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12
QO Parents Give Coach’s Office a Makeover By Syl Sobel L et’s say you’re the new head coach of one of the most successful high school foot- ball programs in Maryland. What are the first things you do? Meet with players and parents. Check. Hire assistant coaches. Check. Plan training camp and scrim- mage schedules. Check. Redecorate your office. … Huh? For new Quince Orchard Coach John Kelley, redecorating his office wasn’t necessarily near the top of his transition planning list. “I was perfectly content in just a dungeon,” he said. But some QO parents had another idea. “We got togeth- er—there were like five or six couples originally—and we said, ‘Let’s do something really cool for Coach Kelley,’” said Staci Bloom, the “team Mom” for this year’s football Cougars. The parents thought “new coach, new of- fice” and decided to pool a small amount of money together and fix up the QO football office to By Syl Sobel F or many little boys, the dream of being a profes- sional athlete starts early. On ball fields, basketball courts, driveways and backyards, balls are tossed, baskets are shot, tackles are practiced, and sprints are run, all with the goal of some day performing in front of family and friends in the biggest arenas, with and against the greatest athletes in your sport. For Quince Orchard grad Travis Hawkins, that dream is close to becoming reality, and for one week earlier this month, he got to share it with the people closest to him in a venue close to home. Hawkins, the former multi-purpose star for QO’s 2007 undefeated state champions, is now an undrafted free agent rookie with the New England Patriots, try- ing to make their roster as a defensive back and special teams player. During the first week in August, Hawkins and the Patriots conducted joint practice sessions at the Redskins training camp in Richmond, Virginia, in preparation for their opening preseason football game at FedEx Field. “It’s great to be back,” said Hawkins following a three-hour afternoon practice, two days before the pre- season opener. “Just knowing that the Redskins were going to be the first team that we played against and back here at home gives my family and friends an op- portunity to see me play my first game.” He added that it’s “pretty cool just practicing against guys I grew up watching and admiring.” Just a few feet away that day, one of those friends waited anxiously to reunite with his boyhood buddy. Hawkins’ former teammate, Jaron Morrison, could be heard at practice shouting “Go T. Hawk” and “QO.” “It’s crazy,” a smiling Morrison said. “I’ve been play- ing with him since we were 7 and 8 years old in little leagues at Montgomery Village. To see him out here living his dream, it’s pretty crazy. I love it, I love it,” said the former quarterback of QO’s 2007 state champi- ons, a Towson University graduate who is now a com- munications specialist at a federal government agency and pursuing an MBA degree at UMBC. Hawkins was signed as a free agent by the Patriots following the draft. He caught the eye of NFL teams by putting up impressive numbers during his “pro day” workout at his alma mater, the University of Delaware, Arts Barn Draws Homeschoolers With Teacher Sue Kay By Pam Schipper W hen Sue Kay talks about teaching, her eyes light up. A professional art- ist who these days concentrates on watercolors—many of Maine lighthouses and Maryland farms—Kay began her career in the arts as an illustrator, doing agency and archi- tectural firm work. When her children came along, the deadline-driven nature of that work became more difficult. My husband asked me, “What do you want to do?” She wanted to concentrate more on her art. At about the same time, a friend, Suzanne El- lis, suggested she teach. Kay had majored in il- lustration and design at Syracuse University, but she had taken all of her extra classes in elemen- tary art education. Ellis, who homeschooled her two daughters from kindergarten through 12th grade, introduced Kay to the Heritage Homes- chool Co-op. Pretty soon she was teaching seven days a week, and all homeschoolers at first. That was 20 years ago. “I think I have a knack for breaking it down into little pieces so that kids can have success,” Kay said. Three years ago, Kay began teaching art classes for homeschoolers at the Arts Barn. This Septem- ber marks the beginning of her fourth year there, and 75 percent of her classes are comprised of re- turning students. “Discovering Art” is offered to two age groups: youth ages 7-12 and teens ages 13-17. Each class averages seven or eight students drawn from around the area and as far north as Clarksburg. Many homeschooling families enroll their children in outside classes to supplement their at-home study. As a parent, “it’s hard to be an expert in everything,” Kay said. Her two sons enrolled in the Montgomery County Public Schools system. In addition to her decades of professional ex- perience teaching homeschoolers, Kay has a per- sonal perspective on homeschooling. Her brother and sister-in-law homeschooled their seven chil- dren in Charlottesville, Virginia. “A lot of families do it (homeschooling) amaz- ingly well,” Kay said. “They do their kids a big service by doing this.” According to the latest available data from the Maryland State Department of Education enti- tled “Total Number of Students Taught Through Home Schooling as Reported by Each Local School System 1993-2007,” Montgomery Coun- ty reported 2,242 students homeschooled during the 2006-2007 school year. Statewide, the num- ber of homeschoolers that year was 24,277. Across the nation, U.S. Department of Edu- cation, National Center for Education Statistics reported that “Approximately 3 percent of the school-age population was homeschooled in the 2011–12 school year.” Kay’s teaching philosophy is grounded in the The Town Courier 309 Main Street Gaithersburg, MD 20878 PRSRT-STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID Gaithersburg MD Permit #1722 Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands, Lakelands, Quince Orchard Park and More Vol. 12, No. 16 COURIER THE TOWN August 22, 2014 www.towncourier.com n ART CLASS Continued on page 8 n HAWKINS Continued on page 7 n MAKEOVER Continued on page 7 Former Cougar Football Star Travis Hawkins Brings His Dream Close to Home Photo | Phil Fabrizio QO alum Travis Hawkins was signed as a free agent by the New England Patriots following the draft. Here, Hawkins (right, no. 42) visits with friend and QO football alum Jaron Morrison (center) and Jaron’s father, Jim Morrison, at Redskins training camp on Aug. 5. Photo | The Arts Barn Sue Kay teaches an art class for homeschoolers at the Arts Barn. Class Coordinator Ellen Schall said, “Sue has a great deal of expe- rience, and she’s excellent with the kids. She’s a great artist, too.” Photo | Phil Fabrizio New Quince Orchard Head Football Coach John Kelley shows off his new office that sports the QO color scheme throughout and a QO football logo over the sofa.

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Page 1: Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands ...towncourier.com › 2014 › G3 › pdf › TCGThree0814Web.pdf · class oordinator ellen schall said, “ ue has a great

QO Parents Give Coach’s Office a Makeover

By Syl Sobel

L et’s say you’re the new head coach of one of the most successful high school foot-

ball programs in Maryland. What are the first things you do?

Meet with players and parents. Check.

Hire assistant coaches. Check.Plan training camp and scrim-

mage schedules. Check.Redecorate your office. …

Huh?For new Quince Orchard

Coach John Kelley, redecorating his office wasn’t necessarily near

the top of his transition planning list. “I was perfectly content in just a dungeon,” he said.

But some QO parents had another idea. “We got togeth-er—there were like five or six couples originally—and we said, ‘Let’s do something really cool for Coach Kelley,’” said Staci Bloom, the “team Mom” for this year’s football Cougars. The parents thought “new coach, new of-fice” and decided to pool a small amount of money together and fix up the QO football office to

By Syl Sobel

F or many little boys, the dream of being a profes-sional athlete starts early. On ball fields, basketball courts, driveways and backyards, balls are tossed,

baskets are shot, tackles are practiced, and sprints are run, all with the goal of some day performing in front of family and friends in the biggest arenas, with and against the greatest athletes in your sport.

