Reader’s Note From Tom Miner: Hunger In Montgomery County

Photo from Manna

How You Can Help Reduce Hunger in Montgomery County – and Have a Blast at the Same Time!

Hunger is a hidden but all too prevalent problem in our county. In Montgomery County, a family of four requires an income of $70,000 just to be minimally self-sufficient. The high costs of housing, health care, food, transportation, and utilities are squeezing more and more families. When funds are low, the rent, doctor, and utility companies get paid first and what’s left is what people spend on food; often there just isn’t enough money to buy the food their family needs.

Children of low income families are especially vulnerable. These school kids often receive subsidized school breakfasts and lunches to sustain them through the day. But what happens on the weekends?

Manna Food Center is the main food bank on Montgomery County. In 2005, Manna started the Smart Sacks program that provides these target school kids with a Smart Sack of healthy, yet kid-friendly food every Friday so they will have something to eat over the weekend.

Manna provides 1,400 Smart Sacks every Friday to schools, including the schools right here in Rockville.

Photo from The Digits!

Here’s how you can easily help: Come to the Benefit Concert, Saturday, September 11^th, at the Woodley Gardens Swim Club.  The Digits!, a local rock cover band I helped to form in 2001, will provide the entertainment.  Attendance is free, but we are asking for $5 donation.  Additionally we will have a Silent Auction to raise additional funds for this cause.  This will be the 5th year we have organized this community event and each time we have raised $2000 to $6000. 

Saturday, September 11, 2010

7:30 PM to 11:30 PM

Woodley Gardens Pool, 850 Nelson St., Rockville, MD

How will The Digits! raise money and donations for this good cause?

1. Ask for a $5 donation from each fan attending the event.
2. Many fans are donating items for the Silent Auction.  Please consider contributing to the Silent Auction.  Contact Dawn Sumner Titmus for Silent Auction ideas and details.
3. Fans bid on and “buy” Silent Auction items.  Items are available for viewing and bidding from 7:30 to 10:30.
4. Online donations can be made.  Click here.  Please designate you online donation to the Smart Sacks Program and The Digits!

The Digits! past 4 Benefit Concerts raised up to $6000 for each event!  All of the money we raise (100%) is given directly to the cause we are working for.  Manna Food Center is an efficiently run organization.  According to GuideStar, ninety-four cents of every donated dollar Manna receives goes directly to feeding the hungry.

Bring friends and family, your cooler and extra chairs!  This is a wonderful, relaxing atmosphere around the pool.  Enjoy some good music, sing along, dance with neighbors, and watch friends sing with The Digits!  – knowing you are helping a worthy cause.

The Digits! are donating the entertainment.  Woodley Gardens is proving the beautiful pool setting.  All we need is YOU and your generosity!

For more information, see www.TheDigitsBand.com or http://www.facebook.com/TheDigits

Check here for more information from Manna.

This is a Reader’s Note. We welcome submissions on all sorts of things — shopping, restaurants, performances, art, cultural events, and more. Rules: it should be in Rockville, and you should try to be nice. Get in touch with us using our contact form if you would like to submit something!

Reader’s Note By Anne Robbins: A Glorious Wedding

Sean Mahoney Robbins and Joanne Dennie Robbins

Saturday, August 14th was one of the happiest days of Dave and my lives, when our only son, Sean Mahoney Robbins, married his dream girl, Joanne Dennie Robbins; it was also one of the happiest days of their lives, as the photo shows.

You can see how debonair the groom looks, as well as his best man, his father, Dave Robbins, who is right in back of him, as well as the Rev. Glen Dameron who officiated at the ceremony.

Friends and family came from all over including his first friend, Jay Ravida, and lots of Irish cousins, including JoAnne Mahoney Gillespie from Orange County, Calif., who recited the tradition Irish Blessing.  Sean, whose godfather is Jimmy Carter, had a whole wall of a video showing him with the Carters, from baby, through adulthood; President Carter, and his wonderful wife and partner, Rosalynn Carter, are truly “the Carpenter’s Apprentices”, and have been great role models for Sean to follow.

Joanne has a big family, and they were all there “gussied up”, and looking great, particularly her little nieces and nephews.

