the embry rucker community shelter. ‘helping hungry...

Reston Connection ❖ January 22-28, 2014 ❖ 1www.ConnectionNewspapers.com

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RestonReston

Celebrating MLKCommunity, Page 4

Reston’s BestNews, Page 5

Sales Tax ErrorThrows off RevenueNews, Page 3

Celebrating MLKCommunity, Page 4

Reston’s BestNews, Page 5

Sales Tax ErrorThrows off RevenueNews, Page 3

‘Helping Hungry Kids’News, Page 3

‘Helping Hungry Kids’News, Page 3

Volunteers unpack and organize one Saturday’s worthof food donations onto tables. Any items not packedinto individual bags for hungry children are sent tothe Embry Rucker Community Shelter.

2 ❖ Reston Connection ❖ January 22-28, 2014 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com

Community

Outstanding ServiceAt the Reston Lions Club Holiday party held on Dec. 19,at the Hidden Creek Country Club, five members of theclub were presented Melvin Jones Fellow plaques fordedicated humanitarian services. The awards were bythe Lions Clubs International Foundation. The recipi-ents with Club President Don Leas, are, from left, GerryWashburn, Bob Meissner, Leas, Jim Ryan, Mike Moseleyand Jack Gazlay. Melvin Jones was one of the foundersin 1917 of Lions Clubs International which now has1.35 million members in 206 countries. The RestonLions Club supports sight and hearing programs andmore in the Reston and Herndon areas.

To have community events listed in theConnection, send [email protected] bythe Friday prior to the following week’spaper.

SATURDAY/JAN. 25Furry Foxes. 11 a.m.-Noon. Walker

Nature Center, 11450 Glade Drive,Reston. Find out what foxes eat,which of their wild cousins also livein Reston, and feel the furs of allthese animals as well as go on a shorthike. Reston Association members:$7; Non-members: [email protected] or 703-476-9689.

Useful Services Exchange AnnualPotluck Dinner and Meeting.4:30-8 p.m. Unitarian-UniversalistChurch of Reston, 1625 Wiehle Ave.,Reston. A time-trading barter systemto exchange services among Reston/Herndon residents. All current andprospective members are invited. Nocharge, beverages will be provided.To RSVP or get more information,call 703-435-6283.

SUNDAY/ JAN. 26Creatures of the Chesapeake Bay.

1:30-2:30 p.m. or 3-4 p.m., WalkerNature Center, 11450 Glade Drive,Reston. Learn about bay ecology andhow the way we treat water at homeaffects the water quality and wildlifefound in the bay with a marinebiologist. Reston Associationmembers: $8; Non-members: [email protected] or 703-476-9689.

MONDAY/ JAN. 27Choices for Sustainable Living. 7-9

p.m., Walker Nature Center, 11450Glade Drive, Reston. Join this sevensession, facilitated discussion courseto explore the meaning of sustainableliving and the ties between lifestylechoices and their impact on theearth. Reston Association Members:$30; Non-members: [email protected] or 703-476-9689.

THURSDAY/ JAN. 30Paper Making. 10:30-11:30 a.m.,

Walker Nature Center, 11450 GladeDrive, Reston. Discover how to makeyour own paper using a variety ofmaterials and learn how to use it infuture craft projects. Child RestonAssociation member: $7; Non-members: [email protected] or 703-476-9689.

ONGOINGFairfax County’s Meals on Wheels

urgently needs drivers in theAnnandale, Franconia/Kingstowne,Reston, Mount Vernon and McLeanareas. 703-324-5406, TTY 711 orwww.fairfaxcounty.gov/olderadults.

Herndon Senior Center seeks aknitting enthusiast to teach basicprocedures. Class meets Thursdays,10:30 a.m. to noon and musicians toplay soothing music on weekendmornings. 703-324-5406, TTY 711 orwww.fairfaxcounty.gov/olderadults.

AWANA Club for ChristianChildren. 7-8:30 p.m., at MLKChristian Church, 11400 North ShoreDrive, Reston. Awana helps churchesand parents work together to developspiritually strong youth who faithfullyfollow Jesus Christ. 703-709-3641.

Knitting Enthusiasts, MusiciansNeeded. 10:30 a.m.-noon, atHerndon Senior Center. HerndonSenior Center seeks a knittingenthusiast to teach basic procedures.Musicians to play soothing music onweekend mornings also needed. 703-324-5406, TTY 711,www.fairfaxcounty.gov/olderadult [email protected].

Habitat Heroes Project. The fourthSaturday of each month. Join theHabitat Heroes in protecting Reston’sforests from aggressive plants andrestoring them to their natural state.Wear long sleeves, long pants, and ifpossible, gardening gloves to protectfrom insects and dangerous plants.R.A. will provide tools, gloves,snacks, and water. To volunteer andfind more information, [email protected] or 703-435-7986.

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See Sales Tax, Page 10See Budget Fray, Page 13

NewsReston Connection Editor Kemal Kurspahic

703-778-9414 or [email protected]

By Ethan McLeod

The Connection

Every Saturday leading up to Feb. 17,customers walking into the Fox Milland North Point shopping center

Giant grocery stores will be able to providefood for hungry elementary school childrenin Herndon and Reston.

The Helping Hungry Kids program kickedoff its Stuff the Bus food collection programJan. 18, at area grocery stores, completewith shopping carts and a stack of foodready to be purchased for generous custom-ers. Volunteers at the front of the storehanded out flyers to customers and askedthem to help by purchasing $11 bags filledwith child-sized portions of items like maca-roni and cheese, granola bars and sugar-free applesauce.

“A lot of the people who come here justtake the bag and prepare it themselves,”said Colleen Cavitz, a Chantilly residentwho has been volunteering each month forthree years.

Co-founder Sandy Amato first began col-lecting monthly food donations in 2009 forarea elementary school students on free and

reduced lunch programs. There is a signifi-cant gap in food availability for those stu-dents on the weekends that Amato says theHelping Hungry Kids program seeks to fill.Giving Circle of Hope, the nonprofit thatorganizes the monthly food drives, distrib-utes the food at the end of each week forchildren on free and reduced lunch pro-grams.

The majority of the food, about 300 bags,goes to Dogwood Elementary School stu-dents, with an additional 25 to 50 going tostudents who attend Buzz Aldrin, Terraset,Clearview, Coates and Belvedere elemen-tary schools. Larger items and boxes of foodare donated to the Embry Rucker Commu-nity Shelter. “The community is so gener-ous,” said Amato. “We get about eight gro-cery carts full every time we come out hereto Fox Mill.”

The food is then transported to the Al-tum, Inc. building in Reston, the corporatebusiness partner for the past five years forGiving Circle of Hope, where it is sorted into

bags.From Jan. 18 to Feb. 17, Fairfax County

provides transport for the donationsthrough its Stuff the Bus program withFastran buses in the parking lots of 13 gro-cery stores that collect each day’s donations.Helping Hungry Kids is one of the initia-tives that Fairfax County helps, in additionto replenishing the supplies at area foodbanks.

Dave Dixon, who works for MV Transpor-tation, has been driving the buses stuffedfull of food donations for four years. “AfterChristmas, there’s a real drain on the sup-plies available for food banks,” said Dixon.

Dixon displayed the estimated figurescollected during the 2012-2013 school year:8,570 bags, totaled at $51,420 in donations.

