Stephanie (Merk) Jonaitis ’99 and Daniel Jonaitis ’00 married on October 25, 2008, in New York City. Dan is a finance manager with Johnson & Johnson; Stephanie is an attorney with Pepper Hamilton LLP in New York City. They live in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Alumni attending the ceremony included: bridesmaids Melissa Bemis ’99, Judith (Jonaitis) Duff ’96, and Sarah (Walsh) Vilela ’99; groomsmen Matthew Ruxton ’99, Craig Bates ’05G, and David Nagle, Jr. ’00, ’09G; Thomas Hnitecki ’01, Michael Corey ’99, David Nagle, Sr. ’77, ’78G, Jonathan Ring ’01, Conor Murphy ’00, and Tory (Watchko) Leeman ’99.

Amanda (Desisto) Buscema ’01 and Edward (Ted) J. Buscema ’02 welcomed twinsin March. Ted holds Jackson and Amanda holds Ryan. Amanda has taught music at Atlantic Middle School in Quincy for eight years. Ted works for John Hancock in Boston. The family lives in Abington.

Keeping the Arts Alive Robert Lynch ’71 is hard at work convincing Congress to invest in the arts because it is important to America. He points out the “unsung news” that the arts industry is a massive growth sector, with 100,000 nonprofi t arts organizations in the U.S. providing jobs for 5.7 million people.

As president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, Lynch testifi ed before Congress twice last spring. He brought Josh Groban, Linda Ronstadt, and Wynton Marsalis along with him, and counted their efforts successful when a House committee approved a $15 million increase to the National Endowment for the Arts in its 2010 spending bill. The government also included $50 million in arts job preservation funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Having worked in arts promotion for 35 years (including at the UMass Amherst Arts Extension Service from 1975-1985), Lynch says this is not the worst of times for the arts. But, what makes today particularly difficult is that arts revenues are down from three sources simultaneously—ticket sales, private and corporate gifts, and government support.

However, he says, “This is a very resilient industry. Arts organizations will use their creative talents to get through these tough times.”