine. Last summer she managed to coax roomie Sharon MacDonald Sayles from her summer home in the Adirondacks on Gull Pond to visit Tina’s summer home on the Maine coast in Round Pond–a big reunion after 7 years. Speaking of “roomies,” my dear friend Cindy Kannapel Weiss and husband Glenn are about to embark on a cruise through the Hawaiian Islands–a somewhat belated 45th anniversary celebration. Cindy won’t have to wait long upon her return for the birth of her third grandchild! All is well with me, Sayre Roney Steere, here in the Florida Panhandle. I’m winding up my stint as a district director within the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs with one more obligation ahead of me–a convention in Boca Raton in April. Last summer we traveled out west, visiting daughter Joan and family in Seattle – with a camping side-trip to the Orcas Islands, then on to Palo Alto, Calif., to see daughter Doris. The West Coast crowd all came here for Christmas, making this Grandma mighty happy.

Class of 2005, we have a lot of news this issue. It seems like everyone is so busy. Yet again there are new degrees, marriages, new jobs, babies, moves, but no extreme couponers, which honestly surprises me. I thought for sure we would have one class member who clips a ton of coupons for impressive savings. My hope was that our class extreme couponer would pass along some practical saving advice to the rest of us so we can start saving for our 10-year reunion next year! Can you believe it? Those 10 years flew by in the blink of an eye. I’m a little excited to see you all again, if you can’t tell. So let it come as no surprise if our next few columns mention reunion weekend 2015. You turned to this page not to be bombarded with reunion information, but to see what our friends have been doing, so let us get on with the updates.

MaameYaa Boafo earned a Master of Fine Art in acting from Rutgers University in 2009. She married Jeremiah Abiah, and they are living in New York City. You will currently see her starring on the hit webseries An African City and this fall she will be performing Off Broadway in LIFT by Walter Mosley. You also may spot her in national commercials. Jillian (Kotmair) Bright along with husband Andrew and daughter Juliette welcomed twin girls, Alexandria Marie and Josephine Lily, on March 14, 2014. Cassie Dukes and husband John Tagliamburis are preparing to welcome a baby in early December. Danielle (Rodman) Giannandrea and husband Frank purchased a new home in Frederick, which was featured in a nationally-airing Remax commercial. Jennifer Harmon got married, her new last name is Nachtrieb. In addition to being a newlywed, she started a new job as the coordinator of the Community Research Center, Fairbanks North Star Borough in Alaska. Recently, her job brought her to the Pittsburgh for a conference where she was able to catch up with former roommate Rachael (Lubkin) Zeminski. Sarah Hoover is in a Master of Business Administration program for international relations at Southern New Hampshire University. Melanie Howell reports life is sweet. In December, she became engaged to John D. Grantham, whom she dated for the past 10 years. They are getting married at the Cloisters Castle in Pikesville, Maryland, this October and look forward to spending the rest of their lives together. Kristen (Heisey) Leiter welcomed a baby girl, Katherine, into her family on June 4, 2014. Georgette (Sirak) Prichard’s husband received a promotion last August and they have since purchased a house. They are living in Spring Lake, North Carolina near Fort Bragg with three very loveable dogs who make life interesting. Sadly, her cat Smudge aka Fatty Fat Cat, who lived with her and Sarah (Robinson) Rathbun in their off-campus apartment senior year passed away. He was 16 years old. Sarah (Robinson) Rathbun and her family moved from Nashville to San Francisco in June. Tiffany Still married David Grant on Oct. 13, 2013. Charlene Vestermark was accepted for a gastroenterology fellowship at the National Capital Consortium Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, which begins in August. Janelle (Stevens) Weddle claims it’s not newsworthy but celebrated 10 years of marriage with Jeremiah on July 17, 2014. I say she’s wrong. Congratulations, Janelle and Jeremiah!  Nate Wood-Wilson married Ashley Nick ’08 on June 21, 2014 in Knoxville, Md.

