Local news covering Laurel Lakes, Victoria Falls, Oakcrest, Montpelier, and the Route 197 corridor
South Laurel Crafting Group Produces Fabric and Friendships
It started with a late-January Facebook post by South Laurel resident Heidi Temple. Posting to the popular Laurel MD Connect! group, she asked, “Would anyone be interested in being part of a crochet and knitting group in Laurel?” Heidi had learned to crochet from female family members when she was growing up in a town northeast of Philadelphia, but she says it wasn’t her thing at the time so she didn’t pursue it. Then last winter, she decided to learn again and picked it up with help from YouTube videos. But something was still missing, as she wanted to share in the craft with others, which led to the Facebook query. The responses started to come in immediately: Yes, people were interested. Some didn’t know how to knit or crochet; some were looking to ply their craft in a social setting; some, like Heidi, were looking to get back into fiber arts after many years. Several people offered to help teach others.
A schedule and venue were chosen: The 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays of every month, at 9 AM, at the Starbucks in the Laurel Lakes Shopping Center at Route 1 and Cypress Street. Heidi was happy to see four or five people show up, and says that the group formed instant bonds. And while the numbers change from one session to the next, there is almost always a core group of three in attendance.
On a recent Sunday, I gathered my latest knitting project and headed to Starbucks. When I arrived, two women were already seated at a corner table with iced lattes and pastries, chatting and smiling amid a flurry of colorful yarns. One was Denise Brenner, a resident of Russett, who had offered to help Heidi get the group off the ground and then step back to focus on another Laurel-based knitting group she belongs to. That was back in February, and although the new group is doing well and has regular participation, Denise decided to remain active in both groups. “You form friendships,” she said, “and that’s really more important than the knitting.” Describing herself as “a knitter who also crochets,” Denise was working on a pair of socks, which she says is her favorite thing to make. “Knitting socks takes me to my happy place.”
Meanwhile, Catherine Wade, a North Laurel resident by way of Australia and Arizona, was crocheting squares for a blanket to be donated to Project Linus, a national charity that provides handmade blankets to children facing difficult situations, such as serious illness, trauma, or other special needs. She, Heidi, and Denise all have contributed items to a local chapter in Anne Arundel County. Catherine also crochets scarves and beanies for the Mateship Foundation, an Australian-run charitable group. Catherine noted that, while Mateship focuses on helping the homeless, they also provide warm winter accessories to crews of cargo ships originating in warm climates, who often are not equipped to deal with cold conditions in northern ports.
Catherine learned to crochet from her grandmother, and Denise learned from her mother but, like Heidi, she didn’t necessarily take to knitting back then. “I didn’t value it so much at the time,” she says, “but then one of my retirement goals was to get back into knitting. I picked up the needles, and I just haven’t put them down!” She shared the craft with her late husband, who “also knitted a little.”
Both women had high praise for Heidi, who teaches theater at Bladensburg High School, and whom they described as being “super creative” and really caring about her students. Heidi revealed that, after being approached by some students wishing to learn to crochet, she will lead an extra-curricular crocheting group at the school next year.
Heidi emphasizes that the group is open to anyone and everyone who wishes to learn, teach, or just socialize while knitting or crocheting. No RSVP is needed: just show up! Bring your own yarn and needles if you have them; if you don’t, reach out to Heidi on Facebook and the group will help out with that.
Beltsville Firefighters, County Officials Still at Odds Over Station’s Fate
In April, I wrote about ongoing tensions between the Prince Georges County Fire Chief, Tiffany Green, and firefighters at Beltsville Volunteer Fire Station 831. Citing unsafe conditions at the station, Green had planned to pull all 20 of the paid county firefighters from the station, which would have left it understaffed with an all-volunteer force of just 18 firefighters to cover a wide area of the county—including South Laurel, which then would have placed more coverage demands on Laurel’s volunteer stations. That decision was reversed after a loud public outcry, and it was announced that three trailers would be used as temporary housing solutions for both career and volunteer firefighters until the building’s safety issues could be resolved.
But now the Beltsville News, which played an instrumental role in publicizing the situation, alleges that no major safety issues ever existed at the station and that the whole situation was a “sham” used to justify building a new fire station. Those claims were made in an editorial in the June 6 edition of the volunteer-staffed media outlet led by News Director Rick Bergman, a Beltsville native. Having examined a safety report on the station, the editorial writers claimed that the report made no mention at all of the two issues initially cited by Green as the reason to pull the paid staff: namely, sewage issues and air-quality problems. The editorial notes that the report does list some needed repairs but adds that those issues would have been caught and fixed during routine inspections, which reportedly had not occurred in over 10 years, as revealed in a public meeting. Further, the plan to place temporary trailers on site apparently was rejected by Station 831’s volunteer force when they learned—only upon reviewing the Memorandum of Understanding—of a provision that the County would control the land for 15 years. This led the firefighters to reject the plan.
The Beltsville News went on to theorize that the ultimate goal is to shut down all volunteer companies in the county. It claimed that Green recently announced plans to remove paid staff from stations in Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights, Bowie, and more county locations.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about that last claim, if true. Perhaps Prince Georges County does need to move toward an all-paid fire department model, over time, in the interest of 24/7 public safety. More developments are being built, which means population growth; meanwhile, there is a dire lack of volunteerism—PTAs, youth programs, churches and the like are short on helpers, and both the Glen Burnie carnival and the Prince Georges County Fair were canceled this year for a lack of volunteers. But if all-paid firefighters are indeed the plan, that should be stated up front, publicly, so that we all can be part of discussions for a long-term sustainability plan.
Diane Mezzanotte is a staff writer and member of the Board of Directors for The Laurel History Boys. In addition to covering Laurel city municipal news, she also reports on all things from South Laurel.
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