Dedication

On Nov. 15, Laurie Kutrick from Riverside, is being awarded for dedication and commitment and for her exceptional service to the Baltimore County Fire Department. She was a volunteer in Harford County for a number of years before joining Baltimore. She will be recognized for her dedication and commitment to serving the public. This is not Kutrick's first award for her service and thanks to EMTs like her, the community is much safer.

A fledgling museum dedicated to preserving Polish and Slavic heritage and culture was dedicated in Baltimore on Sunday. The National Slavic Museum at 1735 Fleet St. in Fells Point is staffed by volunteers. The small museum's collection includes items from several Slavic countries, many with religious themes - paintings of Jesus Christ, Bibles, crucifixes and a cabinet for holding holy water. "We have a lot more to collect. We just started," said the Rev. Ivan Dornic, a priest who helped found the museum.

The ongoing controversy surrounding the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has inspired rappers from all over the country to vent their frustrations on wax. First came Oakland's Mistah F.A.B.'s "God Don't Love Me (R.I.P. Trayvon Martin)," and then Plies, the street rapper from Florida, released "We Are Trayvon. " You can now add Baltimore to the list, too. This past Sunday, Los , the local rapper recently signed (again) to Diddy's Bad Boy Records, released "Wit My Hoodie On," a song that uses Martin-specific references as starting points for Los' personal reflections on losing his father, how the public views young black men and more.

Running Ripken Foundation sets 7K 'Streak' Sept. 6 The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation announced that it will host its inaugural "Streak Thru Aberdeen" 7K Run at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen on Sept. 6 - the anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig 's record for consecutive baseball games played. Proceeds from the 7K (4.3 miles) will support Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation programs, which help build character and teach life lessons to underserved youth residing in distressed communities through sports-themed programming.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Orioles third baseman Mark Reynolds compared the past few days of spring training workouts to Groundhog Day. Friday's first intrasquad game gave Orioles like Reynolds the opportunity to finally similate a gameday competition. "It was good to go play and put on your uniform, (to) face live pitching and be put in a game situation,” Reynolds said. “It feels like baseball is finally back.” In Friday's intrasquad, Reynolds, who made 26 errors in 114 games at third base last season, made a pair of nice plays at third base.

City officials will dedicate the community meeting hall at the Laurel Police Department on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. The meeting hall, named the Partnership Activity Center, was the sanctuary of the former First Baptist Church building and is the last area to be renovated as part of the Laurel Police Department's move to the complex at 811 Fifth St. in April 2010. Design plans included adding a kitchen and bathrooms and making the room handicapped accessible. Floors and lighting have been upgraded; the room has been painted; and high-energy-efficient windows were installed when other windows were replaced in the rest of the Police Department building.

The official dedication of the Carroll County Regional Airport/Jack B. Poage Memorial Field is scheduled for April 6.The Westminster airport, located along Route 97, is to be formally renamed in honor of the aviator who died last fall during an aerobatic exhibition. Poage was the manager of the airport and president of Westair Inc., the airport's only fixed-based operator.The 2 p.m. ceremony is expected to attract the county commissioners and other dignitaries who will honor Poage. The airport is amid anexpansion program and is a centerpiece of economic development efforts in the county.

Harbor Hospital Center will sponsor a dedication ceremony for the opening of the Greater Brooklyn Center on Aug. 28.Tours of the new center will begin at 5 p.m., and light refreshments will be served.The center, a cooperative effort of Harbor Hospital and various commu-nity groups, will provide adult and pediatric primary care services.

Formal dedication of the restored and remodeled Fine Arts Building on the campus of Western Maryland College will be at 4 p.m. Friday in the Alumni Hall theater.The college also will honor Clementine L. Peterson, college trustee emerita and Baltimore philanthropist who donated $1 million toward the project in 1993, by naming this building Clementine and Duane L. Peterson Hall.Gary Vikan, an internationally known scholar who is director of the Walters Art Gallery, will give an address, "Art in Our World, Art in Our Lives: The Aesthetic Trace Element," at the dedication ceremony.

HANUKKAH IS a holiday that celebrates dedication - the re-dedication of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, after the Maccabees defeated the Syrian-Greeks more than 2,100 years ago, and dedication to the Jewish faith - according to Rabbi Mark Panoff of Temple Isaiah. The Jewish congregation meets at Oakland Mills Interfaith Center. That's why Hanukkah was chosen as the occasion to dedicate the synagogue's new Israeli flag Sunday. The flag was donated in honor of Phyllis Geisler of Oakland Mills, a beloved member of the congregation who died last winter.

