Nancy Fadely, the office manager at St Mark's Episcopal Church in Highland was kind enough to send me the worship schedule for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve: 4:30 p.m., celebration service and pageant for families and younger children; 7:30 p.m., celebration of the birth of Christ; 10:30 p.m., carols and special music; and, 11 p.m., Festal celebration of the Nativity. On Christmas Day: 10 a.m., celebration of the Nativity with carols.
Reservoir High School Principal Pat Saunderson and administrative secretary Barb Meuller compile and send out a daily email titled "Reservoir Topics Today". It contains all kinds of data such as important dates, upcoming meetings, student and staff recognition — the topics go on and on.
Some of the information that you find in this column is compiled from their daily missives. If you're not subscribed, you should log onto the Howard County Public School System website, http://www.hcpss.org, click on the link for "News and Events", look for the heading "HCPSS News" and click on the link at the end of the sentence below the heading; at the next page, just follow the instructions.
Reservoir student Michael DeBenedetto graduated from Leadership U, a four-month program that is sponsored by Leadership Howard County, which aims to involve young people in solving community problems. The participants worked on community service projects of their choosing.
"You would definitely know that the future is bright … the leaders of tomorrow are walking school hallways across Howard County," Reservoir principal Pat Saunderson said.
Many Reservoir students have been preparing for the Reservoir "Poetry Out Loud" contest over the course of the past couple months. The winners of this year's contest are: Madeleine Jones, first place; Robert Highsmith, second place; and Justyce Bennett, third place. Congratulations to them and to all those students that participated.
These champions will be competing next against other Howard County high schools in the "Poetry Out Loud" county championship in January.
Saunderson had nothing but high praise for the students and faculty that put on the Winter Concert.
"if you closed your eyes for a second, you would think that you were at the (Baltimore Symphone Orchestra) or the Kennedy Center … wow!," he said.
Congratulations to Greg Knauf, Matt Dubbs and Colin O'Bryan for their tireless efforts and dedication to the Reservoir music program and students. Art students Monica Quinn (project manager and design coordinator), Ellie Budzinski, Michael Ponton, Bailey Parater, Sondra Pearson, Ronald Orozco, Erin Lamich and Jenna Rutten did an awesome job on the new Gator Logo in the Atrium. These students handled all aspects of the project, from taking measurements, plotting each section of the drawing, sketching, and then, the actually painting.
Kudos also to their teacher, Greg English. The Class of 2011 and its class sponsor, Kevin Miller, sponsored this project. Three cheers!
Neighbor Ride, the volunteer based non-profit based in Columbia, earned the "Accredited Charity Seal" of the Central Maryland Better Business Bureau. To earn this seal, a charity has to meet or exceed each of the 20 Standards For Charity Accountability set forth by the BBB. What this means to you, a prospective donor, is that you can be confident that the any contributions to Neighbor Ride will be put to good use. For more information, give community outreach coordinator Colleen Konstanzer a ring at 410-884-3616 or send her an email at community@neighborride.org.
Only two more shopping days until Christmas! You procrastinators out there better get a move on! Well, that's all for this week. Commit a random act of kindness. Look in on your neighbors. Say a prayer for our troops who are serving in harm's way and remember their families, too.