"It's just perfect. It's what every team wants, and we got it," said Dan Gaertner. His teammate Russell Payne echoed Dan's feelings, "In soccer, as a kid, this is what you work for your whole life. When they blew the whistle and we knew we'd won, it was a dream come true."
The two are members of the under-19 soccer club, the Baltimore Spirit, which won the United States National Youth Soccer Championship on Sunday.
The team entered and won the Maryland State Cup in June. It went on to win the Region I championship in New Jersey in early July, qualifying the Spirit to play in the National Championships in Blain, Minn., near Minneapolis last weekend.
Mr. Payne, who is the starting varsity goalkeeper at the University of Maryland at College Park and Mr. Gaertner, who is a varsity midfielder for Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, graduated from Glenelg High School in 1993.
Being champions isn't new to them, for both were members of the GHS soccer team that won the state championship. The Spirit beat the Southern California Salsa in a semifinal match that ended in a shootout. They beat the Clearwater, Fla. Countryside Lightning 3-1 in the 57th McGuire Cup Final.
At the awards ceremony after the final game, Mr. Payne was named Most Valuable Player at goalkeeper in the tournament, one of two MVP awards in the championship. Marion and Bill Payne of the West Friendship areaand Ken Gaertner of Glenelg attended their sons' championship match.
Dan's mother Suzanne Gaertner was in Louisville, Ky. watching daughter Kathy Gaertner's team win the MasterCard Invitational Tournament's Sister Cities Cup.
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Spirited and determined is the way Cheryl Primrose's friends describe her. The Woodbine mother of two children, Ryon, age 9, and Brandon, age 7, Mrs. Primrose is a quadriplegic as the result of a car accident last fall.
Her family and friends are struggling to keep Cheryl at home, as they face expensive bills for nursing care. Cheryl receives physical and occupational therapy as an outpatient, and a nursing aide cares for her during the day.
At night her husband Mickey cares for her, and volunteers from neighboring churches and civic organizations have raised money help with her nursing care expenses. Volunteers provide meals, housekeeping, and visits. Now the Primrose family needs additional volunteers.
If you can drive the children to and from activities at Bushy Park Elementary School, help clean the Primrose's house, visit Cheryl, especially between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. so Mickey can remain at work, or provide other services or meals for the family, please call Keith Burdette at 740-7100, extension 248. Ms. Burdette invites your church, club, or neighborhood group to volunteer.
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Camp Hope joins people in a common cause to help those unable to help themselves. This year, two teams of students and adults from Glenelg United Methodist Church went to Lonaconing in Western Maryland.
Each day they worked at the homes of two families, and in the evening they returned to dormitories at Frostburg State University.
For a week last month, Carl Hood, Gus Kafer, Joe Moore, Rick Pope and Tom Thrasher led 12 youngsters.
Patty Hutton and Jill Moore were the first girls to go to Camp Hope from Glenelg United Methodist. Josh Brackins, David Gibson, Andy Hood, Ken Hutton, Ryan Kafer, Tom Pope, Mark Thompson, Brooks Trimper, Chris Trimper and Matt Walker worked on the projects.
The teams replaced steps and a bathroom, painted, cleaned up yards and refaced a porch.
Camp Hope participants pay their own way and this group earned money at a pancake breakfast and a flower sale. They also worked at the home of Julia Collins, where they helped with yard work and painting to earn the money for their trip. They returned home Friday, exhausted but happy with their efforts.
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Earlier this year, Rev. Chester Whisonant came to Gethsemane Baptist Church as its minister of music. In March, he formed the church's first youth choir that includes middle school, high school and college students.
This week, the 25-member choir, Hys Praze, has been presenting the musical "The Big Picture" by Michael W. Smith at churches in the northeastern part of the United States.
The group visited LaSalle Baptist Church in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Their next concert was at New Covenant Baptist Church in South Burlington, Vt. Yesterday, they performed at Screven Memorial Church in Portsmouth, N.H.
Mr. Whisonant, Youth Minister Brian Sunderly, chaperones Phil and Gay Mercer, and the choir will return tomorrow. They will perform "The Big Picture" at 11 a.m. Sunday morning at Gethsemane.
If you'd like to hear the youth choir, church members invite you to join them Sunday morning. Phone 442-5853.
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Angelo Gatto and members of the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra traveled to Italy for a 12-day tour earlier this summer. Glenwood's Kay Miller, mother of orchestra members Marissa and Brianne Miller said, "I am breathless to think we really went. The only thing I'd add to this trip is time."
About 60 serious young musicians ages 12 to 21, played several concerts on their tour. Marissa played the cello, and Brianne performed as percussionist for the orchestra.
After performing in a town square in a small village, they gave one of their best performances ever to a packed auditorium in the spa town of Salsomaggiore.
In Florence, the orchestra was taxied to a villa to play for a private audience of about 30. After the performance, the students were invited to climb fruit trees in the fabulous gardens to pick whatever fruit they wanted
Near Rome, the group's concert was well-received by a packed public audience in a small castle garden. At that concert, sponsored by the Leonard Bernstein Society, they played "West Side Story." Each concert closed with John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever."
Mr. Gatto led the orchestra, which he founded 30 years ago, in pieces by Verdi, whose home the group saw. They visited the Stradivarius Museum in Cremona, where they viewed beautiful inlaid and priceless antique instruments.
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Congratulations to Glenelg resident Larry Tedrow who was recently named vice president for sales and promotions for the Baltimore Spirit Indoor Professional Soccer team.
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Condolences to the Parker family of Dayton. Elena Parker, 38, died last month after a long illness. Her daughter Lindsay, 9, attends Bushy Park Elementary School.