Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Reunion Fall Update

It’s more than official: the next Radding reunion is happening July 9-12, 2009 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, at the Hyatt Regency in Incline Village. How do I know it’s real? The Hyatt has taken my credit card deposit. Now I hope the rest of you will join Eva and me.

Pearl Radding Carpenter, Auntie Pearl to me, sent out more details on the reunion: Incline Village is just 45 minutes from the Reno, Nevada airport, 2 hours and 15 minutes from Sacramento, CA, and 3.5 hours from the San Francisco Airport.

Pearl reports that the Hyatt Regency in Incline Village is an incredible resort is located right on the lake complete with a private beach, pool complex, spa, and casino. (details here--http://laketahoe.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp). The hotel is holding a limited number of rooms for the three reunion days at a group discount rate of $238/night. For those who may want to stay longer the hotel will honor the discounted rate for up to 2 nights before and 2 nights after the reunion. Raddings can book rooms by calling 775 832 1234. Make sure that you tell them that you are with the Radding Reunion to get the discounted rate. You will need to place a one night deposit to hold your reservation

Quite a bit has been happening among Raddings since the last blog posting. Probably more has been happening than is recounted here but I only know what’s happening if people fire off an email to me, alan@radding.net, and let me know.

To start, Eva, Amy, and I attended Lisa’s graduation from Syracuse University in May. David Nappi and Kathy Cragin joined us for dinner one night.. Lisa actually landed a job in her field, linguistics, within one month of graduating. She is working at Ethnic Technologies, South Hackensack NJ, as an Ethnologist/Linguist, according to her business card. Lisa is now living in Hoboken, NJ, right across the Hudson River from midtown Manhattan. Great views of the NYC skyline.

David Nappi writes that Kathy's son Doug and his wife Kim are now parents of a healthy baby boy. Donald Jeffery Cragin was born 10/7/08. He’s not officially a Radding but close enough. David and Kathy also have set a date to get married, Oct. 3, 2009. And he became a grandfather yet again in July when his youngest daughter, Amanda, had a daughter, Cheyenne Leigh Nappi, on July 2. Mazel Tov all around!

Wendy Cumpston writes with an update from the Washington, DC area about a feature in the Washington Post on the Teachers In Space program, featuring Barbara Radding Morgan, the NASA astronaut, space shuttle crew member, and surely the most traveled Radding in terms of total miles.

Jerome Radding also checked in with news of his daughter, the same Barbara Radding Morgan. He wrote: “Our daughter, who went on shuttle flight ST-118 on August 8th, 2007, was a guest speaker at her old Hoover High School in Fresno on Wednesday April 9th. She spoke at two assemblies and in addition to the school officials and teachers, there were representatives from the City of Fresno and from Cal State University, Fresno, announcing the formation of a new educational program at the high school in conjunction with the University to promote careers in Technology, Electronics and Architecture. The mayor gave her a key to the City and declared April 9th ‘Barbara Morgan Day’. It was a great day.” Jerome Radding M.D. is the son of Edward E. Radding and grandson of the original Jerome Radding..

Mark Radding invited me to join his network on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com). LinkedIn is a business-focused social networking site, sort of a Facebook for business and professional people. It is free. There are more than a few Raddings on LinkedIn. Would be nice to identify their connections to the rest of us and get them to the reunion. At the least, we should invite each other to join our various networks. Maybe we can set up a Radding group?

Andrew Radding of Baltimore reports the arrival on Oct 5, 2008, of the newest Radding, Alexandra Jane Collins. Alexandra is the daughter of Andrew’s daughter Judy and her husband Chris in NYC.

Herbert Radding reported a visit to his brother Irving Radding. Irv is a much decorated WWII and Korean War vet. Retired, he now resides now in Hemet, California with his wife Joyce.

Lastly, Eva and I celebrated Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year, in Longmeadow, MA, at the home of my brother Edward and Linda Radding. Joining us for a lovely holiday dinner was my brother Robert and Rina Radding, cousins Jerry and Susan Radding, cousins Cathy and John McElligott, and a last minute treat for us, the arrival of my daughter Amy Radding, who dashed up after an organic chem. test at Yale in New Haven, an hour away

Upcoming blog postings will include more details of the Lake Tahoe reunion and more genealogy findings from the genealogy team that continues uncovering and tracking down any Raddings they can find. If you know of any, pass the information along to Pearl, Eva, or Cathy. If there is more news to report, just let me know or blast it out in an email to the entire family mailing list, which all of you can take from earlier mailings.

Feel welcome to add your own comments to this posting by clicking the comments section at the bottom and following the prompts.

In terms of the economy the Jewish New Year (Sept. 30/Oct. 1) has gotten off to a rough start to say the least. Still, Eva and I wish all Raddings, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, a healthy, happy, and peaceful New Year, and (in the traditional Hebrew New Year greeting) Shana Tova.

Alan