Amato noted that the collections havegrown each year, and hopes that that trendwill only continue to provide for thecounty’s hungry children: “Nobody thinksthere are hungry kids in Fairfax County, butthere really are.”

Saturday food drives atHerndon and Restongrocery stores provideweekends meals forarea students.

‘HelpingHungryKids’

Photo by Ethan McLeod/The Connection

Volunteers unload food packed into a Fastran bus at the end of the day.

By Michael Lee Pope

The Connection

The partial government shutdownwas more than an October sur-prise during the race for gover-nor. Newly available statistics

from the Virginia Department of Taxationshow the month was also an unexpectedboost to sales tax revenues across the com-monwealth. Fairfax County, for example, re-corded a 15.5 percent spike in sales tax rev-enue in October 2013 compared to Octo-ber 2012. But state and local officials saysthat’s because several major departmentstores neglected to increase their sales taxrate to reflect the new regional tax for trans-portation when the new fiscal year beganin July. So the October numbers representthe backlog of uncollected revenues.

Which retailers flubbed their taxes?“That’s proprietary information, so we

can’t say,” said Marcia Wilds, revenue andeconomic analysis coordinator with theFairfax County Department of Managementand Budget. “They’re big.”

The revenue corrections came at a keytime for local governments, a month thatmany expected to be particularly bleak.Many government workers and contractorswere out of work in October, when localgovernments became concerned that spend-ing habits might reflect a sense of uncer-tainty about the future. Now budget offi-cials across Northern Virginia are worriedabout what kind of sales tax revenue they’llcollect from the holiday season.

“The sales tax will be back with holidaysales,” said Stephen Fuller, director of theCenter for Regional Analysis at GeorgeMason University. “Over the year there willonly a minor weakening.”

BUDGET OFFICIALS are not so sure. Aslocal governments across the region preparefor the first round of budgeting next month,a sense of uncertainty looms over the rev-enue projections and spending priorities.Part of that is the unemployment rate, whichremains at about 6 percent across Virginia.That means consumers may hold back onconsumption based spending, which wouldmean lower revenues for local governmentson retail sales and restaurant meals.

“If revenues continue to decline, it maybe necessary to make up any additional

October numbersartificially inflated;holiday numberscould spell trouble.

RetailWorries

By Victoria Ross

The Connection

Despite the lingering impact of ananemic economy, and the regionalripple effects of federal sequestra-

tion, Fairfax County residents will see someconcrete signs of progress this year.

That message was delivered by FairfaxCounty Board of Supervisors ChairmanSharon Bulova, who cast a mostly positivelight on the county’s future during a mediascreening of her televised annual State of

the County address on Wednesday, Jan. 15.In addition to the completion of Phase 1

of the Silver Line in Tysons, motorists canexpect to see congestion eased through anumber of state-funded transportationprojects, including the new I-95 ExpressLanes that will tie into the Beltway Expresslanes at Edsall Road.

Residents can also look forward to therevitalization and redevelopment of oldercommercial and industrial areas through-out the county, including the $250 milliontransformation of Springfield Mall into the

Springfield Town Center in the fall of 2014.The newly-renovated mall will include the

addition of roughly 700,000 square feet ofretail, restaurants, a food court and a state-of-the-art movie theater. The 20-foot-tallbrown numbers that indicated the mall’s sixmain entrances — a hallmark of the 1970s-era mall — will be replaced with one cen-tral grand entranceway.

Bulova also praised the Economic Devel-opment Authority and Visit Fairfax forboosting tourism and facilitating the selec-tion of Fairfax County as the host of the2015 World Police and Fire Games, theworld’s second largest athletic competitionafter the summer Olympics. The event is

Into the Budget FrayBulova highlights accomplishments,challenges in annual address.


Community

By Ethan McLeod

The Connection

Reston resident Denver Lovett was part ofthe first March on Washington on Aug.8, 1963, while he was a student atHoward University. He also attended the

20th, 30th, and 50th anniversaries of the event in Wash-ington D.C.

But this past Sunday, Jan. 19, Lovett had a chanceto spend the day marching with his Reston neigh-bors for a half-mile beginning at Lake Anne VillageCenter to commemorate the historic day.

“If you get a lot of individuals taking action andtrying to change things rather than sitting aroundcomplaining about how bad things are, it can createa powerful movement for good,” said Lovett.

Reston community members, led by the Rev. DavidNorth, marched together and sang “We Shall Not BeMoved” and “We Shall Overcome” as they made theirway to the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregationup the road. There the Voices of Inspiration GospelChoir, a student gospel group from Southern Meth-odist University, sang songs of worship in a tributeto Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy.

Throughout the weekend, the Reston communitypaid service to King through community service,speaking events and arts performances. The festivi-ties began Saturday with a community service daythat drew about 100 volunteers at Southgate Com-munity Center. For four hours, participants collectedtoys in partnership with The Closet, hosted an artsand crafts station for children to create murals com-memorating King, and cleaned up the communitycenter’s backyard.

At the Reston Community Center, the Reston Com-munity Orchestra, led by Maestro Dingwall Fleary,performed songs both created by African Americancomposers and dedicated to the civil rights move-ment.

“The great thing about this celebration over the

years has been how it becomes an event by and forthe community,” said Leila Gordon, executive direc-tor of the Reston Community Center.

A headliner for the weekend was Grammy award-winning a capella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.The group played a sold-out concert at the commu-nity center at Hunters Woods and, as a collective,was the chosen speaker for the Monday keynote ad-dress and community lunch.

Through its weekend packed with programs,Reston showed its commitment to celebrating King’slife and legacy by bringing a community of individu-als together in acts of solidarity.

As North told the Sunday congregation of march-ers: “One drop is small, but if you put all the dropstogether, you can create a mighty ocean.”

Community joins togetherin weekend of music, fun,and community service.

Reston Residents March toCommemorate King’s Legacy

Reston community members re-enact theMarch on Washington by singing songsand marching from Lake Anne to theNorthern Virginia Hebrew Congregation.

Volunteers sortdonations oftoys atSouthgateCommunityCenter onSaturday.

Photos by

Ethan McLeod/

The Connection

Viewpoints

What is the most important part ofReston’s commemoration weekend forDr. King’s legacy to you?

Colin MillsPresident of Reston Citizens

Association“Reston is a wonderfully diverse

community and I’m really glad that wehave events like this to celebrate thekind of diversity that we have here.”

Ed RobichaudBoard Member for Reston Historic

Trust“This three-day event that we do

every year is a great event. It com-bines music, community service,singing, and I think Dr. King would beproud of the whole thing

Joan WhaleyFormer Reston resident“Only Reston would do something

like this, marching half a mile up theroad — we are the parade. I’m soblessed to be able to share thisopportunity with friends of mine fromReston associations, and it’s anopportunity that can’t be missed”

Sabri HammadSales Consultant“Being a Muslim, I feel his march

was as much for me as it was for theAfrican-American community, and Ifeel it’s applicable in other places.These same [song] lyrics can beenused in Rwanda, Palestine, and reallyanywhere you may go.”

Michelle MoyerBoard Member for Reston Commu-

nity Center“What this weekend means is that

we cannot forget. Dr. North in hisopening comments, said, ‘Until all arefree, none are free.’ I think you see themix of people here today and we allhave to keep remembering that andnot be complacent.”

