Skip to main content

News and an Allegory


 

There are two perfectly good local stories to talk about today. The first one is close to my heart.




Oakland Mills High School has announced that tickets are now available for this year’s WBAL Concert for Kids, to be held on December 3rd at 7:30 PM, with a Family Matinee at 2:00 PM. This annual event is a favorite of mine. If you are looking for an all out holiday extravaganza  without leaving town, this is it. Proceeds benefit the WBAL Kids Campaign. 

The annual Concert for Kids to benefit the WBAL Radio Kids Campaign is a holiday concert which supports our community by raising funds and awareness for the WBAL Radio Kids Campaign.  Since it premiered in 2007 as an opportunity for the twenty-plus student orchestra to give back to the community, the Concert for Kids has raised over $101,000 for the WBAL Radio Kids Campaign.  A true community event, the Concert for Kids series features the OMHS Performing Arts Department, WBAL Radio On-Air personalities and a visit from Jolly Old Saint Nick himself are also highlights of the annual Concert - - Concert for Kids website

Tickets are $20 for the 7:30 performance and $12 for adults and $8 for kids at the afternoon show. Learn more and buy tickets at the Concert for Kids Website.

The second local story is from Howard Community College. Yesterday they hosted a ribbon-cutting event for their:

…brand new, state-of-the-art simulation and skills lab. This new space will be instrumental for students who are part of the college's newly introduced Surgical Technician and LPN apprenticeship programs, which are being facilitated in partnership with many of the area's leading hospitals and healthcare organizations. - - Tracy M. Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Marketing and Communications


Photo courtesy of Fitzgerald Marketing and Communications


Maybe it’s my age, or the fact that I’ve spent so much time in and out of doctors’s offices over the last several years. Or perhaps it’s the continued focus on the health care field prompted by the ongoing COVID pandemic. When I saw news of this event in my inbox yesterday it honestly meant more to me than it would have five or ten years ago. 

Howard Community College is giving students the ability to pursue careers in a field where they will be able to make a decent living and will be a part of a field which is vital to all of us: health care. I’ll be writing more about this soon, but I wanted to share this announcement in a timely manner.

And now…drumroll please…

This is the story I fell in love with as soon as I spied it on Facebook. It’s not from Columbia/HoCo, it’s from Second Chance in Baltimore. It’s not about current events. It’s about refrigerators.

After waiting with bated breath all year, National #CleanOutYourRefrigeratorDay is FINALLY here! 😆 Created by the home economists at #Whirlpool in 1999 to encourage people to prepare for the Holidays, millions of Americans wait on the edge of their seats for Nov. 15 to roll around.... 🙄

If the task seems too daunting, however, maybe you should just get a new fridge? Leon - our resident "appliance artist" - has a whole line of sparkling, new-to-you fridges ready! You can even donate your old (working) one here.

Just trying to be helpful. 😁 Feel free to share how you really feel about cleaning fridges, ovens and the like.....

It’s National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Who knew? I laughed when I saw this because I had actually mentioned cleaning out the refrigerator yesterday as my husband and I discussed where we’d put all the delicious Thanksgiving food from Atwater’s before we took it over to Grandma’s house on the big day.

But, in all honesty, I’m sharing it with you here because it put me in mind of the local controversy du jour. Yes, you know the one: conflict between the CA Board and CA President Lakey Boyd. There have been quite a few impassioned calls lately that it’s time to “clean out the refrigerator”, if you will.

On the other hand, maybe we just need to get a whole new-to-us refrigerator. Maybe this one can’t be fixed. I’ll leave you with that. Come back tomorrow if you’re looking for a more complete explanation. 

In the meantime, if you find anything interesting while cleaning out your actual refrigerator, I’d love to know. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...

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...

What Kids Are Thinking

  It’s a Monday in February, and if you guessed that a lot of Howard County students have the new cell phone policy on their minds, you’d be right. It will mean big changes and it will be stressful, no matter how much good we hope it will do in the long run. But on this particular Monday cell phones might not be top of mind, as amazing as that seems. Some kids will go to school wondering if they or family members will be seized by ICE. Some will fear that their parents’ employment will be purged by the ongoing rampage of Elon Musk and his cronies through Federal Government. Some fear heightened and renewed racism as programs that supprted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are vilified and destroyed.  Some worry that it soon won’t be safe for them to use the bathroom in school anymore. It goes without saying that some kids fear going to school every day because of the prevalence of school shootings.  And look! Here’s something new to fear. That old hate group, Libs of TikTo...