Silent Auction

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church will hold a holiday bazaar and silent auction from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the church, 1110 St. Stephen's Church Road in Crownsville. Highlights include handmade items, holiday decorations, theme baskets, baked goods, Annapolis Symphony tickets, Toby's Dinner Theater tickets, Sundance Carwash, and football and baseball game tickets. Call 410-721-2881 for more information.

Tuesday, May 29 School news The Board of Education will hold a closed meeting at 8:30 a.m. in the Planning Room at the department, 10910 Clarksville Pike in Ellicott City. 410-313-6680. Saturday, June 2 Yard sale The Orthodox Church of St. Matthew will hold an outdoor yard sale and car wash, along with a bake sale, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Kings Contrivance Interfaith Center, 7271 Eden Brook Drive in Columbia. Children's clothing, toys, games, household items, holiday items, electronics, furniture, jewelry and books will be for sale.

Chesapeake Math and IT Academy Public Charter School , located at 6100 Frost Place, in West Laurel, will hold a silent auction on Nov. 12, from 1 to 4 p.m., at the school. Items up for bid include 15 themed baskets, hotel stays, one week at a villa in Costa Rica, gift certificates and electronics. Light refreshments will also be served. Proceeds from the event will go to the purchase of a large oven for the cafeteria to warm up food, which range from $9,000 to $12,000, and for the purchase of a school bus, which can cost between $10,000 to $50,000.

Good weather, good crowds and a host of attractions — from rides to a dunk tank, food to raffles — combined to make a successful 2012 edition of the St. Pius X Carnival, hosted this past weekend at the church and school on York Road in Towson. During the three-day event, from Friday to Sunday, carnival patrons enjoyed rides and games, raffles, a silent auction and food that included pit beef, crab cakes, baked goods, fudge and lemonade. The event also included sales of collectibles, used books and other items.

WHAT WAS that groundhog thinking? It's been an unbelievably mild winter with no snow or ice to speak of and spring flowers up and ready to bloom.Local soccer, lacrosse and baseball practices are starting shortly. Kite-flying, leprechauns and the official start of spring are just weeks away. Winter has been nice. Spring should be better.Get out and enjoy while you can.Silent auctionCommunity Christian Pre-School will have its annual silent auction fund-raiser next weekend at Community United Methodist Church, 8680 Fort Smallwood Road.

The student council of Burleigh Manor Middle School will hold a silent auction from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 3 to raise funds to upgrade and purchase advanced technology for the school. Advisory classes will assemble baskets of products and certificates for services to be auctioned. Donations of products, certificates for services, coupons and other items are needed by Oct. 22. Monetary donations also are welcome. Information or to make a donation: Tony Miceli, 410- 313-2507 or tmiceli@hcpss.

The Columbia Festival of the Arts winds down this weekend with the fourth annual Baltimore/Washington Jazzfest, featuring the Jimmy McGriff/Hank Crawford Quartet, Barry Enzman, the Frank Foster Quartet, Rumba Club, Big Jesse Yawn and the Army Blues Jazz Ensemble.The three-day event will include a "House of Jazz" concert in Columbia's Historic Oakland building, which houses the African Art Museum of Maryland; jazz workshops; music along Lake Kittamaqundi; and a silent auction, proceeds of which will go toward the museum's building fund.

On the sample board of a glass tile product line, Martha Bubert saw the colors of sunlight reflecting off snow. For months, the Westminster artist, who is a designer for a downtown flooring store, collected the 1-inch tiles that would otherwise be discarded, storing them in a kitchen drawer at home. This fall, when she began to work on a handcrafted holiday wreath, Bubert dumped out a rainbow of 900 tiles on her dining room table and spent hours arranging an inspired tile mosaic called "Winter Reflections."

It is a story about faith, friendship - and perhaps a little fantasy. It is about three people whose ages span 30 years, but whose careers and experiences led them to find this historic town on Maryland's Eastern Shore as the perfect spot to start the next phase of their lives. Ultimately, they also found one another. Given the size of St. Michaels, with a little more than 1,000 full-time residents according to the 2010 census, it's not unusual that Mike Kerrigan met Peter Paris.

