The Takoma Park Recreation Center would like to spotlight one of our newest instructors, Jeremy Sherron. Jeremy teaches bootcamp classes at the Takoma Park Recreation Center on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 6:30–7:30 p.m. Jeremy showcased his skills and led a free demonstration at our annual Fitness Expo this past April. During the Expo, you could easily see Jeremy’s passion for fitness. This Summer 2022 season was his first time teaching with Takoma Park Recreation, and he is looking forward to having more successful classes in the future. Please read a little more about Jeremy or stop by the Recreation Center on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to meet him in person.

Q: Tell us about your background. Where did you get your interest in fitness?
A: I am the director and manager of Everest Wellness. With a degree in health care management from New York University, I have years of experience in corporate wellness and fitness. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, and spent the next 12 years working as a lab technician while taking classes and studying. Following graduation, I was the wellness coordinator for St. Dominic’s Home for students with physical disabilities in Rockland County and then wellness coordinator and manager of Senior Centers for Catholic Charities in Brooklyn and
Queens. I traveled extensively meeting with companies and conducting wellness fairs. I started my own company, Everest Wellness, to bring wellness engagement to frontline workers. The goal is to attain a work/life balance, become physically fit, and promote good mental health. In 2017, I moved my family to Silver Spring, Maryland, and continued with my company as well as consulting on wellness for Volkswagen and Verizon.

Q: Why do you think it is important for people to work out, especially during this pandemic?
A: Working out and healthy living, as we know, is essential for a healthy lifestyle. As for me, healthy living makes me happy and keeps my mood high, which has been so beneficial through the last few years.

Q: What do you hope people will take away from your class?
A: I hope people will come away with not just physical improvement but also a mental and spiritual lift after they have completed one of my classes. If nothing else, I wish they receive a sense of belonging and meet their need for social interaction.

Q: How do you know when you’ve had a successful class?
A: I know my class is successful when I see people sweating at the end of every class. A good indicator that participants are enjoying the class is when I see them keep coming back and registering for
more sessions.

Q: What other hobbies or interests do you have besides fitness?
A: Outside of fitness, I have a passion for music; I am an accomplished pianist.

Q: What should students bring with them to your bootcamp class?
A: Students should bring hand weights, an exercise mat, a water bottle, and a positive attitude.

Jeremy will be teaching Bootcamp classes throughout the year. Log into ActiveNet to register or stop by the Recreation Center and our staff would be happy to assist you with registration. We look forward to seeing you soon!

This article was featured in the September 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

Adventist Healthcare has permanently closed its urgent care facility at 7600 Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park as of Aug. 19.

The nonprofit health services organization based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, announced that a new primary care office will open nearby in September at 7610 Carroll Avenue, Suite 410, in Takoma Park.

Adventist Healthcare said that Takoma Park residents in need of urgent care should visit the Patriot Urgent Care Center at 14421 Baltimore Avenue in Laurel, or for emergency care, should visit the White Oak Medical Center at 11890 Healing Way in Silver Spring.

There are also a host of other urgent care centers around Takoma Park not affiliated with Adventist Healthcare that residents can visit. Those include:

• Patient First Primary and Urgent Care – Silver Spring at
  8206 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring
• CVS MinuteClinic at 7939 New Hampshire Ave. in Hyattsville
• AllCare Family Medicine & Urgent Care at 8455 Colesville Rd.
  Suite 101-A in Silver Spring
• Family’s Health Care at 8011 New Hampshire Ave. in Adelphi
• SDM 1-Stop Primary Urgent Care at 6401 New Hampshire
  Ave. #100 in Adelphi

Adventist Healthcare’s new primary care facility opening in September will provide “comprehensive primary care and family medicine services for adults and children in the Montgomery County and Prince George’s County areas across the Washington, DC region,” according to its website.

