Beads

Eastern Elementary School C-SAFE Homework Club students made wampum beaded necklaces in a craft lesson provided by Ron Lytle and volunteer artists from the Contemporary School of the Arts and Gallery Inc. and local art students. The Wampanoag Indians used the wampum as symbols of power and authority. The beads were given monetary value and used to trade and barter with. After making the necklaces, the students calculated how much they were worth. The C-SAFE Homework Club is comprised of a total of 25 students in third, fourth and fifth grades.

tiffanya@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Beads were what was missing from downtown Hagerstown's art district, if you ask Allie Baumler and Nathan Buchman. Buchman, 23, and Baumler, 22, are co-owners of The Potomac Bead Company at 109 S. Potomac St., a shop that specializes in one-of-a-kind baubbles. The shop across from Washington County Free Library opened last month. "There wasn't anywhere to get beads anywhere around here," said Baumler, a jewelry maker. "You had to go like 30 miles just to get them.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com MERCERSBURG, Pa. - Jill Sipes, a single mother of three diagnosed with terminal cancer, left Wednesday for treatments in a clinic in Mexico after more than $20,000 in donations came in this week, her mother, Lois Lynch, said Thursday. Sipes, of Mercersburg, has been trying to raise the money for the experimental treatments since doctors in Baltimore told her her condition was hopeless after three months of chemotherapy failed to reduce the tumors that have spread through her upper body.

Cpl. Detective Greg Alton of the Washington County Sheriff's Office is seeking the owners of two items that were recovered as a result of investigations into burglaries in the county. One of the items appears to be a pendant for years of service at a company, Alton said. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers is engraved on the pendant, which is on a piece of cardboard that reads "Bastian Brothers. " The second item is a bracelet that might have belonged to a small girl, Alton said.

Cookies and candy canes are helping a young mother fight for her life. Shelley Leab of Mercersburg organized a cookie walk at the First United Methodist Church in Mercersburg to raise funds for the experimental cancer treatment Jill Sipes is receiving at the Oasis of Hope Clinic in Mexico. Leab exceeded her goal of 150 dozen donated cookies; she had about 175 dozen when the doors opened at 10 a.m. Saturday. The event raised $530 for Sipes. Sipes, 32, of Mercersburg, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in July, the day after her daughter, Lexi, was born.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com Marcus C. Thomas isn't sure whether he'd be painting today if March 3, 1986, had turned out differently. It was on that day that, while skiing, Thomas fell and slid head-first into the base of a tree, breaking his neck and fourth cervical vertebrae. As he adjusted to life as a man paralyzed from the shoulders down, Thomas received a set of watercolors for Christmas that year. Thomas is one of around 170 artists with work on display at the 28th Annual Fall Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Festival outside of Harpers Ferry.

Anne Bowers, Middleway, 1-304-725-0567 Bowers weaves a rich mix of traditional and contemporary baskets from materials such as reeds and seagrass, adding details like oak handles and curls that resemble flowers. Treva Blackford, Kearneysville, 1-304-728-8004 For the past decade, Blackford has designed and hand-produced teddy bears. Her Brown Shop Bears are made of mohair with movable joints, filled with excelsior, polyfill and/or pellets, and are hand-stitched.

Elkin-Lapole Elizabeth Anne Lapole and Ryan Lee Elkin were married at 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005, at St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church in Hagerstown. Father Richard Murphy performed the ceremony. The bride is the daughter of Deborah Thompson and Gary and Mae Lapole. She is the granddaughter of Rosalie Lapole and Clifford and Rose Marie Thompson. The bridegroom is the son of Gerald and Sandy Elkin. He is the grandson of Blaine and Jean Elkin and Joseph and Margaret Sekerak.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A full three weeks have passed since Mardi Gras celebrations came to an end in New Orleans, but a family-style event billed as the largest of its kind in the Eastern Panhandle aims to continue the bead and moonpie fun a little longer on Sunday in Martinsburg. "Mardi Gras 2008 - Celebration of the Family" will be from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at Moose Lodge 120 at 201 Woodbury Ave. Tickets are still available and more information can be obtained by contacting the Family Resource Network of the Panhandle Inc., one of the sponsors, at 304-264-1554 where tickets can be purchased.

chrisc@herald-mail.com In the United States, Mardi Gras is nearly synonomous with New Orleans. The late winter celebration in Louisiana's party capital is a holiday for eating, drinking and extreme partying. Mardi Gras is the French name for a Christian tradition of last-minute feasting on the day before the beginning of Lent - a six-and-a-half-week period of fasting and sacrifice before Easter. The modern traditions of Mardi Gras, however, include extravagant costumes, bead necklaces thrown from parade floats, excessive eating and drinking, even public displays of nudity to celebrate on March 4. Tri-State residents can find a mellower Mardi Gras mood much closer than Louisiana.

