Salvation Army

The weather was 30 degrees too warm but otherwise it was a holiday scene. You know the way urgency has of infusing everybody's movements, even on the weekend before Thanksgiving, even when you're not talking about Macy's on 34th Street but the Giant supermarket on York Road. That Time of Year Again, as the radio ads endlessly say.All this rushing around, perhaps it's no wonder nobody seemed to notice anything about the woman at the Salvation Army Christmas kettle outside the supermarket. Nobody said anything or stopped, not that I saw. It might be better to say I did a double-take but that's not how it went.

Programs that provide back-to-school supplies for the needy are looking for money and other donations.The Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services and the Board of Education has 200 low-income elementary school pupils still in need of backpacks and school supplies for the first day of school.Would-be donors are matched with pupils who need supplies. They then may deliver a book bag of whatever the children need to their schools by Aug. 30. School starts the next day. Cash donations also are accepted.

Aero Acres wasn't supposed to be here today.The Middle River community was supposed to be temporary housing for workers at Glenn L. Martin Co. -- now Lockheed Martin Corp. -- during World War II. However, 58 years later, many of those people still live in the neighborhood shaped like an airplane and with street names such as Fuselage Lane and Propeller Drive.Robert Kaetzel, a Realtor for Re/Max Elite in White Marsh, said Aero Acres is just one of those neighborhoods where people never had the desire to leave.

At the Salvation Army thrift store in Southwest Baltimore, the loot beckons from the lawn -- a like-new stair stepper, wooden chairs, a dinette set with a retro look that now is cool again.The store started placing some of its best goods outside about two months ago, hoping to lure passersby inside and to unload the flood of castoffs that now frequently fill its 20,000-square-foot warehouse to the bursting point.As the holiday season begins, the Salvation Army's windfall is shared by charities throughout the region and nation -- the beneficiaries of an booming that encourages the weeding out of yesterday's goods.

Family center to offer activities throughout monthThe Carroll County Family Center will offer activities for member families this month.In addition to the regular parent and child programs, a Super Bowl Thursday will be held 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 21 with activities and food.A discussion group for young parents is being formed for those not enrolled in the morning adult-education class. Details are available from the center.The center will be closed Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.The center offers adult education, counseling, health care education, parent-child activities, parent education, life skills and recreation to needy families.

The Giving Tree is one of the better-kept secrets of the Naval Academy. But its goodwill is getting around town. In addition to marching, doing push-ups and learning how to sail, the 4,000 warriors-in-training at the academy are earning a pretty good reputation in the Annapolis area as generous young soldiers.For the past nine years, the academy has erected a tree in the rotunda of its large granite dormitory and decorated it with the names of hundreds of needy boys and girls from the Annapolis area.

SOCCER SEASON is once again in full stride. For those of us who are soccer moms and dads, that means shopping for new cleats, driving to practice and remembering the traditional orange slices for halftime.For the players, it's a chance to learn a little about soccer and a lot about life. I wasn't one of those parents who signed up their daughters hoping they'd garner a college scholarship one day. I encouraged them to play sports because of the lessons they would use throughout life.They've learned how to lose with dignity and win with grace.

The Salvation Army is accepting applications for Christmas assistance from needy North Anne Arundel County residents.Applications are taken from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays through Oct. 29 at 511 S. Crain Highway.Applicants must provide Social Security cards for all children in the home, proof of income, bills and address. They should also bring a list of three items under $30 that their children desire for Christmas.Information: Robert Daniels, 410-768-0477.

The national shortage of Salvation Army bell-ringers and red kettle-minders has washed right over LaVerne Schmidt.She stands in front of Cross Street Market, a 53-year-old grandmother of eight, 112 pounds of cheerful "Merry Christmases" from Armistead Gardens. Her children and her husband told her she wouldn't be able to stand on her feet eight hours a day, six days a week.But she does it. "Thank you, hon," she says to a woman who made the red kettle clang. "God bless you."She told her children she was going to try it, at $6.50 an hour.

THE YULETIDE holidays will come to Glen Burnie a little early this year when the Lost in the '50s Custom Car Club plays host to its ninth "Christmas in July" toy run from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Motor Vehicle Administration parking lot on Ritchie Highway.More than 300 antique cars, street rods and custom autos from as far away as Pennsylvania, Virginia and Delaware are expected to be in the show."We never know what's going to show up," noted co-chairman Walt Miller. "Last year we had a 1966 special edition Cobra racing car that's worth around $300,000."

Expecting demand for food assistance to soar this summer, the Salvation Army in Baltimore kicked off its first "Can Do" campaign Friday to collect and distribute food to needy families across the metropolitan area. Volunteers assembled boxes of food, which could be used by a family of four for three days, at the nonprofit agency's warehouse in Hampden. The Salvation Army bought canned food and dried goods - enough for about 1,000 families - from the Maryland Food Bank, according to Peggy Vick, the Salvation Army's director of family services and volunteer services.