That care includes same-day sick visits; women’s and men’s health and wellness exams; health physicals, health maintenance, and preventive care geriatric (senior) wellness exams; vaccinations and immunizations, including flu shots; and management for chronic conditions like asthma and allergies, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease. For more information on Adventist Healthcare, visit adventisthealthcare.com.

This article was featured in the September 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

The Urban Forestry Division of the City of Takoma Park is announcing an exciting new program called Tree Takoma. Starting in Fall 2022, the City is offering free canopy tree plantings to any interested private property owner within the Takoma Park city limits. We are very excited to be partnering with the DC area’s flagship tree planting nonprofit, Casey Trees, for this program.

Tree Takoma will offer both a tree planting consultation with a Casey Trees urban forester and the tree installation itself, both free of charge. The Casey Trees urban forester will work with you during the consultation to determine the best locations and tree species for your property. The program offers a diverse palette of native canopy trees, which changes from season to season and will be determined at the time of your consultation.

Consultations can be scheduled year-round, and plantings occur during the spring and fall. Trees will be a minimum of 1.5-inch trunk diameter or 6 feet tall and will be installed with a bed of shredded wood mulch and a deer guard to protect the trunk. After planting, your responsibility is to water the trees as they get established and care for them to ensure they lead a healthy and prosperous life.

Casey Trees will typically be in touch within six weeks to schedule a consultation. After the City provides your information to Casey Trees, they will be your contact for all information pertaining to scheduling the consultation, finalizing your tree planting plan, scheduling your tree planting, and addressing any questions you might have pertaining to the tree planting.

Native canopy trees provide numerous benefits to you and the City, including stormwater management, cooling the air, reducing heating, and cooling costs, beautifying the landscape, and more. Since the City only manages approximately 15 percent of the land area in Takoma Park, it is important that we partner with private property owners to plant trees and help in replacing the canopy that is lost each year.

We hope you will join us in this important work of maintaining the urban forest canopy of Takoma Park. To sign up for the program, visit the Tree Takoma webpage to submit an online request or visit the Public Works building at 31 Oswego Avenue for a paper form.

This article was featured in the September 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

The Takoma Park Folk Festival is returning in-person on Sunday, September 11, after two years of virtual performances due to COVID-19.

“We’re calling it ‘regroovinate,’” said Debra St. Charles, this year’s program chair. “It’s a combination of regeneration and groovy … and it represents that we are rejoicing and rebuilding.”

“It’s very exciting,” added Gordon Nimmo-Smith, who oversees sound engineering and logistics. “All of us on the committees love
producing an in-person festival and engaging with our audience.”

Music will begin with the DC Labor Chorus at 10 a.m. and run through 6:30 p.m. at Takoma Park Middle School. As always, the festival will be free, family-friendly, and filled with music, crafts, food vendors, and community information booths.

However, none of the activities will be held indoors. “To provide greater safety from COVID, we are using the school grounds, but not the inside of the school,” explained festival Chair Robin Stearn. Without indoor access, the festival will have four stages rather than the typical six performance venues. But the two “absent” stages will have time slots on the others. “It’s complicated, but we’re working through the logistics,” St. Charles said.

Subtle differences in the program will be evident to long-time visitors this year. “We’ve really tried to present a more diverse lineup… with more people who have not performed before and more styles of music,” St. Charles said.

Among festival first-timers are New Orleans-style blues Sol Roots, award-winning singer-songwriter Jillian Matundan, and bluegrass group No Part of Nothin’. Also, world music group Project Locrea, which won a 2022 Washington Area Music Award, will introduce festival attendees to its fusion sound that jumps across jazz, African, Asian, and Latin American traditions.

Visitors looking for singer-songwriters will be pleased by the return of Michelle Swan and the lush sounds of Quiet the Mountain, a new band of veteran guitarists Christian Alfonso and Jimmy Stewart. Plus, the festival also will welcome a youth rock band, sitarist Sambarta Rakshit, the Washington Revels Maritime Voices, and much more.

