Kevin Ernest Hechtkopf was born on May 3, 1981 in Pittsburgh, PA (or as I like to believe, Philadelphia, since they're both Pennsylvania cities that start with "P"). As a small child, Kevin had a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal that I only learned about after we had dated for almost 3 years, and still have not seen! Kevin was thought to be hyperactive as a pre-schooler and therefore was not allowed to eat any sugar. Hence, his favorite food today is Frosted Flakes. A wandering nomad since his birth, at the age of 8 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first Jew I ever met to have lived in Tennessee! In any case, Kevin was a child prodigy at everything he did, especially chess -- and if you google him, you can find his chess scores online still, even though he hasn't played since middle school. He was also a star little league baseball player, or so he likes to think -- he certainly gets an E for effort! Anyway, after 5 years in TN, he once again moved (hence the wandering nomad statement) to Arlington, Virginia, where he attended high school. He then went to the University of Virginia, whose football team he had been following since his childhood because his father was a UVa alumnus. In college, Kevin kept himself busy, not with schoolwork, but by becoming Hillel student president, writing articles for the Cavalier Daily, and keeping his girlfriend (Helene) from doing her work.

by Kevin

Helene Rachel Sperber was born on September 24, 1983, on Long Island (seriously, it's a loooooong island, or as I like to say, a small continent). Sometimes she ventured to other exciting places such as “the city” (Manhattan, because there are no other cities in the world), upstate NY to go to circus camp (yes, circus camp—ask for pictures), Florida to visit her grandparents, or Charlottesville to go to college and meet me (more on that later). She never got the experience of being a wandering nomad like me, having grown up in just one boring house. As a child, her parents forced her to try every sport imaginable, from ice skating to horseback riding to fencing. Unfortunately, she did not learn any real sports like football or make the olympic team, so she had to fall back on her first true love (before Kevin) – reading. In high school, in addition to being brilliant and accomplishing a year's worth of college classes, she pretended she lived in the South. You wouldn't expect someone from Long Island to do Civil War reenacting, much less pretend she was on that side. That must have led to her decision to venture South for college to the University of Virginia, thus disproving her theory that there are no Jews south of New Jersey. Once at UVa, her overachieving continued as she overworked herself to graduate in three years. Before finishing college though, she found time to learn to be a good housewife by cooking and cleaning, and how to exercise like a crazy maniac, running a ten-mile race in Charlottesville and training for a triathlon. She also managed to keep her boyfriend (Kevin) from attending to important Hillel business.

Because of her desire to return to the land of milk and bagels (New York), she decided to attend Hillel beginning her second year of college. Coincidentally (or else we wouldn't be having this webpage), Kevin was Hillel president. Hence, they met. Erev Rosh Hashannah (or the evening that the holiday began), Kevin and Helene sat at the same table for dinner at Hillel. They had nothing in common but somehow managed to have a conversation, at the end of which Kevin invited Helene to the Rosh Hashannah lunch he was having the next day at his lawn room. Helene, recognizing the hot property involved (the Lawn room, not Kevin), decided to attend. A few weeks later Sukkot came, and Helene went to Hillel to help decorate the sukkah Kevin was building. When she arrived, an awkward hug ensued -- in fact, as we write this, it is almost exactly three years ago that we had that awkward hug. But anyway....That night Helene found out that one of her classes the next day was cancelled, and she sneekily put up an away message asking if anyone wanted to have lunch with her. Kevin took the bait, and the next day they went to Cafe Europa for lunch, which Helene considered a date and Kevin did not. A few days later, Kevin had a tailgating party at his Lawn room, which Helene attended. They sat together at the football game that afternoon (which UVa won, or Kevin wouldn't have been in such a good mood for what was to come), and then Kevin came back to Helene's apartment because her roommates, knowing she was too timid to do it herself, asked Kevin if he was coming back to their apartment so she could cook him dinner. That night, and the night after, they went to parties together, but Kevin refused to kiss Helene goodnight, leading to her confusion. Happily, the confusion ended the next Friday when Kevin finally took Helene on what he believed was their first date --ice cream and a movie after Friday night services at Hillel. They went to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which Helene, unbeknownst to Kevin, had already seen twice. And somehow, three years later, they are planning their own Big Fat Jewish Wedding.

Over the years, Kevin started working at the washingtonpost.com, Helene graduated from UVa and moved to New York to go to law school at Cardozo School of Law, and Kevin then soon moved to New York to be with her, taking a job at CBSNews.com. Fast forward several months to September 2, 2005…

Kevin took Friday off from work, because it was Labor Day weekend. He had prepared an elaborate picnic at Battery Park, in lower Manhattan, which he later informed Helene he had chosen because of her love of water. After waiting for homeless men to stop praying and a garbage truck to leave the vicinity and the tourists to stop buying fake pocketbooks, Kevin tried to propose. Helene made a joke in the middle of his speech and ruined the moment, so he tried again a few minutes later, at which time he succeeded in getting stuck with her forever. Kevin then presented Helene with a beautiful pearl and pink sapphire necklace, because he knew that she wanted him to wait for her to pick out the ring together.