Habitat

Habitat for Humanity of Washington County is seeking items for its 2011 Dinner & Auction fundraiser on April 2. The theme this year is "Habitat Celebrates the Age of Aquarius. " Items can include unique experiences, crafts, services (cleaning, handyman, sky diving, etc.), vacation getaways, sports tickets, club memberships, golf packages, jewelry, children's items, theme baskets and more. Volunteers to solicit items are also needed. If you have an item or service to donate, would like to help with the event, or would like to purchase tickets, contact the Habitat for Humanity office at 301-791-9009 or hfhwc@verizon.

Habitat for Humanity of Washington County's Women Build program will hold a bonanza Saturday, Feb. 18, at Williamsport Fire Hall. Tickets cost $40 per couple. Doors open at 5 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. It will include a home-style buffet dinner catered by Leiter's Fine Catering. Soft drinks and keg beer will be provided. The last ticket drawn wins $1,000. The first ticket drawn wins $40. Ticket No. 7 will be raffled off and put in the final five.

HAGERSTOWN -- For more than a month, Habitat for Humanity of Washington County employees have been enjoying its new offices at 100 Charles St. "It's not so much that we have more space but we have better designed space," said Kathy Powderly, director of development for Habitat. Since the agency began its work in Washington County in 1994, it has been using donated space at The Presbyterian Church of Hagerstown, which was involved in the beginnings of Habitat 15 years ago. "The church was great about letting us grow into the space they gave us," Powderly said.

The Hagerstown Suns will hold Habitat for Humanity Night at the ball park Friday. The game starts at 7:05 at Municipal Stadium. Fireworks will be included after the game. Tickets cost $10 each and include the game, a Suns hat and Chipotle voucher worth $11. $3.75 of each ticket goes to Habitat for Humanity of Washington County. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Go to web.minorleaguebaseball.com or call 301-791-6266 and mention Habitat.

The Hagerstown City Council has tentatively agreed to sell three houses to Habitat for Humanity. The five-member council Tuesday night unanimously approved the introduction of an ordinance to sell the houses to Habitat for Humanity of Washington County. The homes, which will be sold as a package deal for $100,000, are located at 226 N. Locust St., 25 E. Lee St. and 33 Elizabeth St. The city acquired the properties in 2006 and 2008 with Community Block Grant funds, according to officials.

The 16th annual Pen-Mar Regional Association of Realtors Golf Invitational will be held Friday, Aug. 6, at Black Rock Golf Course off Mount Aetna in Hagerstown. The proceeds benefit Habitat for Humanity. Registration is at 11 a.m. and a shotgun start will be at noon. Golf costs $85 per player, which includes golf, cart, player gift pack, beverage cart, lunch, dinner and prizes. The format will be a scramble and rules will be provided the day of the tournament. Lunch will be provided and there will be a buffet dinner following the tournament.

Habitat for Humanity Women Build is holding a Longaberger Basket Bingo of Sunday at The Improved Order of Red Men Tribe 84 on Lappans Road, Williamsport. Doors will open at 11 a.m., lunch will be served at noon and bingo games will begin at 1 p.m. Baskets are current and will be filled. Most have a protector, a liner or both. The 2011 holiday baskets will be included. There also will be raffles on baskets, tip jars and tiebreaker prizes. Seating is limited. Call Carrie at 301-582-8236 for tickets.

A group of women training for employment in the construction industry participated in a Habitat for Humanity project Wednesday in Hagerstown. Members of the Step-Up for Women program in Martinsburg, W. Va., which  provides training to help women find construction jobs, worked on a rehab project in the garage of a house in Hagerstown's West End. Program instructor Patrick McCoy said that the project was a way for the women to give back....

