Greetings, ’93s! Big news haul, so let’s get to it! Munir Haddad, our class social media guru, along with class president Veree Hawkins Brown, set up an awesome 50th birthday Zoom celebration in April. More than 70 of our classmates participated in the tri-part format: Zoom, then a Kahoot quiz, then breakout rooms using a Dartmouth-created program called Kumospace.

Participants came from literally all over the globe. Geographically notable attendees included Dan Subin, who called in from London despite the virtual party beginning at 1 a.m. local time, and Kathy Vaughn, who was even further in Nairobi, Kenya. Random selections to represent other areas of the continent include Sarah Leach in Whistler, British Columbia; Charles Preuss in Menlo Park, California; Lynne Rainville in Lexington, Virginia; Rich Lytle in Ashville, North Carolina; Allison Esenkova in Houston; and Chris DiSantis in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. We also had several high-profile classmates in attendance, including Jason Barabas, who lives right in Hanover and is leading the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth; U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.V.); and the always fun and exuberant Annie Edgerton, who lives and performs in N.Y.C.

Following introductions on Zoom, Munir coached us all, some more technically challenged than others (hey, birthdays…), on how to sign into Kahoot for a ’93 pub quiz. It was neck and neck for a while, and great fun to reminisce, but our winner was Jeff Middents. Alec Smith came in second, Marianne Nikas was third, and David Blum and Amanda Salzhauer were right on their heels.

We then broke into three smaller groups using Kumospace, which allows you to move both between rooms and within each room to sidle up to someone and have a chat. I got a chance to catch up with Renee Kalvestrand,whois out in the Midwest in Edgerton, Wisconsin, with her family, and Tracy Welch, who is in Winchester, Massachusetts. Tracy and I got a giggle reminiscing about winter term our junior year when we were in Vail, Colorado, with Alexis Templeton, the late Deborah Bernstein, and a number of other classmates and yet she and I were the only ones to jump on cheap tickets to go sing along with REO Speedwagon at an outdoor concert. Ah, youth!

I was pulled away early but Munir shared this fun report: “We planned the event for one hour, but people were bouncing in and out of Zoom until 10 p.m. and in Kumospace until around 10:30 p.m. I got a chance to speak with Doug Chia and David Hsu, who were on Zoom, and we signed off around 10 p.m. Then I bounced over to Kumospace just to see if anyone was there before shutting that down and lo and behold, Veree was there with Jeff Middents, Kathy Vaughn, David Blum, Greg Taff, Marianne Nikas, Sara Leach, and Sara Olsen. As we chatted, Kathy Vaughn pointed out that the birds were chirping and the sun was coming up, as it was 5:30 a.m. in Nairobi. She wins! Others started to peel off as Easter bunnies were expected and early mornings called. Veree and I shut it down a little after 10:30 like the exhausted and very happy hosts we were. And Miller McCord emailed me around 10:30 asking if people were still in Zoom. So…we’ll do it again. We’ll try a ‘brunch’ so that more international alumni can make it. And we will do another 8 p.m. for people who couldn’t make it because of Easter plans.”

Give a rouse to Munir and Veree for a great event! Outta space, but keep the stories and updates coming!

—Natalie Weidener Kupinsky, 9733 Beman Woods Way, Potomac, MD 20854; natalie.weidener. kupinsky.93@dartmouth.edu; Dwight Fenton, 200 E 72nd St., Apt. 20K, New York City, NY 10021; dwight.e.fenton.93@dartmouth.edu