By Taylor Dibbert

Wolfgang Mergner is a 2020 Montgomery Serves Award winner. He won the Neal Potter Path of Achievement Award. As noted on website for the award, honorees “have demonstrated remarkable commitment to direct volunteer service in our community, earning them Montgomery County’s highest recognition for volunteerism.”

Mergner has lived in Takoma Park since 1987. His deep and meaningful engagement with the community began almost immediately. “At that time, we had a lot of problems in our neighborhood … and crime, so we formed a neighborhood patrol with the help of the police,” he said. “We would walk every night in our neighborhood.”

Mergner subsequently worked with others and approached the Takoma Park City Council about creating a safety committee. He became the first member and then chair of the Public Safety Committee. The body was created in 1995. He chaired the committee from 1997 to 2001.

“Then emergency preparedness became an important thing; so the Emergency Preparedness Committee was formed,” he said. Mergner was a member of the committee from 2004 to 2011; he served as chair from 2008 to 2010.

Additionally, he was involved in creating the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). According to him, that CERT was very active for emergencies, including heavy weather like snow. “Residents of Takoma Park enrolled in this program for training and service in emergencies, such as shelter maintenance,” he said.

In 2002, Mergner became president of the Old Town Residents’ Association. He held the position for a few years. “It’s important to be organized and to represent your neighborhood,” he said of leading the organization.

Through the years, Mergner developed and maintained a keen interest in mediation. He joined the Takoma Park Mediation Program. He served as a board member from 2000 to 2004 and chaired the board in 2004. Mergner noted, “It’s very important to have mediation available in conflict resolution.” He was also a board member of the Montgomery County Conflict Resolution Center and copresident in 2010.

Mergner has extensive mediation experience. He spoke in detail about senior mediation. This interested him because he discovered that families were having so many fights over seniors, including matters pertaining to inheritance or discussing who would take care of seniors. “We saw mediation as a very good way of helping families come to an agreement as to how they handle these matters,” he said. And then his interest in seniors let him to his next big project.

“Pretty soon we discovered that seniors in Takoma Park needed more than mediation,” he said. “There were a lot of problems.” That was in 2011.

Mergner and others had seniors complete a questionnaire to better understand the group’s needs and desires. Transportation and access to doctors were big issues. “We decided to create a village,” he said. “In this case, a village means a grassroots organization that helps seniors live with dignity.” And the Village of Takoma Park was born. “We became and incorporated, non-profit organization in 2014,” he said. Mergner emphasized that creating and maintaining the village would not have been possible without significant and sustained volunteer support. Sandra Egan, Linda Carlson and Kathie Baker played big roles. From Mergner’s perspective, “these people need to be mentioned because they did extraordinary work.”

“Wolfgang’s a visionary,” Carlson said. “He had a vision for an organization built around the idea of neighbors helping neighbors, with a focus on seniors, and deserves enormous credit for the successful creation of the Village of Takoma Park, as does his wife Gertrud.”

Carlson, who has lived in Takoma Park since 1981 and been chair of the village’s communications committee since 2014, added that “[h]is gentle persistence, dedication to service, kind-heartedness, and firmness of purpose have been a real inspiration to many who have come to know him through his activities both with the village and in the broader community.”

Mergner served as president of the Village of Takoma Park for four years and retired in 2015. He’s most proud of the way that the village has grown. It now has about 250 members. At any given point, there are about 75 volunteers. (The membership number includes both volunteers and those who are being served.)

When it came to helping seniors, Mergner mentioned that his wife Gertrud was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea. She indicated that she would help him if he went down that path. “That was a very strong motivator,” he recalled.

Egan, who has lived in Takoma Park for nearly 39 years, believes the Village of Takoma would not be happening if it weren’t for the commitment that Mergner and his wife had to seniors. Egan currently serves as volunteer coordinator for the village, a position she’s held since 2014.

Professionally, Mergner was a medical doctor and an academic. He retired as professor emeritus from the University of Maryland in 1998. He earned his doctorate at Duke University. He was a pathologist and researcher in heart disease.

Mergner is staying busy. He took a course at the Takoma Park Community Center on memoir writing and is currently working on a book: “There are many people like me who suddenly discovered they have a past.”

“I had a very traumatic life, from being born in Africa, coming to Germany and having to adjust to Germany society,” Mergner said. He alluded to his experiences during World War II. He moved from Tanzania to Germany in 1940, when he was seven years old. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1964. “There are a lot of things to talk about,” he said. “Once you start writing things down, many, many things come to your memory.”

Mergner has seen and done so much. He has lived a full, meaningful life and contributed a lot to the Takoma Park community. And yet, he strikes you as someone who still has a lot more to give.

This article originally appeared in the August 2020 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter.  See the full newsletter here. 

Editor’s Note: This the second of a series of articles reflecting on death and grief that will run under the thematic heading, “So Many Memories.” With many people in the Takoma Park Community experiencing the loss of friends and loved ones, we decided to provide a forum for thought leaders in the community to offer their reflections on grieving and loss. If you have questions or would like to contribute, please email me at tpnewseditor@takomaparkmd.gov. —Apryl Motley

A Reflection on Grief

By John Robinette 

Five hundred words on coping with grief. That is the assignment.