And now a special note of thanks from Jennifer (Dunn) Brown:

“I was humbled by the love and support I received from my Hood girls when my mom passed in February. Whether it was a note on Facebook, a card in the mail, a phone call, a donation to the American Cancer Society, or a show of support at the funeral, I was truly grateful to know I had so many people thinking about me and praying for my family. I’m beyond grateful for my Hood family.”

As always, if you have news to share in the next issue of the Hood magazine, please send it to me via email at lhughan@gmail.com or via Facebook.

Wondering what’s going on with Chris Laborde? Here’s the latest on the Alaska Same Sex Marriage Case:

Sally Johnson Leland
207-865-0280
sallyleland@sbcglobal.net

Greetings from the frigid, yet beautiful, state of Maine. What a winter! Anyone have a rental in Florida that would consider a six week rental in February ’16 and be open to a Maine Coon cat in tow? Let me know. Seriously! It has been five+ years that I have served as the ’74 scribe. I am a huge proponent of “change is good.”  Might there be anyone desiring to take over the task of class correspondent?  If so, please let me know 207-865-0280 (sallyleland@sbcglobal.net) or contact Ashley Nick Wilson wilsona@hood.edu who keeps all the correspondents in line, on line, and on schedule! The 40th reunion prompted Billie Weise and Margery Berringer to take a road trip to Cape Cod, where they visited Ginnie Keane Bukovac. Ginny was renting there for the summer. From there, they headed to Camden, Maine to visit Billie’s younger sister. Shades of Thelma and Louise! Dibby Burnham sent word and a picture that daughter Sarah had married on Halloween in Las Vegas. The picture was amusing with all in costume and face paint. Felt like I was at a Kiss Concert. Dibby and her mom seemed to take it in stride in their toned down threads, though my guess is Dib’s veiled pill box hat was probably spider webbed netting in design. Dibby always loved Halloween and all spiders, great and small. Truth be told, I would have loved knowing what was going through Grandmother Burnham’s thoughts! Grandmom was the hit of the evening. She was the only one of her generation so she garnered as much attention as the bride. Barb Burt Sherland has retired from full-time practice in estate planning, tax and exempt organizations in Seattle. She is now senior counsel. Vicki Raeburn Benton wrote that the two northern grandsons are as active on their hockey skates as off, and the Floridian grandsons are pretty competent baseball players and golfers. Vicki is a part-time proctor at Touro Medical College in Middletown, N.Y., and she also tutors a couple of days a week. Liz Anne Arant Allen continues to work in the investment field, is busy with church/committees and is very active as the Orange County, Calif., outreach director for Team RWB. Check out Team RWB on the net. Seeing immediate and positive response and results from veterans has been incredibly gratifying. Liz’s elder daughter is now involved with Team RWB as is Ann Cuppia Gandy in Columbia, S.C.  Liz was counting the days until Ann’s visit in mid-January. Liz is an avid reader and is thirsty to learn about the historical, religious and cultural background of the Middle East. Once she has it all figured out, I’d like her to condense it into Cliff Notes for me! Speaking of the Middle East, our (Doug and Sally Johnson Leland) daughter Heather lives in Beirut. We visited her in May ’14 to welcome, visit and snuggle our only grandchildren, both boys …then 3-weeks-old. Sullivan has achondroplasia which occurs in every 30,000 babies. What are the chances of having a grandmom living next door to us in Freeport with a grandson who has achondroplasia? Pretty amazing! Wish Heather and sons were closer! Dot Herdle Files and husband Eben are now grandparents. Their middle daughter Carolyn (U.S. Navy) gave birth to Lily. Skype, Facetime and Facebook sure keep family and friends in the loop with the latest developments and antics. The youngest File is graduating from college in 2015, so retirement from federal service in Texas is imminent for both Dot and Eben. Both are involved with various choirs and Dot continues to work with the 4-H Horse Club while tending to the needs of her own horses. Condolences to Billie Weise on the death of her brother, Steven, age 64. Such a sudden and most unexpected loss is hard to comprehend. Steven’s ’73 USNA classmates mourn his loss as do we. May your many wonderful memories of Steven sustain you, Billie. Our love and best wishes to you and your family. Lastly, but certainly not least, a note of acknowledgement to President Volpe… on behalf of ’74, we thank you for your many years of dedication, insight, strategic planning and continued championing for our alma mater. May this transition present many opportunities for travel, projects, time with family, laughter, and exceptional health and stamina to “give your gifts for greatest good.”  Corde et Mante et Mano… and our utmost appreciation and well wishes.

