Difficult times such as these make us appreciate the things in life we may have taken for granted before Covid-19: leisure time with family, connecting with friends, comforting food and drink, being outside in the fresh air, and positive news of any and all kinds. Susannah Drake and Katherine Faulkner are celebrating just such good news: Earlier this year the American Institute of Architects recognized them as fellows, the organization’s highest honor, bestowed on members with exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society. An associate professor of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Colorado Boulder, Susannah also reports that her firm, DLANDstudio, is one of five landscape architecture firms in the country asked to reimagine the landscape of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to address the effect of climate change on the city’s beloved cherry trees. “Just the other day I saw [co-head class agent] Peter Murane and [class alumni councilor] Anne Kubik and helped Peter out with the design of his own garden,” Susannah said. “It was fun to connect!”

In another entry in the good news column, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont included a shout-out to our very own Skip Kodak in a televised address broadcast by WTIC-TV in Hartford, Connecticut. Based at Lego’s American headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut, Skip is the executive vice president of the Americas market group at Lego, overseeing sales and marketing in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and Brazil. Gov. Lamont complimented Skip’s and the Enfield headquarters’ success in fully transitioning to 100-percent staff telecommuting during the Covid-19 crisis, “taking social distancing seriously,” and keeping the infection rate “extraordinarily low.” As an example of how businesses can help the community and “stick together” during the crisis, Gov. Lamont praised Lego’s donation of 1,600 games to every first-grader in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where there had been a spike of virus cases. Nice work, Skip!

I would love to hear your good-news-during-Covid-19 story. Please email me at the address below. As I have mentioned in the past, you have a 100-percent chance of seeing your name in print!

—Laura Gasser, 746 17th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94121; marcklaurag@aol.com