Cpl. Detective Greg Alton of the Washington County Sheriff's Office is seeking the owners of two items that were recovered as a result of investigations into burglaries in the county. One of the items appears to be a pendant for years of service at a company, Alton said. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers is engraved on the pendant, which is on a piece of cardboard that reads "Bastian Brothers. " The second item is a bracelet that might have belonged to a small girl, Alton said.

BOONSBORO - Sally Poole will never meet the women who make the necklaces and other handmade jewelry she's selling on their behalf through BeadforLife. To Poole, who lives in Boonsboro, it doesn't matter that those women live a world away in East Africa. "I think we need to care for each other around the world," Poole said. Poole will sell the beads from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, as part of the Fall Fest at Mount Lena United Methodist Church. The event will feature food and crafts.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A full three weeks have passed since Mardi Gras celebrations came to an end in New Orleans, but a family-style event billed as the largest of its kind in the Eastern Panhandle aims to continue the bead and moonpie fun a little longer on Sunday in Martinsburg. "Mardi Gras 2008 - Celebration of the Family" will be from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at Moose Lodge 120 at 201 Woodbury Ave. Tickets are still available and more information can be obtained by contacting the Family Resource Network of the Panhandle Inc., one of the sponsors, at 304-264-1554 where tickets can be purchased.

The Potomac Bead Co. in Hagerstown started out a few years ago in a small building near the Washington County Free Library. But as the business began to grow, co-owners Allie and Nathan Buchman decided to move the company to a larger space. In 2007, they relocated to 53 W. Washington St. Allie Buchman said she couldn't imagine having a business anywhere else but downtown Hagerstown. "It's been going very well so far ... It's a busy store," she said. "We'd much rather be in a downtown area than in a mall.

What do most teens do when they go to a mall? Eat, window shop, drink coffee, maybe catch a movie. But did you know you can do all that on a Saturday in downtown Hagerstown? There are lots of shops, cafes, a bookstore and library, all within a few blocks. It's good exercise, plus, it supports local business. Do you like to get up early? Your first stop might be the Hagerstown City Farmers Market at 25 W. Church St., open from 5 a.m. to noon Saturdays. It's an old-fashioned, noisy market with many vendors.

Eastern Elementary School C-SAFE Homework Club students made wampum beaded necklaces in a craft lesson provided by Ron Lytle and volunteer artists from the Contemporary School of the Arts and Gallery Inc. and local art students. The Wampanoag Indians used the wampum as symbols of power and authority. The beads were given monetary value and used to trade and barter with. After making the necklaces, the students calculated how much they were worth. The C-SAFE Homework Club is comprised of a total of 25 students in third, fourth and fifth grades.

Quilts, woven items and beads CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Chambersburg Quilt Guild's quilted wall hangings; BeadWrights' bead creations; and hand-woven items by Robin Saulsbery. Concludes Saturday, Oct. 28. The Council for the Arts, 159 S. Main St. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Call 717-264-6883. Paintings by James Condron FREDERICK, Md. - James Condron has painted in nearly the same location almost daily for the past year, using color to represent the vibrations of form and space.

Quilts, weavings and beads Chambersburg Quilt Guild's quilted wall hangings; BeadWrights' bead creations; and hand-woven items by Robin Saulsbery. Continues through Saturday, Oct. 28. The Council for the Arts, 159 S. Main St., Chambersburg, Pa. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Call 717-264-6883. Death in the late Victorian era The exhibit features photographs, garments and children's caskets from the museum collection, as well as documentation from the Brunswick Death Registry during the late Victorian era. Continues through Sunday, Nov. 12. Brunswick Railroad Museum, 40 W. Potomac St., Brunswick, Md. For information, call 301-834-6266, e-mail suemuseum@yahoo.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Shakespeare might have written "The Tempest" as a way of examining serious adult subjects like romantic love and hatred, but a group of children and young adults perform the play this month in Shepherdstown. Twenty-three local children and young adults from West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland participate in this year's Shakespeare Generation production as cast and crew. Erik Anderson, 21, of Frederick, Md., the director of "The Tempest," said that everyone involved in the play does a little bit of everything: costuming, set building, advertising and more.