Hi, ’06s. It was a pleasure to see everyone who joined our virtual class event in February. Thank you to P.J. Scheufele and Andrew Caspary, who shared about their businesses and experience in the spirits industry. Many thanks to Amanda Prentice for planning the fun and informative event.

P.J. is the cofounder and director of the Craft Spirits Cooperative (www.craftspiritscoop.com), which helps craft spirit brands grow in the United States. He married into the craft spirits business—his wife’s family has been producing pisco in Perú for more than 100 years. They started the cooperative together after bringing her family’s namesake brand, Capurro Pisco, to the United States. Andrew Caspary started Ventura Spirits (venturaspirits.com/pages/about) with his brother and Henry Tarmy in 2011. They make several spirits, including gin and amaro, with an eye toward using the native plants of California, where they grew up.

To try these products yourself, order online at www.klwines.com by searching “Capurro Pisco” and “Ventura Spirits.”

Joshua Gregg and his wife, Merrill, are excited to welcome Hannah Gregg. Hannah and big sister Abigail are looking forward to seeing all their ’06 cousins ’round the girdled earth, they hope soon.

In light of global changes that have shifted how we work, live, and learn, Ben Schwartz is reimagining education by launching an innovative real-world education program that brings together youth globally, virtually, and eventually in-person through learning-by-doing community development projects. The home for this program will be the Sage Centre that Ben is constructing, with his foster son, Charles, in the mountains of Ghana. Ben is piloting initiatives for clean water access and solar energy led by students in the United States, China, and West Africa. The Sage Centre vision has been supported by a number of Dartmouth friends in multiple classes. Classmates demonstrating the power of the Dartmouth network to make a difference in the world include ’06s Sarah Ball, Jen Bordeau, Kristen Wong Callisto, Brad Heritage, Chris Laako, Dana Charles McCoy, and Greg Pence. Visit gofundme.com and search “help complete the sage centre” to learn more about Ben’s work.

Taica Hsu, cofounder and executive director of Queens of the Castro, was named a 2020 Roddenberry fellowship recipient. Taica is a resident of Oakland, California, and his nonprofit organization uses the art and strategic defiance of drag to mentor, empower, support, and create safer spaces for LGBTQ youth. With the $50,000 fellowship, a drag curriculum and accompanying queer-trans pedagogy will be developed and integrated into Queens of the Castro’s existing mentoring program and in social studies curricula across California. Classmate and friend Mikee Guzmán, who relocated to Oakland this past summer and is teaching at Head-Royce School, will be translating the evolving curriculum and pedagogy into Spanish.

John Schriffen has launched a new dog waste canister called Poupé (thepoupe.com). It’s the first all-in-one leash attachment that includes an antibacterial hand wipe with a re-engineered dog waste bag, appropriate for the Covid era and beyond. Poupé’s Kickstarter campaign went live in March.

You can always view the Class Notes online with photos at 2006.dartmouth.org/classnotes. On our class website you can also pay class dues, learn more about class efforts, and read about other ’06s who have been featured in the news. I look forward to hearing from you for the next column!

—Cindy Tsai, c/o DAM, 7 Lebanon St., Suite 107, Hanover, NH 03755; cindaaay@gmail.com