Welcome
to Christendom's Alumni E-Zine. If you have information that
you would like to share with your fellow alumni, send it to
the Grapevine Editor, Tom McFadden, at tmcfaddenjr@yahoo.com
The
Grapevine Online is uploaded on the First Friday of every
month. It will have a couple of sections (when information
is available), namely, Class Notes (your basic information
on alumni babies, weddings, jobs, etc.), Calendar of Events,
and Links to various recent stories about Christendom
College and/or the Alumni of Christendom.
July
2005 edition of The
Grapevine Online
Class
Notes / Calendar of Events / Links
to Stories / Prior
issues
Class
notes
Here
is a pic of the Christendom-FOCUS girls out at the Irish Pub
"The Claddagh" in Madison during their summer training.
Fancy them being at an Irish pub of all places...I guess you
can take the girls out of Christendom, but you can't take
Christendom out of the girls! Christy Wright, Elisabeth
Boever, Trish Metxger, Sarah Akers, Marie Antunes, Anne Wolpert.
Sharon
Scanlon '05 is currently working in Manassas, VA and as
of August 15th or so, she will be looking to live in the Manassas/Centreville
area. If anyone knows of someone either renting out an apartment
or looking for a roomate, please call her at 540-671-3287.
The
Flippen family has undergone many changes recently. First,
and most wonderful, was the birth of their latest clan member,
Genevieve Francoise Flippen, on August 23rd, 2004. She is
cute and pudgy and as big a flirt as her dear big brother,
Sebastian, who enjoys making eyes at the lovely Christendom
belles. They enjoy getting laughs out of each other when they
aren't working out their differences. Francois is now
in the land development sector of Petrine Construction which
he truly enjoys. Jennifer is enjoying/adjusting to
being the mother of two - it is fulfilling but HARD. Besides
mothering she has taken up sewing as her latest hobby and
enjoys that immensely. (Girls, you can do it if only you believe
. . .) Also, on Good Friday they helped their friends (Joe
Schmitt, Lewis Kapell, Ray Newcomb, James Rice, and Frankie
O') earn grace by beseeching them to help them move to their
new house (right behind their old house) in the rain. What
a penitential day it was!! The house really is a blessing
from God as are the good friends who helped them into it.
Thanks. Finally, the Flippens aquired a new computer on the
day this tale was composed. Well, actually is was finished
after 12AM. They are now "connected". Chou-chou,
the address is rosaluc1@yahoo.com.
Slim pickins with those free yahoo user names.
Last
weekend a group of alumni and friends gathered at Bethany
Beach for a little R&R. The weather was perfect and everyone
got to work on their burns, I mean, tans! Pictured: Theresa
Fer, Joe McMahon, Ben McMahon, Alyssa Lombardi, Maribeth Kuznia,
Steve Storey, Heather Tansey, Brian Hadro, John Paul Jansen,
Kate McMahon, Bethany Sargis, Andria, Clint and Penelope Hepler.
Not Pictured: Hugh O'Donnell and John Archer.
Mollie
Tschida '05 checks in: "Well, big news is that I
bought my first car - a snazzy 2003 Toyota Echo. I know it's
not the diesel truck I always said I was going to buy, but
I needed a commuting car that would be easy to parallel park
on Capitol Hill, where I've taken up almost permanent residence.
I'm currently working in the Capitol building as a staff assistant/press
assistant for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (It was one
of the jobs that McFadden sent through the email group). It's
an awesome place to work. I love all my co-workers; they're
the greatest group of people. And the job is far from boring
- lots of press work, editing, random research projects, talking
to interesting and, sometimes, odd people, evacuating the
Capitol when a plane flies into restricted air space. Like
I said, never a dull moment. Hope all is well with all my
old classmates. Feel free to drop by the office and visit.
Best wishes! P.S. By now, I guess by now y'all know that I
decided not to take the job in Chang Hua, Taiwan. Maybe next
year. ."
Here
is the latest photo of the Christendom alumni currently employed
at St. Louis Parish in Alexandria, VA. Left to right: Tom
Balint ('99-'00), Mary Claire Almeter ('97), Lydia Thigpen
('04), Gerard Anthony ('02), and Robert Brown ('02). Photo
does not include the 5 former Christendom students who also
teach at St. Louis Parish School -- making a total of 10 Christendom
Crusaders employed at St. Louis. Even Dave Brown '91
is residing there for the summer as a seminarian! Could it
be the prayers of the 4 Christendom alumni women who reside
at the Poor Clare Monastery just a stone's throw from the
parish?
