Foundation

THE ROLAND PARK Second Presbyterian Church looked absolutely stunning last Saturday for the wedding of Natalia Pia Melanie Sommer and Richard Matthew Dohler. Thousands of wildflowers, miles of lace ribbons and tulle, and window sills decorated with Singapore orchids set the stage for the nuptials of the daughter of pop music star Donna Summer and her first husband, Helmut Sommer,and the son of Dick and Bonna Dohler, he's an Ellicott City builder.The church was filled with the music of German trumpeteer Langston Fitzgerald and selections of Bach, Beethoven and Vivaldi, played by the church's music director Margaret Budd on the organ.

On an unseasonably warm Saturday nearly four months ago, workers removed six bolts on a manhole cover in the median of the Jones Falls Expressway and lowered an engineer into a dark space about the width of a phone booth. He emerged four hours later with bad news: two half-century-old drainage pipes near 29th Street had been crushed like soda straws and erosion was chewing the underpinnings of Baltimore's busiest road. Test borings, ground-penetrating radar and a camera-toting robot concurred.

President Obama said in his State of the Union address that we need to restore trust in the government. Our country was founded on distrust of government. Read the Declatation of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the writings of the Founding Fathers. Distrust of big government is the basis of freedom. Ted Hartka, Phoenix

Environmental groups are appealing a federal judge's ruling that the owners of the Sparrows Point steel mill need only do a limited search for offshore pollution from the plant. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its legal partners, including the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, have filed notice with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore of their intention to appeal a decision by Judge J. Frederick Motz accepting a plan by the steel plant's current owner, RG Steel, to test for contamination no more than 50 feet into the Patapsco River and Bear Creek.

DALLAS -- The family of Mickey Mantle yesterday carried out his last wish, unveiling a new "organ donor" trading card with the baseball great's picture and autograph that will be passed out at major-league stadiums."

In the three years that she battled leukemia, Kamryn Lambert spent more time at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore than she did at home with her family. When she was home in Pasadena, Kami, as she was called, would often accompany her maternal grandmother, Debi Katzenberger, on shopping trips for pajamas. "She rarely ever got to go to school, so her way of expressing herself and being able to always be fashionable was to always buy really fun or cool pajamas when she returned to the hospital," Katzenberger recalled last week.

Mission: To champion the preservation of Maryland's capital city through museum programs, restoration, public advocacy, research, archaeology, collections, protective easements and conservation of historic sites. The foundation's flagship museum, the William Paca House, is the restored home of William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary-era governor of Maryland.Latest accomplishment: More than 1,000 people participated in HAF's seventh annual "Annapolis by Candlelight," a two-evening tour of 15 historic private homes and public buildings.

The Marriott Waterfront mezzanine was a mob scene. About 800 folks filled the floor for the cocktail hour of the fifth annual Aspire Gala benefiting the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. "It warms my heart that, in an economy like this, we still sell out," said foundation executive director Steve Salem. "That's not an easy thing to do." Among the guests were almost 50 current and former pro baseball players and coaches, including the evening's honorees, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer and former University of Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz.

A foundation aimed at cultivating leadership qualities in high school sophomores is considering Columbia as its Maryland chapter's permanent home.The Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation, founded by 1950s television actor Hugh O'Brian, has held several of its annual Maryland Leadership Seminars at the Columbia Inn. Members of the foundation's state board of directors are considering making that the permanent location and setting up a state chapter office in...

Louis F. Linden has resigned after more than three years as executive director of the Constellation Foundation, which is conducting a $9 million restoration of the historic 1854 warship."

The Annie E. Casey Foundation and other Baltimore institutions are organizing to help accelerate the growth of well-paying jobs and make sure more residents are qualified to land them, building on the recommendations of a new study that envisions the region's "next economy. " The report, released at a forum in Baltimore Thursday, suggests the region's leaders cooperate on efforts to encourage more entrepreneurship and exporting, as well as more growth in sectors such as manufacturing, bioscience and logistics.

As part of Saturday's Milford Mill Alumni activities, Millers graduate Brian Jordan, who went on to become a two-sport professional athlete, will be running a baseball clinic, called Camp Jordan 2012 Baltimore. Registration, which cost $20 per child, has already hit capacity with 101 kids signed up between the ages of 5 and 13. "I want to make a huge impact on my hometown," Jordan said from the Brian Jordan Foundation offices in Atlanta, where he played for the Braves and Falcons.

At Tower Federal Credit Union's Laurel headquarters, March 22 was "Soup, Salad and Wear Jeans to Work Day," a fundraising effort that raised $2,200 for the Susan G. Komen Foundationand the American Cancer Society. Employees who donated $5 could wear jeans to work and received "Team for a Cure Casual Dress Day" stickers. During lunchtime, a variety of homemade soups, salads and desserts were available for purchase, and employees could also enter a raffle for a chance to win one of three handmade afghan wraps.

Johns Hopkins led the nation's universities in research and development spending for the 32nd consecutive year in rankings released this week by the National Science Foundation. Hopkins has dominated the rankings since the foundation began crediting the university with research funds generated by the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel. The lab accounted for a little more than half of the university's $2 billion in medical, engineering and science spending in fiscal 2010. Hopkins' total nearly doubled the $1.18 billion generated by second-place University of Michigan.

The Tony Hawk Foundation has given $25,000 toward the construction of a skateboard park in Roosevelt Park in Hampden. The Skatepark of Baltimore, a nonprofit group dedicated to raising enough money to build a place for area youth to skateboard safely, received one of 12 grants given by the foundation this spring, according to a news release. The group has until the end of May to raise $75,000 in order to get a matching grant from the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks.

Three Harford County high school seniors were presented scholarships from the William J. Sacco Critical Thinking Foundation on March 11. Receiving the ninth annual Dr. William J. Sacco Awards for Excellence in Mathematics were Bel Air High School's Michael Boom and C. Milton Wright High School's Tom Fowler. The Foundation also presented the first William J. Sacco Mathematics Community Award to Hope Kerr, who also attends C. Milton Wright. The scholarship accompanying the Award for Excellence in Mathematics presented to Michael and Tom is for $1,000.

TRANSFERRING TECHNOLOGY from the laboratory to the manufacturing floor is the goal of a not-for-profit organization just getting under way in Maryland. The Foundation for Manufacturing Excellence is intended to strengthen the productivity of small and medium-sized manufacturers by improving their use of available technology.History: During the 1980s Maryland lost a significant number of manufacturers due to fierce competition from foreign manufacturers and from the economic development efforts of other states.

Goucher will mark Sunday's home contest against Lasell by celebrating the life of a player's late mother. Patti Mishaw, the mother of Gophers junior goalkeeper Connor Mishaw, died in March 2011 after battling cancer. Another son, Austin, is a junior midfielder for Lasell. Sunday's game between the two teams has been rededicated as the Patti Mishaw Memorial Lacrosse game. Fans who attend the contest will be charged $5 with all proceeds benefitting the Patti Mishaw Foundation, which offers scholarship opportunities to students who wish to pursue careers in education.