For Quince Orchard grad Travis Hawkins, that dream is close to becoming reality, and for one week earlier this month, he got to share it with the people closest to him in a venue close to home.

Hawkins, the former multi-purpose star for QO’s 2007 undefeated state champions, is now an undrafted free agent rookie with the New England Patriots, try-ing to make their roster as a defensive back and special teams player.

During the first week in August, Hawkins and the Patriots conducted joint practice sessions at the Redskins training camp in Richmond, Virginia, in preparation for their opening preseason football game at FedEx Field.

“It’s great to be back,” said Hawkins following a three-hour afternoon practice, two days before the pre-season opener. “Just knowing that the Redskins were going to be the first team that we played against and back here at home gives my family and friends an op-portunity to see me play my first game.” He added that it’s “pretty cool just practicing against guys I grew up watching and admiring.”

Just a few feet away that day, one of those friends waited anxiously to reunite with his boyhood buddy. Hawkins’ former teammate, Jaron Morrison, could be

heard at practice shouting “Go T. Hawk” and “QO.”“It’s crazy,” a smiling Morrison said. “I’ve been play-

ing with him since we were 7 and 8 years old in little leagues at Montgomery Village. To see him out here … living his dream, it’s pretty crazy. I love it, I love it,” said the former quarterback of QO’s 2007 state champi-ons, a Towson University graduate who is now a com-munications specialist at a federal government agency and pursuing an MBA degree at UMBC.

Hawkins was signed as a free agent by the Patriots following the draft. He caught the eye of NFL teams by putting up impressive numbers during his “pro day” workout at his alma mater, the University of Delaware,

Arts Barn Draws Homeschoolers With Teacher Sue KayBy Pam Schipper

W hen Sue Kay talks about teaching, her eyes light up. A professional art-ist who these days concentrates on

watercolors—many of Maine lighthouses and Maryland farms—Kay began her career in the arts as an illustrator, doing agency and archi-tectural firm work. When her children came along, the deadline-driven nature of that work became more difficult.

My husband asked me, “What do you want to do?”

She wanted to concentrate more on her art. At about the same time, a friend, Suzanne El-lis, suggested she teach. Kay had majored in il-lustration and design at Syracuse University, but she had taken all of her extra classes in elemen-tary art education. Ellis, who homeschooled her two daughters from kindergarten through 12th grade, introduced Kay to the Heritage Homes-chool Co-op.

Pretty soon she was teaching seven days a week, and all homeschoolers at first. That was 20 years ago.

“I think I have a knack for breaking it down into little pieces so that kids can have success,”

Kay said.Three years ago, Kay began teaching art classes

for homeschoolers at the Arts Barn. This Septem-ber marks the beginning of her fourth year there, and 75 percent of her classes are comprised of re-turning students. “Discovering Art” is offered to two age groups: youth ages 7-12 and teens ages 13-17. Each class averages seven or eight students drawn from around the area and as far north as Clarksburg.

Many homeschooling families enroll their children in outside classes to supplement their

at-home study. As a parent, “it’s hard to be an expert in everything,” Kay said. Her two sons enrolled in the Montgomery County Public Schools system.

In addition to her decades of professional ex-perience teaching homeschoolers, Kay has a per-sonal perspective on homeschooling. Her brother and sister-in-law homeschooled their seven chil-dren in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“A lot of families do it (homeschooling) amaz-ingly well,” Kay said. “They do their kids a big service by doing this.”

According to the latest available data from the Maryland State Department of Education enti-tled “Total Number of Students Taught Through Home Schooling as Reported by Each Local School System 1993-2007,” Montgomery Coun-ty reported 2,242 students homeschooled during the 2006-2007 school year. Statewide, the num-ber of homeschoolers that year was 24,277.

Across the nation, U.S. Department of Edu-cation, National Center for Education Statistics reported that “Approximately 3 percent of the school-age population was homeschooled in the 2011–12 school year.”

Kay’s teaching philosophy is grounded in the

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Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands, Lakelands, Quince Orchard Park and More

Vol. 12, No. 16

CourierTheToWN

August 22, 2014www.towncourier.com

n art class Continued on page 8

n hawkins Continued on page 7

n makeover Continued on page 7

Former Cougar Football Star Travis Hawkins Brings His Dream Close to Home

Photo | Phil Fabrizio

Qo alum travis hawkins was signed as a free agent by the new england Patriots following the draft. here, hawkins (right, no. 42) visits with friend and Qo football alum Jaron morrison (center) and Jaron’s father, Jim morrison, at redskins training camp on aug. 5.

Photo | The Arts Barn

sue kay teaches an art class for homeschoolers at the arts Barn. class coordinator ellen schall said, “sue has a great deal of expe-rience, and she’s excellent with the kids. she’s a great artist, too.”

Photo | Phil Fabrizio

new Quince orchard head Football coach John kelley shows off his new office that sports the Qo color scheme throughout and a Qo football logo over the sofa.

Page 2: Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands ...towncourier.com › 2014 › G3 › pdf › TCGThree0814Web.pdf · class oordinator ellen schall said, “ ue has a great

Page 2 The Town Courier August 22, 2014

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Page 3: Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands ...towncourier.com › 2014 › G3 › pdf › TCGThree0814Web.pdf · class oordinator ellen schall said, “ ue has a great

August 22, 2014 The Town Courier Page 3

Compiled by Pam Schipper

Photo | Phil Fabrizio

the mary shaver Band brought old soul and classic blues to the main street music Festival on aug. 7.

Plan Ahead for Race DayThe Kentlands/Lakelands 5K is now the biggest

race in Montgomery County. With thousands of runners expected at this year’s event, it’s important to plan ahead. Here’s what you can expect on Aug. 30.

Beginning midnight and continuing through noon on Aug. 30, residents on a number of Kentlands and Lakelands streets along and near the 5K race course should anticipate access delays and parking restrictions. You can find a full list of affected streets—as well as alternate parking suggestions—at www.kentlands.org/5K/info.

Registration and packet pick-up at Market Square Plaza begins at 6:30 a.m. Kids’ warm up, Tot Trot and Dash run are held 7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., with the 5K Race Welcome scheduled for 8:25 a.m. The 5K Run starts at 8:30 a.m. New this year is a transponder (chip) timing system for quicker and more accurate race scoring.

Local bands and cheer squads will inspire runners all along the course. Awards and the Post-Race Mer-chant Expo and Festival will take place in the Market Square Plaza from 9 to 11 a.m.

Lakelands Park Organic Infill Synthetic Turf Field Nears Completion

At press time, organic infill installation at the Lake-lands Park turf field is progressing. “The installation of the organic infill is very much weather dependent, as it needs to be dry and rain free during install,” ex-plained Sean Stevens, project manager with the city’s Department of Public Works. “If all goes well, I am hoping the field will be complete on or about Labor Day.”

According to Michele Potter, director of the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture, an opening ceremony is planned for Saturday, Sept. 27 at 8:30 a.m.

ArouND ToWNFleet Feet Idol Raises Fun and FundsBy Jenny Chen

I t’s Friday night and the Kentlands Clubhouse has been transformed. Disco lights spray star shapes on

the walls, couples crowd in at the photobooth, and up front there’s a stage with the words “Fleet Feet Idol” in a font reminiscent of the popular singing competition television show.