The Big surprise of the day was the bride’s father, Bud Dennie, who cut a “mean rug,” and is really ready for primetime.  The bride’s mother was  all in silver, and my parents, Thomas and Elizabeth Mahoney, were honored by a quote from one of their letters: An Irish Marriage Proverb, which was written in Gaelic in the program, and translates, “Two Shorten the Road.” Our daughter, Brennan, and her fiancee, Dallas Albers, were part of the wedding party, and, Dallas, a singer, sang at the reception, which made everyone’s day, and reminded us, that there soon will be another wedding for the Robbins Clan.

Anne Robbins is a former councilmember of the City of Rockville.

This is a Reader’s Note. We welcome submissions on all sorts of things — shopping, restaurants, performances, art, cultural events, and more. Rules: it should be in Rockville, and you should try to be nice. Get in touch with us using our contact form if you would like to submit something!

Reader’s Note From Rotraut Bockstahler: Rockville Chorus Visits Sister City

The Rockville Chorus with the support of the Rockville Sister City Corporation visited Pinneberg, Germany in June.  Under the musical guidance of Bryan Seith, director of the chorus, several concerts were held in different venues.

Dinslaken, Germany (click for full size)

The chorus entertained in civic auditoriums, village squares and in several beautiful churches.

The chorus group first visited Dinslaken, Germany to join  German and Norwegian choruses  and to  participate in the RUHR2010 DAY OF SONG. On the 5^th of June, music events were held in nearly every town and village in the Ruhr Valley. The visit culminated with the televised concert of 66,000 participants in the Schalke Soccer Stadium at Gelsenkirchen.

The concert, led by Steven Sloane, included  Bobby McFarrin in a 2 ½ hour program that covered a wide variety of contemporary and classical music.

Hamburg, Germany (click for full size)

The chorus then visited Pinneberg and was warmly welcomed by Sister City hosts.  During a tour of St Mary’s church  in Lübeck, the chorus was asked to sing after services.  Our sister city of Pinneberg arranged  for a concert at St Michaels Cathedral in Hamburg.  The church, magnificent in white and gold was a beautiful setting for a program of inspirational music.  The last evening, the chorus joined the youth orchestra of the Pinneberg Music School in a performance at the famous baroque church at nearby Rellingen.

For the chorus members, the highlight of the trip was living with their German host families whose hospitality was unsurpassed.

The Rockville Chorus wishes to thank the Rockville Sister City Corporation for their support and the Rockville Senior Center for supplying the transportation to and from the airport.

A membership application form, information and the activities schedule of the Rockville Sister City Corporation can be found under www.rocknet.org/Community/SisterCities/.  You can also leave a message at 240-314-5029 to receive a callback from a member of the RSCC board.

The Rockville Chorus rehearses at the Rockville Senior Center at 7:30 pm on Monday nights starting in September.  Auditions are held in September. Please contact Julie Farrell at 240-314-8682 or by e-mail at jfarrell@rockvillemd.gov and request an audition date and time.

Rotraut Bockstahler is a former RSCC board member, former RSCC vice president, former RSCC president, and former president of the Rockville Chorus.

Reader’s Note from Temperance Blalock: Speed Cameras and Traffic Citations

Chart by Temperance Blalock

After seeing today’s POTD: Speed Sentinel, Temperance Blalock sent along this chart and Reader’s Note:

There’s a great deal of information available on the City website regarding speed cameras and traffic citations (http://www.rockvillemd.gov/police/speedcameras.htm). The “raw data” for many of the fixed-pole camera locations is presented, and I thought I’d play around with it and see what underlying trends I might be able to find. The “average speed” in itself wasn’t really helpful, other than to show broad trends of speed decreasing. I would have much rather seen the “average speed” only for the speeding ticket recipients.

The total numbers of vehicle passes and citations issued, by themselves, didn’t really show anything. However, when I divided the number of vehicle passes by citations issued, to get a number for “citations issued per vehicle pass”, I found an interesting pattern.

The “spike” in Fall 2009 was repeated almost uniformly in the five locations that I plotted. What do you suppose that this could “mean”? Is there a coincidence that it occurred shortly before the City election? Or perhaps the cameras were all recalibrated around that time? Or could the citizens of Rockville have suddenly been spontaneously seized with the urge to drive recklessly?

by Temperance Blalock

If you would like to contribute a Reader Note or other piece of writing, please send submissions to Hello@RockvilleCentral.com. The more community voices, the better Rockville Central will be. Please remember that the views of contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors.