Denver LovettReston resident“People today may feel that they

can’t make a difference, but they don’ttake action. This is a way of takingaction, doing what I can as anindividual, and being an example tothe young people to come out andshow support.”


News

By Ethan McLeod

The Connection

In a colorful, well-lit lit room of theGoogle Reston Town Center office, ashining bronze statue of 99-year-oldReston founder Bob Simon sat about

10 feet away from the man himself.Simon’s statue was a centerpiece of the

23rd Annual Best of Reston Awards Kickoff,which introduced this year’s eight honor-ees for the award. The Greater RestonChamber of Commerce and the nonprofitCornerstones co-host the awards each yearto recognize exceptional community servicein Reston community members.

The three businesses that received awardsin the categories of Corporate BusinessLeader, Small Business Leader, and Civic/Community Leader, are Cooley, LLC,Brennan & Waite, P.L.C., and HomeAidNorthern Virginia, respectively.

The five Individual Community Leaderawardees are Carol Ann Bradley, JerryFerguson, Cate Fulkerson, Bonnie Hauknessand Davida Luehrs.

Cornerstones CEO Kerri Wilson andGreater Reston Chamber of CommercePresident and CEO Mark Ingrao spoke ofhow the event embodies Simon’s originalvision for Reston as a community, whichSimon acknowledged later on.

“It’s extraordinary, the level of commit-ment and understanding for what Restonis, and it’s all here,” said Simon.

Cornerstones operates the Embry RuckerShelter and supports more than 20,000 inneed with its programs each year. TheGreater Reston Chamber of Commerce,meanwhile, advocates for the growth ofReston’s business community in the DullesCorridor.

“It truly is a unique partnership that wecelebrate with a membership organizationfor businesses that truly lives the ideals ofgiving back, promoting all that is good, and

celebrating everyone in our community,”said Wilson.

One by one, the honorees for this year’sawards stepped up and exchanged hugs andhandshakes with Wilson and Ingrao, whothanked the assortment of individuals andbusinesses for their contributions commit-ments to the community.

Best of Reston honorees from past yearsand local politicians were also in atten-dance, including Supervisor Cathy Hudgins(D-Hunter Mill) and Herndon Mayor LisaMerkel. “The focus of the Best of Restonawards on volunteerism are one-of-a-kind,”said Hudgins. “It really is uniquely Reston.”

The 2014 Best of Reston awards will beparticularly special in that they will alsomark the 50th anniversary of Reston, as wellas Simon’s 100th birthday. The awards willbe the culmination of Cornerstones’ year-long fundraising goal to raise $1 million thatwill help to double the amount of afford-able housing in Reston.

So far, Simon and his co-sponsors haveraised 75 percent of that goal, and thereare still about three months until the awardstake place. Simon was particularly enthu-siastic at the reception at the amount ofmoney they had already managed to raisein under one year to help build more af-fordable housing in the community.

Among the local people that have donatedmore than $10,000 a piece toward the cam-paign are Bill Bouie, Jim and Karen Cleve-land, Joe Ritchey, and the Veatch family, inaddition to eight other sponsors.

The 2014 Best of Reston Awards Galawill take place on April 10 at the HyattRegency Reston.

Cornerstones and GRCCReveal Best of Reston HonoreesReston’s business and nonprofit leaders wereamong those gathered for 23rd Annual Best ofReston Kickoff Reception.

AND THE WINNERS ARE…:Corporate Business Leader – Cooley, LLCSmall Business Leader – Brennan & Waite, P.L.C.Civic/Community Leader – HomeAid Northern

VirginiaIndividual Community Leaders – Carol Ann Bradley,

Jerry Ferguson, Cate Fulkerson, BonnieHaukness and Davida Luehrs

Photo by Ethan McLeod/The Connection

The Best of Reston honorees nominees all together.


Opinion

Standing on what is essentially scorchedearth, Republicans in the Virginia Gen-eral Assembly have condemned hun-dreds of thousands of poor Virginians

to living without health coverage eventhough it would be fully funded by Fed-eral money for the next three years, andwith Virginia paying 10 percent afterfive years.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe has pledged to do ev-erything he can to expand Medicaid under theAffordable Care Act, and we encourage him touse every creative option available to make thathappen. In Ohio, the governor found a legal wayto accept the Medicaid funds despite objectionsfrom the General Assembly, for example.

Earlier this week, McAuliffe included anamendment to the FY2014 caboose budget billauthorizing the Governor to act in the eventthat the Medicaid Reform Innovation and Re-form Commission (MIRC) fails to decide

whether or not to accept federal funding tocover up to 400,000 uninsured Virginiansthrough Medicaid by the end of the currentlegislative session.

Business groups and chambers ofcommerce around Virginia, includingthe Fairfax County Chamber of Com-merce, support accepting the expansion

of Medicaid in Virginia under the AffordableCare Act. One persuasive factor for the busi-ness community: The expansion would createan estimated 30,000 jobs. Hospitals support ex-panding Medicaid which would offset many ofthe costs of caring for uninsured populations.

It isn’t as if there is no health care cost forthe uninsured now. Right now, they accesshealth care when they are very sick by goingto an emergency room or other clinics, whereproviders spread the cost of care around. Thisis inefficient, expensive and unhealthy, includ-ing for those of us who do have health insur-

ance. It means unvaccinated and/or sick peopleare going to work and going about their dailylives putting themselves and others at risk.

As of January 2014, in Virginia, Medicaideligibility for adults without disability is lim-ited to parents with incomes below 51 percentof poverty, or about $11,900 a year for a fam-ily of four, according to the Kaiser Family Foun-dation. Adults without dependent children re-main ineligible regardless of their income.

The General Assembly should not be able toblock coverage for as many as 400,000 Virgin-ians basically out of spite. The established ex-cuse, that the Feds can’t afford it and can’t becounted on to pay the money, doesn’t holdwater in Virginia, which receives more Federaldollars per capita than any other state butAlaska. If legislators are so concerned aboutFederal ability to pay, you might expect to seethem refusing transportation money, for ex-ample, or to turn the possible FBI headquar-ters away, or thousands of other ways that Fed-eral dollars make their way into Virginia.

— Mary Kimm,

[email protected]

General Assembly should not block coverage foras many as 400,000 uninsured.

Extend Health Coverage in Virginia

Editorial

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Reston

By John Lovaas

Reston Impact Producer/Host

It never looked like a fair fight.In the fall of 2009, whenHunter Mill Supervisor Cathy

Hudgins assembled herTask Force of 25 or so toprepare a Comprehen-sive (Master) Plan for theDulles rail corridor, itwas clear the communitywas at a disadvantage. A handfulof Reston volunteers faced a pha-lanx of hired gun slingers, men(100 percent men!) representingcommercial developers and theirlawyers. The gunslingers werepros doing their jobs, unified in aclear sense of purpose — to maxi-mize profit. Most had worked“community” task force gigs beforeand knew the county staff advis-ing the Task Force. None lived inReston.

The civilians, volunteers repre-senting community organizationsincluding the Reston Citizens As-sociation (RCA) and Reston Asso-ciation (RA), had only a vaguesense of mission — to plan devel-opment consistent with theirReston values. They would do theright thing for their community,but they were new to the game.The Task Force was to completethe Plan in one year. It took fouryears. It was approved by the

County Planning Commission justlast week.

