Club Members

The nation's debt to men and women who serve in uniform can never be fully repaid. But Jane Kramer believes every little bit helps. She said that's why the Howard County Garden Club undertook the project to install a Blue Star Memorial marker, honoring present and former armed forces members, in the heart of Ellicott City. At the Howard County Welcome Center at 8267 Main St. in Ellicott City, a formal dedication was held Friday at 10 a.m., with live music, military ceremonies, presentations and comments from local elected officials.

The nation's debt to men and women who serve in uniform can never be fully repaid. But Jane Kramer believes every little bit helps. She said that's why the Howard County Garden Club undertook the project to install a Blue Star Memorial marker, honoring present and former armed forces members, in the heart of Ellicott City. At the Howard County Welcome Center at 8267 Main St. in Ellicott City, a formal dedication was held Friday at 10 a.m., with live music, military ceremonies, presentations and comments from local elected officials.

THANKS TO the Ferndale Garden Club, the business district along Baltimore & Annapolis Boulevard soon will be blooming.Club members are getting together Wednesday and Thursday to plant geraniums, spikes and alyssums in barrels along the sidewalk.Members also have a way to welcome the arrival of spring for themselves. They will hang May Day baskets full of fresh cut flowers and greenery on each other's front porches anonymously early Saturday.Members will draw a name at the club meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Ferndale-Linthicum Senior Center.

The Joppatowne Garden Club participated in the Federated Garden Club's District III May Fair at The Shops at Kenilworth. Shown selling plants are, from left, members Ellie Pfoutz, Betsy King and Sophia Montgomery.

MEMBERS OF THE Carroll Garden Club recently brought home honors from the State Flower Show at Anne Arundel Community College.The show is held every five years at locations throughout Maryland, and this one proved to be unique, thanks to El Nino.The show featured more roses than any other flower, no tulips and "one woman managed to have two daffodils," said Mary Ellen Bay, garden club member and winner of a blue and a yellow ribbon in this year's competition.The Carroll Garden Club was honored for having the highest percentage of club members participating, an award few members anticipated.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS echoed through the halls of Bethany Care Center in Westminster last week as members of the STARS Club entertained residents. They sang because this is the season of giving, but this group's dedication to service is year-round.Officially called GFWC -- General Federation of Women's Clubs -- STARS Juniorette Club of Westminster, the group was started in 1994, under the auspices of Babs J. Condon, who remembered the days when most girls volunteered at a hospital or joined the Girl Scouts or a service organization.

At the monthly meetings of the Columbia Ski Club, discussions can swing from the planning for the March of Dimes Walk-a-Thon to the prospects for the new softball season.And if you stop by a meeting, don't be surprised if anyone asks you if you favor windsurfing, biking or tennis.Such topics may seem unlikely chatter for a ski club. But this ski club, which boasts about 500 members from the Baltimore-Washington area (and one from Australia), has a penchant for more than downhills, lifts and apres ski.The close of the ski season doesn't mean members go into hibernation until the first flurries of winter.

MEMBERS OF the Happy Hounds 4-H Club are excited about the start of the 53rd Annual Howard County Fair on Aug. 15.The young people, who range in age from 8 to 18, have been working with their canine companions to prepare for the dog match at the fair.Since January, the club has almost doubled its membership. Recently, the club has welcomed new members Jenny Fox, Holly Fox and Kathy Rockstroh.Jennifer Melichar, who will be a ninth-grader at Glenelg High School this year, is club president.

Two years ago, when storm surge from Tropical Storm Isabel sent the waters here rising, the boats docked in Otter Point Creek floated up along with them. The Otter Point Yacht Club, however, did not. Nearly eight feet of water rushed inside the tiny clubhouse after a part of the front wall gave in. The drenched interior was destroyed - an overturned jukebox, chairs bobbing in the murky waters, boxes of food submerged. But true to its motto as a "working man's yacht club," a point of pride among members, the club rallied, rebuilding the nearly 60-year-old watering hole by themselves into a sleek new retreat with a stunning view.

The Elkridge Club, the exclusive golf venue where Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. held a much-criticized fundraiser this year, has admitted an African-American member for the first time in its 127-year history, a club newsletter shows. Developer Theo C. Rodgers and his wife, Blanche, are listed as newly elected members in the September newsletter, a copy of which was provided to The Sun yesterday. But as Rodgers writes a new chapter in Elkridge history, a sister facility - the Green Spring Valley Hunt Club, founded in 1892 for fox hunting - awaits its first African-American member, club members say. One member of the Baltimore County club is Jervis S. Finney, the chief legal counsel and ethical adviser to Ehrlich.

