1997 — Full-Time

Sean Ryan is a full-time event director based in Green Bay, Wis. Ryan directs the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon, the Door County Triathlon and half a dozen other athletic events in his area. For the past two years, he also has worked as a staff member of the Boston Marathon. His duties there included serving as an escort to Lance Armstrong, setting up the finish line area and running the course with race director Dave McGillivray in the afternoon. Ryan is married with two young children and runs as a form of stress relief in his personal time.

	Scott Morrow '97, Matt Daniel '97 and three other friends celebrating Scott's 40th birthday at the Kentucky Derby
	PJ Platt '97 and Russell Hoore hold their new daughter Lara just a few minutes after her birth.
	Jenn Rand Romney '97, husband Alden, daughter Zoe, and (furry) son Emerson at home in San Francisco
	Sean Ryan '97 with Lance Armstong at the Boston Marathon

With lots of joy, David Popler and his wife Beth welcomed their first child, Luke, on Feb. 28. They would like to thank all of the local Kellogg friends that offered love, support and baby-rearing advice.

Congratulations and happy birthday to PJ Platt and Russell Hoore, who are proud new parents. Their daughter Lara Westmeath was born in March. Lara is a healthy, smiley, long and skinny baby with bright eyes. PJ and Russell also share their belated news that they were married in an intimate garden wedding in Sonoma, Calif., in 2008. Since then, there have been daily laughs as they learn to interpret each other's English. The family lives in Sydney and would enjoy hearing from Kellogg friends whenever they visit Australia.

Jenn Rand Romney and her husband Alden welcomed their daughter Zoe Jayne on Feb. 24 in San Francisco. Zoe's arrival was also celebrated by furry big brother Emerson (an 80-pound Berner puppy) who has discovered licking newborn feet as a passionate new hobby. Adjusting to parenthood is all that they'd heard it would be: great joy, great sleep deprivation! Dear friend Anne Raveret Obsitnik joined them early on for a weekend stay, graciously bringing turkey meatloaf, a truckload of baby gear, diaper strategies and babysitting coverage for the first official date night. Now that Zoe's got a few months under her belt, Mom and Dad are taking her to Oahu for her first surf trip and planning another in Australia later this year.

Mike Granoff of Better Place continues to work with U.S. policymakers to end oil addiction through vehicle electrification. Better Place demonstrated the first automated electric vehicle battery switch in a Nissan crossover vehicle in Japan on May 13 in just about one minute. Watch it at betterplace.com.

Patty Caplan continues to manage health-care system implementations for Freed & Associates in the Bay Area while raising Emma (10) and Jason (3) and volunteering in the education and community health realms. Her husband Jonathan works on technical documentation at Dreamworks Animation.

Like many from our class, this past year Scott Morrow celebrated his 40th birthday. In April, he commemorated this auspicious occasion by getting five of his close friends together in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. He rented a box on the finish line and enjoyed two days of festivities and amazing horse racing. Matt Daniel also participated in the fun. In his professional life, Scott was elevated to CEO of ThisNext (thisnext.com), a venture-backed social shopping company based in Santa Monica, Calif. Despite the current economic downturn, the business has continued to thrive. The firm's primary market segment is women who love to shop but Scott encourages everyone to check it out. Scott's office is located on the Third Street Promenade so if there are any classmates in the area he would love to connect. His contact info is 310.254.0765 and e-mail is rsmorrow@gmail.com.

Earlier this spring, the families of Mario Santarelli, Jose "Tato" Remy and Patricio Hernandez spent a magical long weekend at the "happiest place on earth." The seven children — two pairs of twins and three others — and six adults in the party had a fantastic time touring the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks during the day, and sharing barbeques, laughter and drinks (just the adults) at a rental home they all stayed at near the park. The last evening the adults celebrated Mario's 40th birthday and, in a very moving moment, Mario expressed (which was out of character for him) how fortunate he felt not only to keep his Kellogg friendships going strong but also to extend them to their wives and children whom, against all odds, behaved and got along wonderfully in a climate of harmony and new friendship.