As a founding member of the Dartmouth Distractions, I followed the success of the Dartmouth Aires on NBC’s The Sing-Off with great interest! My roommate and fellow Distraction Daryl O’Brien Palmer texted back and forth during every show, commenting on their performances and judges comments. Was I surprised to discover, when researching the Aires online, that one of their members was none other that Will Hart ’12, son of our own John Hart! John was mildly insulted when I teased him as to the origin of his son’s talent, as I don’t remember John singing at Dartmouth! He assured me he kept his singing to fraternity basements! John and his family were able to get tickets to the finale in Los Angeles, as was President Kim. The Aires actually went out to Los Angeles in the middle of July and, because they kept on surviving the weekly cut, they didn’t finish taping until the middle of September. Back on campus they were sworn to secrecy, not able to divulge that they had made the finale until it aired in mid November. John also flew out to the coast over the Labor Day Weekend to catch their performance when his son was featured with the lead singer, Michael, in the “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” number. Our 35th reunion in June coincides with Will’s graduation, so John will definitely be attending and the Aires should be performing for us!


In speaking with Al Henning, I know that all the Aires alumni are invited back periodically for a group reunion. From our class Mark Beams, Al, Mark Lebowitz, Darrell Pierce and Rob Rennicks sang with the Aires. We spent many hours together in the bowels of the Hopkins Center practicing and had many good times out on the road on the Glee Club tour every spring break. While most of our class was sunning in Florida or crashing at home, we would ride that Vermont Transit bus from Hanover to a different city every day, sing for an alumni club, get wined and dined by a host alumni family, then do it all over again the next day in the next city. There isn’t a Glee Clubber alive who doesn’t remember our bus driver, Charlie Thayer, and the greeting we used to sing to him every day when we got on his bus!


I’m calling all my fellow Distractions to come to our reunion June 14-16 to see if we can still make beautiful music together. So far I have heard back from Karen McGrath Hill, Cindy Strange Douglass, Nancy Bird Pellegrini, Daryl, Jill Shaw Woolworth and Betsy Cox Buteau. The rest of you—Carol Akerson, Alison Baute Pierce, Carolyn Bush Luby, Lindsay Larrabee Griemann, Kathy Martin and Jean Rosston—please contact me at the e-mail address listed below. And everyone, don’t forget to go on our class reunion Facebook page, www.dar7mou7h.com, and register that you are coming to the reunion! 


—Kathy Kelley Cimina, 6 Martins Road, Newtown Square, PA 19073; (610) 356-4685; cohasset73@comcast.net