Reader Note by Brigitta Mullican: A Verifiable Voting System

>Will Rockville consider using the optical-scan voting machines in the 2011 election? The City of Takoma Park used the new voter verified technology for their November 3rd Election.

Optical-scan voting machines offer a relatively high degree of verification support. These machines save a record of the votes and allow auditors to go back and verify results if necessary. Maryland should adopt optical-scan systems which cost less than the touch-screen voting systems.

More information about the 2009 City of Takoma Park election is available at their website.

More information about the Scantegrity application is available at www.scantegrity.org.

Brigitta Mullican

If you would like to contribute a Reader Note or other piece of writing, please send submissions to rockvillecentral@gmail.com. The more community voices, the better Rockville Central will be. Please remember that the views of contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors.

Reader's Note By Roald Schrack: See You At The Polls!

>Today promises to be a sunny day. The last election had blustery weather which held down the participation to 5887 ballots. This year, based on the 221 absentee ballot requests, which is 4% higher than the last election and good weather one can predict that there will probably be 7000 +/- 300 ballots cast. The Mayoral candidates show about equal donations and expenditures thus a close race can be expected. See you at the polls!

Roald A. Schrack

If you would like to contribute a Reader Note or other piece of writing, please send submissions to rockvillecentral@gmail.com. The more community voices, the better Rockville Central will be. Please remember that the views of contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors.

Reader's Note From Kathy Neal: Thank You For Participating In Senior Center Forum

This reader’s note was sent to us by >Kathy Neal:

Senior Center Candidates Forum
A Big Thank You to the Candidates Running For Mayor and Council

On Thursday, October 29, 2009 the candidates running for Mayor and Council participated in yet another Candidates Forum. As Chair of the Candidates Forum Committee, I would like to say thank you to all the Candidates for attending this Forum at the Senior Center. This Forum gave our seniors the opportunity to obtain first hand knowledge and insight in choosing which candidates they want to represent them for Mayor and Council. An important part of this Forum was the question and answer part allowing our seniors to ask questions addressing senior issues.

We appreciate all the candidates taking time from their busy schedules to meet with Rockville Seniors. We were impressed by the quality and candor of all the candidates. Rockville should be proud of this slate of Candidates willing to put forth their time and effort to serve Rockville citizens. This Forum was very successful, informative and well attended.

Good luck to all the candidates for what we hope there will be a record-breaking turnout at the polls on Tuesday, November 3 – Election Day.

Kathy Neale,
Chair, Candidates Forum Committee

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Reader's Note From Joseph Jordan: Congratulations On Candidate Forum

A many >Rockville Central readers know, we held out first-ever candidate forum on Saturday. It went very well, and we will be posting video and other information shortly.

Joseph Jordan, campaign manager for mayoral candidate Phyllis Marcuccio, sent along this nice reader’s note just after. (Joe was writing as an individual, I believe, and not on behalf of the campaign, but it’s our policy to make such identifications for transparency’s sake.)

Either the mail is backlogged or the mirrors in the room played tricks, but I am sure there was a room full of people at the Rockville Central Candidates Forum [Saturday] morning. Frankly, I am a bit surprised there haven’t been any comments posted, so allow me to be among the first to congratulate and thank Brad and Cindy for hosting the most unique and interesting forum of the bunch, so far. Even with all the chicken jokes, no one layed an egg.

I would have liked more time to meet the folks that were there….it would have been nice to put a face to a name of some of RC readers and posters that turned out this morning. Regardless, it was a great event, the candidates all did well and I hope it is the start of a new tradition in elections to come. Thanks again to the Brad, Cindy and those that helped make the morning a success.

Joseph Jordan

If you would like to contribute a Reader Note or other piece of writing, please send submissons to rockvillecentral@gmail.com. The more community voices, the better Rockville Central will be. Please remember that the views of contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors.

Note: Rockville Central does not endorse candidates. We are encouraging towards all people who choose to run for office the city and try our best to make ourselves open to all. We actively encourage candidates to submit opinion pieces and other news. We don’t include every last bit, but we try to be fair to all and give useful information about what is happening. We ran this piece because it adds to the substantive debate on a subject that people are concerned with.

