Poverty

WASHINGTON COUNTY-The money she made working three part-time jobs as a crossing guard, lunch aide and evening cook barely enabled single mother Cherry Hiser to pay the rent. She was caught in a cycle of work and poverty that continued for five years before the Hagerstown woman found Habitat for Humanity of Washington County Inc., which built her a home three years ago and helped lay the foundation for her new life. "Being a single mother and being able to afford to pay for a place to live ... It's an exciting feeling because you know you're working every day for a reason," said Hiser, who now works full time as an assembler to make the monthly no-interest mortgage payments to Habitat.

Juvenile crime in the United States has followed a generally downward trend since the early 1990s, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. From 2008 to 2009, juvenile arrests for violent crime fell 10 percent and overall arrests were down 9 percent, to the lowest rate in two decades, according to a report released by the Justice Department in December. "That's been the trend, not just in Maryland, but nationally," said Reginald Garnett, executive director for residential operations for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, which oversees juvenile detention and residential treatment facilities in the state.

A move to increase awareness of the needs of poor children across West Virginia comes to the Eastern Panhandle on Saturday in a forum on child poverty, one of 12 being hosted across the state. The “Our Children, Our Future” forum, at Westview Baptist Church at 301 S. Louisiana Ave. in Martinsburg, runs from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. John Unger, D-Berkeley/Jefferson, the senate majority leader, champions issues surrounding child poverty. “Research shows that child development occurs between birth and age 8,” Unger said.

As the first African-American woman to achieve the rank of major general in the U.S. Army, Marcia M. Anderson helped inspire Letterkenny Army Depot employees Friday as they observed Black History Month. In a keynote speech focusing on “Black Women in American Culture and History,” the 30-year career soldier spoke of her personal philosophy for success. “It's not your ZIP code or your family history that determines where you end up in life so much as what's in your heart and what's in your brain,” Anderson told Letterkenny employees.

My mother made me a journalist. And a musician, an artist, a poet and a playwright. I realized this recently while taking in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - “The Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848 to 1900.” My mother, Rosemary Bacon, grew up in a small town in Michigan, the youngest child of four by eight years and hugely creative. She studied piano and played the organ at her church. She drew. She sang. After high school, she went to Taylor University in Indiana and took art and music classes.

Long Meadows Rotary members welcomed District Foundation Chairman Dale Lepovetsky at its Nov. 16 meeting. He showed a video and gave a presentation on EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year). Each club's goal of $100 per member per year is what sustains the annual programs fund and allows the Rotary Foundation to support world and community needs. Every dollar donated goes toward a members' Paul Harris Fellow recognition. The Rotary Foundation mission is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty.

A group of Broadfording Christian Academy high school students and adults traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, in March to minister to the poverty-stricken children there. The BCA mission team paired with Christian Outreach International, a larger missionary group that has been working with the people of Chihuahua for several years. The mission teams prepared and served meals, and held a mini-Vacation Bible School for the children. A school, training center and church are being built to supply more seating so more children in Chihuahua can attend church and be served meals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Appalachian Regional Commission has awarded a $30,000 grant to the City of Hancock to rehabilitate a community center. The community center provides young people with social, recreational and educational programming like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, U.S. Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin, both D-Md., said in an e-mailed release on Monday. The Washington County Community Partnership for Children & Families will use the ARC funds to repair the floor and install HVAC, lighting and sound equipment in the Hancock Community Center, the release says.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Deborah Kay Witmer was receiving her Teacher of the Year award on Friday morning from Franklin County Head Start when 4-year-old Zion Valenca gave a spontaneous demonstration of the program's importance to children, reading aloud from the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. " "A, B, C ... Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," read the State Line, Pa., boy, who had accompanied Witmer to the podium during the breakfast meeting at The Orchards Restaurant. He continued reading, and asked Witmer to join him. Zion is one of the more than 10,000 children who have attended Head Start in the county since its inception as a summer program in 1965.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. ? Deborah Kay Witmer was receiving her Teacher of the Year award on Friday morning from Franklin County Head Start when 4-year-old Zion Valenca gave a spontaneous demonstration of the program's importance to children, reading aloud from the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. " "A, B, C ... Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," read the State Line, Pa., boy, who had accompanied Witmer to the podium during the breakfast meeting at The Orchards Restaurant. He continued reading, and asked Witmer to join him. Zion is one of the more than 10,000 children who have attended Head Start in the county since its inception as a summer program in 1965.