The festival’s non-musical activities will be intact, though renovations at the school have led to changes in the festival’s geography, according to Nimmo-Smith. “We will have the full crafts show and about half of the community tables on the basketball courts, and the kids’ games on the tennis courts nearby,” he said. “The Field Stage will return to Lee Jordan Field below the school, opening up more space for the audience.”

Providing the weather cooperates, the festival’s organizers expect a large crowd. “I’ve really enjoyed seeing live music again,” said Stearn, “and I know many other people feel the same way. This is a time for us to celebrate—not just music, but crafts, community groups, food, and friends. It will be so good for all of us to come together again.”

This article was featured in the August 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

I’m writing this while in a COVID-19-induced fog. After two and a half years of this thing, it finally got me, and I have just enough energy to crank out a few words on the topic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the library has done everything we could think of to help our patrons get through it. I will never forget working on the Circulation Desk on the last day we were open in March 2020. We checked out more than 3,000 items to patrons in one afternoon! I set up an extra check-out station to help move things along, and even so, there were long lines. After we closed that day, the place looked like the aftermath of a 90 percent off sale at Nordstrom Rack: books just tossed every which way, shelves cleared of items. And, if you recall, this was when we thought the lockdown was for a paltry two weeks.

Just four months after that, we partially reopened for service but did not open the building. We introduced Books-to-Go, our curbside, touchless book, and media service. Books-to-Go was the brainchild of longtime librarian Rebecca Brown. As with many innovations that came about because of the pandemic, we have decided to keep this one. We also have decided to keep the book return bin open at all times instead of just when we’re closed to accommodate those who are still uncomfortable coming indoors.

We’ve evolved in our procedures. For example, when it wasn’t clear how the virus was transmitted, we quarantined the books for several days in order for the virus to deteriorate. Once it was clear that this was not a mode of transmission, we stopped doing it.

Our children’s programs went online – Circle Time, Spanish Circle Time, Sketch Club, and so forth. The library’s weekly staff meetings are still online, even though staff has returned to the office. We find that it enables people who may not be scheduled to be in during that time to participate. Oh, and I am writing this and editing the rest of the library’s newsletter items from my bedroom, where I am isolating from my spouse, hoping he doesn’t catch this.

One year after Books-to-Go began, we opened the library building. We had just welcomed a new library director and were saying goodbye to retiring Children and Youth Services Librarian Karen MacPherson. People were cautious about coming back, understandably. We required masks at the direction of the City Manager, and we placed several air purifiers around the library and computer center. The library staff still masks while at the circulation desk to protect themselves and the public. Some programs are still online, while others are in-person, often outdoors. Circle Time is now on the Library lawn unless it rains.

The library has suspended overdue fines during the pandemic. The only fines a patron will accumulate are for lost books. Overdue books will merely keep you from checking out new books. If you can’t find your overdue books, come talk to us! We won’t bite, and we will work with you.

One of our more innovative services to come out of this is the distribution of COVID-19 test kits along with KN-95 masks. In late January of this year, we began to distribute test kits and masks. To date, we have given out more than 10,000 test kits and close to 13,000 masks. We will continue this as long as we’re able and there is a need. Frequent testing is an important tool for containing this disease.

We no longer require masks while in the library and computer center. However, we strongly encourage it and have both adult
and child-size masks to give to patrons. This new variant is highly contagious, and I don’t recommend getting it.

The library staff safety protocols have been so effective that in two and a half years, I am only the second staff member to get COVID-19. I don’t know where I got it; I’m vaccinated and boosted, as is my spouse. I try to follow good masking practices, so who knows? I’m taking Paxlovid, so I should be fine. I’m just so very tired. And congested. Hopefully, by the time you read this, I will be back at work, fully recovered. Note: In case you were wondering about the headline, Love in the Time of Cholera is the title of an award-winning book by Nobel laureate Gabriel García-Márquez.

