|
Update
your contact information!
Contact
Us
How
to Help Us
|
|
From
the Founder's Kitchen Table
Fall 2002/Stardate 5763
Far
too young to be grandparents but always interested in accuracy, especially
in presenting our history of the Stars of David, we're
coming out of the closet. As part of this evolution from"From
the Editor's Kitchen Table" to a message celebrating Stars' 18th
year, please click for photos of the Nissen kids, then
and now.
Calvin, six
and Kayla, four, are the children of Misti,
who at the age of 10 designed the very Stars of David logo used internationally
today.
Misti, now
28, graduated from Hesser College in New Hampshire with an associate's
degree as a medical assistant and from Boston University with a certificate
in IT support. She has worked at everything from computer support at Verizon
to family medical leave administration at Core, Inc. We have just celebrated
her 28th arrival day.
Melanie,
now 26, received a BA in communications from UMass-Amherst and is an account
executive at Eliassen, an IT-recruiting company. She just moved into her
own condo, not too far from us.
Greg,
23, just received a BS summa cum laude (mother bragging) in computer science
from the University of Michigan. He and his girlfriend Carly are both
engineers at Raytheon. Greg still wishes he had an "arrival"
day as well as a birthday.
Misti and
Melanie arrived from Korea at the ages of nine months and seven months,
respectively, and were very familiar from the beginning with adoption.
Their question, "Do we know any other Chanukah people?" prompted
me to ask Rabbi Abramson on the day she arrived at Temple Shalom Emeth
if the temple could someday host a Chanukah potluck. Her instant support
in August 1984 - and that of the entire temple family soon after - led
to our first event in Burlington, Massachusetts that December.
Stan, who
wrote the original Stars of David bylaws and claims the idea for the name
was his, is still at Raytheon. I recently left the position of communications
specialist at the Cotting School in Lexington (a remarkable school for
children with physical, communications, and other challenges to learning)
for one at Arthur D. Little, Inc. which promptly and painfully went bankrupt
and metamorphosed into ICF Consulting. My self-proclaimed titles range
from itinerant language quality assurance attendant (hoping someday to
merit 'assistant') to admin savant. I still write for the Reading Daily
Times Chronicle (where I used to be known - affectionately, I'm sure -
as the reading police) and Middlesex East area publications (where most
staff members probably wonder who I am); have recently joined the Learning
Disabilities Association of Massachusetts as a consultant to special projects
and writer/editor; and continue to do free-lance PR (with the emphasis
on 'free').
Most importantly,
I'd like to thank all the volunteers who've worked so hard for the last
18 years to make Stars of David International what it is today, especially
Ilene and Stu Schwartz, from New Jersey, who jumped right in at the beginning
with all kinds of suggestions and energy; Sue Katz of Chicago who is definitely
the Stars' secret weapon; Valerie Lipow from California who is fashioning
this fabulous website; and the hundreds of members and leaders who have
kept up the momentum all these years.
To Susan Abramson
for her immediate enthusiasm at the beginning and to Stan, Misti, Melanie,
and Greg for their enthusiasm, support, understanding, and patience, thank
you, also.
Please contact
me any time at saychai@attbi.com
about anything. I love to hear from and about Stars of David members and
hope to attend a conference someday … or, thinking along the lines
of starships and fantastic voyages, maybe coordinate a cruise.
In shared
concern,
Phyllis
(and Stan) Nissen
|