Brian Wasser from Electric Enter-tainment is the one responsible for all the decor. Wasser had dropped in at Fleet Feet Sports for their popular Thursday night fun run, and he no-ticed an advertisement for the Fleet Feet Idol fundraiser. “I asked them if they had anyone doing the lights,” Wasser said. “If it’s going to be ‘Amer-ican Idol’ themed, it has to have cool lights.”

No one was doing the lights, so Wasser offered to do them—for free.

Wasser isn’t the only one who do-nated items or services to make Fleet Feet Idol happen. On one side of the room, Bonefish Grill donated their signature “Bang Bang Shrimp” and other hors d’oeuvres. A look at the Si-lent Auction table revealed that most of the Kentlands Community turned out to support the event. There were gift cards from fellow fitness business Foundry Fitness, the clothing bou-tique Clover, and health food store Whole Foods. Even the venue, the Kentlands Clubhouse, was donated.

All funds raised from the event were donated to the Kentlands Communi-ty Foundation (KCF), which supports organizations like The Dwelling Place and the Maryland Senior Olympics. Over the past four years, Fleet Feet’s summer event has raised more than $10,000 for KCF and the charities it

supports. This year’s event—the first held outside of the store and sport-ing attendees in semi-formal attire—raised more than $2,500.

For John Quakenbush, the charity aspect was part of what drew him to the event. Quakenbush has helped out at The Dwelling Place, which pro-vides transitional housing for home-less families, with his church. “They really help homeless families get back on their feet,” he said.

John’s wife, Donna Quakenbush, is a Fleet Feet devotee. “They know everything about running. When my daughter, who’s in college, had shin splits, the first thing I did when she got home was bring her to Fleet Feet,” she said. Quakenbush also participates in the weekly Fleet Feet fun runs and is happy to be a part of what she calls “a tight-knit community.”

Across the room is Lisa Wilcox, who is a veteran of this community. She has been a mentor for the Fleet Feet 5K running programs since 2011. She first started running with Fleet Feet in 2010 and was so excited about the motivational community and support

she found at the store that she signed her fiancé up for their No Boundar-ies mentoring program—a walk/run program for beginning runners.

“The only running he’d ever done was from the couch to the refriger-ator,” Wilcox said. “Now he’s doing Marine Corps races. I really believe it changes lives.”

Fleet Feet Marketing Director Brit-tany Jackett said that this Fleet Feet community is by design. “When they first hired me, they said they wanted Fleet Feet to be more than just a store. They wanted it to be a hangout place for runners—like a Starbucks for run-ners,” Jackett said.

Jackett said that the weekly Fleet Feet Thursday night fun runs draw upwards of 80 people. “Some people walk run, some run slowly, it’s for ev-eryone,” she said.

Owner Chris Gault agreed, “We are not a running store catering solely to runners. We open the doors to ev-eryone who seeks a fun and social way to become and/or remain healthy,” he said.

Photo | Submitted

Fun and fundraising went hand in hand on aug. 7 at the kentlands clubhouse. (left to right) lisa kolman wilcos, mary willett and Bridgette schiefer entertain the crowd at Fleet Feet idol.

Kentlands Film Society Season Opens Sept. 7By Mike Cuthbert

T he 2014-15 season of the Kent-lands Film Society features sev-en special nights. The season

starts with a gala opening at the Arts Barn featuring a light French/Russian film, “The Concert,” about a hastily assembled Russian orchestra playing in Paris. With descriptions by current president of the Society, Chris Kelly, the rest of the season includes “The Other Son” in French concerning a Frenchman and a Palestinian (Nov. 9); “The Way,” an American film starring Martin Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez, about a pilgrimage up the famed El Camino de Santiago ( Jan. 18, 2015); “Barbara,” a German drama about a female doctor in 1980 East Germany (March 15, 2015); and “Butterfly” from Spain, set in 1936 before their Civil War (May 17, 2015).

Another night under the sponsor-ship of the Society is Oct. 5 for the annual and very popular Manhattan Short Film Festival hosted by the Kentlands Stadium 10 Theater. Ad-

ditionally, a documentary is being made about the connection between All Souls Church in D.C. and Hiro-shima, Japan, a connection formed in the wake of the dropping of the atom-ic bomb there in 1945. Chris Kelly is excited about this project since its world premiere will be here in the Kentlands.

Season memberships have been sold out for a month, as they have been over the past several years, but indi-vidual tickets are usually available for most events.

Betty Hafner, former president of the Society, stresses that the film se-lection process for the year is extend-ed and expansive. “All the films sug-gested for the final list must be good dramas, challenging to think about and something that will have an emo-tional impact,” she said. The mem-bership is constantly surveyed about their preferences and tastes. The choice is made more challenging by the fact that the membership is over-whelmingly female, so special care is taken to make at least one selection

that is apt to appeal to men.With the exception of the

Manhattan Short Film Festival, Society films are shown on Sunday nights in the Arts Barn main theater. A discussion of the night’s feature follows the screening. Individual tickets are $8 at the door or online at kentlands.org/film-society. For further information on the Society, call Chris Kelly at 240.447.4655, or email her at [email protected].

Photo | Submitted

the film “Barbara,” set in 1980 east Germany, is about a Berlin doctor who applies for an exit visa. instead of receiving approval, she is reassigned to a country medical clinic.

8/25Mayor and City Council Work Session, Gaithersburg Aquatic Center On-Site Visit, 7:30 p.m., Aquatic Center

9/1Senior Advisory Committee Meeting, 10:30 a.m., Gaithersburg Upcounty Senior Center

9/2Mayor and City Council Meeting, 7:30 p.m., Mayor and City Council Meeting

9/3Planning Commission Meeting, 7:30 p.m., City Hall Council Chambers

For the latest information on city meetings, visit the city of Gaithersburg website at www.gaithersburgmd.gov.

MEETING CALENDAR

Page 4: Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands ...towncourier.com › 2014 › G3 › pdf › TCGThree0814Web.pdf · class oordinator ellen schall said, “ ue has a great

Page 4 The Town Courier August 22, 2014

PoLiCeBeaT By Gina Gallucci-White

309 Main StreetGaithersburg, MD 20878

For Advertising: 301.279.2304Also on the Web at www.towncourier.com.

©2014 Courier CommunicationsThe Town Courier is an independent monthly newspaper providing news and information for the communities of Kentlands, Lakelands and Quince Orchard Park in Gaithersburg, Md. The paper is published by Courier Communications, which is responsible for the form, content and policies of the newspaper. The Town Courier does not espouse any political belief or endorse any product or service in its news coverage. Articles and letters submitted for publication must be signed and may be edited for length or content. The Town Courier is not responsible for any claims made by advertisers Letters to the Editor and Commentary do not necessarily ref lect the views of the staff, management or advertisers of The Town Courier.

Pam Schipper Managing Editor

[email protected]

Debi Rosen Advertising Manager

301.279.2304 [email protected]

Sandra ChristianAdvertising Sales240.401.1020

[email protected]

Staff Photographer Phil Fabrizio

Staff Writers Sally Alt

Nora CaplanJenny Chen

Mike Cuthbert Nora Fitzpatrick

Maureen FriedmanGina Gallucci-White

Betty Hafner Sheilah Kaufman

Karen O’KeefeDonna Marks

Syl Sobel Maureen StilesEllyn Wexler

Student WriterEthan Cadeaux

Diane Dorney Publisher

[email protected]

Matt Danielson President

[email protected]

Safety Tips for Starting School

T he smells of pencil shavings, white-board markers and freshly un-wrapped notebook paper are again

filling the air as area schools gear up for the start of the new year on Aug. 25.

