Did You Stuff A Bus?

Did you see one of Montgomery County’s big, blue Ride On buses parked in a prime spot in front of Whole Foods on Rockville Pike yesterday? It was there as part of an event in support of >Manna Food Center, one of the region’s most important food banks.

The County had donated four buses to Manna’s “Stuff A Bus” food drive, while Whole Foods agreed to donate 5% of its receipts to the cause. People from all over the county brought bags of food to stuff the buses.

As the economy continues to cool and people are hit with more and more anxiety, local agencies to help people struggling to make ends meet are seeing a distinct rise in their numbers. April last year, according to the Washington Post, Manna served 1,700 families. This year, April brought 2,263 families through the doors.

Elsewhere throughout the region, food banks can barely keep items on the shelves — the need is so great that they are gone almost as soon as they arrive.

You can help by donating food and money to these important direct-response agencies. Manna, which is marking its 25th year, is an especially well-run enterprise with 94% of donations going straight to food aid. Manna reports that every $1 donated becomes $5 worth of food for families who are in need. From their web site:

• A $25 contribution provides a family of four with five days of emergency food.
• A $75 gift funds trucks and drivers so that they can collect 4,000 pounds of edible, nutritious food from local grocery stores, food that instead of being tossed in a dumpster will feed 50 families.
• A $150 donation allows Manna to deliver bread to 25 low-income communities.

Want to donate? Good for you. Here is information about how to give money, and here is how to give food. (To drop off, you just need to take the food here.)

Weekend to Weekend 12/20/07

>Events in Rockville – Special History Feature

As we look ahead to making changes to the zoning ordinance and Rockville Pike, it’s always worth a look back in Rockville’s history to provide some perspective.

Beall-Dawson House

Christmas in Miniature: Holiday Tours

Upton Beall, Second Clerk of the County Court, built his mansion house on what was Rockville’s main street so that he would be close to his work at the Courthouse. To make it more prestigious, he placed it on a hill and positioned the bricks on the front of the house differently so that the walls appear to be thicker from the street. When he was building it, troops retreating through Rockville during the War of 1812 used his wood for their cooking fires. Personally I love the Beall-Dawson House because it teaches us about life in Rockville through many different times.

[A previous version of this post erroneously referred to soldiers from another war but the House was completed in 1815. My apologies if I mislead anyone! I don't know what I was thinking. The House even flies the Flag of 1795 with 15 stars and 15 stripes, which was the official flag when it was built.]

While the Beall-Dawson House is always a grand museum, the holiday decorations make it much more so in a simple and non-glitzy way. This year’s theme, Christmas in Miniature, reminds you of the traditions of days past. The decorations draw from the Montgomery County Historical Society collections and include trains and villages. Holiday tours end with hot cider and homemade cookies.

Holiday Tours are through January 6, 2008. Tuesday-Sunday from 12 PM – 4 PM. Closed on holidays. Last tour of the day starts at 3:15 PM. Museum admission is $3 adult/$2 senior & student/Free MCHS members. For more information call 301-762-1492.

The Beall Dawson House has a small but unique gift shop featuring almost every book about Montgomery County. (There’s even one I designed. As I’m in a giving mood, I’ll give one to the first person who can email me the correct title cindycgblog@gmail.com.)

Sunday, January 6 (and also Sunday, February 3)

Winter Pastimes Afternoon Workshop What on earth did the kids do all day before the Wii and cable shows? How did the parents survive? Come see the many things that helped them make it through winter at the Beall-Dawson House’s current exhibit, Winter Pastimes. Then take the time to make toys and play games. This is a drop-in activity and included with museum admission. 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM. The cost is included with museum admission ($3 adults/ $2 students & seniors).

January 6: Yarn dolls and paper dolls

February 3: Walnut shell crafts

Peerless Rockville

Gift Shop

Although I have mentioned Peerless Rockville before, you may not be thinking about a stop at their gift shop in the Red Brick Courthouse when you visit Town Center. Rockville’s historic preservation organization sells books, miniature wooden buildings, note cards, prints, and posters – all with a Rockville theme. No home would be complete without a copy of Rockville: Portrait of a City by Eileen McGuckian, the founder of Peerless Rockville. They have coverlets picturing historic Rockville sites in both cranberry and Williamsburg blue.

I must warn you though, last January our Red Brick Courthouse was once again made into a real courthouse. You need to go through a full security check and you can’t take any cameras. Make sure your cell phone battery is not dead too. I’ve always thought of this building in historic terms, so to be confronted with a modern day security check seems so out of place.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Peerless Rockville will be having their 33rd Annual New Year’s Day Buffet Brunch in the Glenview Mansion from 11 AM to 2 PM. They will be providing tours of the Mansion which, as we know, was just listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Live music too! Peerless members $10, non-members $15, and children 5-12 half price. Pay at the door, no reservations necessary. Bring hors d’oeuvre, salad, side dish or dessert.

