AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
Brought to you by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services
Friday’s heavy rains ended sometime during the early morning hours of Saturday just in time for Good Neighbor’s Group’s 29th Earth Day Celebration to be given the go-ahead for a 9 am start. At St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School, however, the tent set up Friday for Saturday’s evening Field Party sat empty and forlorn, meaning a decision had to be made whether to cancel the event.
Meantime, Good Neighbors Group executive director Julie Shay counted her blessings. Since she could no longer get permission to hold the Earth Day event at Severna Park High School, as in the past, she’d arranged to relocate the celebration to the grounds of the Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Department. Now, she was relieved to be invited by EHVFD to move the entire event indoors if she wished.
After consulting with the event’s organizing committee, it was decided to let the participating charities and vendors choose whether they wanted to set up outside in the parking lot or inside the firehouse.
Fortunately, more than 50 vendors/organizations participated with a good representation both outdoors and indoors. Severn River Association’s executive director Jesse Iliff, who’d organized the environmentally oriented participants, chose to set up outside as did the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy.
SRA executive director Jesse Iliff and members chose to set up outdoors…. 
….as did the Watershed Stewards Academy which was displaying native plants beneficial to the environment.
Other participants set up their displays indoors and, before long, there was an amazing panorama of vendors, school club exhibits, and environmental groups. Looking across the firehall from the main entrance, one could see rows of exhibitors the length of the building.
At the opposite end of the hall, were charities like Life of Joy Foundation plus school-sponsored groups.
GNG is particularly devoted to the idea of cleaning up the environment through recycling and repurposing. Cousin’s Hauling & Clean-Out, LLC found it a perfect outdoor location for attendees to drop off reusables. Likewise, the Orphan Grain Train truck stood by for donations of gently used household goods, clothing and medical equipment. The Millersville-based organization ships donations to needy populations throughout the world including to Africa and, most recently, to Ukraine.
Along with cousin Phil Biedronski, Patrick Farrell owns Cousins Hauling. He’s expert at helping downsizers haul away or dispose of unused items. 
Orphan Grain Train volunteer Chris Hessler and Md. branch manager Bruce Coonradt provided information and accepted donations.
Indoors, Elizabeth Rice and her husband were selling her Naturally In Knots products – dolls made from yarn, jewelry, clocks, and yoga and meditation products. At the end of their table, daughter Paislee handled the sale of Rice’s Be Well health products that are regularly sold at SassWell, a healing arts venue in Severna Park.
Nearby, vendor Jen DeVries was featuring the fashions of Noonday Collection, a Fair-Trade fashion brand that creates scholarships for young women in East Africa and works with global artisans involved in various crafts.
“We started as a jewelry company but expanded to carry apparel and bags,” DeVries said.
There were so many charities represented, both inside and outside, that they are too numerous to mention. Asbury Church Assistance Network (ACAN) based in Severna Park had operations manager Peggy Wilson on hand inside the firehouse along with volunteer Tess Rottman providing information and collecting donations for their food pantry.
Outside, Hope For All founder Leo Zerhusen and executive director Connie Cooper were also collecting badly needed donations. Glen Burnie-based Hope For All is a Christian ministry that provides furniture, household items, and clothing to people in the community who are without financial means to meet their basic needs.
“The need is huge right now, we’re serving 40 families a month and requests for clothing are up to 85 families a month with more requests every day,” Zerhusen said.
“We can’t keep up. We’re buying things we haven’t had to buy before because the demand is so high. People just don’t understand what’s happening in Anne Arundel County. The poverty level in this county is growing and growing. We have 18,000 families trying to find affordable housing and the homeless population is growing. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,700 now. Last week, 92 families were up for eviction at the courthouse in Annapolis. Employers don’t want to pay benefits so they’re only hiring workers for 20 hours – not enough for a family to live on.”
School organizations and clubs were primarily located inside and included Severna Park High School’s Key Club and Marine Biology Club as well as the Leadership Institute.
Key Club members Jillian Kules, Jaydyn Jarrett and Cary Rice’s “Paint & Plant” exhibit found Earth Day attendees getting their hands dirty with paint, soil and plants.
Further on, Marine Biology Club members Allen Ches, Callie Lowman and Isabel Taylor with help from their sponsor, Laura Greenlee, created an exhibit that drew lots of interest.
Kids, especially, loved seeing the club’s aquarium filled with yellow perch. At the far end of their table, there was a tank of river water filled with oysters that the children could actually touch.
Nearby, the Leadership Institute members were collecting school supplies to be distributed to students who need them.
Severna Park, Folger McKinsey and Oak Hill Elementary Schools were also in the mix with environmental displays highlighting native wildlife, plants and minerals.
Austin Miller and Jack Brandell were asking attendees to “Help the Monarchs” as the boys and their first-grade classmates are doing by creating a Monarch Garden with plants attrative to the orange and black butterflies.
Severna Park Elementary School first-graders Austin Miller and Jack Brandell were the most attention-getting as they constantly chanted “Help the Monarch’s” while highlighting a display about the life cycle of the much-admired orange and black butterflies. Their teacher Ann Mangan said the boys and their classmates also created a Monarch garden.
