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Sky’s the Limit
Alan and Pat Dodd
of Portales, N.M.,
recently celebrated their
50th wedding anniversary in high
style—with a tandem skydive. “I
don’t think we can top [that],” says
Alan, 71, who persuaded his wife to hurtle toward the earth at 120 mph. Says
Pat, 69: “Alan wouldn’t stop talking
about it. I finally decided the only
way to shut him up was to do it.”
Guests at the couple’s anniversary
party viewed the skydive video and
were stunned that the two did such
a thing. But the retired Dodds—
with four grown children, eight
grandchildren and two great-grandchildren—
relish adventure. “We will do another skydive on
our 75th,” says Alan. “After all, we will only be in our 90s.”
; Alan Dodd with is skydiving instructor.
Campus Rations
Here’s a new reality on campus:
colleges opening food pantries
to help feed their students. The
schools, including the University
of Georgia, Michigan State Uni-
versity and the University of Ar-
kansas, are stepping in because
parents are struggling with un-
employment or lower wages and
have trouble helping out their
children. Many of the pantries
were started by students and
are stocked with private dona-
tions. “This is one more scary
manifestation of a broader
economic, social and
moral problem,”
says Jim Weill,
president of the
Food Research
and Action Cen-
ter, an antihunger
group in Washington.
Global Feat
A recent visit that Minnesota attorney John Rheinberger, 62, paid to Somalia
gave him the distinction of
having traveled to each of
the world’s 196 countries.
It’s a goal that took him 35
years to achieve. “It fulfilled
one of the cardinal desires of
[my] life,” says Rheinberger,
who majored in geography in
college. “Fortune worked out
for me.” Having successfully
spanned the globe, Rheinberger says he’ll find another
major challenge.
“When you
don’t have
goals, you
don’t have
a tomorrow.”
—Mike Tucker and
Blair S. Walker
