Class Notes

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful, sunny weekend in May 2015 to celebrate our 15 year anniversary. As to be expected, the campus looked stunning and brought back so many cherished memories of time spent there with all of you. A big “thank you” to Mariah Butler Vogelgesang for volunteering with me and helping to rally the troops. It was wonderful to see so many of you face to face and catch up in person—Chris Nowell, Beth Jarrett, Eve Sledjeski, Kerry Layne Adam, Angela Zosel-McCormick, James Mirabello,  Betsy Burton, Michelle McChrystal Allen, Jennifer Greven, Joy Barnes, Sunshine Evans, Jenna Robinson, and Elaine Murray Strauss, to name just a few …

Blake Mitchell wed Joe LaPointe at the Publick House Inn in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on April 26, 2015.  It was a beautiful ceremony and gathering of friends and family. It also turned out to be a mini Virginia Hall reunion, with Susan Wolf, Eve Sledjeski, Jackie Herr, and myself in attendance.

On July 4, Maylian Pak got married in Eugene, Oregon, to Matt Shapiro. In attendance were Michelle Kelly Schuchardt, Joy Barnes, Beth Geiger Wolly, Jessica Bonanno, Rachael Dorsey McGowen, Erin Piemontesi, Aaron Davis ʼ99, Jennifer Greven, and Greg Greven.

Jennifer and Greg welcomed baby Penelope Kate in March of 2015. Jack and Lily have been an amazing big brother and sister! Jennifer continues to teach elementary music in Stafford County Schools. She wrote to let us know that John Rock married Bijal Patel in Charlotte, North Carolina, in October of 2014.  It was a beautiful weekend with many MWC alumni in attendance.

A friend of Kelly Wagner Amen wrote to share sad news about her. As many of you know, our beloved Kelly is facing a recurrence of her cancer, which has now moved beyond breast cancer and spread to other areas of her body.  For those of you who have not heard the details of her latest challenge, you can find out more through her own inspiring words on her blog at www.kellysagainstthegrain.blogspot.com. If you can help and support our classmate in any way, please do so!

While traditional medicine is limited in her case, she is bravely undergoing a cutting-edge stem cell therapy in California that, combined with traditional approaches, will seek to eliminate the cancer once and for all. Kelly’s treatment is costing more than $1,000 dollars a day for six weeks, and she will also need to continue to travel to California indefinitely to continue treatment. We are launching a fundraising drive to raise $25,000 by next March to support Kelly’s path to healing, and we already have more than $5,000 towards our goal! Please consider contributing whatever amount you can to help us reach our goal. You can visit Kelly’s donation page at https://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/kelly-s-conquering-cancer/174646.

If you would rather send a check to Kelly, please make it out to Kelly Amen and send it to her home address, 1074 Lakeland Avenue, Lakewood, OH 44107. We will be sure to reflect your donation towards our goal on her fundraising page. Thank you!

Jennifer Thomas recently went to visit some college friends in the Northern Virginia area including Becky Rink Brown, James Cessaro, Reena Desai, Andrew Salmon, and Meredith Lydon. She also visited the campus, which she reports looks very different than when she went to school. She is still living in Charlotte. Her environmental consulting practice, JennTec, continues to be successful.