Seniors celebrate the Superbowl

‘‘It’s always a lovely time. There’s a lot of camaraderie,” said resident Gloria Waxenberg, a New York native who was happy to see the Giants win.

‘‘Everybody was completely elated,” she said.

Waxenberg only became a football fan within the last few years after her grandson started working as the assistant to former Redskins Head Coach Joe Gibbs.

‘‘Whenever Joe Gibbs was on TV, you could see my grandson standing next to him.”

Now, he works with the UCLA Bruins, she said.

Another resident, Philipp Goldmann, has been a football fan since the first time he saw a game.

‘‘I didn’t know a thing about football, but I knew a lot about soccer,” said Goldmann who is originally from Germany.

He said the thing that he loves most about football is the unexpected outcomes of many games.

‘‘You never know ahead of time which team is going to win,” he said. ‘‘We saw that with the Superbowl.”

Although Goldmann had been rooting for the Patriots, he still had a fun time.

‘‘We had a good party here in the house,” he said.

Before each game, Barnes decorates the room with balloons, pictures and football memorabilia, then stays through the games, often on her own time, Activity Director Terri Adams said.

It’s a commitment that many residents appreciate.

‘‘It’s always gaily decorated,” Waxenberg said.

‘‘It’s a lively party,” Goldmann said. ‘‘I don’t like to be by myself when I watch football. I want to hear people yelling, ‘Boo!’ or ‘Bravo!’”

MoverMoms celebrateone year of community service

MoverMoms, a group of mostly downcounty mothers who get together to volunteer in the community, celebrated its one-year anniversary on Feb. 3 with a brunch and guest speaker Bethesda resident Betty Bumpers, former first lady of Arkansas, who spoke about her own years of volunteerism. As first lady of Arkansas, she spearheaded an immunization program in her state that became a national model. She also co-founded Every Child by Two, a national immunization program. Following a trip to the former Soviet Union, she launched Peace Links, a grassroots women’s organization designed to raise consciousness about the nuclear arms race. Because of her life-long efforts, Bumpers was inducted into the 2005 National Women’s Hall of Fame.

In only one year, MoverMoms has grown to more than 100 members. The group has organized more than 20 community service activities and has more planned. For more information, visit www.movermoms.org.

Rookie robotics teamstake home prizes

The ‘‘Anakin Skybotters,” a team of five seventh-graders from Bethesda and Potomac placed second in the Maryland-District of Columbia FIRST Lego League tournament at University of Maryland Baltimore County on Jan. 26.

Christopher Campbell, William Hedberg and Christopher Silvia are students at Thomas S. Pyle Middle School. Eduardo Cavalcanti and Skyler Leonard attend Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda.

FIRST Lego League is an international program for children ages 9-14. It combines a hands-on, interactive robotics programming and a research presentation within a constructively competitive framework. This year, more than 10,000 teams and 100,000 children participated worldwide. Seventy-two teams entered this year’s Maryland-DC tournament, which is the largest number ever.

Each team uses a Lego robot of their own design in timed trials to complete a dozen tasks on a 4-foot-by-8-foot playing field. This year’s theme, entitled the ‘‘Power Puzzle,” focused on energy conservation. Teams also created science presentations on techniques to conserve energy and produce power through alternative sources in homes and schools, were tested on their teamwork skills, and demonstrated their mastery over their robot’s hardware and software.

Another Montgomery County team, ‘‘The Lean Green Cleaning Machines,” took a first place award for quality research for their science presentation.

The team included: Matthew Bird and Suri Venugopal, eighth-graders at Lakelands Park Middle School in Gaithersburg; Varun Wadhwa, a seventh-grader at Kingsview Middle School in Germantown; Kelvin Chang, an eighth-grader at Parkland Magnet Middle School for Aerospace Technology in Rockville, Ryan Liu and Allen Kao, a seventh-grader and an eighth-grader at Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville; Melodi Anahtar, an eighth-grader at Takoma Park Middle School in Takoma Park; Justin Yu, an eighth-grader at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring; and Kapish Manicka, an eighth-grader at Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg.

Bird, Chang, Liu, Manicka and Venugopal are Gaithersburg residents; Anahtar is from Bethesda; Kao lives in North Potomac, Wadhwa lives in Germantown and Yu hails from Silver Spring.

This column is for you. Share your good news! Feel free to send press releases and news tips. Contact Stephanie Siegel via e-mail at ssiegel@gazette.net, phone at 301-280-3006, fax at 301-670-7183, or snail mail at 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877.