Laurel Boys and Girls Club officials have not only decided to put off plans to open a charter high school in their Montgomery Street headquarters indefinitely, but they will not renew the lease of its current tenant, Princeton Day Academy, for next year. According to club president Levet Brown, the charter school is being delayed because club officials have not been able to raise the money needed to bring the building up to code in order to house a school in the facility. Brown said Princeton Day, a private high school with about 40 students, was using space in the annex portion of the building free of charge.

The Homeschool Heart in Hand 4-H Club met recently at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Madonna. Club members were presented with 2013 4-H calendars sponsored by Walter G. Coale Inc. of Churchville. Walter G. Coale has been providing calendars to all Harford County 4-Hers and volunteers for 65 years. The Homeschool Heart in Hand 4-H Club met recently at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Madonna. Club members were presented with 2013 4-H calendars sponsored by Walter G. Coale Inc. of Churchville.

Garden club The Cross Country Garden Club will host an open house from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday, March 8, in the Avalon Room of the Howard County Library's Miller branch, 9421 Frederick Road. Visitors can meet club members and learn about activities and projects. Light refreshments will be served. Information: 410-465-5424. Historic meeting Rebecca Whitman Koford will lead a meeting of the Howard County Genealogical Society at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, at the Ellicott City Senior Center, 9401 Frederick Road, and make a presentation on the War of 1812.

Sunday, Feb. 17 Concert The Performing Arts Association of Linthicum sponsors Live Arts Maryland's presentation of "A Grand Night for Singing" at 3 p.m. at the Chesapeake Arts Center, 194 Hammonds Lane in Brooklyn Park. The performance includes the Annapolis Chorale and Annapolis Chamber Orchestra celebrating the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Tickets are $27, free for students accompanied by a paying adult or association member. Information: 410-691-9725 or paalconcerts.org. Tuesday, Feb. 19 Film series Maryland Hall presents a screening of "Cafeteria Man" and a discussion with the director, Richard Chisolm, at 7 p.m. at 801 Chase St. in Annapolis.

Alimay Thompson Kendrick sits in her dining room and recalls the first meeting of a neighborhood club she joined in 1959. It was a garden club, composed of both men and women, all African-American, formed to represent the neighborhoods of Forest Park, Windsor Hills and Ashburton. It was named For-Win-Ash and its aim was to keep these communities green, clean and beautiful. Most of Baltimore remained racially divided at that time, although public schools were integrating. Black professionals were moving into the three neighborhoods and adjacent areas, such as Callaway-Garrison, where she and her husband, physicist Webster Moyse Kendrick, had recently bought a home.

Rij Patel is every golf coach's nightmare. His swing is as unconventional as they come. Rij describes it as "weird" and "bad," and it's enough to make nearby golfers do a double take. But their amusement turns to awe as his contorted clubface finally straightens itself out at the last possible moment before impact. Rij is also every coach's dream. As metal meets ball, one can't help but wonder how such power comes from the Rij's frame - small, even for a 14-year-old. He's mature beyond his years, is intelligent and spends much of his time practicing at Hunt Valley Golf Club, where he and his parents belong.

As the Baltimore Country Club closes in on the 21st century and its own 100th anniversary, it finds itself today at the edge of unfamiliar territory.Integration.If the private club's board accepts the recommendation of its membership committee tonight, William Jews, president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, and his wife, Marsha, would be the first blacks invited to join the 2,900-member club.While some club members say they fully expect Mr. and Mrs. Jews to win the board's support, others say that some members are unwilling to accept a black.

On Monday evening, May 11, in the year 1874, a group of men came together in the Westminster office of Dr. George Yingling to form an association dedicated to the enjoyment of their favorite outdoor activities -- hunting and fishing.They adopted the name Forest and Stream Club for their organization and set about making plans for a summer encampment along the Monocacy.Today, some 116 years later, the club continues to flourish, many of its members descendants of those original founders. And camping along the banks of the Monocacy still provides an enjoyable escape from the everyday world for Forest and Stream Club members.

The first time Frank Moraff entered his chocolate Labrador retriever Cali in aquatic competition at 8 months old, she stopped short at the edge of the 40-foot dock and stared as the toy he'd flung, and that she so desperately wanted, went sailing into the air without her. After considerable urging, "she finally slid off the dock and did a belly flop," he recalled, shaking his head and smiling. But in her second attempt that same day, she redeemed herself and jumped 17 feet. "I was thrilled," said the longtime Columbia resident, who is a member of Chesapeake DockDogs, a canine dock jumping club formed in 2003 that has 60 families as members.

One of the organizations I have long respected in this community is the Boys and Girls Clubs of Harford County. It went through some rough times many years ago, in the mid-1990s . Its executive director resigned for "undisclosed reasons," according to an article in The Aegis in May 1997 announcing the appointment of a new executive director, Don Mathis . He took over after a "few tumultuous years of poor management," ...