Thanks to the tenacity of a director and a talented cast, fans of Cole Porter can get to know the composer's 1937 musical, "You Never Know," currently getting first-rate treatment at Prince George's Little Theatre at the Bowie Playhouse. The legendary lyricist and master tunesmith's farcical comedy is an exciting, charming close to the Little Theatre's 53rd season. Production director Roy Hammond says his love affair with the show dates back 16 years, when he discovered a CD of "You Never Know" in a Hollywood record shop.

The stories started circulating long before John Simon first set foot on Ohio State's campus and became such a program favorite that his head coach talked about naming his next child after him. By the time he got to elementary school, Simon was already performing a daily regimen of pull-ups and sit-ups. He lifted 225 pounds 31 times as a 16-year-old. Before he graduated from high school, he had benched 450 pounds and squatted 700. "People really didn't believe us," said P.J. Fecko, the head football coach at Cardinal Mooney in Youngstown, Ohio.

For decades, Ethelda "Miss Peggy" Kimbo was a beloved Annapolitan who befriended midshipmen and charmed diners at the old Little Campus Inn. Her legacy will be commemorated in Annapolis on Saturday, when a stretch of Maryland Avenue will be designated as "Peggy Kimbo Way. " Kimbo grew up in the area and worked at the Little Campus Inn, now Galway Bay. The kitchen at Galway Bay still serves "Miss Peggy's crab cakes," which the restaurant says...

- A lazy Sunday morning. Arising later than usual. A long week of work in the books, a promising week ahead. Now living in Armenia, I correspond regularly with colleagues, friends and family back home in the States. Birds chirp as I check some emails and enter the social media labyrinth. And there I found them: farewell messages written to my friend, Anne Smedinghoff, 25, praising her brilliance, grace and kindness. She was delivering a truck full of books to schoolchildren when it happened.

Loyal readers of The Sun's opinion section may have felt a twinge of name recognition at the news of a 50-year-old Lutherville physician accidentally struck and seriously injured by an SUV on northbound North Charles Street Thursday morning. That might be because the pedestrian involved was a familiar name on these pages - Dr. Theodore "Ted" Houk. If Dr. Houk had walked into an editorial board meeting last week, it's doubtful anyone would have recognized him on sight. But as a writer of letters to the editor, he enjoys a modest form of celebrity in our offices.

When retired Master Sgt. Sheryl A. Webb left the U.S. Army in 1997, she was scarcely aware of services that U.S. Veterans Administration hospitals offered specifically for women. That was well before women became the fastest growing demographic group within the U.S. veteran population, and before VA hospital officials made a concerted effort to get the word out about its women's services. On Friday, Webb marveled as she walked through the Women Veteran's Clinic inside the new $4.7 million Fort Meade VA Outpatient clinic.

Retired teacher Judy Koenick was so moved by the moment that she drove uninvited from Chevy Chase just to blow a ram's horn: four abrupt, shrill sounds that stole, momentarily, the crowd's attention. To Koenick, whose father used to sound the horn, or shofar, at synagogue, the loud bursts symbolized the biblical story of Joshua and the crumbled walls of Jericho, of how an army of desert nomads supported only by faith triumphed against overwhelming odds. Yesterday, the dedication of the $8 million Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel was an event just as momentous, she said.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole will deliver the keynote address at the July 23 dedication of Maryland's World War II memorial.Dole, who was wounded in combat during the war, will help dedicate a monument bearing the names of more than 6,000 Marylanders killed in the war. The dedication will be marked by a flyover of modern and vintage military aircraft and music by the Naval Academy Band.The ceremony will start at 10 a.m. at the memorial site, Route 450 at the Severn River.Information: 410-576-6179.

Manchester resident Patrick Carmody was one of five members of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department who were recently promoted in the department. The 20-year veteran was promoted to lieutenant on Feb. 21 during a ceremony to honor the five officers' years of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice.

As a former coach, I am extremely proud of our Baltimore Ravens. This team showed all of these virtues of sport: hard work, dedication, teamwork, skill, determination, brotherhood, and a willingness to not quit. Sports can teach players how to work together, how the team is more important than self, and how to dedicate oneself to improving one's skills. As a Christian, I was inspired to hear the Ravens talk about their reverence for God and appreciation for His blessings to them as individuals and as a team.