Meanwhile, teens Syrenna McNutt, Reagan Hunt and Mady Lewis took a bit of a breather and lingered to enjoy the performance of students from Priddy Music Academy. Instead of sitting in the audience, the girls choose to stand to one side where they could groove to the tunes.
Syrenna McNutt, Reagan Hunt and Maddy Lewis enjoyed listening to the young performers on the stage. 
Students from the Priddy Music Academy onstage during the GNG Earth Day celebration.
Echoes of Nature co-founder Echo Uzzo and son Gryphon showed off Jackson the Bunny and LR61 the snake (rescues that are now animal ambassadors) at their exhibit inside. Outside, Echo’s husband Michael took up a position near the entrance from which to introduce attendees to Echoes of Nature’s beautiful Red-Tailed Hawk. The hawk can no longer be flown as he is blind in one eye but he’s adapted well to interacting with crowds.
The bees in the hive brought to the celebration by Maryland Queen Bees owner/beekeeper Emily Brown were plenty busy making honey. The exhibit drew crowds of onlookers asking Emily questions while friend Abby Dugense and daughter Ellie Brown sold jars of honey.
Positioned next to the Magothy River Association’s exhibit highlighting its many accomplishments, the organization’s president Paul Spadaro and wife Sandra were selling trivia games based on following sites along the river.
The Magothy River Association exhibit pictured the organization’s many projects and accomplishements. 
MRA president Paul Spadaro holds a trivia game featuring sites along the river. Behind wife Sandy, you can see an example on the floor.
In order to take part in GNG’s 29th Earth Day Festival students from Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi did double duty. They’d earlier performed for a World Tai Chi Day celebration originally scheduled for the lawn at Boone Station Hall but relocated indoors at the Institute. As we watched their Earth Day performance, the students were doing Silk Reeling Exercises (ChanSiGong), one of the basic movement exercises practiced in Jing Ying’s tai chi classes. The students also did the 18 Posture Chen tai chi form, sometimes called the “essence” form.
Tai Chi master Billy Greer invited spectators to join along and soon four or five people did…then there were more. The newcomers copied the movements as best they could.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Chef Paul Zonn from Cafe Mezzanotte who did a masterful job of preparing salads for the crowds all morning. His tasty creations were based on various melons, arugula, whipped goat cheese and other trimmings.
Finally, before leaving, we were drawn like a magnet to The Big Bean sign where co-owner Greg Coster was handing out free cups of coffee – a pleasantly warming treat on a still damp morning.
Then it was on to St. Martin’s to see what was happening with preparations for the evening’s Field Party.
St. Martin’s-in-the-Field School moves the Field for the Field Party indoors
Arriving at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School mid-day, we drove around back and saw some cars in the parking lot. We took one look at the tent (as seen in the opening photo) and realized it was deserted. Thus, when we saw an open door to the school with some glittering lights beyond, we entered.
Beneath the lights, the bare bones of the school’s relocated Caribbean-themed Field Party fundraiser began to take shape with teal and coral-colored tablecloths and lots of palm leaves. Head of School Tony Shaffer could be seen talking to various volunteers as he hurried from table to table.
Asked who had to make the decision to move the event indoors, Shaffer replied, “That was me. We spent last night sloshing around in the tent out there. The tent was leaking and everything got wet so bringing the Field Party indoors was the only sensible thing to do.”
“The space we’re using was renovated just last year. It’s shaping up nicely thanks to our team who are all volunteers – our unsung heroes,” he added. “One of our trustees was in here all morning washing off all the chairs. Everything had to be wiped down.”
Already finished setting up donations for the Silent Auction (for which bidding would begin after dinner) Director of Development Christine Hickey and volunteer Jessica Mahfoudi were ready to move on to the next item on their list.
Silent Auction tables donations ranged from trips, gift certificates and wines and spirits to a teddy bear and an artistically painted mailbox. 
Finished arranging the Silent Auction tables, Hickey and Mahfoudi checked their list for their next task.
Lights were still being strung behind volunteers Bethany Baldwin and Elizabeth Ford as they began decorating the tables with tropical greenery and candles as did Bethany’s mother Colleen Baldwin who was involved with planning the Field Party.
Volunteers Elizabeth Jones, whose son is in 2nd grade and Bethany Baldwin whose little brother is an 8th-grader were decorating tables… 
…as was Bethany’s mother Colleen Baldwin who helped with planning the Field Party.
Needless to say, by the time 7 pm arrived everything looked perfect including a festive buffet dinner.
A wonderful mix of alumni, parents and grandparents of students, plus faculty and staff members mingled over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres before enjoying dinner.
It was particularly fun for friends Tarik and Jessica Mahfoudi, Elizabeth Ford, and Asia Jeng to hang out with each other since the gals had helped set up.
According to Christine Hickey, the Field Party was a fine success.
“We’re now planning for our next fun event, our students’ annual Cardboard Boat Race later this month,” she said.
The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. (Jing Ying is currently offering Free Tai Chi Classes on May 5 and May 9 and again brings Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center.)
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.
