Uniting Vikings Past and Present

“I love the energy,” said Daniel Knijnik P’31, ’32, a member of the Board of Trustees. “Everybody's happy, vibrant, and excited for the games.”

His daughter, Julia Knijnik ’31, a dedicated modern and jazz dancer, was about to join the Spirit Squad during the football game’s halftime show. “It’s a little scary,” Julia said. On second thought, she added, “I performed it at the pep rally, so it’s not super intimidating.”

Orna Gusinski P’29 expressed appreciation for King’s tightknit community, especially her fellow Grade 7 parents. “It’s very supportive and inclusive,” she said.

New and longtime educators also came together. Cathy Mishkin taught performing arts, history, and social science at King from 1976 to 2019. A beloved teacher, she is a regular presence on campus and has attended Homecoming every year since she joined the community.

“It’s just a wonderful feeling to be back home and to see people that you worked with and students that you taught and share memories,” Mishkin said. “It’s the legacy; it’s such a good feeling that things are still going on, and they’re even stronger than they were.”

Chair of Mathematics Victoria Khiznichenko also enjoyed seeing past students. “I just saw one of my former honor students,” she said, “and he’s a junior at Boston College. He said, ‘I’m a math major.’ That made my day!”

Pamela Sparkman LHT’88 and Erin Shaw LHT’88 celebrated their 35th reunion. “It’s really special,” Sparkman said. “I came to the cocktail party last night. There were people from other grades that we interacted with and caught up and laughed with. It’s just a really good time.”

Shaw added: “It’s something that I could have never imagined when I was a junior or a senior, coming to this point in life and coming back on campus and really enjoying those special connections with friends and former faculty and people who are currently attending.”

Matthew Dorf K’88, who was marking the same milestone, said, “It’s a lot of fun to be back!”