Impossible.

There are no words, let alone five hundred, or five million for that matter, that can do it. That is the thing. Some of you have experienced grief. Gut-wrenching, nauseating, confusing, searing grief. Maybe you are experiencing it right now, and reading this is an act of courage no one can comprehend; the words blurring and dancing about on the page through tears and feverlike hallucinations. Others of you have borne witness to a friend or loved-one navigating the tumult and delirium of a full-on bout of the condition. Helpless you are to their helplessness – wondering what magic you can conjure from Earth or the Gods or the wind to ease their pain even a nanometer. And if it is a child’s grief, you’d happily hand over a limb or two as sacrifice if given even a probability of success.

There are those who speak knowingly of the stages of grief. Some offer insights on how long before you get on with life. Some invoke a deity’s plan in hopes of comfort. Or you may have your own ways to cope, like turning to drugs or alcohol like I did when my wife died suddenly at age 42. And do you want to know a secret? It works. At least scotch worked for me. For a while. And then it stopped working.

There are other things that help. Being with people helped me cope. So did being alone. Physical exercise was important as was sleep. My grief made me nauseous, and I barely ate for two weeks and lost 15 pounds. There are some who eat for comfort and gain 15 pounds.

I no longer subscribe to a specific faith. I lean Buddhist or Unitarian-Universalist. But for my money the wisdom in Ecclesiastes is hard to beat:

For there is an appointed time for everything. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

There was grief in the Old Testament. Lots. They got it – the cyclical and transient nature of life. Strange comfort comes with the awareness of our own short lives and that all things, even my grief, will come to pass. And dancing? I added that. My late wife loved to dance, and whether in ecstatic joy or ecstatic misery, dancing is proper therapy.

I’m afraid I have no list of 7 items or 9 tips, for coping. I’m sorry about that. What I can say is this: Be yourself. Don’t let anyone say you are grieving wrong. The proper amount of time is the amount of time it takes. Ask for help; there is no shame in it. Get plenty of rest and exercise. Eat healthy food, and go easy on the liquor and drugs. There are people who love you.

Remember that.

You can do this.

John Robinette is a father and husband, re-married after the sudden death of his wife in 2010. In John’s book, Never Stop Dancing: A Memoir, which he wrote with close friend and co-author Robert Jacoby, such issues as male friendship in our modern era, how we look at life differently in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, and how we understand the concepts of love, God, and religion in our lives are explored. The book is based on John and Robert’s conversations during the year after John’s wife Amy died.

This article originally appeared in the August 2020 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter.  See the full newsletter here. 

By Rick Henry

The first two years of Takoma Park Police Chief Antonio DeVaul’s tenure – from January, 2018 to January, 2020 – were full of change, for him and the department he leads. New initiatives, new approaches, and new personnel practices were undertaken and implemented, as DeVaul repositioned and repurposed the department.

But the six months since that anniversary have made those two years of change pale in comparison. Coronavirus, public quarantines, and the “Black Lives Matter,” and “Defund the Police” movements have roiled the country and strained the relationship between communities and police.

In a phone interview (Friday, July 17), Chief DeVaul discussed how he and the Takoma Park Police Department are adjusting to the new challenges and shared why he believes the changes that took place during the first two years of his tenure have left the department well-aligned with the current environment.

Q: First, how are you personally doing during this difficult time?

A: Well, it’s a challenging time, but for me it has been a good opportunity to reflect both personally and professionally.

Personally, it has allowed me extra time to bond with my wife and kids so that has been good.

Professionally, there has been a reckoning with police across the country that is overdue and warranted, and I have had time to re-examine the functions of our police department to make sure we are taking advantage of the opportunity to affect change.

And I believe that whether it’s hiring, use of force, or the relationship between the police and the community, we are consistent with the kind of progressive policing policies that people are now advocating.

Q: Could you expand on that?

A: Let’s take recruiting and hiring. Since I have been chief, we have focused on recruiting a diverse workforce. We have hired more than 20 officers in the past two years, and 15–16 of them represent (gender, racial) minority groups. We have officers that speak Spanish, Amharic, Greek and Russian.

We are also focused on hiring people who want to be police officers for the right reasons. It’s not about how many pushups someone can do; it’s about how well a person can engage with the community. When I came here there was a focus on rewarding enforcement. We’ve changed that to rewarding community contacts – for instance, how many “Coffee with a Cop,” or “Youth Explorers” programs someone participated in. We want to practice positive policing and only issue citations for violations that mean something.

Another area where our policies line up with the reform movement is in trying to take a holistic and proactive approach to public safety, which means having mental health professionals and housing professionals work in tandem with officers to provide services and identify problems before they escalate.

Q: How has the current climate affected the morale and direction of the department?

A: It has been a positive force. As I said, we already had a lot of progressive policies in place, including many recommended as part of the #8CANTWAIT campaign (eight recommendations for reducing the harm caused by police in the short-term, launched by the police reform advocacy group Campaign Zero).

