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1987

Christine Callahan Rasnake
christinerasnake@mac.com

In January Liz Cole Bemiss summited Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa with 10 other women from Richmond, VA. Liz says the group, who called themselves Team WAKI—an acronym for the Swahili phrase “wanawake ambao kilele” (“women who summit”)—had plenty of challenges, not the least of which was the grueling seven-hour climb up a 19,340-foot mountain in freezing conditions and howling winds. A few of the women were still recovering from food poisoning they had gotten a few days before beginning the climb. Fortunately, everyone made it to the top intact, and one woman chose that moment to celebrate her 40th birthday. Liz says she learned a lot about herself during the experience. “My mind has so much more control over my body than I’d ever thought. We really did push our bodies over the point of exhaustion because we were so determined to complete the climb. Every aspect of our being was tested.”

Patricia Stanley Hochstetter’s life in Sharon, CT, is “wonderfully rich and wildly busy,” she says. Husband Ian is a contractor, builder, flight instructor, and hang-glider pilot. Their son Griffin, 11, is a sixth-grader and ski racer extraordinaire. The family is rounded out with a two-year-old golden retriever named Glacier. After 20 years of teaching, both regular and special education, Patricia is now the head of Indian Mountain Lower School in Lakeville, a 600-acre preK–ninth grade, day elementary and junior boarding school. An avid skier, she is also serves as ski patroller at Mohawk Mountain in Cornwall. Griffin ski races for IMS and the Mohawk teams. The family’s off-season pursuits include hiking, canoeing, and riding motorcycles (Pat has a Harley Softail Deluxe). Last summer the Hoch­stetters met up with Chris and Tyler Weld ’89, who live in the area and run the Berkshire Mountain Distillery.

Thomas Lach is president and CEO of Deca-Medics, which designed the Life­Belt, developed to enable first-responders to provide more effective CPR. The belt, which reduces by 50 percent the amount of force required to deliver high-quality CPR in the event of cardiac arrest, received the grand prize at the Create the Future Design Awards.