As school buses and classrooms become full again, residents should be mindful of students walking and/or biking to school. During the first week of school, the Gaith-ersburg Police Department will be educat-ing the public on pedestrian- and traffic-re-lated issues around the schools. Making sure that students use crosswalks and that cars don’t block the walkways, as well as deterring parents from stopping their ve-hicles along major roadways for drop-offs are just a few of the issues officers will be tackling.

Also, with more vehicles on the road during commuting hours, residents need to adjust their schedules accordingly. Al-low “enough time for you to get to work and (allow) time for you to get home from work,” said Officer Dan Lane, agency spokesman. “That’s the biggest compliant we receive from a lot of our school areas is people who are going home can’t get through the traffic, and primarily it’s be-cause kids are being picked up or dropped off.”

Drivers should not attempt to pass a school bus and need to allow space be-tween the two vehicles for sudden stops and wide bus turns.

For students, Lane encourages them to walk to school with a friend, never get into

a car with someone they don’t know and to tell their parents or guardians as soon as possible if they see something odd. If a car is following them, students should try and get as many details as they can about the vehicle.

Parents should also create safety words with their kids. If someone asks the child to go somewhere, saying they have permis-sion from the child’s parents, the child may ask for the safety word to determine if that person is telling the truth.

Knowing the child’s route to school, whether it is walking, riding a bike or tak-ing a bus, is important. “Make sure the route they are choosing is the safest route and the quickest route,” Lane said.

Understanding the protocols behind

color codes and lockdowns and bus pro-cedures is also important. “Parents should always speak with the staff and get the best understanding of what the procedure means,” Lane said.

Photo | Phil Fabrizio

many children walk to rachel carson elementary school on tschiffely square road.

assignmenTeduCaTion Compiled by Pam Schipper NWHS Enjoys New Track

Anne Rossiter, Northwest High School athletic director, said, “We’re ecstatic” about the new track just completed during the first week of August. “We have a great track program,” she noted, and coaches and athletes are looking forward to the new season. The Northwest Indoor Track team was the 2014 Maryland 4A State Champions.

This track replaces one dating back to the 1998 opening of Northwest. All work—a complete overhaul with new asphalt, sur-face, striping and painting—was done over the summer.

Athletes Get a Jump on the School YearAt Quince Orchard and Northwest high schools, sports resumed the week of

Aug. 13 with team tryouts. Above is a sampling of all the activity as student athletes hit the ground running.

Photo | Phil Fabrizio

northwest high school begins the school year with a new track.

Photos | Phil Fabrizio

other team tryouts on the Qo field and court aug. 15 were volleyball, field hockey and band.

on aug. 15, coach John kelley ran the football cougars through their paces and addressed the talented group.

Page 5: Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands ...towncourier.com › 2014 › G3 › pdf › TCGThree0814Web.pdf · class oordinator ellen schall said, “ ue has a great

August 22, 2014 The Town Courier Page 5

Chamber Honors 57 at Public Safety Awards Breakfast

The Gaithersburg-Germantown Cham-ber of Commerce (GGCC) honored up-county police officers, firefighters and paramedics at the GGCC’s 19th Annual Public Safety Awards Breakfast, held Aug. 8 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. Fifty-seven public safety officials were giv-en awards in the following categories: Ci-tation for Bravery, Distinguished Service

Citation and Meritorious Service Citation.City of Gaithersburg Police Officers

Chris Leach and Nathan Provost; Mont-gomery County Police Sergeant Robert Lumsden, Officer Matthew Stoycos, Offi-cer Andrew Ingalls and Officer Amy Krone were presented with Distinguished Service Citations. These citations recognized their supreme efforts during an incident that oc-curred on March 15 involving the render-ing of first aid to both police officers and assailants who sustained serious injuries.

Meritorious Service Citations were pre-sented to two city of Gaithersburg police interns, Orlando Jarquin and Anthony Jones, for their overall support of the de-partment, with specific mention of their assistance in organizing two active shooter drills.

Marilyn Balcombe, GGCC president, said, “We are honored to have these heroes in our community. The very least we can do is to thank them for their service.”

SUMMER FASHIONSin store

NOW

CiTysCene Compiled by Pam Schipper

First Anniversary for The Bar Method

It’s been one year since Jennifer Gawronski and Jenn Menconi first introduced The Bar Method to the Kentlands community. Since then, their studio at 189 Kentlands Blvd. has grown exponentially. The studio started out with three instructors in 2013, and is now set to hire its eighth instructor. They started

out with 23 classes and are now running 34 classes. Both Gawronski and Menconi have also learned a lot from their demographic of students at Kentlands.

“We learned that we have a lot of work-ing clients,” Gawronski said, “so we started adding a lot more early morning and evening classes.”

Gawronski said that the most rewarding thing about running The Bar Method so far has been the clients. “Many of them may not have worked out in years and they’re a little nervous about working out, but they learn that this is a no impact, very safe workout,” Gawronski said.

That’s not to say that the workout isn’t intense. The Bar Method is famous for tiny isolated movements that prompt “the shake,” a shaking in the body from muscle fatigue when a client has been holding a move for an extensive amount of time.

In the next year Gawronski said that The Bar Method hopes to partner with like-minded businesses in the Kentlands, such as Whole Foods and Red Door Spa, to offer cross-promotions.

To celebrate their first year, The Bar Method will be hosting class promotions and offering a free class to the community. Visit www.thebarmethod.com for more informa-tion.

Sub-Making Competition HeldHow fast can you make a sub? Ten teams

from Jersey Mike’s restaurants in the Mid-At-lantic region will be competing at the Kent-lands Jersey Mike’s store, 249 Kentlands Blvd., on Aug. 23 to find out. The teams will be slic-ing, sprinkling, and wrapping Jersey Mike subs to see who can make them the fastest. The win-ning team will receive $12,000, half of which

will be donated to a charity of their choice.

Bits and PiecesLooks like shops in Kentlands are get-

ting into the back-to-school spirit. Opus Yoga, 257 Market St. W., will hold Charity Donation classes during the week of Aug. 17-23. Drop-in classes will be $20 and 50 percent of that week’s proceeds will benefit MCPS Give Backpacks. Schedule is available at opusyogakentlands.com under “classes.”

In addition, Kentlands Chick-Fil-A, 104 Main St., is teaming up with Profiles Hair Studio and Spa, 273 Kentlands Blvd., to offer a free meal to any student who gets a “back-to-school” haircut at Profiles Hair Studio through Aug. 25.

Liz Bakery at 119 Market St. closed by a fire, is now anticipating a re-opening date of Aug. 27.

shoPTaLk By Jenny Chen

Photo | Jill Pearlman Photography

the Bar method at 189 kentlands Blvd. celebrates its first anniversary and stellar growth.

Photo | Phil Fabrizio

city of Gaithersburg Police officers chris leach and na-than Provost; montgomery county Police sergeant robert lumsden, officer matthew stoycos, officer andrew ingalls and officer amy krone were awarded the Distinguished service citation at the GGcc’s 19th annual Public safety awards breakfast on aug. 8.

