Assistance Network

Also, in Anne Arundel's Central County report should have said that a 10-K walk to benefit the Severna Park Assistance Network and other charities will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.The Sun regrets the errors.TIP LINEIf you want to get news in the Central report, call Angela Gambill at 315-8934 during the day or leave a message on the tip line after hours.Donations being accepted for hurricane victimsCounty residents wishing to donate items to victims of Hurricane Andrew may drop them off today or tomorrow at Fiddlers Green Deli, near the Crownsville Post Office, at 1355 Generals Highway, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.Three county volunteers plan to drive the truck to Florida on Friday and distribute the goods under the direction of the Red Cross.

On April 26, 2009, Lt. Col. MAURICE DOWNING MEYERS of Severna Park, MD, peacefully passed away at the age of 100, joining his beloved wife Eleanor Stahl Meyers, his great grandson Christopher Harden and his Lord and Savior. He is survived by three daughters; Ann Harrison of Severna Park, MD, Kathryn Young of Annandale, VA and Christine Prado of Cumberland, MD. Also surviving are seven granddaughters and eight great-grandchildren. A long time active member of Severna Park Methodist Church, he was a 1930 Johns Hopkins University graduate.

Assistance network to offer budget help for needy peopleThe Severna Park Assistance Network (SPAN) plans this year to help clients develop working budgets, said Executive Director Barbara Birkenheuer.The network of 10 Severna Park-area churches helps needy people with donations of food and money for necessities such as rent.For the first time, SPAN hopes to "retrain clients to get them off the [welfare] system. We want to help them figure out what they can do to be more responsible financially," Ms. Birkenheuer said.

Party and silent auction fundraiser to be held Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi, in Arnold, will hold its 5th annual Holiday Party and Silent Auction fundraiser at noon Saturday at the institute, 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd, #6, Arnold. The event will begin with a traditional Chinese Lion Dance performance and end with the silent auction. Appetizers and beverages will be provided. Donations for the silent auction will be accepted through Friday . The fundraiser will support the Severna Park Assistance Network (SPAN)

A church-run pantry in the Severna Park area has nearly run out of food to help the needy.Food donations to the Severna Park Assistance Network, or SPAN, a pantry run by 10 of the areas churches, have steadily dwindled over the last eight weeks, said the director, Barbara Birkenheuer.SPAN is "very, very low" on foods such as canned potatoes, canned fruits, peanut butter and jelly and canned meats such as beef stew, Ms. Birkenheuer said.While some decrease in food donations to the pantry is normal during summer months when church members are on vacation, the recent drop is extreme, she said.

On April 26, 2009, Lt. Col. MAURICE DOWNING MEYERS of Severna Park, MD, peacefully passed away at the age of 100, joining his beloved wife Eleanor Stahl Meyers, his great grandson Christopher Harden and his Lord and Savior. He is survived by three daughters; Ann Harrison of Severna Park, MD, Kathryn Young of Annandale, VA and Christine Prado of Cumberland, MD. Also surviving are seven granddaughters and eight great-grandchildren. A long time active member of Severna Park Methodist Church, he was a 1930 Johns Hopkins University graduate.

A low-income housing development in Lansdowne is getting a full-time social caseworker, thanks to a federal grant awarded to the Community Assistance Network (CAN).The caseworker, called a community resource specialist, will work from offices being built at the Circle Terrace Apartments. The 303-unit development, once known as Lake in the Woods, fell into disrepair before being sold to its current owners last year.The $40,660 federal grant will be matched by $44,756 in local and state money.

Party and silent auction fundraiser to be held Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi, in Arnold, will hold its 5th annual Holiday Party and Silent Auction fundraiser at noon Saturday at the institute, 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd, #6, Arnold. The event will begin with a traditional Chinese Lion Dance performance and end with the silent auction. Appetizers and beverages will be provided. Donations for the silent auction will be accepted through Friday . The fundraiser will support the Severna Park Assistance Network (SPAN)

ONE OF Severna Park's greatest accomplishments is that it tricks its residents into thinking they live in a small town.Given that Greater Severna Park is divided into three divisions -- Millersville, Arnold and Severna Park -- this is no easy feat.Partly responsible for this feeling are Severna Park's origins as a quiet, rural community in the early 1900s, then gradually evolving, beginning in the mid-1960s, into a suburb of Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis.There are organizations whose primary purpose is to maintain and improve on the qualities that drew us to Severna Park -- its central location among three major job centers, a feeling of safety and that sense of community.