It goes to the Board of Supervi-sors for a likely rubber stamp pub-lic review on Jan. 28. The productbears the gunslingers’ heavy im-

print, but is not as ter-rible as I expected. A cen-tral issue, of course, wasdensity. The final stagePlan calls for a lot of highdensity, especially closest

to the stations. The densities, how-ever, are generally appropriate toan urban core, which is what therail corridor will be. Unfortunately,the type of development reflectsthe composition of the gunsling-ers team — that is, far too muchcommercial vs. residential devel-opment. And, it means greatertraffic gridlock and less character.

A major difference from ourReston tradition may be the lossof excellence in design and envi-ronmental standards. While thereis a lot of verbiage about the im-portance of quality design, thePlan is filled with platitudes andlacking in standards and an insti-tutional mechanism to enforcethem. This was made far worse byMs. Hudgins’ planning commis-sioner who struck the requirementfor design review by the RestonDRB, and substituted developer

Master Plan for TransitAreas — Outgunned By Kenneth R. “Ken” Plum

State Delegate (D-36)

Each year the Governor of

Virginia ad-dresses a joint assembly of

the Houseof Delegates and the State

Senate in a speech not unlike thePresident’s State of the Union ad-dress except that theGovernor provides a“State of the Common-wealth” as well as his rec-ommendations for legis-lative action. Last week I heard the35th such speech since I have beena member of the House of Del-egates. I think Gov. Terry McAuliffemade the best of any of thespeeches I have heard over mycareer in the legislature.

He emphasized the need for allto work together; “… as we launchthis new chapter in our history, letus resolve to show the partisansin Washington and across the na-tion that here in Virginia, in aCommonwealth that pioneeredgovernment by consensus, there isno challenge too great, no debatetoo intractable and no idea too am-bitious that we cannot come to-gether on common ground to buildthe future our families deserve.”The theme of his inaugural eventswas “common ground.”

He will put an emphasis on eco-nomic development. In his speechhe announced two economic de-velopment projects that he has al-

ready concluded after just threedays in office. “In today’s moderneconomy, Virginia has to besmarter, more productive and farmore aggressive than our sisterstates for new jobs and invest-ment,” he said. From the tone ofhis speech it is obvious that no onewill be accusing the new Gover-nor of not being aggressive enough

in economic develop-ment.

His goals are clear, andhe does not duck contro-versial issues. In his own

words, “We should stop over-test-ing our students … The GeneralAssembly should not wait anotheryear to pass the bipartisan DreamAct … On Saturday I was proud tosign Executive Order Number One,which prohibits discrimination instate government on the basis ofsexual orientation and genderidentity … An open and welcom-ing Commonwealth requires astate government that trustswomen to make their own healthcare decisions, and works to ex-pand access to quality care … I ameager to work with the coalitionof Virginia leaders who agree thatwe need to strengthen our democ-racy by passing legislation puttingVirginia on the path toward non-partisan redistricting.”

He was just as direct in his sup-port for an expansion of Medicaidto help those “families (who) are

Gov. McAuliffe Sets StageCommentary

Independent

Progressive

Richmond

Diary

See Lovaas, Page 7 See Plum, Page 7


Commentary

Lovaaspreferred weasel-wording in its place.The LEED Gold Standard for environmen-

tal excellence in buildings was lowered tothe modest silver standard in the final draftof the Plan.

Open space and recreational amenitiesserving all ages are a hallmark of Reston.They have been sharply de-emphasized asfavored by the gunslingers. For example, thecounty Park Authority’s own standards callfor a minimum of 12 athletic fields to servethe 40,000 new residents in the corridor.The Plan going to the Board of Supervisorscalls for only three. The spillover demandwill simply go to other areas of Reston,where demand for fields already outstripssupply.

The Plan calls for new construction tooccur simultaneous with the installation ofessential supporting infrastructure — like

From Page 6 roads, schools, sidewalks. But, it is only agoal not a requirement. The lack of assur-ance that it will be done underlines anothermajor failing of the Plan. There is, in fact,no entity responsible for implementing thePlan. It seems left to chance and the goodwill of developers.

In sum: Although the urban densities fore-seen in the Transit Station Areas may beappropriate for our future urban core, theplan provides no assurance that said urbancore will function. It is almost certain to lackthe design excellence and overall qualityRestonians expect. Still, I shudder to thinkhow much worse the Plan would likely bebut for the amazing efforts of communityvolunteers, especially the dozens workingwith RCA and Reston 2020 whose well-re-searched analytical inputs and dedicationmight have carried the day on a level play-ing field.

PlumFrom Page 6

just a major illness or accident away fromfinancial ruin.” As he pointed out, if we failto exercise the option of federal funding forMedicaid, “we will forgo $2.1 billion annu-ally in federal funding over the next threeyears. That is more than $5 million per day.”

The Governor has extended an invitationfor legislators of both parties to work withhim. I look forward to working with him inmoving Virginia forward.

To read the full text of the Governor’sspeech, go to https://governor.virginia.gov/newsarticle?articleId=2572

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By Ryan Dunn

The Connection

This past weekend students in theSouth Lakes High School wererehearsing and preparing for theninth annual Broadway Night

show at 7 p.m. Jan. 24-25 (weather depend-ing) at the school’s Little Theatre. Cast andcrew were at the school making sure every-thing was ready for opening night. “This ismy first year doing costume design, but mythird year doing production for the play,”said South Lakes senior Allison Scheler.

Audiences will enjoy the music of Broad-way musicals from 1962 to the present inthis year’s show, “#Generations X, Y, Z”which will feature songs from the musicals“Matilda,” “Edges,” “Cinderella,” “AnythingGoes,” “Rock of Ages” and more.

“This year we are highlighting theaudience’s perspectives on different genera-tions,” said Scheler. “I made sure the cos-tumes were appropriate to date. It is fun towork with different costumes and differentpersonalities.”

“Many of the more recent Broadway showsare featuring music and artists from the ’50s,’60s, ’70s and ’80s, introducing our currentgeneration to this music,’’ said Rita Gigliotti,director of choirs at South Lakes HighSchool. “While new to them, it is reminis-cent for their parents and grandparents. Toadd to this twist, there will be a hashtag as-sociated with each song in the review to in-corporate today’s social media hype for our‘Z’ generation.’’

More than 120 students from South LakesPyramid schools are participating in thismusical theatre intensive centered aroundteaching students who want to grow invoice, acting, dance, and technical theatre.South Lakes choral students assume leader-ship roles in running every aspect of theshow: performing, directing, production,

Send announcements to [email protected]. The deadline is the Friday prior tothe following week’s paper. Photos/artwork encour-aged.

TUESDAY /JAN. 21-SUNDAY/MARCH 2Something Blue. ArtSpace Herndon, 750 Center

Street, Herndon. Fine textile art is showcased inSomething Blue by the Northern VirginiaQuilters. 703-956-6590 orwww.artspaceherndon.org.

WEDNESDAY/JAN. 22- WEDNESDAY/FEB. 19Art Explorers. 10:30-11:30 a.m., ArtSpace

Herndon, 750 Center Street, Herndon. Threesessions allow for a more in-depth introductionto the key concepts and will provide some goodhomework suggestions to help start and developa habit of sketching. $200. 703-956-6590 orwww.artspaceherndon.org.