One of the best parts of my job is spending time with great horticultural minds. Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a state conference that featured not one, but two talks by always impressive author/designer/photographer Rick Darke. His focus was naturalistic gardens and design ethics. His premise is that true wilderness doesn't exist, but that wildness is a renewable resource that is all around us. In other words, man has left a footprint everywhere, but there is much we can do to preserve and restore what we have in our own backyards.  He encouraged us to take a broader view of our gardens as part of a larger ecosystem.

A blessing of the foundation was held Wednesday for the third house, the first for a military veteran, in Habitat for Humanity of the Eastern Panhandle's Auburndale subdivision. The house will be home to Robert Scott, 57, a homeless veteran who lives in transitional housing at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg. The house will be built in a week. Construction will begin May 13 with the ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for May 19. “It's my first house,” said Scott, who stood among the nearly 30 persons in the audience who participated or showed up in support of the ceremony.

Officers who abuse authority violate their duties To the editor: As a correctional officer who has been involved in this profession for more than 21 years, I want to thank you for your editorial, “ Correctional officers must maintain higher level of authority, ” which was published on April 15. The constant negative comments and coverage of this profession can be draining at times. When a correctional officer abuses their authority, it affects all of us. I believe it was Sheriff Andy Taylor, from the old “Andy Griffith Show,” who said that “we sometimes get so caught up in being law enforcement officers, we forget that we are also peace officers.” This has always been my motto.

Habitat for Humanity of Washington County celebrated its 20th annual Habitat Dinner Auction on Saturday at Hagerstown Community College's Athletic, Recreation and Community Center. Habitat Development Director Becca Burford said the group chose a theme of “Revive the Roaring '20s” to “tie in” the 20th anniversary of the event. About 400 people paid $45 per ticket to attend the casually festive fundraiser. Burford said she hoped it would raise around $60,000. Though many attendees opted not to dress befitting the theme, those who did went full-tilt '20s.

  ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - Elizabeth Nicole Smith of Williamsport was named to the dean's list for the fall semester at St. Mary's College of Maryland. CHESTERTOWN, Md. - Washington College  announced that Jordan Cannon of Hagerstown recently performed as an alto in the Washington College Chorus' spring concert, “History of Rock Opera,” conducted by Lecturer in Music Douglas Byerly. Cannon had a solo in the chorus' rendition of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day. Cannon is majoring in studio art and is also a member of the Washington College Chamber Singers.

The children at Rehoboth Learning Center in Williamsport held an art show/sale in January at the Desert Rose Café.  The proceeds, totaling $400, were donated to Habitat for Humanity of Washington County.  Becca Burford from Habitat visited the children on Feb. 18 to accept the donation and tell the children about what Habitat for Humanity does for families.  The children had a lesson in loving others and unselfishness while sharing their...

It started with a simple request for volunteers for the newly formed Habitat for Humanity of Washington County chapter. Cheryl Saylor of Hagerstown noticed the call for volunteers in the newspaper, attended an informational meeting and signed up. “I was always involved in various school organizations and the kids were getting older. I was looking for something else to get involved with,” Saylor said. For more than 16 years, Saylor, 58, has remained loyal to Habitat and the mission of building affordable housing for low-income families in need in Washington County.

The Carr family - Wendell, Tara and their children - passed a most-important milestone Wednesday when they were handed the keys to their first home. Their new three-bedroom house is the second one built by Habitat for Humanity of the Eastern Panhandle in its Auburndale Subdivision off Boston Street. The Carr's house stands out because it has solar panels on the roof. The family, which put in hours of sweat equity into the house, has been living in a trailer, Tara Carr said.

The quilt speaks for itself. It's log cabin design, with the setting of a barn raising, is done in shades of navy blue, burgundy and tan reproductions of Civil War fabric. Quiltmaker Susan Stull is also a Civil War reenactor, so the 150th anniversaries of the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg were her inspiration. For more than 15 years, Stull, 61, has donated a handmade quilt to the Potter's Bowl live auction. The Potter's Bowl, to be held on Sunday, benefits the Community Free Clinic of Washington County.