Guess
who Dr. and Mrs. Rice ran into at a truck stop in Halloday,
TN? Melia Procherena Ghering and her four children.
Whil on their way to visit relatives in Arkansas, gas running
low in western TN, they stopped at a gas station just off
I-40. Coming out of the rest area, Mr.s Rice heard someone
say, "Mrs. Rice?" She turned and there was Melia
and her four children. They had not seen Melia since she married
Joe Ghering ten years ago, but here they met by amazing coincidence.
It was delightful catching up, and they can attest that Melia
is a wonderful mother to her three well-behaved boys and infant
daughter. The Gherings live in Jackson, TN.
Diane
Bodner Duhig reports that she and her husband traveled
to the Philippines, picked up their 7 children (ages 6-16),
and are now happily residing in chaos. Except for the children,
who are nearly perfect, the whole trip was one disaster after
another -- we had to pick up our tickets to fly back the very
day we left, because someone decided at the last minute to
cancel our flights. Best of all, not one child yet has made
a creditable attempt to run away from his new home. The Duhigs,
old and new thank the Little Flowers Foundation for their
assistance in covering the breathtaking expenses of the trip.
(Well, breathtaking for those of us who are not used to paying
9 airfares at once.)
The
Dancauses are about to undertake a move four streets further
into RI, onto Ingleside Avenue, thus making their daughter:
"Annemarie of Ingleside." (Isn't that sweet?) In
any case, the excitement of living across from a playground
and ballfield has made the children very happy and excited,
at least until they are denied a third Popsicle. Then the
children are very depressed and sad. The Dancause parents,
while forever needing more sleep, have happily been able to
sing in a Vivaldian concert in a glorious old Catholic church
of forgiving acoustics and with loud period instruments: thus,
the CD is fabulous despite the fact that no one really practiced.
Katie has finally gotten a Masters in Education through
the University of New England. She did this by spending a
fortune in babysitting while taking advantage of the wonders
of distance learning (no, she did not just pay for the degree;
she swears actual work was done . . . well, the keyboard was
being typed upon anyway.) Dan and Katie both miss Christendom,
its people and environs, very much, and would love to be contacted
or visited at any convenient time at their new, more guest-friendly
place, which should be fully inhabitable by the fall. They
appreciate any extra prayers any have to spare, and similarly
pray that God will bless all of you. dancause@hotmail.com.
Here is a picture of Annemarie (3) and Claire (18 months).
Claire does have a winning smile, but she was in a mood this
photo shoot. :)
One
or two students - past and present - attended Kipp Slocum
and Mary Grace Fallon's June 11th wedding in NY. A fabulous
time was had by all. Let's see if we can name some of these
people. From the left, back row: Tim Storey, Pat VanderWoude,
Jill Menke VanderWoude, John Halisky, Big Bad Johnny Meng,
Vic Alcantara, Kate Beer, Mark Streiff, Claire O'Reilly, Mike
Miller, Kaylie Minick Miller, Fr. Ruskamp, Joe "golden
gloves" Coleman , Jules Abernethy, Adriana Richardson,
Bryan Hadro, Mike Fogarty, Matt Arnett, John "pretty
boy" Archer, Alyssa Lombardi, Brig Slocum, Steve Kunath,
John O'Herron, Eryka Bukowski, Mandy Hain, Amber "or
is it Candice" Meza Massett, Louis Massett. Whew... front
row: Sharon Scanlon, Jeff Sciscilo, Mark Leopold, Annemarie
Jensen, Mikey "semper fi" Hilleary, Brittany Smith,
the lovely groom and bride Kipp and Mary Grace Fallon Slocum,
Claire Jensen, some kid, Ben McMahon, PAlmeter, Jeremiah McMahon,
Natalie Vitti, Addy Buckley, and Marc Perrington. Oh yeah,
and Chris Bukowski in the front. If there are spelling
mistakes, don't worry about it.
Upon
returning from his sea travels, which took him to such lands
as Greece, England, and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian
Gulf, alumnus Craig Spiering planned to put in his
own bid for the coveted International Man of Leisure
position. (Editor's note: I wonder what Jules would think
about that) However, in a surprise turn of events, Jamie
Dresch (’04) convinced Craig to move their wedding
date up from August (in an effort to edge out the summer competition)
and the two were wed in Lafayette, IN on June 4th. Following
in the footsteps of such alumni as Ben and Anna Hatke,
Andrew and Sarah Antonio, and Pat and Jill Storey, they
were wed at St. Boniface Parish in a ceremony presided over
by Father Tim Alkire. If anyone would like to receive Craig's
newsletters and updates, please e-mail him at craigspiering@cox.net.