This article was featured in the August 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

The City is rethinking the way it approaches public space. This includes parks, sidewalks, parking spaces, plazas, streeteries, and more. This is all happening through the creation of a Public Space Management Plan, which will help City Council and staff make better decisions about projects involving public space. The plan is expected to be completed in Fall 2022, but it’s been in the works for a while. Here’s a summary of what’s been done to date!

• November 2018: The City Council agrees on the need for a public space plan and approves a scope of work.
• Fall 2019 to Summer 2020: Planning Division staff conduct studies of public park features, levels of resident access to parks, and an inventory of public spaces. [The planning process is delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.]
• Fall 2020 to Fall 2021: Community input is gathered in the form of an online survey (225 respondents) and an in-person, interactive workshop series.
• Spring 2022: The City hires the planning firm CHPlanning to help complete the project.
• Summer 2022: CHPlanning conducts an existing conditions analysis and develops the first draft of plan recommendations. Outreach during this time includes:
  • Additional stakeholder focus groups to improve input from voices not yet well-represented in planning outreach, including youth, apartment, and condo building residents, and
    cross-departmental City Staff
  • Two community workshops (including the one to unveil the draft).
• Fall 2022 (upcoming): CHPlanning will continue to gather community feedback on the first draft and develop a final set of recommendations to be reviewed and delivered to City Council for approval.

To learn more about the Public Space Management Plan, visit the Public Space Management Plan webpage,  and join us on August 23 for our next public meeting.

This article was featured in the August 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

The Recreation Department would like to highlight one of our amazing instructors, Alessandra Flores! Alessandra is CEO and Founder of Sol Realm Yoga and taught our Girls Empowerment Yoga class for teens this past spring. She has a recreation background as a former recreation specialist with the Montgomery County Recreation Department and recently pursued her passion for interior design while focusing on creating a variety of yoga classes for youth. Please take a few moments to get to know Ms. Alessandra Flores.

Where does your passion for yoga come from?

I found my passion for yoga in a hopeless place. I found and understood the meaning of yoga during the pandemic when everything felt dark, and the world felt like it suddenly stopped. I discovered a new meaning of self-confidence, awareness, and self-love. As a certified Teen Life Coach and Youth Advocate, I now use yoga to help empower teens with self-confidence, increase mental awareness, and encourage ambition and goal setting.

Why is it important for young people to have access to yoga?

Many consider yoga to be a fitness program that requires you to be flexible and able to bend in difficult positions. Yoga is beyond flexibility! Yoga and other wellness programs are important for youth because they help develop body awareness, manage stress through breathing, meditation, and movement, build concentration, increase confidence and positive self-image, and allow youth to feel a part of a group.

What do you hope participants will take away from your class?

I hope participants learn to be patient with themselves, remembering to breathe in through their bellies and out through their noses or mouths, relaxing their shoulders with every breath. Breathing through certain situations can change the outcome!

How do you know when you’ve had a successful class?

Some determine success based on the number of participants you receive in your program. Others determine success based on the emotional, physical, and mental changes you begin to see with your students. When parents and teachers approach me with how they’ve noticed a positive change in their students, that lets me know I am reaching them, and they trust me. Ultimately my goal is for all my participants to feel better about themselves in whatever capacity they came to the program with.

What other hobbies or interests do you have?

I love reading, playing and coaching basketball, hiking, and gardening.

This article was featured in the July 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

If a Takoma Park Police officer catches your children in the act this summer, they might just get a “ticket.”

The Takoma Park Police Department is proud to again partner with 7-Eleven in its “Operation Chill” program, which aims to reduce crime and build rapport between kids and law enforcement. “Operation Chill” is a great way of teaching the importance of making good decisions, being kind, and doing the right thing.

