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 McGraw, at tvmcgraw@yahoo.com.
The editor reserves the right to include or exclude any information
submitted for publication in The Grapevine.
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.
March
2007 edition of The
Grapevine Online
Class
Notes / Calendar of Events / Links
to Stories / Prior
issues
Class
notes
Discernment
Weekend at Christendom brought Salesian Sister Eileen Tickner
to Front Royal! An 80's reunion was thrown together with (l-r)
Frank O'Reilly '83, Joan (Longua) Philbin '83,
Brenda (Davis) O'Reilly '82, Maggie (O'Reilly) Ciskanik
'84, Doug Briggs '83, Holly (Flagg) McShurley
'85, Sr. Eileen '82, Nancy (Popik) Briggs '82 and Angelique
(Syversen) O'Reilly '83. Sister is doing fabulous work
with school children in Florida. She remains her gregarious,
joyfilled self! Walter forgot to come.
Katy
(Jenkins) Hochschild '05 hasn't got much to say, other
than that she and her husband are very proud of their five
month-old boy Maxwell, who can turn over on his belly, and
sit up, who has two teeth, and who is so big he needs a new
carseat!
In
December, Chris Lane ('O3) earned his MA in early modern
European history at Saint Louis University. Although he has
started PhD coursework at SLU, he has recently been accepted
to the history PhD program at Notre Dame and expects to start
there in the fall. Having the fight song stuck in his head
has been boosting his energy for one of his other projects,
training for the St. Louis Marathon. He's running it as a
fundraiser for a local pro-life home for mothers and their
children. Prayers and donations are appreciated--more information
at www.firstgiving.com/ourlady
Julie
(Asam) '00 and Stephen Monette (brother of alumna
Anne Monette) are happy to announce a new baby and
a new home, all having arrived this winter. Stephen and Julie
now live on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with the U.S. NAVY,
just minutes from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Our readers
may or may not have heard of the marshy delights of the Eastern
Shore, but one of the main attractions is Assateague Island,
by the town and island of Chincoteague, which is famous for
its wild ponies. Wild ponies are said to inhabit many barrier
islands all of the way down the east coast. At any rate, we
are having a fun time out here and would like to invite any
Christendom alumni who might be visiting the area, or living
in the area, to drop by. You can stay the night or stay for
coffee . . . either way, be sure to drop us a line: juliecm@frontiernet.net
and make your presence known. In other news, our new son,
Peter Joseph, is named after Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati and
St. Joseph the foster-father of Jesus. He's also a main attraction
on the Eastern Shore, dazzling many of us with his surprised
smiles and little laughs. Born on December 9th, at the Langley
Air Force base, before we moved, he weighed in at 7 pounds
4 ounces, 21 inches long, and has continued to grow well and
be a joy since then.
Rev.
Uncle Godfather, Fr. Bjorn Lundberg, reports that his
nephew, little James Michael Chapman, was born to Mike and
Christina (Lundberg) Chapman on January 10 and already has
more hair than his uncle. James Michael Chapman was born on
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at precisely 8 p.m. . He weighed
in at 8 lbs. 6 oz, and was 20 3/4 inches long. James was baptized
on February 11th, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Christina
is looking forward to introducing James to the College soon,
hopefully at the traditional St. Patrick's Day festivities,
which (she has been told by a reliable source) are scheduled
for Saturday, March 17th.
Peter
Gray of Alexandria, VA ('93-94; known at Christendom as
a thespian, 2nd Amendment enthusiast, lord of the Meadows,
Fabio impersonator and masterful van driver) recently became
engaged to the charming Megan Anderson of Falls Church,
VA (Class of '03; also known for her driving record). Their
wedding date is set for late September in Alexandria.
Alex
and Dan Fedoryka of Scythian just received the 2007 “Fans
Favorite” award at the Washington Music Awards making
them the most popular band in DC. This is the first time anyone
in the “folk music” category has ever won this award
so it has turned some heads. The fellas won’t be celebrating
long though since they’ll be playing all over the place
in March – including a gig with Flogging Molly on March
10th at RFK Stadium. In addition, they will be playing at
over 20 festivals across the nation this summer with plenty
of “all age” concerts for you NOVA alumni with kids.
Check out their schedule at www.scythianmusic.com.
We hope to catch you at a show soon.
The
Rivendell Rangers, a Front Royal, Virginia-based futsal team
achieved what seemed unlikely, if not impossible: in dramatic
fashion, they won three consecutive, come-from-behind victories
to claim the US Futsal Mid-Atlantic Championship title held
in Downingtown, Pennsylvania on February 17th and 18th. As
Regional champions, the Front Royal Futsal sponsored Rangers
earn a berth at the 22nd US Futsal National Championships
to be held July 12 - 15 in Anaheim, California. After the
final buzzer, Coach Francis O'Reilly spoke for the
jubilant team, "This is something we have worked hard
and prayed hard for. It is a dream come true!" The Rangers,
sponsored by The Rivendell Athletic Club (www.rivendellcommons.com)
and Front Royal Futsal, includes Johnny Ciskanik and team
captain, Sean O'Reilly, both sons of Christendom alumni, Maggie
O'Reilly Ciskanik '84 and Frank O'Reilly '83 respectively.
Johnny and Sean invite Anaheim-area California alumni families
to come out in support of the team. For more information,
contact Mr. John Ciskanik at ciskanik@christendom.edu.
The turning point in the Rangers tournament occurred during
the Quarterfinal round against the #3 seed, Boca Juniors.
Down 5-1 against the team that sent the Rangers home in the
2006 Regional tournament and with less than 9 minutes on the
clock, the Rangers struck back. Four unanswered Ranger strikes
within seven minutes rocked Boca, tied the game and threw
the decision into penalty kicks, where the Ranger prevailed
in a nail-biter, 5 to 4.
This
past month has been busy in Rome for the newly crowned International
Man of Leisure, Joseph Kosten. The title was officially
conferred upon Joseph by His Royal and Emperial Highness,
Dr. Otto von Hapsburg, last of the Holy Roman Emperors at
a recent Acton Institute Conference. Dr. von Hapsburg is 94
years old and speaks literally about 21 languages. He was
happy to give young Kosten the official title of IML. Fr.
Robert Sirico, founder of the Acton Institute was able to
make the trip to Rome for their conference which was attended
by over 400 people. Then, following this conference, Joseph
went to a Fashion for Good open panel discussion and had the
pleasure of meeting fashion designer Lorenzo Riva as well
as Rai TV's (the major TV network in Italy) executive Stefania
Giotti. Coming up the IML has a trip to Sicily as well as
a trip to Poland. Any alum interested in visiting can contact
him at pathetique19@yahoo.com.
Ciao ciao.
Calendar
of events
March
31, 2007: Alumni Career Mentoring Reception
top of page
Press
Releases and Campus News: http://www.christendom.edu/news/releases.shtml
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