FRIDAY/JAN. 24- SATURDAY/JAN. 25Les Miserables. 8 p.m. Reston Community

Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston. Setagainst the backdrop of 19th century France,this revolutionary musical is a timelesstestament to the survival of the human spirit.

SATURDAY/JAN. 25“Sing a New Song” Concert. 4 p.m. Good

Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1133 Reston Ave.,Herndon. The concert explores the high churchmusic of the Catholic, Anglican, and Lutherantraditions. The concert is free, but a freewilldonation will be collected (suggested: $20/adult). A reception follows the concert. http://gslcva.org/ministries/worship/concert-series/

SUNDAY/JAN. 26Something Blue Opening Reception. 4-6

p.m., ArtSpace Herndon, 750 Center Street,Herndon. This exhibit showcases fine textile artand is a sampling of blue varietals as used byNorthern Virginia Quilters. 703-956-6590 orwww.artspaceherndon.org.

SUNDAY/MARCH 9Rennie Harris’ RHAW 8 p.m., at The

Centerstage, Reston Community Center HuntersWoods. RHAW will showcase Dr. Rennie Harris’newest and brightest street dancers as theybring hip hop back to basics. $15 Reston/$30Non-Reston. www.restoncommunitycenter.comor 703-476-4500.

WEDNESDAY/MARCH 12Lúnasa. 8 p.m., at The Centerstage, Reston

Community Center Hunters Woods. This groupof Irishmen continues its 20-year tradition offamed Celtic music. $20 Reston/$40 Non-Reston. www.restoncommunitycenter.com or703-476-4500.

SUNDAY/APRIL 6Mr. Vaudeville and Friends with Mark

Brutsché. 3 p.m., at The Centerstage, RestonCommunity Center Hunters Woods. BuddySilver, and alter-ego Mark Brutsché, returns toto prove, once again, that nothing can take theplace of live entertainment. $5 Reston/$10 Non-Reston. www.restoncommunitycenter.com or703-476-4500.

SUNDAY/APRIL 27Trout Fishing in America. 3 p.m., at The

Centerstage, Reston Community Center HuntersWoods. This Grammy Award nominated duo’sinfectious mix of folk/pop and family music isenriched by the diverse influences of reggae,Latin, blues, jazz and classical music. $15Reston/$30 Non-Reston.www.restoncommunitycenter.com or 703-476-4500.

WEDNESDAY/MAY 28Modern Moves, in partnership with Dance

Place. 8 p.m., at The Centerstage, RestonCommunity Center Hunters Woods. Three ofD.C.’s most prominent choreographers – DanielBurkholder, Daniel Phoenix Singh and EricaRebollar – come together to create an eclecticevening of thrilling modern dance. $15 Reston/$30 Non-Reston.www.restoncommunitycenter.com or 703-476-4500.

SATURDAY/MAY 31Raul Midòn. 8 p.m., at The Centerstage, Reston

Community Center Hunters Woods. Blind sinceinfancy, Midón uses his songwriting and musicaltalents to shatter stereotypes while establishinghimself as one of music’s most distinctive and

searching voices. $20 Reston/$40 Non-Reston.www.restoncommunitycenter.com or 703-476-4500.

SUNDAY/JUNE 8SpeakeasyDC’s Born This Way: Stories

About Queer Culture in America. 3 p.m.,at The Centerstage, Reston Community CenterHunters Woods. One of the region’s premierestorytelling theatres presents an adults onlyafternoon of entertaining and thought-provokingtrue stories that showcase a range ofperspectives from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual andTransgendered (LGBT) community. $15 Reston/$30 Non-Reston.www.restoncommunitycenter.com or 703-476-4500.

ONGOINGFree Comedy Showcase. Thursdays 8:30 p.m.,

at Kalypso’s Sports Tavern, 1617 WashingtonPlaza N., Lake Anne Village Center, Reston.Kalypso’s hosts weekly comedy shows thatfeature some of the best national touring andlocal comedians in the area. Free of charge.

“Pinnochio.” March 8-30, 2014, IndustrialStrength Theatre, 269 Sunset Park Drive,Herndon. NextStop Family Theatre presents anew adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s classic story. Itis adapted and directed by Paul Reisman and co-produced by Faction of Fools.www.eldenstreetplayers.org.

League of Reston Artists Paints the Town. 9a.m.-5 p.m., at 1763 Fountain Drive, Reston.Approximately 30 works, in a variety of styles,from League of Reston Artists painters arecurrently being exhibited at the Greater RestonChamber of Commerce.www.leagueofrestonartists.org.

Join Reston Community Center for a revolutionary musical perfor-mance of Les Miserables starting on Jan. 24.

Calendar

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Entertainment

Broadway Night Comes to South Lakes High SchoolSouth Lakes studentsprepare for musicalshow.

technical theatre, publicity, costuming, cho-reography, all in a three-week period.

Alec Bright, a South Lakes senior is help-ing operate the sound booth. “Since it is acabaret, it becomes more of a challenge toadapt to all the sound levels,” said Bright.

Brigid Doebrich, a sophomore, is also amember of the chorus group the “Do ReMigas” and will be representing a characterof the millennial generation. “We can buildour own characters, and that is real cool,”said Doebrich.

Guidance and instruction is provided byGigliotti and other performing arts profes-sionals. Chorus alumni who have performedin past Broadway Night shows also comeback annually to assist Gigliotti and herteam. Among them are Catherine La Valley,now a student at George Mason Universityand Eric O’Brien, a student at New YorkUniversity. “We have been helping the stu-dents so they feel comfortable being thecharacter,” said O’Brien. Also assisting in theproduction is Ryan Washabaugh, a formervoice student of Gigliotti.

Tickets for the shows, which in past yearshave sold out, are $15 for adults, $10 forstudents and seniors. Tickets can be pur-chased at www.southlakeschorus.org underthe tab on top called tickets.

South Lakes studentsrepresenting the

millennial generationrehearse on stage forthe January musical.

From left: OliverGainer, Lyric Venable,

Harrison De Wolfeand Brigid Doebrich.

Photos by

Ryan Dunn/

The Connection

Reston South Lakes student AlecBright, a senior, is operating thesound booth for the annual Broad-way Night show playing Jan. 24-25at the school’s Little Theatre.

South Lakes alumni Catherine LaValley and Eric O’Brien returned tohelp coach students rehearsing forthe January Broadway Night showat South Lakes High.

South Lakes students representingthe millennial generation rehearseon stage at the school’s LittleTheatre. From left: Lyric Venable,Harrison De Wolfe and BrigidDoebrich.


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From Page 3

News

Sales Tax Error ArtificiallyInflates October Revenue

shortfalls with expenditurereductions,” wrote AlexandriaCity Manager Rashad Young ina memorandum to City Coun-cil members this month.

The concerns are larger thanretail sales. One of the poten-tial problems on the horizonis transient occupancy tax rev-enues. In Alexandria, for ex-ample, the hotel occupancyrate fell from 76.1 percent inOctober 2012 to 72.4 percentin October 2013. In Arlington,hotel occupancy tax revenuesfell 15 percent in Novembercompared to the previous yearand 18 percent in Decembercompared to the previous year.

“Am I worried? Yes,” ac-knowledged Arlington BudgetDirector Richard Stevenson.“But that’s what budget direc-tors do. We worry.”

