New Orleans

A flock of pink flamingos isn't a normal sight around Hagerstown, but a youth group from a local church has been placing plastic flocks of the birds on lawns as a fundraiser for a mission trip to New Orleans this summer. For a donation of $20, people can request to have their lawn “flocked” and a second donation is needed to have them removed, kept for a significant amount of time or moved to another location. A donation also can protect someone's lawn from the placement.

Friends since their youth and diehard Baltimore Ravens fans, Donnie Stotelmyer and Mark Crilly were elated to get tickets to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans. Crilly was selected in the Ravens lottery for the right to buy Super Bowl tickets - at a face value of $850 each. “Our families encouraged us” to go, said Stotelmyer, who along with Crilly graduated from South Hagerstown High School in 1975 and is a member of Ravens Roost No. 7. The AFC champion Ravens play the San Francisco 49ers, champions of the NFC, Sunday in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. chambersburg@herald-mail.com Slim Brumfield spent about 60 of his 77 years in New Orleans, but sitting in a former nursing home in Fayetteville, Pa., Thursday, he said he was not sure he will ever go back. Playing beside him on the bed in the old Beverly Manor nursing home was his 4-year-old great-granddaughter, Victoria Green, and another member of an extended family. The group from the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina has moved into what is known as Candleheart Center.

The mayor of New Orleans called for a total evacuation of the city Wednesday and warned the death toll from Hurricane Katrina could reach into the thousands, making it the deadliest natural disaster in the United States since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Read the full story in Thursday's Herald-Mail newspapers.

New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. Read the full story in Friday's Herald-Mail newspapers.

MERCERSBURG, PA.-After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and severely damaged their home and their oil business, John and Deniz Celestin left Louisiana and searched for a ski condo at Whitetail Resort. Instead, the couple purchased the James Buchanan Hotel and Restaurant in Mercersburg. "We were enamored with the building - it reminds us of New Orleans," Deniz Celestin said. "We walked in and it felt like it was our place. " Judy Bonciu, the real estate agent who was helping the Celestins find a condo, owned the restaurant with her husband, Catalin.

Kiwanis Clubs from across the country, including the Hagerstown Kiwanis Club, are reaching out to their communities to collect playable and/or repairable musical instruments for delivery to young people in the New Orleans area who have been deprived of the opportunity to learn to play due to the still devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. Julie Barr-Strasburg, executive director of the local chapter of the American Red Cross, will be speaking to the Hagers-town Kiwanis Club Thursday to ask the club's assistance in helping to meet the challenge in the New Orleans area.

WASHINGTON COUNTY ? Horns, flutes and other unplayed instruments in Washington County are re-emerging from their storage spots. They're heading to New Orleans for a program that lets children use them. Julie Barr-Strasburg, whose brother-in-law, Trent Strasburg, started the long-distance charity effort, is jazzed. "It's all about music and how it flows from people and how it can heal people," she said. Trent Strasburg, who retired after more than 30 years as a postal inspector, lives in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb.

MERCERSBURG, Pa. - After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and severely damaged their home and their oil business, John and Deniz Celestin left Louisiana and searched for a ski condo at Whitetail Resort. Instead, the couple purchased the James Buchanan Hotel and Restaurant in Mercersburg. "We were enamored with the building - it reminds us of New Orleans," Deniz Celestin said. "We walked in and it felt like it was our place. " Judy Bonciu, the real estate agent who was helping the Celestins find a condo, owned the restaurant with her husband, Catalin.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- Hot 8 Brass Band tuba player and band leader Bennie "Big Peter" Pete, 32, said that for him and the rest of Hot 8 Brass Band, their school music program gave them more than a reason to keep off of the rough New Orleans streets. Music, he said, gave them a future. "We had a band teacher who told all of us, when it came to work you could always join or sit in to perform with a band," Pete said during a telephone interview driving on the way to his New Orleans home.

