Benefit

For 40 years, people have been coming out for a meal served by the Antietam Exchange Club to help the organization raise money for charities it supports. The event started at the Venice Inn on Dual Highway and then moved to South Hagerstown High School, said George Hill, chairman of the fundraiser. Hundreds of people turned out Sunday for the Italian Festa, now held at Williamsport Volunteer Fire & Emergency Medical Services. “It seems a lot of the same faces come out each year,” Hill said as he scanned the crowd.

Nonprofit organizations in Washington County will have a new way to raise money on May 2, thanks to the Community Foundation of Washington County, Md., Inc. The foundation's mission is to promote philanthropy mainly through endowment funds, but officials with the organization believed it is also important to help nonprofits raise the money they need, according to Brad Sell, executive director of the foundation. On May 2, donors will be able to go to the website http://washingtoncountygives.org to donate to nonprofit groups.

Maria Edmonds, who has had literary works published in an anthology against domestic violence and Hedge Apple Literary Magazine, was preparing to recite two original poems for “An Evening of Music and Poetry,” put on Saturday night by students and staff at Hagerstown Community College's Kepler Center. “I think it's important that people are able to express their feelings,” she said. Edmonds, 34, was slated to recite a poem titled “The Stranger” over the piano and another poem titled “Store Birds Summer” over the guitar.

On Sunday, Feb. 10, USMH will hold a Longaberger Basket, Vera Bradley and money bingo event at the Hagerstown Elks Lodge. All funds raised at the event will benefit the USMH Scholarship Fund, a fund of the University System of Maryland Foundation Inc. Doors open at 11 a.m. with lunch at noon. The bingo will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Advance tickets cost $25 and include lunch. Tickets will cost $30 at the door. Everyone must have a paid ticket to enter. Anyone can play bingo, but you must be 18 years or older to play tip jars.

As wine was poured, hors d'oeuvres were tasted and music was performed, several people milled about tables, deciding whether to place bids on items ranging from gift cards and gift baskets to personal concerts and a Bustin Ratmobile, a downhill skateboard. The Gourmet Goat on North Potomac Street in downtown Hagerstown hosted the fourth annual Wine and Cheese, Silent and Lively Auction on Sunday to benefit the Community Free Clinic. The clinic, on Mill Street, treats medically uninsured Washington County residents for free.

Building for Hunger is a charity event involving local schools and area businesses. The event is a partnership with the local Washington County Hunger Group, Valley Mall, participating schools, sponsoring businesses, and of course, the local community supplying canned and boxed foods that will be donated to the Maryland Food Bank - Western Maryland Division (formerly Food Resources Inc. Donation bins for nonperishable boxed and canned food items...

The Boys & Girls Club of Chambersburg and Shippensburg (Pa.) are preparing to welcome many of the area's leading restaurants to compete in its second annual Wing Challenge at Chambersburg Country Club. Held on Jan. 27 from 2 to 5 p.m. and open to the public, the event will include wings from area restaurants. The cost of entry is $20 per person. All proceeds from the event will benefit the area's local Boys & Girls Club, according to a news release. In 2012, the Boys & Girls Club welcomed more 150 guests, or “judges,” to its first wings event.

GIRLS BASKETBALL In recent years, Boonsboro has played Catoctin tough, even in the years that the Cougars were a very, very good 1A team, not to say they aren't creditable this season. A matchup loomed Friday night between two potential MVAL Antietam Conference unbeatens - South Hagerstown and Catoctin - until the Warriors gladly ruined that. Boonsboro rallied from a seven-point deficit after three quarters to hand Catoctin (6-3, 3-1 Antietam) its first loss while improving to 2-1 in the Antietam and 4-3 overall.

On Saturday, Gordon's Grocery owners John Gordon and his sister, Cynthia Milsap, will host a wine-tasting event with Monument Fine Wines from noon to 6 p.m.  Gordon's is at 101 Cypress St. in Hagerstown.  The event is a benefit for the Humane Society of Washington County. Donations of food, toys, nonclumping cat litter and other animal-related items will be collected in front of the store. “What better way to spread holiday cheer than to host a benefit for the homeless animals in Washington County,” Gordon said.

The Berkeley County Council on Thursday agreed in a 4-0 vote to settle a lawsuit by a county employee, who claimed she was wrongfully terminated in October 2011. Sharon Chaffee, who filed the lawsuit in April, was reinstated as an at-will employee in the Berkeley County assessor's office in June 2012. Chaffee will be paid a total of $58,000 for back wages, repayment of unemployment benefits, general damages and attorney fees and costs, according to settlement terms released Thursday by Berkeley County Council attorney Norwood Bentley III. Chaffee is to receive $23,070 in back wages and unemployment benefits, which will be paid from the Berkeley County assessor's budget, said Bentley in an email response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed Thursday by The Herald-Mail.