EXPERTS WHO FOLLOW local govern-ment revenues say jurisdictions are worriedfor two reasons. The first is the lack of con-

tinuity on the part of the federal govern-ment. When the shutdown was happening,nobody knew how long it would last or

See Sales Tax, Page 11


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News

when it would end. That led fami-lies to cut back their spending hab-its and cast a wary eye toward thefuture.

“That, obviously, is scary,” saidFrank Shafroth, director of theCenter for State and Local Govern-ment at George Mason University.“It means for a family that you al-ways have to leave somethingaside instead of using it at a localrestaurant, store or other facility.”

A second reason for worry is thatthe uncertainty is far from over.The budget agreement reachedbetween Congress and the presi-dent is good through September,leaving open the possibility of yetanother battle about bankruptcyand insolvency. That leaves opena sense of doubt for long-term con-tracts involving everything frombridges and fighter planes to sat-ellite and veterans hospitals.

“With the Federal Highway TrustFund expected to be insolvent bynext year,” said Shafroth, “a keypartner in the regional Washing-ton economy is becoming an un-certain one.”

THE NEXT FEW months willdetail the extent of the economicdamage created by sequester andshutdown. Will the numbers trackwith expectations? Or will they fallwell below the budgets local lead-ers voted for last spring? That haslocal governments worried andprepared to make reductions ifnecessary. Then again, they alsodon’t want to make spending re-duction that are unnecessary andpotentially damaging.

“What you don’t what to do ismake cuts that if we recoverenough we didn’t need to make,”said Laura Triggs, finance directorwith the city of Alexandria. “Butby law, if it continues to be lowthen yes I have to cut back on ex-penditures.”

Part of the problem is revenuegrowth not meeting expectations.Even if local governments see anincrease in revenue from sales taxrevenue, failure to meet expecta-tions could spell trouble for bal-ancing the books in the current fis-cal year. And that means evenmore headaches for trying to pre-dict the future in fiscal year 2015.

“Normally our sales tax is in-creasing at a larger extent than itis right now,” said Wilds.

SalesTaxError

Send Your Photos & Stories Now [email protected]

or complete our online form at reston-connection.comBe sure to include your name, address and phone number, and identify

all people and pets in photos. Submission deadline is February 20.

Be Part of ThePet Connection in February


Sports

Herndon Connection Sports Editor Rich Sanders

703-224-3031 or [email protected]

By Jon Roetman

The Connection

Alexa Bradley isn’t as good as sheused to be and admits she prob-ably never will be. But thesedays, the Herndon freshman is

having fun with gymnastics and recentlyshowed she still has plenty of ability.

Bradley, 14, won the all-around competi-tion at a home meet on Jan. 16. The Hor-nets placed second as a team, finishing be-hind first-place Stone Bridge.

Bradley compiled a score of 34.9. She fin-ished first on floor (9.2) and vault (9.1),and placed second on bars (8.4) and beam(8.2).

Bradley started competing at the clublevel when she was 3 years old and pro-gressed to a level 8 gymnast at Dulles Gym-nastics Academy in Sterling before stoppingat age 13. Now a freshman, Bradley got backinto gymnastics at the high school level andalso competes for the Herndon cheerleadingteam.

“I did it for my mom,” Bradley said aboutreturning to gymnastics. “She really lovesgymnastics and high school is not that bigof a commitment. I wanted to make herhappy.”

Bradley said she used to train four hoursa day, five times a week while competing atthe club level. At the high school level, shetrains for 90 minutes four times a week.While her skills aren’t where they used tobe, Bradley said being part of the Herndongymnastics team brings more fun and lesspressure.

“I was so rusty,” Bradley said about herreturn to gymnastics. “It took me awhile toget back into it — I’m still getting back intoit. I still haven’t fully peaked. I never will

TJ Swim andDive BeatsSouth Lakes

The TJ boys continued their win-ning ways (211-94) at the firstmeet of the new year againstSouth Lakes.

The boys’ 200 medley relay —Luke Thorsell (Oak Hill), JosephDoran (Springfield), Lucas Lin(Fairfax), Miles Oakley (Fairfax)— placed first, and TJ boys’ 400free relay teams took both first —Michael You (Alexandria), EmilioSison (Annandale), Thorsell, KyleAlexander (McLean)— and secondplace —Matthew Szilagyi

(Lansdowne), Jared Nirenberg(Springfield), Andrew Seliskar(McLean), Nathan Ouyang (OakHill). Seliskar (200 free, 100 fly),Thorsell (200 IM, 100 back),Oakley (50 free, 100 free), andSison (500 free, 100 breast) wereindividual double winners aswell.

The girls lost (171-144), butCarrie Heilbrun (Fairfax Station)(100 fly) and Sophie Bennett(Arlington) (500 free) finishedfirst, continuing a strong season.Heilbrun and Bennett were alsopart of the winning girls 200 freerelay with Charlie Lertlumprasert,Sophia Moses (Arlington).

In boys’ diving, CJ Wilson (Al-exandria) finished first, while

Callan Monette (Fairfax) took firstand Gloria Chen second place forthe girls.

TJ Swim andDive Competesin 5A Invitational

TJ swim and dive team memberstook part in the 5A Invitational inRichmond over the holidays. Car-rie Heilbrun (Fairfax Station) fin-ished first (200 IM, 100 back), andwas part of the winning girls 400free relay with Cynthia Zhuang,Sophia Moses (Arlington), andSophie Bennett (Arlington). MilesOakley (Fairfax) won 50 free.

Herndon seniorDeandre Thomasdrives to thebasket againstLake Braddockon Jan. 18. TheHornets defeatedthe Bruins 99-86,improving theirrecord to 11-2.

Photo by

Craig Sterbutzel/

The Connection

Sports Briefs

be as good as I used to be because I wastraining so much. … It was really frustrat-ing when I couldn’t complete my routines.I would be like, why? I’ve done this so manytimes before. I can do it again. You’ve justgot to stay confident. You’ve got to keep

pushing and trying again.”Herndon head coach Keith Naquin said

Bradley has performed well in her returnto gymnastics. “Part of it is mental in thesense that the club scene is extremely de-manding and it’s rigorous, and the high

school venue is more fun,” Naquinsaid. “It’s lighter and I think that’shelped her transition easily back intoit, where there’s not as much stress.She’s picked up the skills very easily.She’s verycoachable.”

H e r n d o nsophomore Sh-annon Kellyplaced third inthe all-aroundwith a score of34.05. She fin-ished first onbars (8.7) andplaced fourthon beam(8.15), fifth onvault (8.7) andfifth on floor(8.5).

“She’s hadhip surgery,”Naquin said.“For her just toactually behere and com-pete at thislevel is respect-able.”

Stone Bridgewon the teamcompet i t ionwith a score of1 3 3 . 2 .Herndon fin-ished secondwith a score of122.55, fol-lowed bySouth County,Lake Braddock and Hayfield.

Herndon will compete in an meetat Marshall High School on Jan. 22,starting at 6:30 p.m. The Conference5 meet will be held on Feb. 6 atCentreville High School.

Herndon Gymnast Bradley Knocks Off RustFreshman winsall-around at Jan. 16home meet.

“It was reallyfrustratingwhen Icouldn’tcomplete myroutines. Iwould be like,why? I’ve donethis so manytimes before. Ican do itagain. You’vejust got to stayconfident.You’ve got tokeep pushingand tryingagain.”— Herndon freshman

Alexa Bradley

Herndon freshman Alexa Bradley started competing in club gymnasticswhen she was 3 and stopped at 13. She now competes at the high schoollevel.