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Page 6 The Town Courier August 22, 2014

The ParkPagesNews and Current Events for Quince Orchard Park n E-mail your contributions to [email protected] n august 2014

Meeting Calendar8/25 -- Condo Board I, Clubhouse, 7 p.m.8/27 -- Condo Board II, Clubhouse 7 p.m.9/9 -- Quince Orchard Park HOA Board, Clubhouse, 7 p.m.

MANAGEMENT MENTIONS

Trash and RecyclingTrash, which is collected on Tuesday and Friday,

must be placed in lidded trash cans. Trash should not be left for collection in bags. These are ripped open by dogs, birds and other pests, and trash is strewn throughout the community. Continued use of bags may result in fines.

Consider painting your house number on your trash cans and lids so they may be returned on windy days.

It is also helpful to label recycling bins with house numbers—and to place bagged newspapers and mag-azines atop commingled materials in the bin.

Trash cans and recycle bins must be stored out of sight on non-pickup days.

Recycling is picked up on Fridays. Containers, with lids, are now available from the city of Gaith-ersburg. Please contact the city at 301.258.6370 to have a lidded bin delivered and the old one picked up. The new bins will lessen the problem with trash in the neighborhood. It is helpful to label recycling bins with house numbers. Lids may be attached to bins by drilling small holes and attaching with twine.

Bulk recycling pickups are the first Friday of each month. Sept. 5 is the next bulk recycling pickup day.

The city of Gaithersburg and Potomac Disposal (301.294.9700) both offer collection services for bulk items at no cost.

Dog Duty and Animal Services Information

Cleaning up after dogs is the legal responsibil-ity of every canine owner walking a dog in the community. Dogs are not permitted off-leash on common property in the city of Gaithersburg.

Contact Information for Gaithersburg Animal Control

To report after hours/emergency animal service calls, city of Gaithersburg residents must now contact the Montgomery County Emergency Communica-tion Center (MCECC) at 301.279.8000. MCECC will then notify and dispatch a Gaithersburg animal control officer for response.

To report non-emergency animal service calls and for information on related animal matters during regular business hours, residents may contact the Gaithersburg Animal Control Office directly at 301.258.6343. Regular hours of operation are Mon-day through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, please visit www.gaithersburgmd.gov/animal.

WebsiteAgendas for meetings, as well as many

important documents (minutes and meeting summaries) can be found at the QOP website: www.quinceorchardpark.com.

QOP Management Contact Information

Quince Orchard Park Community Managers, Ruchita Patel and Quinn Chase

C/o The Management Group Associates, Inc.20440 Century Boulevard, Suite 100Germantown, MD 20874Phone: 301.948.6666Fax: 301.963.3856E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]

QOP NEwS

Get Ready for School!Aug. 25 is the first day back for

Quince Orchard Park students who attend Montgomery County Public Schools: Diamond Elementary, Lake-lands Park Middle and Northwest High School.

School hours at Diamond Elementary are 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Phone: 301.840.7177

School hours at Lakelands Park Middle are 7:55 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.

Phone: 301.670.1400

School hours at Northwest High are 7:25 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. Phone: 301.601.4660

More information on the schools is

available online: www.montgomery-schoolsmd.org

Residents Launch Petition Drive for Vistas Clean-up

Quince Orchard Park resident Steve Scharf and Vistas resident Ahmed Kilani are working with other residents in a petition drive seeking to get the Vistas’ developer, the Churchill Group, to re-move construction debris that includes trash; large mounds of dirt, rocks and broken asphalt; and home construction components like windows with broken glass.

Ahmed Kilani said petition sponsors intend to present the document, which has been signed by more than 180 resi-

dents of Quince Orchard Park and the Vistas, to the Gaithersburg mayor and City Council members at their meet-ing on Aug. 18.

Kilani expressed concern over health risks posed by insects and rodents in the weed-infested area at the Vistas con-struction site near Winter Walk Drive. He is also concerned about the possi-bility of children being injured by the construction debris, including glass, on the ground. He said an unused trailer has been standing on the site for three years and should be removed.

Steve Scharf, a member of the QOP HOA, noted that his sponsorship of the petition is an outgrowth of his interest in the community but not part of his activity as a QOP Board member.

Labor Day Doggy SwimDon’t let your canine companion miss the annual Labor Day Doggy Swim! It

will be held Sept. 1, 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Quince Orchard Park Pool.

National Night Out at Quince Orchard Park a Success

A large crowd turned out in Quince Orchard Park on Tuesday eve-ning, Aug. 5 to observe National

Night Out (NNO), “America’s Night Out Against Crime.” In addition to many QOP residents, the community was visited by County Executive Isiah Leggett, State’s Attorney John McCa-rthy, Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz and Gaithersburg City Council mem-bers Jud Ashman, Cathy Drzyzgula, Henry Marraffa and Mike Sesma. Also present was a representative from the office of U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski and two prosecutors from the state’s at-torney’s office.

This year, the community was visited by the representatives of the Montgom-ery County Police Department, includ-ing Police Chief Tom Manger; repre-sentatives of the National Capital Park Police, Montgomery County Division; and members of the City of Gaithers-burg Police Department (GPD).

Participants were treated to a demon-stration by the GPD canine team, fea-turing Max, a Belgian Malinois, and Judah, a German shepherd.

“I’ve been attending National Night Out for several years now—since the beginning,” said Gaithersburg City Council member Henry Marraffa. “It is a great thing for the community and the kids love it.” Marraffa and other Gaith-ersburg elected officials visited NNO observances in four Gaithersburg com-munities.

NNO was started in 1984 by a non-

profit organization, National Asso-ciation of Town Watch, to promote involvement in crime prevention ac-tivities. Quince Orchard Park has held NNO activities on the first Tuesday in August for the past several years.

Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger thanked residents for their show of “community spirit” at the event. “We are together in our fight against crime,” he said. Manger noted that Quince Orchard Park is fortunate to be home to several police officers. Acknowledging the two other police departments with representation at the event, he said, “We are working hand-in-hand and achieving great results.”

Pizza for the event was donated by Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant in Kentlands, water was provided by DrinkMore Water. Target Depart-ment Store was represented by several employees from the security depart-ment of the chain’s Gaithersburg store. “Safety is a big part of our story,” ex-plained Target Security Manager Kev-in Kavounis. “We maintain a close working relationship with local law enforcement. We also have uniformed security personnel on hand in the store both as crime deterrent and to assist our customers.”

County Executive Leggett urged residents to maintain their vigilance in helping keep crime at bay. “We have had a 27 percent reduction in serious crime just in the last three years in Montgomery County,” Leggett told the gathering. “This is because we have increased our investment (in fighting crime), because of strong leadership—and because of citizen involvement.” He said the crime reduction was “en-couraging” and urged residents to continue to be active and involved in crime prevention.

Also spotted in the NNO QOP crowd was the National Crime Pre-vention Council’s mascot, McGruff the Crime Dog, and Elmo of “Sesame Street” fame. The event was organized by several volunteers, including Rob Cassels, a Quince Orchard Park resi-dent and member of the Montgomery County Police Department.

Photo | Karen O’Keefe

“elmo” was one of the most popular viPs who visited QoP to support national night out on aug. 5.

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August 22, 2014 The Town Courier Page 7

including an eye-popping 4.37 time in the 40-yard dash.

“I knew I could run a 4.3,” said Hawkins, and he worked hard with Delaware’s strength and conditioning coach to improve his start and prepare for the workout. He also bench-pressed 225 pounds 21 times, an impressive showing for the muscular 5-10, 195-pound athlete.

