Skip to main content

This is Brilliant, Ellicott City!

 


I had something entirely different planned for today and then I saw this reel from the Ellicott City Partnership. I can’t embed it here so you will need to click the link below. It’s a promo for this Saturday’s activities in Old Ellicott City:

https://www.facebook.com/stories/110481028182162/UzpfSVNDOjI1OTY3MDk2OTQxNzg0MDg=/?view_single=1&source=shared_permalink

Please forgive my amateurish screenshot here. 


It begins:

You know what UMBC, CCBC, AND HCC have in common? Y’all don’t have anything to do this Saturday! 

The young man in the video then lays out all the possibilities - - Farmer’s Market, Music Festival, Flea Market. He tells you the times of each and he shows you where they will take place. 

This is brilliant. You know who are always looking for fun things to do on the weekends? College students. You know who are young and energetic enough to take on a Farmer’s Market, a Music Festival, and a Flea Market all in one day? College students. You know who are looking for real life experiences that are free or don’t cost a ton of money?

College students!

While we are at it, you know who I’d like to see care about Old Ellicott City and be invested in its future? Yep. Young people. Like college students, for instance.

Brilliant. 

I think (but have not verified) that the young man in the center of this video is Howard County’s own Gavin Lampasone. I mentioned him back in June in connection with the Juneteenth celebration at the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center.




I’m making this connection because I know that Lampasone has made promotional video content for other Howard County organizations, such as Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks and the Howard County of Human Rights & Equity. Yes, I looked at the two photos side by side and that isn’t enough for me because I live in dread of slipping into any lazy assumptions.

So I promise I will find out and post here. If I’m wrong I’ll apologize, too.*

If you're interested in the Ellicott City Partnership you can visit their website, their Facebook page, and their Instagram account.




I notice the poster is advertising Free Family Fun. I admire the video maker for pointing out that there will be free college student fun, too.

Have you ever been to a festival in Old Ellicott City? What was your experience like? Let me know.


Village Green/Town² Comments 



* The problem with writing at five am is that it is highly discourteous to reach out to normal people for confirmation at that hour. The problem with my brain is that it only wants to write at five am.

Comments

  1. Julia A. McCreadySeptember 17, 2026 at 4:58 AM

    Please do not submit comments here. This function will be disabled shortly. Use the link above instead. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more