I SINGLE LIFE
CONNECTION
The People Connector celebrates
its one-year anniversary along with
two local Jewish couples.
AMY J. MEHLER
Staff Writer
Photos by Marsha Su n dq u ist
H
The People Connector led to marriage for
Dianne and Robert Alpiner.
86
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1991
is ad said offbeat.
"Someone who
doesn't mind going
out for pancakes at 3 a.m.,"
recalled Richard Sundheimer,
47, a professional head hunter
from West Blomfield.
Mr. Sundheimer, never
before married, placed per-
sonal ads in The Jewish
News for five years. He
hoped for better luck a year
ago when The Jewish News
initiated the People Connec-
tor-Voice Connector.
More than 175 news-
papers, including nine Jew-
ish periodicals, carry the
People Connector-Voice
Connector, a matchmaking
device from Microvoice Ap-
plications, which gives sin-
gles two ways of meeting
each other. The voice con-
nector component allows re-
spondents to leave per-
sonalized, recorded mes-
sages. They can also respond
in writing to a Jewish News
box number.
Ads must be 30 words or
less and cost $5 each week
the ad appears. Written
messages are mailed back
regularly and all phone mes-
sages are accessible any
time.
"I specifically wanted a
woman who was not afraid
to explore the unusual," Mr.
Sundheimer said.
He found Lynn.
"Actually, my mother
found him for me," said Mrs.
Sundheimer, 39. "My second
husband died last March and
I was falling apart. I didn't
know the first thing about
getting back into the single
scene. One day I was at my
mom's and she saw Ricky's
ad. She made me call him
from her phone."
That was June 1990. This
July, the two eloped. They
were married in a roadside
wedding chapel in Las
Vegas, Nev.
"Ricky called me at work
and asked me to marry
him," said Mrs. Sun-
dheimer, who was working
in a Southfield mortgage
company. "First we went to
Ohio, but I didn't have my
divorce papers from my first
marriage. That's when we
decided to go to Las Vegas.
Ricky made a phone call and
then we had an hour to make
the flight."
Mr. Sundheimer bought
his bride a white dress, earr-
ings and a pair of shoes at
the airport. The groom wore
plaid.
"If they gave weddings at
Denny's, that's what our
wedding would've been
like," Mr. Sundheimer said.
"Everything was a la carte.
A witness or a corsage was
extra. So was a boutonniere,
not to mention the video."
According to Mrs. Sun-
dheimer, her husband "went
all out" at the Candlelight
Chapel.
"We were picked up in a
limo and we got the works,"
she said.
The wedding was perfect
until the justice of the peace
said, "You may now kiss the
bride."
"Ricky squeezed me too
hard and broke two of my
ribs," Mrs. Sundheimer said.
"I had to go to the doctor the
next day."
"For the rest of the
weekend, I told her jokes,"
Mr. Sundheimer said.
After a honeymoon in
Jamaica, the couple return-
ed to their home in West
Bloomfield.
"No one knew anything
about it," Mrs. Sundheimer
said. "One day I was a
widow. The next day I was
whooping it up in Las
Vegas."
"We owe it all to the Peo-
ple Connector," Mr. Sun-
dheimer said. "Now, we live
and work together 24 hours
a day. It was all worth it. I
wanted to marry a Jewish
girl and I would never have
met her without the ad."
Neither would Dianne and
Bob Alpiner. They met three
years ago through a personal
ad Mr. Alpiner placed in The
Jewish News.
"It was hard to meet Jew-
ish people," said Mrs.
Alpiner, 36, of West Bloom-
field. "People are so scat-
tered.
Mrs. Alpiner, who works
for the Automobile Associ-
ation of America, never
thought she'd answer a per-
sonal ad.
"The perception out there