Hawkins played cornerback and kick re-turner the past two years at Delaware, but said when the Pats came to work him out for his pro day they envisioned him as a safety, and that’s where he’s playing now. He is also re-turning kicks and playing on kickoff coverage and punt teams.

“The Patriots gave me a chance to continue playing the game of football, and I’m grateful for that,” said Hawkins.

Gratitude comes easily to Hawkins, who said he’s been “blessed” to play for great coaches, including former QO head coach Dave Mencarini (about to start his first year coaching at Urbana High School), former Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen (where Hawkins began his college career), Delaware head coach Dave Brock, “and now (Pats head coach Bill) Belichick.” He said, “Great coach-es … push you to the limit and want the best player out of you.”

“Wow. What an honor!” said Mencarini when told that his former player mentioned him in the same sentence as such other no-table coaches. But, to Mencarini, “whether Travis plays a down or not in the NFL is ir-relevant to me. Football has opened doors and taken him places many dream of. He used the sport and didn’t allow the sport to use him. What I’m most proud of is that he got his de-gree and has plans for life after football,” he said of Hawkins, who received his diploma from Delaware in December.

Hawkins said his biggest surprise in the NFL so far is “the mental aspect of the game. At this level you got to know where you’re supposed to be at all times.” He said his goal is “eliminating the mental mistakes and then just going on from there and playing foot-ball.”

Asked about stepping on the field and see-ing quarterback Tom Brady or Belichick, Hawkins smiled and said, “It’s a dream come true. I’m blessed, man, just being a part of a great organization like the Patriots.” He said that the team’s leaders “like Brady and (line-backer Jerrod) Mayo …, they’ve been in the game so long, they know like every position, so it’s great to learn from guys like that.”

Hawkins said that feedback from the Pa-triots’ coaches so far has been positive. “Just keep working hard, and I mean, it’s up to me. As hard as I work, I’m going to put myself in a position to make the squad.”

In his first game against the Redskins, Hawkins played most of the second half,

showed an impressive burst of speed in re-turning a kickoff 47 yards (which was called back by a holding penalty), and made four tackles in run support. But he also took bad angles on some plays.

“I think I did pretty well,” Hawkins said after the game. “I did some good things, I did some bad things. And now I’ve just got to piggy-back off those and work even hard-er getting ready for next week.” He had two tackles in his second game last week against the Eagles.

NFL teams will make their cuts later in August, and Hawkins will find out then if his childhood dream of playing pro football will come true.

Said Morrison, the young man who not that long ago shared another dream with Hawkins by tossing him the state champion-ship winning, fourth-quarter touchdown pass and now watched his buddy on the profes-sional field: “I’m living through him now.”

n hAwkINS from page 1

n MAkEOvEr from page 1

• Private and Group Music Lessons• Piano, Brass, Woodwinds, Strings, Guitar, Percussion and Voice• Chamber Ensembles• Early Childhood through Adult - All Levels• Instrument Sales and Rentals• Music Books, Accessories and Gift s

Your Kentlands Neighborhood Music Center!325 Main Street Gaithersburg, MD 20878

www.PritchardMusic.com — [email protected]

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give Coach Kelley a professional-looking new home.

And Bloom had just the person in mind to coordinate the task—Kentlands resident Bridget Edell, a DIY (do-it-yourself ) expert and host of Montgomery Channel 21’s “Lip Gloss & A Sander,” a TV program on which Edell works with people who have decorating ideas, taking them to yard sales and flea mar-kets to find the right items and teaching them how to fix these items up to “reuse, recycle, repurpose” them for their homes.

The task ahead of Edell was not an easy one.The QO football office, located off the

auditorium lobby, is a long, narrow and tall space, measuring 7-feet wide by 28-feet long. It had a “generic and icky” look, Bloom said, with beige, cinder block walls, some old so-fas, standard-issue filing cabinets and folding chairs, a whiteboard, and a projector screen suspended at one end.

Edell said the first thing she did was talk with Kelley, asking him, “What do you do in here? My kids go to school here but they don’t play football, so tell me what happens in this office?”

Kelley told her that he had coaches’ meet-ings in the office, watched film with coaches and team members, and had students come in and “hang” or do homework. Kelley had just a few stipulations: He needed the whiteboard to draw up plays, and he needed the screen for film sessions.

He also wanted to retain the new “QO Ex-plosion” logo that QO art teacher Julie New-

comer had designed shortly after Kelley was appointed coach and, along with several of her art students, had painted on the office wall.

And there was one more consideration: Visiting college coaches. “We get a lot of traffic in and out of this room—a lot,” Kelley said, with college coaches visiting the school to recruit QO football players. Kelley wanted “a professional place” to host visiting coaches, a place that reflected the kind of top-tier pro-gram that Quince Orchard represents.

“That’s part of the whole package,” Kelley said. “We’re trying to run the program like a college program. We try to run things as professional as we can.”

Based on the coach’s feedback, Edell asked herself, “What’s going to be the most practical and works the best?” She sought “something comfortable, something that would look pro-fessional … but homey enough that the kids could be in here and not feel like it’s too cold and not welcoming.”

Edell started with seating, getting a couch and incorporating several black stools “be-cause you really can’t fit a lot of seats, and I thought that was extra seating without mak-ing it too cumbersome.” She used her re-finishing skills, taking an old table from her home, painting it black, and putting a glass top on it over a QO logo. And she used her scavenging skills, finding a red-and-black set of chairs to go with the table, and bartering with a troop of Boy Scouts who were col-lecting furniture to donate to a needy family, offering four pieces of her own furniture for the large desk and chair that Kelley now fills.

And then the community pitched in, gath-ering a group of parents and players to paint

the walls red on the bottom and white on top to represent the QO color scheme, and adding the crowning touch, a QO football logo do-nated by the father of last year’s quarterback, Mikey Murtaugh, who works for a printing company.

“A lot of parents have thrown in and helped put this together,” Bloom said, emphasizing that the redecorating project was accom-plished entirely with donated furniture, ma-terials, and labor and used no school funds.

And what does the new coach think of his new-look office?

“When I first walked in I was like, ‘Man, this is my office? Are you sure?’ … It’s awe-

some,” said an appreciative Kelley. “I feel re-ally lucky—blessed—to be in a community where something like this could happen. I’m definitely someone who doesn’t take it for granted. … Not every place would do some-thing like this, and I think it’s special.”

Is he totally sold on his new digs?Kelley hesitated and said, “You know, that

(old) office could be crowded, but it was also good enough to win us a lot of football games. … We were a very, very good football team in that office.”

And if the team doesn’t win?“Everything’s out,” the coach laughed.

“We go back to the old office.”

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Page 8 The Town Courier August 22, 2014

basics. “I want to teach them how to draw,” she said. “We do a detailed drawing and then we transfer it onto the good paper to finish because I feel like if kids can draw, they can do anything. The rest you can kind of learn. In fact, some of the rest you can kind of teach yourself if you know how to draw.”

In her classes, she uses Arches paper fa-vored by professional artists. She impresses upon her students that “if you’re starting with a really solid drawing, chances are you’re go-ing to have a really a solid painting.”

Color theory is imparted from day one. “Color theory is in everything we do. I only buy the basic colors, so we mix all of our col-ors,” she said, adding that she puts blue tape over the black pigments in her watercolor sets. “Nothing is ever really black.”