Volunteers inducted into Hall of Fame Seven volunteer projects that were judged to have a significant impact on Annapolis and Anne Arundel County were recently inducted into the Volunteer Project Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame inductees include: Assistance League of the Chesapeake for "Georgetown East Elementary Project;" YWCA for "Sexual Assault Crisis Center Project;" Arundel Habitat's "100th House Project;" Teens in Partnership and Local Management Board's "Teen Summit Project;" Varuna Aveda for the "Salon Project for Annapolis Area Ministries."

It is quite possible I've turned into that most dreaded of entertainment consumers: the movietalker. I first became aware of the movietalker years ago while watching TV after dinner with my family, including my Grandma Fricke, the Grande Dame of movietalkers. We were watching Matlock, which, for those of you unfamiliar with classic TV, was an early mystery/courtroom drama; a precursor to CSI only without the kinky deaths and creepy characters. Matlock was the Little House on the Prairie of crime-solving shows, featuring the wholesome Andy Griffith.

'Easy Rider' actor-director Dennis Hopper honored with top French prize Dennis Hopper has been named a commander in the French Legion of Honor. The 72-year-old actor was visibly moved as he received France's most prestigious prize at a ceremony in Paris yesterday. The Cinematique Francaise in Paris is opening an exhibit on Hopper this week that will run through Jan. 19. Hopper's screen credits include Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet and 1969's Easy Rider, which he also directed. Real bell ringers The Jonas Brothers will perform during halftime of the Dallas Cowboys' nationally televised Thanksgiving Day game against the Seattle Seahawks.

More people than ever are calling the Salvation Army's Baltimore offices this year, asking for help paying their utility bills or for food to feed their families. And contributions from individuals, the charity says, are down $100,000 from a year earlier. Around the state, nonprofits are seeing donations fall and pleas for help increase. Their costs to supply food and other assistance are soaring. And they worry that fundraising will fall far short of goals this year, with even the most steadfast of donors, from individuals to foundations, tapped out in light of the economic slowdown.

Woman hurt in fire at her N. Baltimore rowhouse A female occupant of a rowhouse in Northeast Baltimore was seriously injured yesterday morning when a fire broke out in her kitchen shortly before 7 a.m., according to a city Fire Department spokesman. The woman was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center suffering from smoke inhalation. Firefighters were called to the house in the 4000 block of Ardley Ave., off Sinclair Lane in the Belair-Edison neighborhood, at 6:55 a.m.; the fire was confined to the kitchen, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, the spokesman.

On September 14, 2007, WESLEY DEAN FRANKLIN of Baltimore, MD; devoted father of Robert S. Franklin and the late William Bruce Franklin; loving brother of Dana Franklin, Dixie Franklin, Kay Childers, Willa Jean Franklin and the late JoAnne Franklin. Also survived by two grandchildren Robert Garrett Franklin and Susan Nicole Franklin. Graveside service will be Private. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Salvation Army, P.O. Box 309, Havre de Grace, MD 21078.

Workshop planned on schools upgrade The Anne Arundel County Board of Education will hold a workshop at 6 p.m. Wednesday to examine the school system's six-year plan to upgrade facilities. The workshop will be held in the boardroom at the Parham Building, 2644 Riva Road, Annapolis. School system officials will explain the capital budget process and the timeline for projects, and will discuss the way projects are funded and completed. The meeting is open to the public, but no testimony from the public will be allowed.

HAVILAND, Kan. -- Katie Britton has shown her daughter their destroyed home in Greensburg, so 2-year-old Eva Jo knows why they can't go back. But that doesn't make the ordeal any easier. So after picking up vouchers for gasoline and other expenses here, Britton found something else on a table of donated items. "I even got a little ball for her," said Britton, who taught third grade at Delmer Day Elementary School, also destroyed in last week's tornado. "She was so excited." Britton was one in a steady stream of tornado victims who visited a relief center set up in the Barclay College gymnasium by several government and nonprofit agencies.

On January 23, 2007, MICHAEL ARMFIELD of Freeland, MD, beloved husband of Janet Van Bibber (nee Rouse), son of the late Col. Edwin Michael and Julia Laurenson Van Bibber, devoted father of Lisa Penn Westra, brother of Jenny Van Bibber Orr. Also survived by one grandchild. Services and interment private. Arrangements by the Eline Funeral Home, 934 S. Main Street, Hampstead, MD, 21074. Contributions to Animal Rescue Inc., 2 Heritage Farm Drive, New Freedom, PA, 17349 or the Salvation Army, 815 White Street, Baltimore, MD, 21230.