RIAS alumni chapters hold events in Hamburg, Berlin, New York and Washington DC
Alumni groups in Germany and the United States have been busy holding good-spirited alumni meetings, seasonal get-togethers and fundraising activities for the RIAS Berlin Commission.
The Hamburg alumni chapter recently had a fireside chat with U.S. Consul General Rick Yoneoka at his private reisidence in Hamburg that was organized by Nadine Gries (NDR) and Michail Paweletz (ARD). “We had great talks and got to know the Consul General on a more personal level,” said Gries, a RIAS alumni from 2016 of the dozen alumni that attended. “It was a good night for German-America relations and a perfect kick-off event for the RIASBerlin Hamburg chapter.” The Hamburg chapter is planning another alumni meeting in early 2019.
The Berlin alumni chapter and Hamburg chapter held a joint Thanksgiving dinner celebration in Berlin at the Adlon Hotel on November 24 that was attended by 35 people — including RIAS Berlin Commission co-chair Christina Higgins, who is the Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. It was a spirited evening and alumni from both Hamburg and Berlin said they hoped to have more such events together in 2019. The event was organized by Oliver Sallet (Deutsche Welle), Anja Heyde (ZDF), Nadine Tries and Michail Paweletz.
The Berlin alumni chapter will also be joining RIAS Berlin Commission board member Melissa Eddy at the U.S. Embassy on December 18 for an annual holiday reception at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin with other alumni groups.
In New York, the RIAS Berlin Commission alumni chapter kept the German-American spirit alive with a get-together at a German beer hall in the East Village called “Zum Schneider”. New York alumni Clare Toeniskoetter (The Daily at the NYT) and Michael Gargiulo (WNBC TV) report that the New York chapter hopes to start a tour of the five New York boroughs “one German beer hall at a time”. The next stop is Queens planned for sometime early in 2019. The New York chapter alumni will also meet the next group of 14 RIAS journalists from Germany on the March 2019 program at a get-together on March 15.
In Washington DC, a group of RIAS alumni got together for a screening of a new 2018 film “The Silent Revolution” in which the Cold War-era radio station “RIAS” (Radio in American Sector) plays a feature role. As Marissa Melton (VOA), who organized the event, noted: “The role that RIAS plays is really pivotal. It’s also great to see it making a difference in people’s lives.”The Washington DC chapter is also planning a fundraising event called “RIAS Rent Party” to try to help raise alumni donations to the $10,000 target for 2018 — or in other words enough alumni donations to add two spots to programs in 2019. Stacey Samuel (NPR) is trying to organize the event at a beer garden in Washington.
The RIAS Berlin Commission would like to say thank you to the alumni and friends of RIAS for their generous donations: Kerstin Koretz, Kevin Arnold, Sonja Christlein, Erik Kirschbaum, Helge Fuhst, Juergen Schleifer, Ben Fajzullin, Patricia Adenauer-von Berg, Martin Richter, Birgit Frank, Ann Kristin Sieger, Kevin Arnold, Stephanie Orbach, Torsten Beermann, Louisa Maria Giersberg, Arnd Riekmann, Bartosz Dudek, Charlotte Potts, Matthais Baehr, Oliver Sallet, Martin Guenther, Christian Walther, Eva Schmidt, Marcel Grzyb, Mirella Pappalardo, Laura Koppenhoefer, Peter Twiehaus, Kai Wessel, Anne Demmer, Wolker Witting, Susan Blum, Karl-Dieter Moeller, Andrea Lueg, Joerg Machenbach, Katja Weber, Silvia Tiegs, Katharina Borchardt, Dorte Stoermann, Dominik Jozic, Regine Muender, Michael Paweletz, Lane Luckie, Thomas Hawley, Bonnie North, Jessica Prater, Judith Snyderman, Bryan Weakland, Cameron Knowles, Emily Damm, Dustin Stephens, Jennifer Macdonald, Michael Gargiulo, Scott Libin, Okawa Hisashi, Helene Finn Kane.