School’s out for summer and kids in Takoma Park may actually look forward to their next encounter with the “heat” this summer thanks to 7-Eleven stores’ popular “Operation Chill” program that rewards positive behavior with a very cool treat. Through “Operation Chill,” Takoma Park Police patrol officers can “ticket” youngsters caught in the act of doing good with Slurpee beverage coupons. Appropriate “offenses” might include helping another person, deterring crime, practicing safety (wearing a helmet during bike riding), participating in a positive activity in the community, or just for having a pleasant conversation with an officer. Each coupon can be redeemed for a small Slurpee drink at participating 7-Eleven stores. The coupons are great for officers who are on patrol in the community. It’s an icebreaker, a way to encourage dialogue in a non-threatening, non-law enforcement situation.

Since its inception in 1995, “Operation Chill” has grown to include several hundred law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada each year, and more than twelve million coupons have been distributed to officers on the beat in cities and towns where 7-Eleven does business.

“Operation Chill” was developed by 7-Eleven Inc. to positively reward and encourage good behavior by kids during the hot summer months, when communities may experience increases in loitering, shoplifting, and graffiti, and to support law enforcement agencies’ community relations projects. The Takoma Park Police Department will use the “Operation Chill” program to reward youth for their good deeds as well as to enhance their relations with the young people of their city.

So be on your best behavior this summer. Our officers will be patrolling parks, community events, and other areas around the City, looking to hand out these free treats!

This article was featured in the July 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

The summer selection for discussion in July is Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter. We will meet on Wednesday, July 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hydrangea Room of the Community Center. We’ll also have a Zoom link for those who want to meet online. For more information, email ftpmlbookgroup@gmail.com.

Rhode Island Red introduces us to busker Nanette Hayes, an African American jazz saxophonist. When Nan awakes one morning to find a fellow busker dead on her kitchen floor, the mystery begins. It draws the reluctant Nan to search for a legendary and priceless saxophone that many would kill to possess.

Charlotte Carter originally wrote the Nanette Hayes series in the 1990s. Rhode Island Red and two other novels from the series were republished last year. The series is unique for its Black heroine and its depiction of race, class, and sexism.

While Rhode Island Red may reflect the 1990s, critics have written that the Nanette Hayes series has the timelessness of other great mystery series and their heroes. Nan is, “as much Marlow as she is the women who tempt him,” wrote Caitlin Landuyt in CrimeReads. “She’s cool under pressure and she always gets her man. Plus, she can belly up to the bar with the best. As a result, these books feel as fresh and new as they do classically rewarding.”

Rhode Island Red is available to borrow from the library and is available on Hoopla as an e-book.

This article was featured in the July 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

Many City of Takoma Park employees perform important work every day that goes unheralded and unsung, but the City would grind to a halt without them.

Local artist Renee Lachman will be honoring City employees in a new series of paintings and charcoal drawings, including sanitation workers, gardeners, crossing guards, and library staff. A free opening reception for the Unsung Heroes exhibition will be held on July 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue. “These sanitation workers remind me of Olympic athletes with all their running and lifting of heavy trash, old furniture, yard waste, and broken tree limbs through all kinds of weather,” Lachman said. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve celebrated the work of doctors, nurses, and firefighters. I wanted to highlight Takoma Park’s other unsung heroes.”

Lachman said books from library staff “provided a lifeline during the pandemic” while crossing guards “cheerfully help our children, parents, and residents cross busy streets safely.” Gardeners maintain seven acres of garden plots along with planting, weeding, and cutting grass on city property.

The City’s Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith organized a public art grant to support the project, and several pieces from the series will become part of the City’s permanent art
collection after the exhibition.

“Renee proposed this idea to feature City employees, and we’re very excited about it,” Smith said. “Many City employees often are underappreciated, so this is a great opportunity to feature them and
their contributions to community life in Takoma Park.”

Lachman has lived in Takoma Park for more than 25 years. She received another City public art grant to paint mural panels that will be installed at the Hillwood Manor Community Garden. She also was the City’s first recycling artist in residence in 2012 at the Public Works Department where she created assemblages with recycled materials.

Lachman received an MFA in painting from George Washington University and a BFA in painting and drawing from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. You can see more of her work at
reneelachman.com.

This article was featured in the July 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.