They will also be having a raffle drawing for a December 2008 vacation for 10 people to a luxury resort in Williamsburg, VA. Four tickets for $20. The raffle benefits their education and preservation programs. Tickets are also on sale at Rockville Art and Frame and the Waygoose.

These are just a few fun ways you can help Peerless Rockville safeguard our heritage, as they work to preserve buildings, spaces, and objects that are important to
our history and sense of community.

Email cindycgblog@gmail.com if you have a fun, educational or community event to be included in Weekend to Weekend. Also, send along any specials or discounts. Include links!

We will publish event listings occurring in & around our coverage area (map) on Thursdays. The inclusion of events and specials is at our discretion.

Austin Grill Fundraiser for Derwood Fire Survivor

>Austin Grill in Rockville has joined with Redland Middle School and Sequoyah Elementary School PTAs to raise money for Oscar Sanchez, who survived the fire in his home on December 10th, but lost his mother, grandmother and 5-year old brother.

1/3 of Austin Grill’s sales this Thursday, December 20, 2007 from 3 PM until 11:30 PM will go to the Sanchez Angel Fund. This is a “special edition” of Austin Grill’s First Monday program which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local nonprofits.

You can make a donation directly to the Sanchez Angel Fund. But if you have the time and don’t want to cook on Thursday, you can eat out at Austin Grill and help as well.

Rockville Holiday Drive: Many Ways to Help

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Rockville Sister City Delegation Visit A Success

>As Rockville Central readers know (as well as other people), Rockville’s sister city is Pinneberg, Germany — has been since 1957, when then-mayor Dickran Hovsepian and the city council established the relationship.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of this special relationship, and a delegation from Pinneberg has just finished a wonderful trip, hosted by local Rockville residents, and gone back home.

While the trip featured serious pursuits, including a trip to Annapolis and meetings in City Hall, the delegation did not leave before danicing the night away in a farewell gala held in Rockville’s new library in Town Square.

Brigitta Mullican, a Rockville Sister City Corporation board member, passed along this photo, of which she says: “The couples facing in the middle are George Albrecht (pointing finger) and Marika Brown, both RSCC members and [who] hosted Pinneberg guests.”

More important, though, are these words that she shared from Hans-Dietmar Bethke, one of the Pinneberg delegation members: “The Rockville-Pinneberg relationship renews our faith in the people of the United States of America.”

Well done, Rockville.

Now, finish that bridge.

Literacy Tutor Training at Rockville Library

I remember a man who worked for my father when I was a kid. He was one of the best mechanics and he had a country western band that played parties at our house. He also couldn’t read. When my dad needed him to run an errand, he would write the first letter of the business on a piece of paper and send him down the street to match it to the correct sign. As a kid I couldn’t believe a grownup was unable to read.>
So, I was struck by the fact that today, right here in Montgomery County, our Literacy Council (LCMC) estimates that 1 in 8 adults are functionally illiterate. They are unable to complete an application, understand a package label, or even read this blog. LCMC helps by providing volunteer tutors, but it has over 200 adult students on its waiting list. They will continue to wait 6 to 12 months.

LCMC provides some other literacy facts:

-Children of parents who are unemployed and have not completed high school are five times more likely to drop out of high school.

-Annual health care costs in the U.S. are four times higher for individuals with low literacy skills than they are for individuals with high level literacy skills.

-Women in the U.S. who have little formal education are more likely than educated women to be in abusive relationships.

-One-half of all adults in U.S. federal and state correctional institutions cannot read or write at all; 85 percent of juvenile offenders have reading problems.

-A one percent increase in high school graduation rates would save approximately $1.4 billion in costs associated with incarceration.

Obviously, it’s much more than just reading.

LCMC is holding tutor orientation right here at our new Rockville Library on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 from 7:30 PM – 9 PM. Tutors teach an adult to read, write or speak English either one-on-one or with small groups. They meet with students in libraries or community centers at mutually convenient times.

Since 1976, LCMC has tutored more than 9,500 native and foreign born students, with the aid of over 6,800 volunteers. If you have the time to volunteer, you could change someone’s life for the better.

Registration is required. Call 301-610-0030 or email info@literacycouncilmcmd.org After the orientation session, potential tutors attend a two-day, 12-hour training workshop. There is a $25 registration fee to defray the cost of the workshop.