Hard working philanthropist

Who says philanthropy is all work and no play? Check me out with The Sugar Girls at the Keystone dinner reception.

Recent alumni on campus

Rebecca Miller DuMaine '88 and Jack Herrick '87 have been recent guests on campus for tours and lunch.

Rebecca brought her darling 2 year old daughter, Kealy, who will certainly be a performer one day. And speaking of performing, Rebecca has done several vocal, jazz gigs with the Dave Miller Trio www.artsopolis.com/event/detail/38235/Dave_Miller_Trio

Rebecca and her family recently migrated back to California after many years in Brooklyn, NY. Besides being a mom for their family of four, a professional theatrical voice coach and a jazz singer, she is able to find time to substitute at CSUS. We are all certainly happy to have her back in the Crystal Family.

Jack Herrick '87 took time away from his successful web site, Wikihow

www.wikihow.com/Main-Page to spend a couple of hours on the campus that he has not seen for way too many years! We had lunch with Kent Holubar, Tom Woosnam, Dr. Venuti, Wells Wadleigh, Jim Garrison (substitute teaching that day) and Vicky Mann-Hauer. We had many laughs and fond memories of Crystal life in the mid 80's. Jack noted that the food had improved a few magnitudes since his years here.

After lunch we visited an advanced computer graphics class, an AP Biology class and chatted in Mr. Woosnam's remodeled classroom which was, in fact, Mr. Garrison's art room back in the day.

We are pleased that Jack will return to campus in the future to speak to the "Cutting Edge" Science Club about his life in technology and the founding of his company, Wikihow.

Drinks With Drapers in Denver

Douglas, Jennifer, Cindy Todd Tanner, Rich Amend, Allyson Bishop Crawford & Chris

Alison and I traveled to visit our three children who just happen to all live in the Mile High City, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with some of the alumni who live in the greater Denver area. There are 13 graduates in the city of Denver and another 12 both near and far in the state.

We gathered at the Swing Thai restaurant and took over their outside patio where we enjoyed tasty Thai appetizers and beverages suitable for adults and children. Our co-hosts were Jennifer Draper Carson, '86, Douglas Draper, '90 and Chris Draper, '04. And our non Draper CSUS guests were Cindy Todd Tanner, '65, Rich Amend, '84 and Allyson Bishop Crawford, '86.

Allyson's two boys, Holt and Si and husband, Bart joined us as did Jennifer's two children Cate and Henry. See the fun below!

We plan to do it again in Denver and hope for a larger turn out of alumni.

A college degree

José Gonzalez joined our SummerQuest outreach classes in 1996 at the end of his second grade year at the North Shoreview Elementary School in San Mateo. He continued with us in Middle School in our Gateway Program and then was a TA in the expanded Peninsula Bridge Consortium www.peninsulabridge.org/ through high school and college.

José attended The University of California, Berkeley and graduated May 15 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Phil Ekedahl, Crystal Springs Uplands, '88 was his summer elementary teacher for a couple of years, and we both attended the joyous celebration at Hearst Greek Theater.

José will work on our campus as a TA and teacher again this summer. His plans are not clear after that, but he is talking of graduate school, and he did once announce his interest in becoming the Govenor of California in front of a large Bridge fundraising event. You never know!

Amanda Stone now has "Crystal Vision."

Amanda '02 had suffered from poor vision for as long as she could remember. She was a candidate for PRK - Photo Refractive Keratotomy- and made the decision to find the most qualified ophthalmologist in the Sacramento area to perform the advanced eye surgery.

To her great delight and satisfaction, she met Doctor Nilu Maboudi, LASIK surgeon and ophthalmologist, who agreed to perform the surgery.

The "Crystal" part of this story comes from the fact that Nilu spent her middle school years at CSUS, and now Amanda truly does have "Crystal vision."

The Development Team hosted an alumni party at the Karl Strauss Brewery and Restaurant in La Jolla on Friday evening. Twenty alumni attended and represented classes from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. Two of my former Spanish students, Jane Forrester and Bill Hall from the class of '81 showed up for the fun. We will do it again!

Allison Witter Frey '90 will host our next alumni social event in Medina, WA on April 15.

Tom Robinson, English and history, turns 60

In mid-January we celebrated Tom's 60th birthday with a gala celebration at the St. Francis and then dinner at Kuleto's. We shared many stories of our years together at Crystal and all enjoyed the evening.