Dear Friends,

We’re sure it will surprise few of you that we are big supporters of the Occupy Movement. We think we have exceeded the Movement’s allocated quota for location occupation this year. Here’s a rundown of our various efforts to support the Movement and be part-recipient of Time’s Person of the Year award:

Occupy Africa:  The year started out with our daughter Elizabeth (aka Eli, Betsy) supporting Wyman Worldwide in Rwanda studying solutions to scale health care in African villages.  Early in February she got support from Bray who vacationed with her on a Kenyan beach before heading to Rwanda to kiss gorillas on Valentine’s Day. It was then on to Ethiopia for Bray who had some nice success with her sewing machine project in Addis Ababa at the Selamta.org home. She really enjoyed sharing the fun with Joy Wasz. Thanks to everyone who supported her efforts; she will return in February ’12 with more sewing machines.  If you are headed to Ethiopia and have room for a spare sewing machine let us know: we have the machines/money, transportation is the issue.

Occupy Florida:  Bray and our dog Elle spent a healthy part of the NH mud and rainy seasons in Florida doing their best to resurrect that state’s economy.  Our “rental” property in Fort Myers got a new bathroom (no porta-potty’s for our Occupy sites) and Bray settled into a regular Mah Jongg routine to pass the occupy time down there. Realizing that if the house actually was rented, her Florida occupy opportunity would be lost, Bray and her Mom decided to buy a bungalow in Aunt Nancy and John Conkling’s beach cluster on nearby Sanibel Island. That site also got a nice makeover and is available for weekly rentals (good rates for friends).  I visited both locations (Seeing Paul and Becky Freas during one visit), played a little golf, did some biking and deem them suitable sites for occupation. Barb McKenzie Holch and Debra Bramwell both paid visits to Bray as well. In a pinch (i.e. when we are lucky enough to have both places rented) Bray visits the Beisswenger’s on nearby Usepa Island.

Occupy New York: Eli returned to the US in May and jumped right into the fray by finding an apartment in midtown to share with cold occupiers where she gets to walk to work at nearby IMS Consulting. She has fun with HS and college friends at the Yale Club and has found the local Buffalo Bills bar with her visiting brother and naturally mother. Bray continues to leave Occupation propaganda in as many theatres as possible with Cathy Engel her most ardent collaborator. Ann Demas, who recently moved to Brooklyn can be spotted carrying pamphlets as well.

Occupy Boston: James left Dallas early in the year to establish an Occupy foothold in Boston. He was soon joined by Geoffrey Greene who has become the sous chef at the Ames Hotel down by Government Center where he can sneak food out to other Occupy supporters.  James is working at GL Advantage where his firm helps advanced degree graduates with debt (call if you have a candidate!) He plays rugby nearly year round and continues to make progress toward joining that top 1% with his fantasy football winnings. He paid a visit to the Tuscaloosa Occupy site to see the first LSU/Bama game with some HHS buddies and visits Dallas regularly to check in with Occupier Kira Batura who searches for needy Corona consumers with her beverage distribution firm.

Occupy Dartmouth: John-o joined the Occupy crowd in Hanover after finishing up his Masters in Education from Goucher College in July. John-o spent the fall working at many Upper Valley schools as a substitute teacher while helping coach football at Hanover High.  He is preparing to head to Ethiopia in February, then Colorado in search of a permanent teaching gig. We had several D79 mini-reunions during the year including a well-attended Kentucky Derby event, Homecoming in October with two dozen classmates including Stanley Weil and Freda London and a November game that Bruce Reeves and Laurie Laidlaw assisted with occupation. The kids’ Mitchellpalooza IX party went off without a hitch at Thanksgiving raising $900 for Selamta.org, and the Turkey Bowl was played on a snow-covered Baker Library lawn.

Occupy Snow:   We occupied Vail for MLK weekend staying with the Flowers, hit the Skiway for Carnival with Odence, Burr Gray and others, Jackson Hole in March with the Klingons and Harry Griffith who showed up for an epic powder day and finally back to Vail for Christmas with all the kids. Bray got me a GPS watch for Christmas last year and we had fun winding it up to see how many times we could bust 60mph. Two bucket list items: Corbet’s Couloir with James in March who then let an old man 2x his age (full disclosure: I was on race boards vs. his powder skis) take him down (once)in the Nastar course at Christmas. Boomers can still bring it.

Occupy Canada: The Canadian Mounties failed to prevent occupations at the Eldred’s Lake Papineau for full moon waterskiing in August as well as the return of the Booze Hags (aka Gina/Dawn/Chris) to Camp Sherkston outside Buffalo later that month. Both these locations are officially certified “occupy” sites with no internet or television service.

Occupy Cooperstown: James’ Rugby Sevens team made it to the National Championships in San Francisco, not quite Hall of Fame but on the way. After years of kidding people about not making it to the Accounting Hall of Fame due to my latest spreadsheet, I opened an envelope in May to discover I had been admitted to the CFO Hall of Fame for Tech dudes in New Jersey. Bray was inducted into the Bannanagram Hall of Fame in December; nobody in the family can handle her.

Occupy Newark: Five years have passed since I joined Audible and we took up workday residence in a Newark apartment. Not only is it a short walk to work or a 20 minute train to NYC, but we saw the Devils(Penguins with Lovejoys and Eldreds for New Years), Nets, NCAA Hoops (with Steve Silver, Stanno, Dave Turino, Howie/Lori Turoff, Brian Sweatt ,Klingon), Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters (Foy Sperring)  and Paul Simon all within three city blocks.  Plus Elle gets to chase squirrels in Military Park where we can visit a true Occupation. Ah, City life.

We have had another memorable year and look forward to occupying space and time with more of you in the near future. We’re not sure where we are in the Occupy wealth chart, but when it comes to friends and memories we’re confident you help us get into that top 1%.

Thanks and Cheers