Markets, Mission, and Music

Farmers Markets this weekend: Clarksville Commons and Old Ellicott City today, Oakland Mills tomorrow.

Pollen and humidity will be high and yet my weather app says air quality will be excellent for outdoor activities. Go figure.

There’s a cool new activity getting up and running over at the at the Nonprofit Collaborative of Howard County today.

You can help Bridges to Housing Stability turn their shredded paper waste into new paper that will be donated to participating HCPSS art classrooms. I’m fascinated by this.

Organizations shred documents which contain confidential information. That’s a responsible thing to do. But the resulting shreds can’t be put in our regular paper recycling process. Now what?

By creating Waste to Wonder, Bridges to Housing Stability aims to: dispose of confidential paper waste responsibly, turn it into a usable resource for classrooms, and - - probably the most significant, to my mind - - connect with new community members who may not know about the mission of Bridges to Housing Stability.

This program is a wonderful full circle moment of the upcycled paper from supporting HCPSS families going into HCPSS art classrooms. That way we are reducing the environmental impact of our programs, reducing the costs of supplies for some HCPSS art projects, and preventing unneeded landfill waste (shredded paper cannot be processed by most recycling facilities).

Want to get involved? Here you go: Waste to Wonder, Saturday September 5, 11 am - 2 pm. Non-Profit Collaborative. You might want to shoot a quick email to confirm: alexie@bridges2hs.org .

Monday at the Chrysalis:

LABOR DAY CONCERT WITH NATIONAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AND THE U.S. ARMY BLUES

Monday, September 7, 2026
4:00 PM 6:30 PM
Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods
10431 Little Patuxent Parkway Columbia, MD 21044 United States

Join us for a free outdoor performance by the National Chamber Orchestra's elite roster of Washington’s finest instrumentalists alongside the U.S. Army Blues, the flagship jazz ensemble of the US military bands!

Enjoy an evening including works of Nat King Cole, Aaron Copland, Richard Rodgers, Frank Zappa, and John Phillip Sousa as we celebrate the wildly diverse and unique sounds of American music!

Tickets are free - - register here. You know I did.

Have a great weekend. Any suggestions for HoCoLocal activities that you’d recommend?

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