More News

Spend a day at the Wheaton Library on Saturday for music, dance and special performances featuring the colorful Asian culture and celebrating the Lunar New Year.

Programs will include an introduction to customs behind the Lunar New Year, which is a 15-day celebration for the new moon on the first day of the new year, traditional dances, hands-on art activities, storytelling, shadow puppet shows and martial arts demonstrations — including tai-chi and kung fu, calligraphy, crafts, customs, Chinese yo-yo, workshops and children's activities. To top it all off, there will be the traditional Chinese Lion Dance to chase away evil and usher in a year of good luck.

The free program begins at noon. The Wheaton Library is located at 11701 Georgia Ave.

Recycle old electronics

March 14

From 1 to 5 p.m. March 14, bring your used and likely useless electronics to Seneca Valley High School, 19401 Crystal Rock Drive in Germantown, for recycling. Accepted items include small appliances, calculators, camcorders, CDs and CD players, cell phones, charges and cables, copiers, printers, VCRs, electronic toys and really old things such as typewriters and floppy disks. The electronic recycling program is open to all county residents and businesses. The only items not accepted for recycling are compact fluorescent lights and appliances containing Freon.

Bring those to the Solid Waste Transfer Station, which accepts electronics daily at its 16101 Frederick Road, Derwood location. For more information on the county's electronics recycling program, visit www.montgomerycountymd.gov/

gogreen or call 301-417-1433.

Planning Director

offers area walkabouts

Invite County Planning Director Rollin Stanley and some of his staff on a tour of your neighborhood as part of the county planning department's new walkabouts. Together, residents and planning staff will explore design, diversity, connections and the environment in your part of Montgomery County. It's an opportunity to educate planning staff about your community while highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, identifying challenges and learning more about county planning initiatives. To schedule a tour, send an e-mail to

MCP-CR@MontgomeryPlanning.org.

Mickey Mouse the horse passes onto better pastures

The notoriously cranky — and famously old — Mickey Mouse the horse passed away Monday morning after 48 years of toting young riders around at the Wheaton Park Stables.

Mickey, whose exact age is unknown, was the stable's oldest horse by at least a decade. His life spanned almost twice as long as other horses his size.

His caretakers at the Wheaton stables say he hung onto life as stubbornly as he bucked riders off of him.

"Mickey provided a challenge to many riders in his younger days," stable owner Sandy Creecy wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette on Monday morning. But the horse served generations — "tens of thousands of kids over the years," Creecy wrote, "especially in his later years when he turned into the best trail-and-lesson pony around."

Perhaps it was the warm sun and large grassy field that Mickey lumbered around on his final day on Earth that convinced him to finally hang up his hooves.

Perhaps it was one too many false-start deaths. Mickey Mouse lay down in the field Sunday and, as had happened to him many times over the past few years, had trouble getting back up.

"We always said his legs were going to give out before his heart did (he had such a BIG heart)," Creecy wrote.

The star of a Jan. 13 Gazette and Jan. 20 Local Living Washington Post article did manage to stand back up one more time and make it home to his stall.

But he saw the light in the early morning hours Monday and died before a stable hand could deliver his hay breakfast.

Creecy said Mickey Mouse will remain in the hearts of all who knew and loved him at Wheaton Park Stables.

"He had a good, exceptionally long life and was loved by all – and absolutely knew it," she said.

Brookside Gardens to hold weekend exhibitions

Think of a beautiful flower arrangement you've recently seen, and you'll likely conjure up images of full, colorful flowers symmetrically arranged in a vase. But think flower arrangements in Japan, and you get an entirely different idea of beauty.

The Japanese have perfected an ancient art form of flower arrangements that mixes complexity and scarcity into metaphors of natural beauty. Learn how flowers in a vase can communicate much more than beauty with an exhibit on two Japanese schools of thoughts on the practice, Ikenobo and Ikebana, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 13 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 14 at Brookside Gardens Visitor's Center, 1800 Glenallan Ave.

The event is sponsored by the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Metropolitan Washington D.C. Chapter and the Ikenobo Ikebana Society Baltimore Chapter.

Brookside Gardens frequently hosts local, regional and national plant society events throughout the year. Many of the societies' shows feature judged competitions, all of the shows feature passionate people, eager to share their enthusiasm with others.

Gilchrist Center to host

pro-bono financial clinic

Having problems with money? Want to save for the future? Let the financial experts help you at the Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity, 11319 Elkin St. in downtown Wheaton. They can help you solve financial problems, obtain a car loan, plan your financial future, save for education, improve your credit rating, buy your first home, pay off your credit cards and save money on financial services. The free clinic will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. March 17 and 2 to 4 p.m. March 21. First-come, first-serve until full. Call 240-777-4940 for more information.

Senior volunteer drivers needed

The Senior Connection urgently needs Montgomery County residents to volunteer to help their neighbors 62 and older live as independently as possible by providing escorted transportation to scheduled medical appointments, helping with grocery shopping and running errands and paying a friendly visit or making a phone call to share companionship.

The time commitment and schedule are flexible and volunteers are provided with life-skills training and recognition events. The Senior Connection also provides volunteer liability insurance coverage.

Call The Senior Connection at 301-962-0820, or e-mail

seniorconnectionmc@gmail.com

Items for People and Places may be sent to Amber Parcher, The Gazette, 13501 Virginia Manor Road, Laurel, MD 20707. The fax line is 240-473-7501; or e-mail aparcher@gazette.net. Call 240-473-7505. Deadline is one week prior to publication for consideration.

Environmental department

to host water quality meeting

The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection will host the second of two regional public meetings to discuss the state of the county's streams. The public will be able to provide input on watershed-specific restoration plans that address stream pollution and meet new stormwater permit requirements. Residents are encouraged to attend the meeting, which will address plans for the watershed in which they are located.

The second meeting will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday at Brookside Gardens, 1800 Glenallan Ave. in Wheaton. The discussion will focus on plans for the Anacostia and Patuxent rivers and the Cabin John and Rock Creek watersheds.

The county's department of environmental protection is the lead agency for ensuring that the county meets requirements for its state-issued Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit. This permit is issued every five years and requires Montgomery County to control storm drain system discharges and associated pollutants. The public's input is needed to assist environment officials in devising plans to meet requirements.

County staff will be on hand at the regional meetings to provide the public with background on the MS4 requirements, present the framework for developing watershed-specific implementation plans and solicit input on the proposed approaches.

Catholic Charities to hold weekly immigration ‘charlas'

Come "chat" about immigration at 11 a.m. every Tuesday at Catholic Charities Montgomery County Center, at 12247 Georgia Ave. in Wheaton. For $30 a person, learn about law, your rights and the potential benefits of your immigration situation before hiring an immigration attorney.

Bilingual karaoke in Wheaton

Every Friday, grab dinner and a microphone with Blinkie for Blinkie's Karaoke, held at Sergio's Place, 11324 Fern St. in Wheaton, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. The bilingual karaoke event features hundreds of popular songs in Spanish and English. Fore more information on Sergio's, visit

www.lasgunacas.com/sergios.htm.