Selfless Volunteers Build New Playground in Mount Tabor Park A wonderful group of volunteers from Mt. Tabor Churches donated their time, labor, and tools to build a new playground in the Mount Tabor Park. Volunteers from Mt. Tabor Churches complete spreading 64 cubic yards of playground mulch and installing borders and […]
Thurmont Middle School Spirit Show Choir The Broadway Life is a busy one! The Thurmont Middle School (TMS) Spirit Show Choir continues practicing their hearts out, getting their routines down, and perfecting those smiles to prepare for competition season. They are fast approaching their first event in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on March 19, 2016. In […]
James Rada, Jr. Emmitsburg’s World War I Doughboy statue should be back on its pedestal by mid-March, according to Emmitsburg Mayor Donald Briggs. The statue, which was erected in 1927 to honor the town’s WWI Veterans, was damaged on June 17, 2015, when a car hit the pedestal. The pedestal was damaged and the statue […]
Just last month, after twenty-two years in Eldersburg, Maryland, Dr. Michael Hargadon DDS, MS consolidated his thirty-three year dental practice to only Emmitsburg. Since closing the Eldersburg office, he’s retained about thirty percent of his clients from that location who are traveling from the Eldersburg/Westminster area to see him. That says a lot about a […]
Nicholas DiGregory The record-breaking winter storm that struck the eastern United States in late January has gone by many names: , Snowpocalypse, Snowzilla, Snowmageddon. But whatever one is inclined to call it, Winter Storm Jonas, as meteorologists at the Weather Channel have officially deemed the storm, has made history across the East Coast, with record-setting […]
James Rada, Jr. Training Center,Besides helping residents before and after the fires in Emmitsburg, the American Red Cross and Vigilant Hose Company (VHC) set out to stop fires from happening again. Beginning on December 12, 2015, volunteers began going door to door to offer smoke alarm checks. “Emmitsburg’s all-volunteer fire department, the Vigilant Hose Company, […]
Nicholas DiGregory If you tuned in to Jeopardy! on December 3, 2015, you would have seen Rocky Ridge’s own Kelly Wright crowned a Jeopardy! champion. The twenty-six-year-old, who graduated from McDaniel College in 2011, earned a total of $7,700 in winnings, with a first-place victory on the December 3 show and a third-place victory on […]
Deb Spalding The Town of Thurmont formed the Thurmont Green Team in May, 2015, and is working towards certification this spring as a Maryland Certified Sustainable Community. Sustainable Maryland is a voluntary certification program for municipalities in Maryland who want to go green, save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life. Residents […]
Nicholas DiGregory Despite statistical odds of 1 in 292.2 million, three superbly lucky winners picked the correct six-number combination to claim a piece of the record-smashing $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot on January 13, 2016. Each of the three winning ticket holders can claim about $533 million before taxes, or approximately $327 million should they cash […]
Nicholas DiGregory in come and gone. The last-second scramblers have stopped raiding the store shelves; gridlocked traffic no longer clogs every highway; and all of the in-laws have (hopefully) returned to their homes. The festivities to close out 2015 and to welcome 2016 are almost a month behind us, and that means you finally have […]
James Rada, Jr. While the design of the Thurmont Regional Library was inspired by the Catoctin Furnace, when you walk into the Thurmont Center for Agricultural History, you’ll see a different inspiration. Two windows from old Moravian Church that had been on Water Street in the late nineteenth Century, hang from one wall. On another […]
From the Mayor Emmitsburg by Mayor Briggs The town received several late Christmas presents. On December 26, 2015, five Troop 727 Boy Scouts were awarded the Eagle Scout designation. Keegan X. Wright, Andrew Neibecker, Brendan P. Isaacson, Paul B. Slotwinski, and Stephen M. Lowe were awarded the prestigious achievement award at the Eagle Scout Court […]
Cuddles Cat Rescue Holds Unique and Successful Fundraiser Cuddles Cat Rescue (CCR) had some awesome fundraisers in 2015: a pizza night at Rocky’s New York Pizza; Cuddles Cat Rescue and Friends calendar with photographer, Gina Rubino McCracken donating her time; a booth set up at Colorfest; and a paint night at The Furnace with Laura […]
Catoctin High School Leo Club Collects Jeans for National “Teens for Jeans” Campaign The Catoctin High School (CHS) Leo Club is collecting jeans for Teens for Jeans, a national campaign from DoSomething.org, one of the largest global not-for-profit organizations for young people and social change. Teens for Jeans encourages young people across the country to […]
CYA Lacrosse Registration Now Open It’s a new year—try a new sport! Lacrosse is known as the fastest game on two feet for good reason—you’re never sitting still! The Catoctin Youth Association (CYA) Lacrosse league is happy to say that it’s that time of the year again to start gearing up for another fun and […]
Splendid Grains This month’s story takes us back to the Roman empire, from where the term “an army marches on it’s stomach” came. Roman soldiers on the move were given a ration of grain, and every morning they cooked all their ration for breakfast and lunch. They ate one of their portions for breakfast, and […]
by Val Nusbaum Laws of Attraction Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and our minds and hearts are filled with thoughts of romance and love, right? Sure. In my continuing quest to make life easier for my faithful readers, I decided to go to an expert in the art of seduction and gather vital […]
by Jim Houck, Jr. 1ST LIEUTENANT GEORGE WARREN BAKER, U.S. ARMY AIR CORPS Born on April 5, 1921, just north of Thurmont at Franklinville, to Roy and Blanche Baker, was a boy they named George. George had three brothers and two sisters: Raymond, Donald, and Leroy, and Ruth and Helen (nicknamed Tootie). In 1940, at […]
Habitat Fragmentation and Land Ownership In this present time civilization, humans are finding themselves in the midst of more than one environmental quagmire. How to get control of the plastic and junk in the ocean? How to keep air clean enough to breath in China? How to rid old pipes of poisonous lead and our […]
by James Rada, Jr. 1908 — Let There Be Light Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, and soon thereafter, companies began forming to provide electricity and light to homes and communities. Larger cities were the first recipients, but eventually, it became a feasible project for smaller communities. However, as community after community turned […]
by “My Father’s Son” Keeping Track When traversing the history of small areas such as Thurmont and its surrounding municipalities, several names begin to be repeated. Dissimilar to culture today, when a family settled in an area, they usually stayed in that area. Our northern Maryland vicinity has collected several names that have a way […]
by Bob Warden It’s hard to believe we have gone through another hunting season and made it through the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays without gaining too much weight (yeah, right). Now we start a new year. I hope your season went well, or at least better than ours. It seemed like a tough hunting year […]
by Carie Stafford Grady the Goose You guessed it, my name is Grady. I believe I am a smooth-breasted, spotted Sebastopol goose. I have no idea how old I am, and the last time I checked, I am a male. Sounds corny, but I was hit in the head by a car about two and […]
James Rada, Jr. One is a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice. One is a local businesswoman. One is a police chief. One is a college coach. One is a retired Catoctin High School teacher. They are all part of the group of first recipients of the Catoctin High Distinguished Graduate Awards. Principal […]
Nicholas DiGregory While the holiday season is usually accompanied by extravagant announcements of better, brighter, and more meaningless high-tech toys, there is one piece of recently-released technology that you may want to pay attention to: “smart” credit cards. These “smart” credit cards, also known as “chip” cards, have been stealing headlines and filling search engines […]