Kay’s homeschool art classes cover many mediums—from drawing, color pencil, wa-tercolor and pastels to acrylics, scratchboard and printmaking. “I teach it all except the oils,” she said, explaining that the toxicity of oils makes them problematic for young art-ists.

Year to year she varies her projects so re-turning students always have new challenges. Every couple of years, Kay gives an assign-

ment that is wildly popular with her students. For a few weeks students do true color theory where they make charts. At the end of this, students make a cast of their hands using den-tal mold material and plaster.

“The final project is to match all of the col-ors in your hand,” she explained. As students work to capture the myriad nuances of skin color on their plaster hand, they find them-selves immersed in intense color theory—and fun.

“The kids think it’s fun because it’s their hand and it’s cool—like the ‘Addams Fami-ly,’” Kay said, smiling.

In addition to her homeschool classes at the Arts Barn, Kay also offers an after-school “Discovering Art” class there for youth ages 7-12. “Sue has a tremendous following for her after-school class,” said Ellen Schall, class coordinator at the Arts Barn, adding that Kay will teach a printmaking class and a print-making workshop this fall for students ages 14 and older. You can find details on Kay’s Arts Barn classes at recxpress.gaithersburg-md.gov.

For more information on Sue Kay’s teach-ing and art, visit suekayart.com. Kay offers home-school and after-school art classes in her Derwood studio as well, and you can find her teaching at Montrose Christian Institute, the new Soar homeschool co-op starting this spring, and BlackRock Center for the Arts.

n ArT ClASS from page 1

Compiled by Pam Schipper

Comedy & Magic SocietyAug. 22, 8 p.m., Arts Barn

In partnership with Thin Air Productions, the Arts Barn presents an evening of astound-ing magic and sleight of hand with the ex-otic and amusingly interactive Comedy & Magic Society. Join magicians Mark Phillips, Bob Sheets, Barry Wood and Brian Curry on an adventure into magic with dazzling card tricks, remarkable illusions and laugh-out-loud comedy. Tickets are $12 for city of Gaithersburg residents, and $15 for nonresi-dents. www.gaithersburgmd.gov

Labor Day ParadeSept. 1, 1 p.m., Olde Towne Gaithersburg

This 76th annual event includes ethnic dance groups, antique cars and fire trucks, clowns, high school marching bands, and an assortment of community groups, equestrian units and more. Free. www.gaithersburgmd.gov

Open Mic at the MansionSept. 5, 8-10 p.m., Kentlands Mansion

Sing, tell a joke, recite poetry—all un-plugged styles of music, poetry and perfor-mance are welcome. Beer, wine and non-al-coholic beverages are served. Tickets are $10. www.gaithersburgmd.gov

Singer Songwriter Concert Series – Hannah AldridgeSept. 6, 3 p.m. workshop & 7:30-10 p.m. concert, Arts Barn

Hannah Aldridge kicks off this season of the Singer Songwriter Concert Series. Called the “Americana pistol of the South,” she’ll captivate you with her heartfelt blend of country, blues and rock. The Singer Songwriter Concert Series, presented by O’Hair Salon + Spa, celebrates musicians who write, compose and sing their own original material. In addition to the concert experience, patrons can participate in special workshops with the artists for a unique insight into the world of the singer songwriter. Concerts will be held at 7:30 p.m., while the workshops are held earlier in the day at 3 p.m., both at the Arts Barn, 311 Kent Square Road. www.gaithersburgmd.gov

arTs& enTerTainmenT

Summer SavingS!

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Your Kentlands Neighborhood Music Center!325 Main Street Gaithersburg, MD 20878

www.PritchardMusic.com — [email protected]

• • Piano, Brass, Woodwinds, Strings, Guitar, Percussion and Voice• Chamber Ensembles• Early Childhood through Adult - All Levels• Instrument Sales and Rentals• Music Books, Accessories and Gift s

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August 22, 2014 The Town Courier Page 9

Boyhood (R) *****You may have heard

about this film. It was shot over a 12-year span with the same cast so it is unusu-ally consistent in character, pace and appearance.

Forget all that.As remarkable as it was to

make a film like this, what is even more confounding is that it is excellent, bril-liant and moving. Lead cast members Ellar Coltrane, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and Lorelei Linklater are the core family we follow as they age for 12 years. We are in-troduced to the film’s main subject, Mason (Coltrane), when he is six years old. The film ends with Mason, age 18, heading off for col-lege and an education as a photographer and student of life.

Arquette, as Mom, leads a lonely, often desperate life as an under-educated single mom with horrible taste in men. Hawke, as Dad, enters the film after their divorce and is a thorough jackass, incapable of growing up. His immaturity is a constant for all 12 years, but he does show flashes of growth along the way. Linklater, the creator’s daughter in real life, but playing Samantha here, is a typical older sister, treating Mason like an ugly in-sect for much of his youth and morphing var-ious ways in character as she grows up.

The film’s theme is real life and how it contains shockingly few surprises for most of us. Mason eventually tries to capture those few surprises on film with a 35-mm camera

and becomes very good at it. But even he isn’t entirely sure that the camera has enough magic in it for him to enjoy.

At times, it seems that Mason will never be able to capture the joy he wants in his life. Several girlfriends threaten to bring that joy to him, but only in the last reel does he seem to find a truly sympathetic ear. Jesse Mechler (Nicole) is extremely simpatico, and as the sun sets on the film, it seems to rise for Ma-son.

You may be struck, as I was, by the or-dinariness of the dialogue. It took several of Mason’s years before I realized that this was the basic narrative form of the film: hearing clichés over and over again through the ears of a young man who needs receptive listeners and not busy, advising, chastising mouths to guide him. Mason soaks most of it in, though we can tell much is simply rolling off his back. In fact, wise parents may listen to what Mason faces daily from all the adults in his life and ease off on giving advice to their own children, especially once the child has grown to some level of alertness.

This is also a film of great individual scenes: the camping scene, which is the first real bonding trip between Dad and Mason; a “picnic” in a partially constructed house that turns out to be an exercise in bullying and male braggadocio without much bonding; the many scenes between Mom and her two loser husbands after Hawke leaves.

It is hard to explain the virtues of a film of three-hour duration as “a picture of the way life is to a boy” without making it sound

n mike at the movies Continued on page 11

mikeaT The moVies

By Mike Cuthbert

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Page 10 The Town Courier August 22, 2014

Nana – CamA s I sit gazing at my

computer screen, I am listening to lit-

tle—and I do mean little—clucking sounds coming from the next room. Lina, my three-year-old grand-daughter, is in the bed-room next door to my of-fice. She is “taking a nap.” At the moment, taking a nap involves clucking.

It also involves using the potty three times, checking to make sure Nana is in her office next door two times, checking on the dog (also in my office), and renegotiating running through the sprinkler when the nap is over.

This is the first time Lina has ever come to stay with me and my husband John for more than a single overnight—she’ll be here for three days and two nights. I know that rou-tine is good, and rest is good, and so I made sure we instituted this nap thing as soon as she got here.

Well not just as soon. I met up with her at 9:30 a.m. for her ballet class where I found myself feeling rather heavy on my feet with Lina, Miss Jen, Miss Bonnie, about 12 toddlers and a half dozen “other moms” less than half my age. We danced in circles, we hopped, we jumped, we drank water from teacups, and I tried to turn off this desperate-to-be-ex-ternalized “correction voice” that wanted to help Lina do everything better.