Reader Note by Roald Schrack: Update On MHP Meeting

>The Montgomery Housing Partnership held a meeting on Wednesday night to inform the community about the status of the Beall’s Grant II proposed affordable housing development. Neither Cindy Cotte Griffiths nor I were able to attend, but Rockville central reader Roald Schrack sent along the following report:

Report on Oct 14, 2009 Meeting help by Montgomery Housing Partnership

This meeting was held to inform the community of the coming application by MHP to Rockville for certification for the revised form of Beall’s Grant II. Since the original application was rejected, MHP has worked with the community, specifically the West End Citizen’s Association to make Beall’s Grant II acceptable in size and appearance. The original level of 109 apartment units has been reduced to 74. The original height has been reduced from 4 stories to 2 ½ on Beall Ave and 3 stories on North Washington. An floor of parking garage has been removed. The appearance on Beall has been modified to make the building look like separate townhouses, including separate entrances on Beall. Although the new design does not supply the number of parking spaces required, MHP believes they will be given a variance on the parking space requirements under a new zoning law.

The real conflict still exists though because WECA wants MHP to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) covering all the points of discussion between WECA and MHP during the last several months. MHP does not want to sign the agreement while it is still under litigation ( having to do with the impact of children of residents of BGII on Beall Elementary School). BUT MHP will want the Mayor and Council to sign a letter of support for BGII before they sign the MOA so they can get a funding agreement from the state This problem will be faced by the newly elected M&C sometime in December or January. From the comments of WECA representatives at this meeting it looks like Rockville is in for continuing disagreements in the search for affordable housing in the city.

Roald Schrack

If you would like to contribute a Reader Note or other piece of writing, please send submissons to rockvillecentral@gmail.com. The more community voices, the better Rockville Central will be. Please remember that the views of contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors.

Reader's Note From Susan Hoffmann: A Green Day In Rockville

This Reader’s Note was sent along to us by Mayor >Susan Hoffmann:

I just signed up for my house to be 100% Wind Power via Clean Currents! I feel cleaner and greener already! And my carbon footprint just went down a whole size. Btw, Rockville is a finalist for the Washington Business Journal’s Green Business Awards! And Tuesday morning, 2000 Tower Oaks Blvd., the Tower Company’s latest, was recognized by Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot for being designated LEED Platinum. It’s a great and GREEN day in Rockville!

This Reader’s Note is by Susan Hoffmann.

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Reader's Note By Temperance Blalock: Farewell Eunice Kennedy Shriver

This Reader’s Note was sent along to us by >Rockville Central friend Temperance Blalock:

Mrs. Shriver died yesterday. I only met her once, but it was at her home in Rockville, and that was also the first time I ever came to Rockville. In 1972 I was living in Washington, DC, and I volunteered at the McGovern for President campaign. Sergeant Shriver became McGovern’s running mate in the summer of 1972, and the Shrivers held several campaign events at their large estate in Rockville, one of which I attended. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, other than Rockville seemed to be incredibly far away from DC, and also that Mrs. Shriver had a wonderful personality. She was one of those people who made you feel like she was your friend as soon as you met her, even though you knew that there were a hundred people at the same event who felt special in that way.

This Reader’s Note is by Temperance Blalock.

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Reader's Note From Anne Robbins: Working On Health Care

This Reader’s Note was sent along to us by City Council member >Anne Robbins:

On Friday, August 7, I participated in my second White House Teleconference on Health Reform Care through the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, with local officials from around the nation. We received a great deal of information, as participants shared their stories, and many of the myths surrounding this complex subject were addressed. We were all encouraged to keep in touch with White House Health Reform officials, and to continue our grass-roots efforts, particularly with the local media, which I will be doing in the next few weeks.

This Reader’s Note is by Anne Robbins.

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Reader's Note By Temperance Blalock: Keep Your Emergency Kit Prepped

>Last weekend I found myself in somewhat of an “emergency” situation: I couldn’t get access to my home (an apartment) for an afternoon and an evening, because of an 8k run whose trail ran right in front of my home. Several blocks were blocked off by the police, and so when I returned home that afternoon and found out that I couldn’t’ return home until about 1 AM or 2 AM, I had to make a decision. I ended up going to sleep the night at a family member’s home – lucky for me she was willing and available to take me in on short notice. Not lucky for me that I didn’t have an emergency supply of clothes or toiletries stashed away in the trunk of my car. What was really annoying was that I HAD such an emergency supply in the car for many years, but I had recently cleaned it out because it had been sitting there for years and needed to be recycled/replenished.

