Coat drive planned
Democrats for Positive Change will host its first coat drive Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Democratic Central Committee Headquarters, 245 N. Potomac St., Hagerstown. The event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Clean coats, jackets, scarves, hats, gloves, earmuffs and boots, including clothing for infants, will be accepted.
Items for women and children will be donated to CASA and men's items to The Salvation Army. You can also include a Valentine's Day treat with the children's items.
Registration
The next session of the Blossom School of Etiquette will be forming soon.
Registration will be held the week of Feb. 16, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Memorial Recreation Center, 109 W. North Ave., Hagerstown.
The classes will begin Feb. 23 with creative expression and cooking classes.
For more information, contact Ladetra Robinson at 301-790-0203 or send an e-mail to sisbcwc@yahoo.com.
Happy birthday
I want to wish a happy birthday to my uncle, Rudy Keyes.
Black History Month
It's February and time to celebrate the month by honoring those individuals who have provided community service or had a positive impact on the Jonathan Street community. As in the past, if you know of someone you believe has been an innovator, writer or community oriented, be sure to send the information to me along with a phone number. I look forward to talking with you. In the meantime, check out these little tidbits:
Most of us, if not all of us, have heard the names Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr. and now President Barack Obama.
Many of you will remember Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Maya Anjelou, Alex Haley, Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, but how many of you know about Zora Neale Hurston, writer, anthropologost, folklorist, Walter Mosley, novelist or Dorothy West, writer.
How many of you remember Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Denise McNair or Cynthia Wesley?
Black History facts:
o Elijah McCoy invented an automatic lubricator for oiling steam engines in 1872. The term "the real McCoy" is believed to be a reference to the reliability of McCoy's invention.
o Garrett Augustus Morgan invented a three-way automatic stop sign, which he sold to General Electric.
o Otis Boykin invented the electronic control devices for guided missiles, IBM computers and the control unit for a pacemaker.
o George Carruthers invented the far ultraviolet electrographic camera, used in the 1972 Apollo 16 mission and was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in 2003.
o James West's research in sound technology led to the development of foil-electret transducers used in 90 percent of all microphones built today and in most new telephones being manufactured. West holds 47 U.S. patents and more than 200 foreign patents on microphones and techniques for making polymer foil-electrets. He was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in 1999.
o Mark Dean, along with co-inventor Dennis Moelle, created a microcomputer system with bus control means for peripheral processing devices. This invention allows the use of computer plug-ins like disk drives, speakers, scanners, etc...
o George T. Sampson invented a clothes dryer that used heat from a stove in 1892.
o Frederick Jones held more than 60 patents with most of them pertaining to refrigeration and his portable air conditioner was used in World War II to preserve medicine and blood serum.
o Joseph Winters invented a fire escape ladder in 1878.
o Lonnie G. Johnson invented the Super Soaker water gun, which was the No. 1 selling toy in America in 1991.
Share your news
To submit items for this column, call 301-791-7647 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.; mail the information to The Herald-Mail, c/o Madge D. Miles, P.O. Box 439, Hagerstown, MD 21741; or e-mail AroundJonathanStreet@gmail.com.
