Angels

keller@herald-mail.com Nick Adenhart has been caught up in several whirlwinds in the last 18 months. From being tabbed baseball's next big thing to undergoing major elbow surgery, the Williamsport High School graduate has been forced to deal with pressures and emotions many 17-year-olds haven't even imagined. The Adenhart whirlwind kicked up again last weekend, but this time the storm appears to have settled in Mesa, Ariz. Adenhart signed a contract Monday with the Anaheim Angels, who selected him in the 14th round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft June 7. The deal includes a $710,000 signing bonus, funding for four years of college and rehabilitation for an arm injury that kept him from pitching at the end of his final high school season and dropped him out of the first round of the baseball draft.

It's easy to be cynical. It's easy to be skeptical. It's even easier to be self-absorbed and unaware of the other things going on in the world around us. As 2002 draws to a close, there really are plenty of things to worry about, so the hard part sometimes is seeing the glass half full. The economy appears to be going down the tubes. We're on the brink of war with an insignificant country on the other side of the world. Major companies are lining up for bankruptcy protection like holiday shoppers in a check-out line.

katec@herald-mail.com Ultra Violet said she began making art in her mother's womb. Now nearly 70 years old, she still is creating, and an exhibit of her work is on display at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown. The installation is hundreds of feet of sky and includes two- and three-dimensional works, collages and found objects. There is a wedding gown with wings and a compact disc halo in the exhibit. "The sky is so beautiful," Ultra Violet said in a phone interview from New York.

And the trial drags on. In a controversy that should have been settled over a couple of plastic cups of beer in the bleachers, agnostic Carl Silverman and Class A Hagerstown Suns owner Winston Blenckstone spent the better part of last week in a state hearing room wrangling over whether a church bulletin makes an acceptable discount coupon. If we weren't spending tax money to have this resolved, it would be hilarious. As it is, though, it's only extremely funny. Ever the astute businessman, six years ago Blenckstone realized this Washington County truth.

marlob@herald-mail.com CLEAR SPRING - What started out as a shot in the dark a year ago turned into the gig of a lifetime for four Clear Spring-area young men who sang the national anthem before more than 20,000 people at the May 27 Orioles-Anaheim Angels baseball game. "That was our biggest audience ever - by about 19,000 or so," said Unknown Harmony first tenor Gerad Haupt, a psychology major at Messiah College. Haupt said it's his job to sing the "ridiculously high notes" needed in the group's performances.

HAGERSTOWN The parishioners at St. Ann Catholic Church in Hagerstown had been waiting for Friday night for more than a year. After all, it isn't often that an act as world-renowned as the Vienna Boys Choir comes to town. Marie Nowakowski, a member of the church's Vienna Boys Choir Committee, said the group went to great lengths to pull off the event, which lasted about an hour and 45 minutes before a crowd of more than 680 Tri-State residents. Nowakowski said some of the things that the committee did to prepare included renting a grand piano "at a considerable expense" and pulling together donations from local sponsors to keep the $30 ticket price affordable.

At her home in Afghanistan, Wasima Naseer could not have stepped outside after dark without a man by her side. Naseer, who is studying economics and international studies at Wilson College, a women's college in Chambersburg, Pa., said she was "scared" the first time she walked alone after dark nearly a year ago in Oregon. Naseer, 22, said that now, running errands and stepping outside by herself has become "normal. " It has been more than 80 years since women in the United States won the right to vote and it has been about five years since women in Afghanistan broke with some of the country's male-dominated traditions.

With not enough toys to fill the great need this Christmas, The Salvation Army in Hagerstown has extended the deadline for "angel tags" until Dec. 19. "We have received requests from 1,142 families this year for toys and food," Maj. Karen Lyle said. "That is 178 more than last year. " Also surging this year is the number of children needing Christmas presents. That total is 2,278, or 337 more children than last year, Lyle said. With Christmas Day less than two weeks away, the decision was made to add more angel tags to the trees at Wal-Mart and Valley Mall.

With not enough toys to fill the great need this Christmas, The Salvation Army in Hagerstown has extended the deadline for "angel tags" until Dec. 19. "We have received requests from 1,142 families this year for toys and food," Maj. Karen Lyle said. "That is 178 more than last year. " Also surging this year is the number of children needing Christmas presents. That total is 2,278, or 337 more children than last year, Lyle said. With Christmas Day less than two weeks away, the decision was made to add more angel tags to the trees at Wal-Mart and Valley Mall.

Editor's Note: In this 12-part series that runs through Christmas Eve, The Herald-Mail highlights people and organizations who make the holidays brighter for others. Name: Darlene Leasure Age: 31 Home: Greencastle, Pa. Occupation: Mother of 2-year-old Alaina and community volunteer Organization: Greencastle-Antrim Chamber of Commerce What do you do to make Christmas brighter?: This is Leasure's second year of portraying the "Christmas Angel" in the Heritage Christmas festivities in Greencastle.