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expected to generate more than $100 million intourism revenue for the county.

The 30-minute State of the County video, 10 min-utes longer than last year’s production, highlightsmany county achievements in the past year — suchas the county’s low crime rate and a 26 percent re-duction since 2007 in the number of people countedas homeless. It also features three of the county’snew leaders: newly-elected Sheriff Stacey Kincaid,the county’s first female sheriff; Police Chief EdwinRoessler and Karen Garza, the new superintendentof Fairfax County Public Schools.

In the video, Garza said one of her top priorities is“to listen and learn what our community expects ofits schools.”

“One of our big projects this year is that we en-listed the help of a broad-based community commit-tee to develop the Portrait of a Graduate — whichwill detail what our community expects an FCPS stu-dent to know and be to do upon graduating fromour system,” Garza said.

Garza also addressed the ongoing challenge offunding a school system with a current enrollmentof 184,600 students, making FCPS larger than theschool systems of eight states and the District of Co-lumbia.

“As you know, FCPS is facing some challenges aswell,” Garza said in the video. “We have grown bymore than 15,000 students in the last five years andour required expenditures for items like employeebenefits have continued to increase. At the same time,revenues have not increased enough to cover expen-ditures.”

In fiscal year 2014, 53 percent of the county’s gen-eral fund budget was transferred to Fairfax CountyPublic Schools, a sum of roughly $1.9 billion.

School officials recently unveiled a $2.5 billionbudget, asking for a 5.7percent increase, ornearly $98 million morein county funding. Un-der the proposed budget,class sizes will increase atall grade levels and about730 staff positions will becut.

After the screening,Bulova emphasized thatwhile education contin-ues to be the board’s“highest priority” and thecommunity’s “greatestinvestment,” there willlikely be a significant gapbetween what school of-ficials are asking for intheir budget, and howmuch the board is pre-pared to give.

“The schools won’t get everything they asked for,”Bulova said. “The school board will have to roll uptheir sleeves and so will supervisors.”

When asked how close the board is prepared toget to the 5.7 percent request, Bulova said that a 2percent increase — or $33 million — is a more real-istic number.

In an effort to bridge that gap, supervisors havemade state education funding the county’s top legis-lative priority for this year’s General Assembly ses-

Into theBudget Fray

Photo by Victoria Ross/The Connection

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair-man Sharon Bulova hosted a mediascreening of her annual State of theCounty address on Wednesday, Jan. 15.Residents can view the address on Chan-nel 16 from 7:30 to 8 p.m., or on YouTubeat http://youtube/YzeaC3K-wiY

“Recently, the department hasestablished the chief’s Councilon Diversity Recruiting. Thiscouncil provides the agencyengagement with leaders fromculturally diverse communitiesto assist us in developinginnovative recruitmentopportunities … to mirror thecommunities we serve.”

— Police Chief Edwin Roessler

sion.“This is our education year, our number one ask

and priority from legislators is to get the full fund-ing of $33 million,” Bulova said.

Although Fairfax County is not facing the “dooms-day budgets” of the mid-1990s, a projected budgetshortfall of $25 million this fiscal year, coupled withthe accelerating growth and financial needs of FairfaxCounty Public Schools will present the Board of Su-pervisors with choices and challenges.

“Once again, it will not be an easy budget year,”Bulova said. “Actions or lack of action at the federal

level has impacted com-mercial and sales tax rev-enue, making it more dif-ficult for the county torecover from the down-turn.”

Bulova said thecounty’s advertised bud-get for fiscal year 2015will be released for pub-lic comment next month.The county will host anumber of public hear-ings, community forumsand town meetings togive residents the oppor-tunity to ask questionsand make suggestions. Inlate April, the board offi-cially adopts the budget.

“Every budget tells astory,” Bulova said. “We’ll

look for efficiencies and savings and opportunity forsavings, but it won’t be easy. The low-hanging fruithas already been picked.”

In spite of the challenges, Bulova said she believesthe board has consistently been able to strike a bal-ance that has kept taxes affordable while deliveringhigh quality services to residents.

“We remain committed to work with the commu-nity to maintain excellence in the face of our chal-lenges,” she said.


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Since it had been more than a fewmonths, today I summoned up the courageto Google my long-time friend and fellowstage IV lung cancer survivor, Suzanne.Suzanne and I had been years out of touch(for no real reason other than initiative andthe geographic consideration that she livedin Barnstable, Ma. and I live in Burtons-ville, Md.) and recently back in touch –due to our identical cancer diagnoses. Ilearned that she had succumbed to herdisease back in October, 2013. We lasthad contact electronically back in the sum-mer. She was extremely weak then, shesaid, too weak to talk, so e-mailing wasbest. In that e-mail, ultimately her last, shewrote that the most recent chemotherapydrug with which she was infused was nolonger effective and that her oncologisthad no other drugs left to recommend.Not that she said it in so many words, butat that point her prognosis was grim. Sheoffered that her two boys were with herand from them she would gain great com-fort. The news was very unsettling to meand I was afraid that this e-mail might beour last – and so it was.

Suzanne and I were never boyfriend/girlfriend, but from Elementary Schoolthrough High School we were extremelyclose and confidants of the highest order(“thick as thieves,” to invoke a quote fromthe warden in the movie, “ShawshankRedemption” describing the close relation-ship between Tim Robbins – “AndyDufresne” and “Red,” – Morgan Freeman).Our friendship was forged during thoseformative, pre-adolescent years and main-tained on – and then off – until back onagain a year or so ago, for nearly 50 years.The reason I hadn’t inquired sooner thantoday was because I was fearful of what Iwould find out. Typically her e-mails werefairly random and on the occasion when Iwould e-mail her, she would rarelyrespond in a timely manner. I tried not toworry about this last silent interval. Todaymy worst fears were realized.

Just as cancer survivors draw greatstrength from those of us still living withthis terrible disease, so too are we weak-ened when one of us dies. Rather thanfeeling fortunate that I am still alive, I feelsadness that Suzanne is not. When one ofus dies, we all die – a little bit, or at least,our resolve to persevere dies a little bit.I’ve always said that there is strength in ournumbers, numbers that we cannot affordto lose. (Lung Cancer causes approximately160,000 deaths a year, the leading causeof cancer deaths in the United States.)

Certainly Suzanne’s death affects herfamily way more than it affects me.However, learning that she has died hasgiven me pause to consider/reconsiderhow serious my health situation is. It’sironic that Suzanne and I were friends forso many years and that ultimately weshould be diagnosed with the same diseaseand given a similar prognosis. It seems onlyfitting that since we started together, weshould finish together. I imagine I’ll see hersoon enough. For the moment however, Ihope it will be in my dreams – not thatother place.

Kenny Lourie is an Advertising Representative forThe Potomac Almanac & The Connection Newspapers.

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Community

By Andrea Worker

The Connection

Members of Floris UnitedMethodist Church (FUMC)in Herndon have partici-pated in programs assisting

the area’s homeless for years, mostlythrough food and clothing donations andby volunteering to serve meals at sheltersand seasonal food pantries and kitchens.Last year a number of the congregation whohave given their time to those efforts de-cided to see if FUMC would take their in-volvement to the next level by agreeing toliterally open the church doors for one weekas part of the annual Hypothermia Preven-tion and Response program coordinated bylocal non-profit FACETS. The response byFUMC leadership and worshipers alike wasoverwhelmingly positive.