There has been an outcry to review how we do law enforcement in this country and here in Takoma Park. People are more inquisitive. That being said, we (the department) have been very open to citizen input. For example, we have revamped the Citizen’s Advisory Board. We have residents on the board who were selected because they may have been skeptical of police or they may have alternative views. They participated in a complete review of all of our general orders.

Q: One area where the citizens’ have spoken up recently is in petitioning for the elimination of the K-9 force (after a December 2018 incident where a dog viciously attacked a citizen.) What are your thoughts on that issue?

A: I am aware of the petition and right now we are evaluating all of our units, including the K-9 unit, to determine if they are best suited for the city. When I first got here, we had three K-9 units; now we just have one. We did have a horrific incident in 2018, but that is the only one of its kind involving Takoma Park in more than 30 years of the program. I don’t want to make a knee-jerk decision without conducting an educated, calculated review, including considering the racial equity impact of having a K- 9 unit.

Q: Amid all the call for police reform, there has been an uptick in crime in a lot of jurisdictions recently, including Takoma Park, to what do you attribute that?

A: I wish we (in law enforcement) could put a finger on the pulse of what is going on, but I think there is a national narrative related to the times. If people don’t have jobs, housing, access to mental health, crime can rise. Here in Takoma Park, we are seeing an uptick, but fortunately, not of the same type of violent crime that other jurisdictions are seeing.

Q: Any final comments you would like to make?

A: The most important thing we can do in this moment is to acknowledge the role race plays in law enforcement and society. To that end, I believe we have developed a strong relationship with our AfricanAmerican and Latino communities, especially the youth. As I said, I believe a holistic approach to policing and public safety is the right one, and I believe that is consistent with what we are doing here in the City.

This article originally appeared in the August 2020 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter.  See the full newsletter here. 

By Sean Gossard

For Chelsea Ritter-Soronen and Chalk Riot, creating murals has always been about more than just the art. That’s why, when the pandemic was going into full swing and local businesses started taking major hits, she teamed with Takoma Park to find a way to help keep those businesses afloat.

“When we saw the closing of small businesses – especially those owned by immigrants and people of color – we wanted to do something to support them,” Ritter-Soronen said.

Takoma Park-based Ritter-Soronen and her team at Chalk Riotbegan making colorful murals in chalk in late March on walls and on sidewalks to bring attention to nearly 40 restaurants in Takoma Park.

“It was educational for a lot of people in recognizing that Takoma Park covers more area than people may be thinking,” she said. “We put a lot of energy and emphasis on the non-main street and Carroll Avenue establishments.”

For two months, Ritter-Soronen and her team of hired artists took to the streets painting words of safety and encouragement and urging people to shop local and support Takoma Park business in a very difficult time. “We just wanted to encourage residents to keep supporting their local businesses as much as possible,” Ritter-Soronen said. “We also did some on community safety and health. We had one on mask wearing when it was a new concept, and we did one in front of city hall that said ‘Small and Mighty.’ ”

And although the chalk eventually washed away, there are still pictures and social media posts helping them live on. “Chalk is a beautiful reminder that all things pass, and it could be a good thing that nothing lasts forever,” Ritter-Soronen said. “During production of our almost 50 pieces, I listened to stories of grief, joy, resilience, COVID, immigration, birth, death. Public art can connect people, and those connections can enhance community organizing happening in pushes for a better world.” Ritter-Soronen usually works with her Austin, Texas-based partner Liza Fishbone on commissioned murals and other pieces around the country.

Ritter-Soronen, who has a background in theater design and set painting, said she first got interested in chalk art while looking to engage her community in St. Louis. “We were interested in the push for public art locally, and we were looking for ways to engage with the community in an accessible and fun way. Chalk art was the way to do that,” she said.

Currently, Chalk Riot is creating a more permanent wall-hung mural that will be placed around Takoma Park once it’s finished. “It’s still visually tied to the original campaign, and it will be a sort of cap-stone to the Takoma Park business initiative we did,” she said. “The first place it will go is the Recreation Center since it currently isn’t open at the moment, and it will be a way to keep the place active.”

Chalk art has also recently seen a major spike in interest nationally with people creating their own art pieces in front of their homes showing support for the Black Lives Matter movement. “It’s really been relevant in the past few months especially with people putting down Black Lives Matter messages,” Ritter-Soronen said “You can’t even find chalk in stores anymore!”

The name Chalk Riot is an ode to those who used chalk art to spread messages on the women’s suffrage movement to raising awareness on the AIDS epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s. “Suffragettes would use chalk to communicate where meetings would be and relay messages to each other,” RitterSoronen said.

Chalk Riot is currently working to put together an online toolkit for people interested in using chalk art as a form of peaceful protest with basic how-to’s and information on chalk art’s history in activism.

Ritter-Soronen is especially grateful Takoma Park and the community took such a unique and artistic way to get the word out about businesses and safety: “It’s really encouraging that the city prioritized public art as a tool of communication and support during such a difficult time.” For more on Chalk Riot, visit chalkriotart.com or check them out on Instagram @chalkriot.

This article originally appeared in the August 2020 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter.  See the full newsletter here.