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Five Montgomery County middle school student-athletes (listed below) from Germantown Wrestling have made the Maryland National Wrestling team and are currently traveling to Indianapolis Indiana for 14U nationals. All five team members live in Montgomery County, go to school in Montgomery County, and will be attending high schools in Montgomery County in 2022 or 2023.
Germantown Wrestling’s head coach Craig staton, who is also the principal of Julius West Middle school tells us that student-athletes “are all excellent kids, aside from wrestling, and we are really proud that they will be representing Germantown Wrestling Club on the national level.”
A time capsule was buried in 2002 by students at Spark M. Matsunaga and Longview School and was opened at an event at the school that was broadcasted live on YouTube on Friday. Some of the items included were a “Tycoon Roller Coaster” computer game, Girl Scout cookies (Samoas), a SpongeBob toy, a Maryland Basketball National Championship flag (the team won it all in 2002), a box of 2002 Upper Deck baseball cards, a few issues of The Gazette, a roadmap of Montgomery County, a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, a Birdseye view photo of the school taken from a plane, a disposable camera, and a lot more (full video available below).
To commemorate the co-location of these schools, students raised $2,100 in 2002 for a time capsule that has been displayed at the school’s Media Center. In addition, students and their families have contributed written works and letters that will be included in the capsule. The capsule will be opened in twenty years when its count-down clock reaches zero, which will be at 10am today.
In a letter posted to social media by longtime Northwest High School physical education teacher and former head football coach Mike Neubeiser, Northwest High School outdoor track & field coach Robert Youngblood announced that he will be stepping down.During Coach Youngblood’s tenure at Northwest: Indoor State Titles: Boys 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 (state record as no 4A team ever won 5 straight) Outdoor State: Boys 2019,2018,2017, 2016 Outdoor Girls: 2018 2nd-2019, 2017, 2016. The full letter can be seen below:
“Dear Jag Nation,
The Diabetes Self-Management Program was created at Stanford University and is a nationally recognized diabetes prevention and management program. The program covers the physical aspect of managing diabetes, as well as the emotional aspect and is designed to improve an individual’s A1C and reduce complications associated with diabetes.
The program has demonstrated proven health benefits and complements the diabetic medical management services people receive from their providers. Participants will enhance their ability to maintain active and fulfilling lifestyles, improve problem-solving and decision-making skills and address the challenges of living with diabetes. Workshop topics include improving food choices, increasing physical activity and practicing coping skills to maintain nutrition and a healthy weight.
A time capsule was buried in 2002 by students at Spark M. Matsunaga and Longview School and will be opened at an event at the school that will be broadcasted live on YouTube at 10am today (Friday, June 3rd). Matsunaga Elementary and Longview School, is named in honor of Senator Spark Masayuki Matsunaga from Hawaii. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1962, and later served in the Senate from 1977-1990. Matsunaga Elementary is the first school in Montgomery County named after an Asian-American. The school is also the first co-located school in Montgomery County and represents an end of separating students with special needs from their peers.
To commemorate the co-location of these schools, students raised $2,100 in 2002 for a time capsule that has been displayed at the school’s Media Center. In addition, students and their families have contributed written works and letters that will be included in the capsule. The capsule will be opened in twenty years when its count-down clock reaches zero, which will be at 10am today.
The number of vendors varies from 50 to 150 depending on the weather. Since the markets are outdoors, weather always plays a part in the activity, but the markets are only canceled for heavy steady rain or high winds. The markets are held on the first Saturday of the month – April though November – and the cold dark early mornings of the first and last months require heavy coats, gloves and flashlights. In the summer months a rogue thunderstorm can send vendors racing to cover their goods with tarps and to seek shelter in their cars, only to pop out again like prairie dogs from their holes when the sun comes out. But that is all part of the adventure.
Vendors are charged $25 for a 10’ x10’ space and must set up before 7am and pack up at 1pm. After the overhead of insurance, port-a-john, signage and security, all the proceeds go to three local non-profit organizations – the Germantown Historical Society, the Button Farm Living History Program, and a Boy Scout Troop. The Germantown Historical Society began the Flea Markets in 1993 to raise funds. There were only about two dozen vendors at that first market
Today we call all places where people are buried cemeteries, but it is actually a fairly recent term that first appeared in America in the 1830s with the first corporate Memorial Parks. Before that there were burial grounds—municipal burial grounds, churchyard burial grounds and family burial grounds. Burial grounds are sacred places. They mark where our ancestors lie, commemorate the special, and memorialize the unique, but they are also primary sources that can tell us about birth and death dates, where a person lived, who was related to whom, and social customs surrounding death and burial.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, when Montgomery County was still frontier or at least very rural, people died they were buried on thier property when they died. Almost every farm had its own burial ground. In towns and urban areas, the dead were buried on church or town property in churchyards or graveyards. As cities and towns grew, these places for the dead grew overcrowded and at the same time people began to realize that decaying matter spread disease. So, the burial grounds had to move outside the city. Official Cemeteries were established outside cities and towns beginning in the 1830s. These were either voluntary associations or private, often for-profit, corporations. The organization would purchase the land then sell burial plots, keeping a trust fund for future upkeep. Sometimes these cemeteries were created as parks, landscaped with exotic trees and flowers and having wandering paths, benches and gazebos creating a pastoral atmosphere for the “contemplation of death and life.” Lovers strolled and families picnicked in these park cemeteries.
Clearway Pain Solutions has opened its newest location in Bethesda. The office is located at 6410 Rockledge Dr #421 Bethesda, MD 20817 and is staffed by Dr. Anna Irwin. The Bethesda location joins the Germantown office as the only two Montgomery County locations.
Clearway Pain Solutions is a leading interventional pain management practice focused on relieving pain, restoring function, and renewing the quality of life for their patients. Clearway serves as a one-stop, comprehensive, integrated system of advanced pain solution treatments and as the end-to-end coordinator of interventional treatments, medication management, chiropractic services, physical therapy, massage therapy, and regenerative medicine, along with lab testing, durable medical equipment, and pharmacy services. The practice also specializes in helping patients recover from workplace and auto accident injuries.
Earlier this month, QIAGEN N.V. (which has its United States headquarters in Germantown) announced that it signed agreements to acquire a 96% majority ownership stake in BLIRT SA (Polish Stock Exchange: BLR), a manufacturer of recombinant enzymes for the life science industry based in Gdansk, Poland.
Per the press release: BLIRT develops, manufactures and commercializes standardized and customized solutions for proteins and enzymes as well as molecular biology reagents. Its offering includes proteins and enzymes that are critical to the life sciences industry and diagnostic kit manufacturers, especially for non-COVID-19 applications. BLIRT, founded in 1994 in Gdansk, Poland, has approximately 90 employees and generated 2021 sales of less than $10 million.
Northwest Varsity Head Baseball coach, Todd Varesco, has stepped down after 20 years with the program. During his time as head coach, Varesco helped guide Northwest to two State Championships (2012 and 2017). In his goodbye letter, seen below, Varesco states that he will be putting his time towards his family and cites them as the most important reason for moving on.
After lengthy thought and consultation with my family, I have made the decision to step down as the Varsity Head Baseball Coach at Northwest High School. I am now going to be able to spend time in the spring with my two daughters, my wife and my family. The amount of time that I will be able to put towards my family now is the largest and most important reason I am moving on. The Journey has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. To be able to convey and teach life lessons that transcend baseball has been nothing short of amazing. I will miss the field, the smells, the sounds, the players, the community, and more than anything my staff that took the journey with me. There are many people that I want to thank, too many, as I know I will forget some of you here, but know that truly I have not forgotten.