Good weather, good crowds and a host of attractions — from rides to a dunk tank, food to raffles — combined to make a successful 2012 edition of the St. Pius X Carnival, hosted this past weekend at the church and school on York Road in Towson. During the three-day event, from Friday to Sunday, carnival patrons enjoyed rides and games, appearances by sports mascots, raffles, a silent auction and food that included pit beef, crab cakes, baked goods, fudge and lemonade. The event also included sales of collectibles, used books and other items.

Bill Bateman's in Havre de Grace presents The Battle of the Guest Bartenders to benefit the Susquehanna Hose Company Saturday, May 19, at 8 p.m. Come support the local fire company as members show off their stuff behind the Bateman's bar. See which house is fastest. There will be a DJ and dancing as well as raffles and auctions. The fire company has some of the best raffle and live and silent auction stuff it has ever offered, including golf packages, concert packages, fishing packages and sports memorabilia including a 16-by-20 Pete Rose autographed framed photo, a 16-by-20 Eddie Murray autographed framed photo, Joe Flacco autographed, framed Delaware jersey, a Ray Lewis autographed helmet, a Super Bowl XXXXVI Giants team autographed football, a Ben Roethlisberger autographed football and Adam Jones autographed bat. Bill Bateman's is at 2021 Pulaski Highway in Havre de Grace.

A tot's discarded rocking horse has taken on an artful life and become a compelling symbol of a river befouled by debris. Towson University art students recently salvaged the toy, in two large chunks, during a volunteer clean-up along Back River in Essex. "When it came out of the river, it was scary, dirty and something like the swamp creature," said Vicki Miller, 19, of Parkton, during a class critique last week in anticipation of a trash art auction. But Olivia Moore saw in the yellowed, broken toy the potential to deliver an anti-pollution message.

Onstage, outdoors The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents "Romeo and Juliet" and "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, June 8-July 29 at Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park, 3691 Sarah's Lane in Ellicott City. Shows at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $15-$36, free for children younger than 18. For tickets and more information, call 410-313-8661 or go to chesapeakeshakespeare.com. Wine fest volunteers The Department of Recreation and Parks is accepting applications from individuals 21 and older who are interested in volunteering at the annual "Wine in the Woods Festival" being held Saturday-Sunday, May 19-20, at Symphony Woods in Columbia.

It is a story about faith, friendship - and perhaps a little fantasy. It is about three people whose ages span 30 years, but whose careers and experiences led them to find this historic town on Maryland's Eastern Shore as the perfect spot to start the next phase of their lives. Ultimately, they also found one another. Given the size of St. Michaels, with a little more than 1,000 full-time residents according to the 2010 census, it's not unusual that Mike Kerrigan met Peter Paris.

'Rocky Horror' AACC Theatre presents the 1975 cult classic, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," through April 21, in the Robert E. Kauffman Theater, 101 College Parkway in Arnold. Show times are 8 p.m. Tickets are $20, $15 for AACC faculty and staff, active military, seniors, groups and outside students, and $7 for students. Tickets and more information: 410-777-2457. Yard sale Vendors are needed for the Salvation Army's yard sale being held from 8 a.m. to noon April 28 at 351 Hilltop Lane in Annapolis.

Oseh Shalom, 7515 Olive Branch Way, will hold a Casino Night on Saturday, April 21 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Games include blackjack, poker and roulette tables; Wheel of Fortune; and slot machines. A live/silent auction includes 51-inch HD television; suite at Verizon Center for a Wizards game; and one-week stay at a three-bedroom house at Deep Creek Lake. Wine, cheese and desserts will be served. Admission is $36. For tickets, call Oseh Shalom at 301-498-5151.

Unlike many 13-year-olds, Havre de Grace resident Joey Russell is not obsessed with the movie "Titanic." But he is hoping that the mania surrounding James Cameron's blockbuster will help fetch a good price for the antique Titanic postcard he's auctioning.The silent auction -- bids must be placed before 4 p.m. April 22 -- is being held to raise money for Mary Shelley, the mother of Joey's friend and classmate Kate Shelley, who has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant.The card is autographed by a survivor who was 15 when the grand ship sank April 14, 1912.

The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick will hold a bull roast and silent auction at the Timonium Fairgrounds on Friday, Oct. 11, from 6 p.m. to midnight.Further information can be obtained by call Bob O'Hara at 787-6113.