Maria
Reilander '04 checks in from the cold, cold northern state
of Canada: "Hello from Canada's nation capital (viz.
Ottawa. Not Toronto, or Ontario, or Montreal....)! First of
all, congratulations, warm wishes and prayers to all the newly-engaged,
newly-wed, newly parents and parents-to-be, newly-employed,
and newly-religious!--especially my fellow '04 grads! It has
been a great year for me as well. I completed my 1st year
of a Master of Theological Studies in Marriage and Family
at the John Paul II Institute in Washington,DC. An awesome
program! The Institute is a very special place (classes, professors
and students are all amazing) and it has been such a blessing
to be part of it, and studying our beloved John Paul II's
vision of man, love, God, marriage and consecrated life, and
the family. With his leaving the earth to become a powerful
intercessor in heaven, and the election of Benedict XVI (of
whom the Institute is a huge fan!), it has veen an exciting
year at the Institute! I wanted to encourage any of you alumni
who are interested in God, man's nature and purpose, love,
the states of life, family, and more (all the really important
things in life, right?) and the philosophy and theology behind
it, to look into the Institute! Check out www.johnpaulii.edu,
or I'd be happy to hear from you at mariareilander@hotmail.com.
I'm back in my native land for the summer, working at the
Catholic Organization for Life and Family, the Canadian Conference
of Catholic Bishops' family life office. It's a real blessing
to be spending my summer doing research for this office, for
it is giving me an opportunity to share with Canada what I've
been blessed to study at the Institute. I'm loving the opportunity
to do research and writing for the Canadian bishops--for our
country is under severe attack in these life and family issues.
As I am writing this, the Liberal government is very near
to redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. If you
think of it, please say a prayer for Canada because she needs
all the prayers that she can get! Oh...the highlight of the
summer--meeting Cardinal Marc Ouellet (the future and first
Canadian pope!!!)."
Mike
Hilleary '05, when not going to weddings, is stationed
in Quantico right now at Camp Barrett where he is receiving
instruction in the Basic Officer's Course at The Basic School.
He will be there for at least the next six months training
to lead Marines. He wears his Christendom polo shirt on liberty
and all his fellow Marines always ask where and what it is,
which always gives him an oppurtunity to promote our outstanding
institution.
Dominique
Flippen Hain wants to rectify grave errors made in the
last issue of the Vine. According to her, Dane's car used
to be hers. She paid $400 for it and bought it in '99 from
an old guy in Berryville. She owned it for four years and
when she got it the gas gauge was already broken and the clutch
was already going. Apparently it will never die. And in case
Dane doesn't already know, the speedometer reads 10 mph under.
David
Wallace '05 will be moving to St. Louis, MO, on July 5
to begin pre-seminary formation with the Institute of Christ
the King Sovereign Priest. He will be residing at the Institute's
new apostolate in St. Louis at the parish of St. Francis de
Sales. He will be ending the Christendom '03-er's (Chris
Lane, Brendan and Susan McGuire, and Mike and Mary Blum)
reign over St. Louis by hispresence.
"The
most educated landscaping crew around... Mark Riddle and Jeremy
Sheiko work with Andy McDonald's landscaping company: Don
Quixote.
Kateri
Schmitt '05 just took and passed the Virginia Real Estate
licensing exam! She is happy to be joining Chris Lane,
Mark Scanlon, and Mike Bergida on Mike's Winning Team at Keller
Williams Realty in Manassas.
Alyssa
Lombardi '03 was helping the Kilgore campaign and they
posted her on the website.
Marie
Antunes '05 (pictured with Anne Wolpert (left), and Trish
Metger (right), all of '05) wants everyone to know that
she is a full time FOCUS Missionary (Fellowship of Catholic
University Students), sent to a college campus to evangelize.
Their Mission Statement is "To know Christ Jesus, and fulfill
His Great Commission, by first living and then communicating
the fullness of life within the family of God, the Church."
If anyone is interested in learning more about FOCUS, or would
like to join her financial support team (she fundraises 100%
of her salary), they can email her at mantunes@focusonline.org.
Calendar
of events
July
16, 2005: Summer Institute
October
7-9, 2005: Homecoming
top of page
Press
Releases and Campus News: http://www.christendom.edu/news/releases.shtml
top of page
