Kadon Enterprises, Longtime Helpers (Page 2 of 3)

Our long-time helpers — Part 2 of 3

Julie Stevens was Kadon's data entry guru for over 10 years. A Kadon customer since 1986, and a computer programmer for even more years, Julie in 1992 formed her own "Mail Wizard" company to help small businesses with mailing list maintenance and business software. Julie provides this service even while holding a full-time job at DHHS.

Julie Stevens

The energetic and multi-talented Julie has made many kinds of crafts—for example, ceramic fantasy castles that serve as desk organizers. Among her hobbies are jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles, collecting Kadon games, Magic the Gathering, science fiction, camping, and singing. Especially exciting was her stage debut in 1999 with the Victoria Lyric Opera Company of Rockville (Maryland) in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Princess Ida" as a member of the chorus. Since that time she is almost always in rehearsals for one or another of G&S's merry productions.

Julie was an army brat and has lived in Illinois, France, Indiana and Texas. She now resides in Rockville, MD, with her husband, Jim, and migrates to Pasadena, MD, for periodic working weekends at Kadon. During the annual Maryland Renaissance Festival, Julie and her lovely daughter, Cassandra, don their splendid costumes and occasionally help out in the Kadon booth.

If you are interested in attending any of Julie's musical performances, you can reach her by email.

Anna Stephan is an indispensable member of the Kadon team, on three fronts: she gives the place a weekly cleaning, she helps with the production and quality control of four Kadon games, and in the Fall she looks after our large crew at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. This pretty lady works with admirable precision and dedication in all she does. Here we see her holding Hexmozaix Jr., one of the puzzles she has crafted.

Arthur Blumberg has been a friend and supporter of Kadon for as long as anyone can remember. And each year, when the Renaissance Festival begins, Arthur helps in the booth, explaining the games and helping visitors select their purchases. In 1998 we were thrilled to produce a game, The Power of Two, that Arthur had created after being inspired by a discussion with Kate about the Kadon philosophy of games. The year after, Arthur invented End Point, and both games were chosen for the "Games 100" list of best games in their years. In Fall 2001 we debuted his third game, the sparkling Overpass, followed in 2003 by the elegantly innovative More or Less. Art always has some intriguing new design cooking. A nice article appeared about him in his alma mater's student paper at the University of Baltimore.

Sir Arthur in Renaissance garb, welcoming visitors to the 16th century and the joy of play

Arthur's programming skills have produced the "cat that walks through walls" and the "bowing teddybear" graphics for the Kadon website, and he is always helpful with advice, suggestions and solutions to thorny computer problems.

Art and Kate discovered to their mutual surprise and delight that they had another interest in common—ballroom dancing!

Steven Joel Zeve has been a friend and Renaissance booth stalwart for over a decade and a half. In real life he is a computer programmer and security consultant for JANUS Associates, Inc., a computer security consulting company. Steve holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Occasionally he would commute between work locations in Baltimore and San Francisco, where his young daughter, Jordi, lived. He no longer needs to make that commute since his daughter now lives with him. Prior to settling down in Maryland, Steve lived in five different states, which helps to explain why he didn't see anything wrong with bouncing back and forth between coasts for work.

For fun Steve enjoys music, frequents science fiction conventions, plays D&D and other role-playing games, Magic the Gathering and other card games, and of course Kadon puzzles and games. Steve is a deep and independent thinker, a kind and sensitive human being with a superb sense of humor, and a great pal.

Steve and Jordi share their lives and living space with Steve's lovely red-haired wife, France, her son Alex, and Jordi's sweet but clumsy idiot of a cat, Ivy.
Photo courtesy of Art Blumberg