Friends since their youth and diehard Baltimore Ravens fans, Donnie Stotelmyer and Mark Crilly were elated to get tickets to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans. Crilly was selected in the Ravens lottery for the right to buy Super Bowl tickets - at a face value of $850 each. “Our families encouraged us” to go, said Stotelmyer, who along with Crilly graduated from South Hagerstown High School in 1975 and is a member of Ravens Roost No. 7. The AFC champion Ravens play the San Francisco 49ers, champions of the NFC, Sunday in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

A flock of pink flamingos isn't a normal sight around Hagerstown, but a youth group from a local church has been placing plastic flocks of the birds on lawns as a fundraiser for a mission trip to New Orleans this summer. For a donation of $20, people can request to have their lawn “flocked” and a second donation is needed to have them removed, kept for a significant amount of time or moved to another location. A donation also can protect someone's lawn from the placement.

There's a snow globe that sits on my bedroom dresser. A casual observer might have thought it was just a souvenir during spring break at the French Quarter of New Orleans. To me, it's a reminder that I'm a workaholic. More than 15 years ago, my sisters decided they wanted to take a trip to New Orleans. The Big Easy. The town that serves hot, spicy crawdads with smooth, silky jazz. And a place I had always wanted to visit. But did I go? Nope. My excuse? I had to work.

Betty Jean Gehr, 88, of New Orleans, La., died on Nov. 26, 2009, at the home of her daughter in Little Rock, Ark. Arrangements are by Little Rock Funeral Home. Burial will be at Rest Haven Cemetery in Hagerstown, at a date to be announced.

HAGERSTOWN -- By eating and bidding on Sunday, hundreds of people helped the Religious Effort to Assist and Care for the Homeless (REACH) fill its coffers. Taste of the Town is a long-running tradition in the Hagerstown area. Five years ago, REACH picked up the event after another nonprofit organization, Hospice of Washington County, let it go. The event is the biggest of the year for REACH, board President Tom Newell said. It has raised as much as $35,000, but it's also a good showcase for REACH and its work, he said.

-AUG. 20, 2009 SLIDELL, La. -- Charles H. "Tim" Cosens, 78, of Slidell, passed away Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009, in Slidell. He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles H. Cosens and Jane Corinne Cosens; and one brother, Richard Cosens. He is survived by his wife, Ge Cosens; one son, Charles H. "Tim" Cosens III; five brothers and sisters, Georgina Cosens, Priscilla Shingleton, Kathy Blickenstaff, Kenneth Cosens and Reginald Cosens; and a host of nieces and nephews, Karen Talbot, Jennifer McDonald, Amy Bastian, Rurik Bohn, Kenneth Cosens Jr., Ferman Shingleton II, Charles Blickenstaff III and Reginald Cosens Jr. Mr. Cosens was a native of Mount Lena, Md., and a resident of Slidell for 37 years.

o Read more Kristy Smith columns at washingtoncountyliving.com Greetings, neighbors Hope all is well with you. We are preparing for the last first day of school in our home. Exciting and a little sad at the same time. Angel Food Project comes to Boonsboro The Angel Food Project has come to Boonsboro, under the auspices of the First Christian Church on St. Paul Street. The program offers several meal-planning options that are nutritionally balanced and affordable.

Blues Fest was an amazing weekend To the editor: Wow. I don't know what was more amazing at Blues Fest 2009 - hearing top-notch national and regional musicians at our Saturday "Downtown House Party" - culminating in an absolutely stellar set by The Derek Trucks Band before our largest-ever festival audience - or the realization our community, teaming together, produced such an amazing weekend filled with fellowship, children's activities...

MAUGANSVILLE -- Archie van Norden's brother lost his Gulf Coast home during Hurricane Katrina, making it hard for the Maugansville Elementary School principal to resist a chance to help restore some New Orleans schools. "They are trying to make a comeback, but it's taking a long time," van Norden said. Van Norden, 55, of Halfway, was one of 100 elementary and middle school principals nationwide who participated in the National Association of Elementary School Principals' annual convention in April.