“The group brought a well-thought outfive-page proposal — almost like a businessplan — to the church leadership,” said Di-rector of Serve Ministries Jake McGlothin.“Even though this was a pretty big commit-ment, really something beyond what wehave done in the past, everyone got righton board. And once we announced the planto the entire FUMC community, volunteerswere immediately stepping up. I’ve had apretty easy time of it,” McGlothin laughed.More than 250 volunteers, aged 14 andolder, are handling the many tasks associ-ated with housing and hosting up to 40 cli-ents each night.

Planning committees began meeting aslong ago as March of last year, first just oncea month, until they began meeting weeklyin December in preparation for their turn ashosts during the week of Jan. 12–19. “Weare just one of many area faith communitiesthat take part in the FACETS program andhouse our needful neighbors,” saidMcGlothin, “but we wanted to put an even

more welcoming face on our efforts, so we’vebilled this as our ‘Guest House’ for these cli-ents. We want them to really feel at home.”

From 5:30 p.m. until 7 a.m., the fellow-ship hall is transformed into the sleepingquarters for the guests. Dinner, breakfastand snacks are served in the large mainlobby of the church complex, and baggedlunches are offered as the guests depart forthe day. Guests are also offered shower fa-cilities, and there are numerous activitiesavailable for anyone so inclined to join in.

“Some folks just want to enjoy the peaceof a quiet and safe place to rest out of thecold and pretty much keep to themselves,”said Vicki Monroe, the food coordinator forthe event and a long-time volunteer forhomeless causes. “Others are very social andtell us how happy they are to have some-one to just sit and talk with. There’s beensome lively conversation around here. I amreally enjoying the personal interaction.”

So does volunteer Jay Hilbert. In chargeof general logistics and transportation, Hil-bert said when he’s not running from hereto there it’s been a great experience to servethe community face-to-face. “I’m also en-joying getting to know other church mem-bers that I might never have really met orhad much interaction with.”

Working with more than 30 area churchesand faith communities, FACETS offers theHypothermia Prevention Program each yearstarting in late November to give the home-less warm and safe accommodation andseveral nutritious meals during the coldwinter months. Last year the organizationserved almost 250 clients through the pro-gram, one of five such programs operatedin partnership with Fairfax County govern-ment. “We really wish there wasn’t a needfor these services,” said McGlothin, “but Iam so proud that the FUMC community wasready and willing to say ‘Be Our Guest’ andthen really make it happen.”

FUMC Opens Doors to HelpHomeless During Winter Cold

It takes a small army to prepare dinner, snacks, breakfast and a carry-out lunch for up to 40 people.

Pho

to

by Patrice W

elker


❖ Bonnie Hobbs, Centre View North: PublicSafety Writing❖ Kenneth Lourie, ArlingtonConnection:Column Writing❖ Alex McVeigh,Oak Hill/HerndonConnection:Education Writing• The HumanElement ofLearning❖ Michael LeePope, Arlington Connection:Multimedia News Report • SecretPolice❖ Michael Lee Pope, AlexandriaGazette Packet: Business andFinancial Writing❖ Michael Lee Pope, MountVernon Gazette: Breaking

News Writing❖ Victoria Ross, SpringfieldConnection: In-depth orInvestigative Reporting• Immigration

Second Place Winners❖ Jean Card, Mount VernonGazette: Page Design❖ Bonnie Hobbs, Fairfax

Connection: PublicSafety Writing❖ Louise Krafft, Mount VernonGazette: Picture Story or Essay• Mount Vernon Graduation 2012❖ Louise Krafft,JeanneTheismann,Alexandria GazettePacket:Combination

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❖ Steven Mauren,Geovani Flores,Stuart Moll,Laurence Foong,Jean Card, MountVernon Gazette:Special Sections orSpecial Editions• Insider’s Guide

Best in Show, Non-daily ArtworkThe top prize when the first place winners of all thedesign categories for all Virginia Press Association-member, non-daily papers are judged against eachother.

❖ Jean Card,Laurence Foong,Craig Sterbutzel,FairfaxConnection:InformationalGraphics• Parks in FairfaxCountyWin, Place,Show for AlexandriaGazette PacketAlexandria Gazette Packet reporterstook all three top spots for In-depthor Investigative Reporting in theirdivision.First Place❖ NicholasHorrock,Alexandria Gazette

Packet: In-depth or investigativereportingSecond Place❖ Montie Martin, Alexandria

Gazette Packet: In-depth or investiga-tive reporting • Guns From theSouthThird Place❖ Michael Lee Pope, AlexandriaGazette Packet: In-depth or investiga-tive reporting• Looking Behindthe Numbers

First Place Winners❖ Jean Card, Laurence Foong,Craig Sterbutzel, FairfaxConnection: InformationalGraphics • Parks in Fairfax County❖ Nikki Cheshire, Great Falls

Connection: Breaking News Photo• Rescue at Great Falls❖ Deb Cobb, Mount VernonGazette: Online Slideshow• Daily Patrols Take to the Water❖ Deb Cobb,RestonConnection:General newsphoto • Freezin’for a Reason

❖ Laurence Foong, Michael LeePope, Alexandria Gazette Packet:Informational Graphics

❖ KemalKurspahic,Amna Rehmatulla,Chelsea Bryan,Laurence Foong,Stuart Moll,Geovani Flores,Great FallsConnection:General Makeup

Third PlaceWinners❖ Laurence Foong,Alexandria GazettePacket: PageDesign ❖ LaurenceFoong, The FairfaxConnection:InformationalGraphics❖ Mary Kimm, FairfaxConnection: Editorial Writing❖ Louise Krafft, ArlingtonConnection: Sports Feature Photo❖ Louise Krafft, AlexandriaGazette Packet: Picture Story orEssay • Celebrating the Irish❖ Michael Lee Pope, AlexandriaGazette Packet: Multimedia News

Report • Schools in Crisis❖ Michael Lee Pope, Mount Vernon Gazette:Feature Series or Continuing Story • Horses andGraves Versus Road Widening❖ Michael Lee Pope, Mount Vernon Gazette:Health, Science and EnvironmentalWriting❖ Jon Roetman, ArlingtonConnection: Sports Writing❖ Steven Mauren, Jean Card,Geovani Flores, Laurence Foong,Stuart Moll, Alexandria GazettePacket: General Makeup❖ Steven Mauren, GeovaniFlores, Stuart Moll, LaurenceFoong, Jean Card, Mount VernonGazette: Special Sections or Special Editions• Children’s EditionMDDCThe Potomac Almanac, a Connection Newspaperlocated in Potomac, MD, competes in theMaryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, andwon at least six press association awards, whichwill be formally announced on May 17 at theMDDC Press awards luncheon. Susan Belford,John Byrd, Laurence Foong, Ken Moore (2) andStaff were named as winners.

Great People • Great Papers • Great Readers

Winner of the 2012 Virginia Press Association Awardfor Journalistic Integrity and Community Service

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Award-Winning Connection NewspapersMore Reasons the Connection Newspapers are the Best-Read Community Papers

Winners of Awards in the 2012 Virginia Press Associationand Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association Editorial Contests

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the embry rucker community shelter. ‘helping hungry...

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