Streak Sweethearts: Jonathan Knittel & Jennifer Lee

Streak Sweethearts: Jonathan Knittel & Jennifer Lee

When Jonathan “Jon” Knittel met Jennifer “Jen” Lee in 1992 after the spring talent show outside of the auditorium, their meet cute was unconventional. After Jen was in a Monty Python skit in the aforementioned talent show, she found herself in the front hallway with pie on her face. Jen remembers this moment well: “Jon looked at me and I looked back, sort of nodded and smiled, and then walked away.” Although two years apart in high school, they saw each other at various sporting events. Jen “spied” on Jon when she became a substitute stats person for the baseball team her freshman year, and Jon made sure to bring a hot chocolate to Jen after she played the national anthem to a packed stadium. “It was not the norm for Jon, a multi-sport athlete, in his letterman jacket, to sit with the band,” said Jen. “The band director was very amused by this.” Their friends encouraged the two to date as they believed the two would be a good match, because they were both involved in churches and showed a love for God. After graduating in 1993 and 1995 for Jon and Jen respectively, the two got married in 2000, and went on to have one child, Jonathan, who graduated from Warren Hills in 2022. The couple has remained involved in the community since their high school days. Jen served on the Warren Hills Regional School Board from 2016-2018, and now serves on the Washington Township Elementary School Board, while Jon assists as a crew leader for Hope in the Hills of Warren. The two advise young couples today to “find someone who thinks and believes like you, not much else matters.” Lastly, “with all of today’s technologies at our disposal, make intentional face-to-face communication the priority method in building successful long-term relationships.”