I have been aware of the importance of having “appropriate” emergency gear ever since 2000, when I got a bit “caught up” in the Y2K hysteria. It wasn’t entirely a waste of time, since I did educate myself about what is an appropriate reaction, and what supplies should a person actually store?

The City of Rockville has a web page on Emergency Preparedness. It’s a good summary of the basic steps that should be taken, the most fundamental one being that one needs separate kits for separate functions. The supplies that one maintains in the home for “shelter in place” are different from the ones that should be maintained to grab and flee the house (aka “Bugout Bag”). There should also be variations kept in the car, and variations kept in one’s desk at work.

As for my recent emergency, I could not get access to my home kits, nor my work kit (since my passcard to get into work was in my apartment, which I couldn’t get to). So, since I had no kit of personal supplies in the car, I was left with no change of clothes and no toiletries. Lucky for me, my host had a spare nightie that she lent me, and I could use her shower facilities and soap and other toiletries. But still, I felt very precarious and disoriented. And it’s time to completely rethink what’s appropriate for each of the kits. It’s amazing how fast time flies, and thus how quickly supplies decay or expire (if they’re consumables), and how frequently one must monitor them. One must also take a jaundiced look and see whether one is focusing incorrectly on inappropriate tools: it’s great to have a fishing rod in the car trunk, in case one is suddenly plunked in the hills of West Virginia and must catch fish to survive, but is that a realistic thing to have, given that one is a suburbanite and such drastic measures are highly unlikely?

This Reader’s Note is by Rockville Central friend Temperance Blalock, a frequent contributor.

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Reader's Note By Cheryl C. Kagan: VisArts Hosts National Scrabble Tournament

>For the second time this year, Rockville’s VisArts was the host venue for a national Scrabble tournament (North American SCRABBLE® Players Association) this past weekend. Like so many other activities taking place in the City (including the Twilight Run, Hometown Holidays, etc.), this is not just about fun and games. It’s about bringing people to Rockville to support our local stores, restaurants, hotels, and nonprofit organizations!

Players came from around the region to compete in one of four divisions based on their ratings from past tournaments. I met competitors from NY, CT, PA (Philly as well as Pittsburgh), in addition to DC, VA and all around Maryland.

A number of players returned again to Rockville who had played in the tournament we hosted in March. Denise Mahnken drove down from Long Island (NY) for the second time. She thought it was worth the drive because “the venue is beautiful, and the windows don’t make you feel like you’re inside on a lovely day.” Additionally, she enthused that, “The town [Town Square] is quaint and lovely to walk around, and the hospitality is wonderful!”

Roberta Borenstein brought a friend with her from Connecticut to stay for the weekend. She built a sight-seeing trip around the tournament.

Nancy Konipol and her husband came down from New York City. They called VisArts a “gorgeous venue” and indicated that they would definitely come back. As a photographer herself, she loved seeing the exhibits between matches. They also stayed in a hotel they liked very much and sampled a few different Rockville restaurants.

Dave Engelhardt didn’t mind coming down from Baltimore and thought that the “free parking is really nice.”

Linda Wancel came from Queens and appreciated both seeing the artists at work… and the chance to buy art if something appealed to her. She also likes the great choices for places to eat. She said that “Rockville should host once a month. We’ll keep coming back!”

That’s a quick report from this second Rockville-based tournament. No matter how you scramble the Scrabble tiles, it sounds to me like ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT… and definitely FUN too!

For more information about the weekly Scrabble matches in Chevy Chase, visit http://dcsclub.org and join us!

Cheryl Kagan, a Rockville resident and political activist, is also a Scrabble fiend!

Editor’s note: Kagan, a former state delegate in District 17, is a candidate for state senate in 2010.

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Help Find Lew, The Lost Beagle!

>This is not ordinarily a “lost-dog” kind of space, but these folks have been looking so hard and are so distraught:

Lew, a brown, black, and white beagle was lost on April 4th, 2009 from the corner of Lewis and Rockland Ave in the Twinbrook section of Rockville. At the time he was lost, he was wearing a red collar, a red harness and had a red retractable leash dragging behind him. It is possible that these are no longer on him, esp the harness and leash. He was just recently adopted and doesn’t know the area. He is very shy and will likely try to avoid people. We set up a blog for him at http://findlew.blogspot.com. Details:

• Beagle / Basset Hound Mix
• Black / Brown – Neutered Male
• call 301-816-2976 or email