By the time you read this, we will have been holding our weekly ’89 Zoom meetings for more than a year; we started them on the 89th day of 2020 as a way to celebrate our class, and through the pandemic they have been a great source of comfort for me and other ’89s to connect for a part of the day and see how we are doing, regardless of where we are in the world. I’m hoping that these Zoom meetings will continue, and I’ll try to be there every weekend at the afternoon and evening ones. If you’ve attended one of the Zoom meetings or you’ve never attended, feel free to come in for five to 10 minutes or stay longer whenever you want. All ’89s are welcome and it’s always great to see new and familiar faces.

While I was back in New Jersey I did get to split some firewood and also replenish the supply in my parent’s garage; we had a year when we heated our house in New Jersey with only firewood, and that task consumed most weekends. I was talking to Ken Horton and Tim Derrick about this, as Ken reminded me that Tim’s dad was a wood-burning stove dealer in Vermont and Tim had to split wood throughout high school. Tim shared this update: “After returning to California (via reunion) from our world travels last year, we moved up to our cabin in the mountains near Truckee and have been here ever since. It has been an already socially distanced place to weather the Covid storm and I have had to rediscover my wood-stove roots and the wood-splitting experience that Ken and I shared during our summer at Moosilauke and the College Grant. We will use five cords in our wood stove this winter (that’s a lot!) and I have loved it (while my back may not agree with that statement)! Otherwise, all good on our side—family is healthy and I have been working on some wind projects in Nevada and (remotely) on my solar business in New Zealand, though it has been impossible to get back there at present. We may move the family to New Zealand for a couple years if and when the borders open up.”

Congratulations to Betsy Johnston Scheffel and Heidy King-Jones ’04, who joined the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) board of directors/advisors in November. GBFB, the largest hunger-relief organization in New England, responded to historic levels of food insecurity in 2020. For more information, you can visit GBFB.org.

I regret to inform the class that Verona Dorch passed away on February 24. Verona’s full obituary is on our 1989 class page and you can send me any remembrances of Verona to add to her page.

—Ned Ward, 2104 Graham Ave., #B, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; ned@nedorama.com