Sally Fletcher Murray wrote that her children and grandchildren from CA, FL and AK celebrated Don’s 80^th birthday with a family reunion at Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, VA. A highlight was the announcement by their 51-year-old son and his wife (36) that they are expecting their first child in January. Sally’s sister Nancy (Hood ’59) came from Australia for her annual visit. Sally continues to serve on the Governor’s School Foundation Board and the County Electoral Board. She walks her dog two miles a day, reads constantly, enjoys daily emails from Hood classmates…and takes a nap every day!

Chris Laborde married Susan Tow on July 27, 2013 at Chris’ aunt’s farm in Adamstown, MD. Chris and Susan currently reside in Anchorage, Alaska where Susan retired from the Air Force. Chris works as a government contractor in Emergency Management. Chris and Susan are one of five couples suing the State of Alaska to recognize their marriage – the case is Hamby et al. v. Parnell et al. Chris can be reached at CDLaborde@gmail.com.

2012
Ashley Nokes
hc2012reporter@gmail.com

Laura Saad
hc2012reporter@gmail.com

Hello from the class of 2012! It was another exciting year for the members of our class and we are excited to share it with you. Carley Altenburger graduated from the Univ. of Pittsburgh with a master of library and information science degree in archives, preservation and records management and has started a second master’s degree program in the history of decorative arts at Smithsonian-George Mason Univ. Jamal Bell is now a licensed realtor and is starting his career in realty. Jarred Braxton is halfway finished with his graduate program at Tisch School of the Arts in New York City aiming for his master’s degree in cinema studies. Adrienne Gladden started a new job as a student adviser for StraighterLine, Inc., an online education program located in Baltimore. Janet Gainesearned a certified supervised counselor alcohol and drug certification and is in the master of social work program at the Univ. of Southern California. She is working as a lead counselor at Gale Recovery, Inc. Claire Gogan will be entering a master’s degree program in history at Virginia Tech in the fall on a full scholarship. Kelly Harris married Matthew and they welcomed a baby girl Sofia Grace in October 2013. They moved back to New Jersey to be closer to family. Hilary Lawch planned to enroll at McDaniel College in the fall to pursue her master’s degree in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She plans on using her master’s degree to work for a nongovernmental organization that helps immigrants adjust to their new lives in the United States. Lauren Miller married Galen McGrane April 12, 2014, in Frederick. Carter Reitman is currently in his second year of service with the Peace Corps in Morocco. Kenneth Rupert published a book in December 2013 and two more in the first quarter of 2014. He is writing one book that will be published this summer and two more in the fall. Kasey Smith will be leaving Frederick County Public Schools after two years of teaching special education for a new teaching job on a Native American reservation in Mandaree, N.D. She will  teach special education for a year. Maria Smith will be starting a new job in the fall as a middle and upper school French teacher at Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, Md. Mollie Widdowson is working for the Washington County Department of Social Services in foster care and has been there since September 2013. Emily Wilson planned to attend Arcadia Univ. doctor of physical therapy program in August. What a year it has been for our incredibly accomplished class! Please keep your class reporters updated so we can inform you of the amazing things our class continues to accomplish every day.

