Vfw Post

VFW post offers essay contest for local students Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2462 is seeking contestants for the "Voice of Democracy" scholarship competition. The contest is available to students in ninth to 12th grades. The theme is "My Commitment to America's Future." The deadline is Nov. 1. Participants should write and record a three- to five-minute essay on the selected theme. The winner will receive a $100 cash award and will advance to the district competition. A second contest, "Patriot's Pen" is for seventh- and eighth-graders.

If you are a member of the armed forces and served in Desert Storm, Panama, Grenada or Vietnam, the local chapters of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are looking for you.Members of the two veterans groups are on a mission to increase flagging membership in their posts, both in Ellicott City."

Baseball season is already in full swing, but that won't make a difference to the 200-plus youngsters getting ready to march in the annual Fort Smallwood Optimist Little League parade tomorrow.Marchers will assemble at VFW Post 2462, 1720 Bayside Beach Road, at 9 a.m. and proceed to Cory Park, next to Fort Smallwood Elementary on Poplar Ridge Road.Joining the T-ball, softball and hardball players and coaches will be the Chesapeake High School Marching Band, Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Company, Pasadena Kadettes Majorette and Drum Corps, VFW Post 2462 and Auxiliary Color Guard, Little Miss Wendy from Wendy's, Maryland State Police K-9 Division and a rolling contingent of antique cars.

Sleepyheads were awakened to the sounds of whirling blades this week, as the state began its aerial assault against the gypsy moth.Like a scene out of "Rambo" or highlights from the Desert Storm video, a helicopter crisscrossed Pasadena neighborhoods, spraying the treetops.I'm not really sure exactly how this bug juice works. It's not that I don't care. After spending last summer scraping caterpillars from tree trunks and listening to their munching, anything that will kill the little critters is fine with me.*The baseball season isalready in full swing, but that will not make a difference to the 200 youngsters getting ready to march in the annual Fort Smallwood Optimists Little League parade May 11.Marchers will assemble at VFW Post 2462, 1720 Bayside Beach Road, step off at 9 a.m. and proceed to Cory Park, adjacent to Fort Smallwood Elementary.

These groups meet regularly. Adams, Hanna, Moore Memorial Post 156, American Legion - Third Thursday, 7 p.m. VFW Post 7472, 4225 VFW Lane, Ellicott City. Edward A. Hall, commander, Post 156, ehall@telecomxchange.com or 410-340-7892; John Horan, post adjutant, repairguy9052@comcast.net or 410-696-2343; or post156@yahoo.com . Central Maryland User Group for Windows - Third Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. East Columbia Branch library. 301-774-0331 or http://www.myCMUG.org . Columbia Knitting Group - Third Monday, 7 p.m. Panera Bread, 6345 Dobbin Road, Columbia.

Ambassador Dean to speak on security in post-9/11 world The Howard County Library, with the League of Women Voters of Howard County, will present a talk by Ambassador Jonathan Dean, an expert on arms control and peacekeeping, at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Banneker Room of the George Howard Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City. His topic will be "Peace and Security in the Post-9/11 World." Dean is an adviser to the Union of Concerned Scientists and former chief United States representative at the NATO-Warsaw Pact force-reduction negotiations.

Ask a Howard County resident about Guilford Elementary and chances are they will identify the school with the neighborhood, a historic black enclave in East Columbia. The Board of Education has often decided school names based on geographic location. But with its 3-2 vote last week in favor of naming the new northeastern elementary school Veterans Elementary, the school board has broken with its policy. The move came after more than a month of polite debate that followed a naming committee's decision to recommend the break with tradition.

Remembering the brave who died in KoreaThe dedication of Carroll County's memorial to its Korean War dead was a moving event. Forty-five years to the day following the war's end, the 11 servicemen who were killed in action were remembered on a sunny afternoon at Westminster City Hall's Veterans Memorial Garden.Many are due "thanks" for their participation. I must begin with the surviving family members who came from around the state and from Pennsylvania. Their involvement with placing flowers before the memorial provided moments of great poignancy.

Memorial Day services were conducted by the VFW Post 8185 at two locations Sunday, May 27. The first wreath-laying ceremony took place at Harmony Chapel cemetery on Dr. Jack Road, Conowingo and included honor guards from Snow's Battery and the Rising Sun American Legion. Then, post commander D. Harvey Cunningham and his officers, VFW members and men's and ladies' auxiliary officers moved on to Memorial Plaza at the north end of Marina Park in Port. Following the wreath-laying ceremony there and 21-gun salute by the American Legion Post 194's honor guard, everyone gathered at the VFW Post 8185 at noon for a luncheon prepared by Pat Job. Ladies Auxiliary officers Janet Mortus, Ruth Turner and Stephanie Gibson assisted Pat with the luncheon and ladies auxiliary chaplain Linda Cotton said a prayer for the assembly, which included the honor guards, members and several guests.