“Just smile and be quiet,” I thought to my-self through gritted teeth.

Next we went to the donut drive-through where we each got an “old-fashioned donut.” Lina had requested sprinkles but it was evi-dent from the menu screen that the only ones with sprinkles had the sprinkles embedded in deep, dark chocolate.

I didn’t really lie to her about the sprinkles – just muttered something about them not having “our kind of sprinkles.”

She was very nice about it.Really good, I thought to myself, lying to

my three-year-old granddaughter an hour into our first extended-stay adventure.

Our next stop was Lowe’s for cleaning stuff, and three big bags of pea gravel for the walk-way in front of our house. She requested per-mission to stand on the end of the cart facing me as I pushed. I asked her if she would “stay right there” and she agreed. I didn’t count on the extended arms and the backbend with head hanging down backwards as we round-ed corners, but fortunately some of the other drivers in the store had their eyes on us.

We had to have the gentleman from the store load the pea gravel into the car because I could not imagine Lina and I in the parking lot hoisting it from the cart into the car—I barely got it into the cart as it was. And, I had learned that Lina likes to either help do everything or do it all herself, so it seemed likely she would be involved.

I told her we would have Grandpa unload the gravel this evening when he came home

from work. She nodded her agreement.“Because he’s strong,” she said.“Yes, he’s strong,” I agreed. Then, feeling

like a 10-year-old, I said, “I’m strong too—but he’s stronger.”

Did I really say that?Wisdom from the back seat: “He’s awe-

some.”Next we went to Kmart because Lina has

very long hair and I just had to get some hair ties or whatever you use for long hair.

Back in the Kmart parking lot we loaded a pair of flashing “Frozen” sneakers, a “Frozen” snowman pillow (I haven’t seen “Frozen,” but have learned a main character’s name is “Olaf”), a pair of “Little Mermaid” pajamas (I hadn’t looked at the luggage my daugh-ter packed, but what if she forgot pajamas?), a hairbrush, a box of sidewalk chalk—and a package of hair ties.

Kmart purchase: $55. Hair ties: $3. Hey, I can justify all the purchases. We got the sneakers because we were trying on shoes for her role as a flower girl in my other daughter’s wedding Sept. 6. We needed to order shoes, so I was figuring out the size and then I just couldn’t say “no” to the “Frozen” sneakers. Plus, what if her mother forgot to put sneak-ers in her bag?

Her mother didn’t forget sneakers. Lina now has three pairs at my house alone. We needed the other stuff just as much. The Olaf pillow, I figured, was a good way to make the bed at Nana’s house seem homier—and so on.

I don’t need to justify myself to you people.

Our last stop before going home for lunch—is this really all still the same day?—was PetSmart because we were out of dog food for Ruby.

Lina is familiar with PetSmart. “We have to see the guinea pigs, and the hamsters, and the fish and the snakes. …”

“Sure,” I said.“Can I have a cat?”Evidently Lina was thinking we were still

at Kmart.I’ll admit, I needed to regroup my patience

a bit at PetSmart. This is what I heard myself saying: “Stop it, don’t touch that, come over here, hold my hand, I can’t see you. …”

Nonstop.Is this what I did to my kids? I hoped not

and settled back into the moment.At home, we had some grape juice, washed

grape juice stains out of her ballet costume, watched some “Frozen” music on Netflix, and ate lunch—milk, hot dog, grapes, taco chips.

We walked the dog, met a deer (“Of course I’ve seen a deer before. I go to the zoo.”), drew some chalk lines on the driveway, filled up the dog’s food container. …

By the time we started the nap, it felt like Lina had been living here about a year and a half.

I think it’s sprinkler time. Lina finally did fall asleep but she needs to sleep again to-night.

More later.

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Page 11: Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands ...towncourier.com › 2014 › G3 › pdf › TCGThree0814Web.pdf · class oordinator ellen schall said, “ ue has a great

August 22, 2014 The Town Courier Page 11

Meet Debi Rosen, The Gaithersburg Town Courier’s Advertising Manager.

With 25+ years in the advertising business, Debi knows the local business beat better than anyone in town. It doesn’t matter if your company is small or large, results matter in this tough ecinomic climate. With a keen eye for detail and personal attention, Debi is your source for making your business known to our loyal readers.

About The Town Courier: • Direct mail delivery to 7,500 homes plus

rack distribution in high traffi c locations throughout Gaithersburg.

• Dedicated and loyal readers, giving each edition long shelf life.

• Unmatched local coverage of news that matters to Gaithersburg families.

• The Gaithersburg Town Courier is delivered to homes and businesses in Kentlands, Lakelands, Quince Orchard Park, The Orchards, Orchard Hills and Washingtonian Woods

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dreadfully pedestrian and dull. The cumula-tive effect of all the advice and all the advis-ers is to make us continue to root for Mason to make it through, to honor his mother for incredible courage and resilience and to qui-etly thank Richard Linklater for having the courage to take 12 years of his life to make this incredible piece of art. This is a gem of the highest order. Do not miss it. But leave the young ones at home. The whole endeavor demands a level of attention and emotional maturity that most kids do not have. That becomes clear as Mason grows beyond boy-hood.

The Guardians of the Galaxy (PG-13) ****

Finally, a blockbuster with a saving sense of humor as well as place! This movie is one of the most spectacular movies, visually, that you will see for some time. I saw the 2-D version and it is possible that the 3-D print is even more spectacular, but I doubt that it will add much more than you have in the standard format.

This is a space fantasy with all the explo-sions and fights and standard fare that we have come to expect from this genre but, just as you fear it’s going to turn into just anoth-er space nut job, Chris Pratt (Peter Quill) or Bradley Cooper (Rocket the Raccoon) pulls another one-liner out of nowhere and the next explosion has to compete with laughter.

The plot is so confusing that you need spend no time on figuring it out. Just enjoy the wonderful characters, including a tree

with talent—“I am Groot”—voiced by Vin Diesel, Rocket and the sensational Zoe Sal-dana as a delicately carved Gamora who is green. Former wrestler Dave Bautista as the heavily tatted and muscled Drax describes the cast as “The biggest idiots in the galaxy,” and you can’t get more accurate than that.

Besides the gags, this is the loosest, most irritable confederation in recent movie histo-ry, which keeps the laughter flowing as well. They are rivaled in their inability to agree on anything only by the U.S. House of Repre-sentatives.

Kevin Bacon is very much in the picture though not on screen. He is referenced al-most as much as ‘70s music on Quill’s various mix tapes. There are even more non sequitur one-liners that keep the audience laughing, many of which will go over the younger heads, but all will be laughing anyway.

By the way, you may think that Leonard Nimoy has a part in the film, which would be understandable but it is not him. It’s an actor named Christopher Fairbank who is a dead-spit clone of Nimoy, especially behind the special makeup.

I am not a fan of blockbuster space spectac-ulars and have been pleading on these pages for at least one that is spectacular but fun. I thought it was impossible until I saw, and en-joyed, this movie. Great for the whole family and the credits let us know that no raccoons were injured in the making of it.

Enjoy more of Mike’s reviews at www.towncourier.com

from page 9

mikeaT The moVies

Page 12: Gaithersburg’s Hometown Newspaper | Serving Kentlands ...towncourier.com › 2014 › G3 › pdf › TCGThree0814Web.pdf · class oordinator ellen schall said, “ ue has a great

Page 12 The Town Courier August 22, 2014

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