2010
Alison Kelley
kelley@hood.edu
5th reunion, June 5-7, 2015

Erica Royer recently graduated from Saint Joseph’s Univ. with a master’s degree in experimental psychology focusing on animal behavior and cognition. Her thesis research on dominance hierarchies in Caribbean flamingos was published in Behavioural Processes in Spring 2014. Currently, she works as an animal keeper with rare and endangered birds at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. Her primary areas include Guam rails and Micronesian kingfishers, both of which are extinct in the wild. Emily Heflin is still working at The Summit School and will start the 2014-2015 school year as the social studies coordinator; she was also promoted to school coordinator assistant! In December 2013 she got engaged to Arslan Khan. They had a traditional Pakistani religious ceremony and in summer 2014 she planned to have a traditional American wedding. She recently moved to Alexandria, Va. Ali Kelley started a new position as the assistant director of annual giving at Hood. She is also in her third year of coaching cheerleading at Maryland Allstars. Alyssa Moore recently accepted a new position at J. Spargo & Associates as a registration account manager and started in June 2014.

2009
Christie Fincham Flora
christiefincham@yahoo.com

Lillian Dean Miller was married to Chris Miller in June 2013. She bought a house in Mount Airy, Md., in May 2014 and works as the regional wellness merchandiser for MOM’s Organic Market, an independently owned organic grocery store with 11 locations in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Rebecca Hunter earned a doctor of philosophy degree in analytical chemistry from the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in July 2014. She is moving to Charleston, S.C., where she will be an assistant professor of chemistry at The Citadel. Danielle Lee Sgro is starting a new job as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in the environmental tort litigation section on Sept. 8. She is currently a law clerk at the United States Court of Federal Claims. Andrea J. Raffauf lives in Denver, Colo., but got engaged on April 30, 2014, to J. Garrett McGinnis with a planned wedding for May 2015. She is working as a medicolegal death investigator for the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner in Colorado. Andrea is certified on a national level and a diplomat with the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. Amanda “Mandy” Bunting, C’11 earned a master’s degree in applied sociology at the Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County and is enrolled at the Univ. of Kentucky’s sociology doctoral program for the fall. She lives in Lexington, Ky. Katelyn Vaughan has two children Romand, 4, and Hadrian, 1. She started working in the finance department for Legal and General America, America’s third largest and most successful life insurance company. She is raising her boys and finishing the final part of her master’s degree at Hood. Kinsley Wilde is engaged and was getting married on Sept. 27, 2014, to David Bowman and working as a child and youth program coordinator for the Maryland National Guard. Andrew C Weiss is working on special government projects for The Johns Hopkins Univ., Applied Physics Lab and he owns and operates REDRHINO, an epoxy flooring company providing floor coatings to five states. Kathryn Anne Thomas Yager graduated from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in May 2013 and graduated with a master’s degree in public health from Virginia Tech in December 2013. She married Cody Yager (a classmate from veterinary school) Jan. 4, 2014. She also bought a house in Ohio in April 2014 and has been working as an associate veterinarian in Ohio since October 2013. A year after graduating from Hood, Tracy McIntyre Leach married her wonderful husband and obtained her master’s degree in public health. Her second son Levi was born June 20, 2013. Her first born Quayden is already 5 years old! She works for the State of Maryland as a licensed environmental health specialist and with her husband owns a family business, Xtreme Liquid Designs, LLC. Samantha Henderson Lowery married Michael on April 12, 2014. After five years of teaching special education, she now teaches sixth grade language arts. Ilyse Kaplan celebrates five years with the Social Security Administration as a performance management specialist. She is certified in human resources through the USDA Graduate School. She bought a house on Rosemont Ave. in Frederick and is learning to grill and garden. She recently finished building a bamboo fence in the backyard.Christie Fincham Flora is the mid-Atlantic training store manager for Columbia Sportswear and is working on a master of business administration degree at Mount St. Mary’s Univ.