IT'S EASY TO BE fooled by the genteel appearance of Barbara Birkenheuer. That benevolent smile hides a mind bent on producing Fortune 500-quality decisions. More Christian than chief executive officer, she speaks softly, but carries a big clipboard. When Birkenheuer steps into an office, stand by for action. Using her ability to lead, she transformed into bona fide successes two fledgling nonprofit organizations, the Severna Park Assistance Network (SPAN) and Community Center at Woods.

NEXT MONTH'S "CROP Walk" in Severna Park will raise money for the impoverished abroad. It will also help the needy closer to home. CROP - short for Church Rural Overseas Project - is a national program started in the aftermath of World War II by a group of farmers from America's Midwest. The farmers wanted to share surplus crops with the people of war-torn Europe. Now administered by Church World Service, a nondenominational religious organization, the project distributes emergency goods and self-help services to more than 80 countries worldwide, as well as throughout the United States.

IT'S EASY TO BE fooled by the genteel appearance of Barbara Birkenheuer. That benevolent smile hides a mind bent on producing Fortune 500-quality decisions. More Christian than chief executive officer, she speaks softly, but carries a big clipboard. When Birkenheuer steps into an office, stand by for action. Using her ability to lead, she transformed into bona fide successes two fledgling nonprofit organizations, the Severna Park Assistance Network (SPAN) and Community Center at Woods.

After working with drug abusers and the homeless for nearly two decades, Tammy D. Brayboy needed a change. I was burned out, she said. Then I started to follow my heart, I started to follow what made me happy. Cheesecake makes her happy. Her cheesecake makes her friends and family happy. She wants it to make you happy. Brayboy attended yesterdays first Baltimore African-American Business Forum in hopes of finding out how she can get her 3-year-old home-based business, Sweetie Pie, off the ground and her cakes and pastries onto Baltimoreans tables.

ONE OF Severna Park's greatest accomplishments is that it tricks its residents into thinking they live in a small town.Given that Greater Severna Park is divided into three divisions -- Millersville, Arnold and Severna Park -- this is no easy feat.Partly responsible for this feeling are Severna Park's origins as a quiet, rural community in the early 1900s, then gradually evolving, beginning in the mid-1960s, into a suburb of Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis.There are organizations whose primary purpose is to maintain and improve on the qualities that drew us to Severna Park -- its central location among three major job centers, a feeling of safety and that sense of community.

QUIT COMPLAINING. This is normal weather for November: cold, wet and unpredictable.What is predictable is that you will soon be shopping for holiday gifts. Why not pick up something for a client of the Severna Park Assistance Network.SPAN helps Anne Arundel County families in crisis. More than half the families SPAN assists include children younger than 16.Since 1991, SPAN has participated in the Holiday Sharing Program, which is jointly sponsored by the county's Medical Society Alliance and the Department of Social Services.

Robert P. Gajdys, who led Baltimore County's anti-poverty agency through a wrenching controversy over its supportive role in the federal Moving to Opportunity program, has announced plans to retire next year at age 60.The raucous dispute in the eastern county over the 1994 federal program to move 285 poor families from the inner city to federally subsidized housing in less-impoverished city and county neighborhoods caused some anxious days, Gajdys said,...

REGESTER PARK, where Holly Road and the B&A Trail meet next to the historic train station in Old Severna Park, is the latest reason to be proud of our community. The county has committed $235,000 to buy the property, and ASPIRE (Association for Severna Park Improvement, Renewal and Enhancement Inc.) has agreed to raise $25,000 as the community's share.Seven dedicated residents guaranteed the $25,000. Now the Greater Severna Park Council, the Chamber of Commerce and ASPIRE are asking the rest of us to contribute to the park so that guarantors can be reimbursed.

IN THE PAST 10 months, Cindy Burkert of Millersville has experienced some major life changes, the most recent becoming director of the Severna Park Assistance Network.First, she got married. Then she and her new husband, Jack Burkert, moved to Shipley's Choice with her teen-age children, Drew and Ellen Thiemann.In February, when the daily three-hour commute to her job at the Department of Interior in Washington proved to be too much, she resigned. Two months later, she was hired by SPAN."Barbara Birkenheuer was able to stay for three weeks after I was hired, so I had excellent training," Burkert said of SPAN's first director.

REGESTER PARK, where Holly Road and the B&A Trail meet next to the historic train station in Old Severna Park, is the latest reason to be proud of our community. The county has committed $235,000 to buy the property, and ASPIRE (Association for Severna Park Improvement, Renewal and Enhancement Inc.) has agreed to raise $25,000 as the community's share.Seven dedicated residents guaranteed the $25,000. Now the Greater Severna Park Council, the Chamber of Commerce and ASPIRE are asking the rest of us to contribute to the park so that guarantors can be reimbursed.