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Middletown High School will host the Middletown Valley Area Empty Bowls Banquet on March 25. The event, which benefits Middletown Valley People Helping People and the Middletown Food Bank, includes a meal and a silent auction.

The event also includes entertainment, according to Jim Zimmer, the learning service coordinator at Middletown High School, who is helping to coordinate the event.

"In the past we've had students perform skits from the plays they're in," he said. "We usually have a speaker talking about some aspect of need in the community."

For the silent auction, the event has a multitude of items from local artists, such as Bill van Gilder, who owns van Gilder Pottery west of Burkittsville, and Nancy Bodmer, owner of Bodmer's Pottery in Buckeystown, according to Dottie Engle, secretary of People Helping People.

Other items available for auction include themed gift baskets, usually centered on an activity such as math or movie night, handmade jewelry, wood products and scholarships to local camps.

People Helping People started in 1998, and covers the area that feeds Middletown High School. They accept donations for their work to help people in the community, but do not hold their own fundraisers. Holidays are typically the busiest time for the group; last year they helped 77 families with 206 children, according to Engle.

Empty Bowls, held annually by Middletown High School, is one of their biggest fundraisers, Engle said. The group receives requests for assistance anonymously, and can help with anything from car repairs to helping pay rent.

"Some of the things we do may not cost a lot of money, but has a far-reaching effect," she said. "A lot of people think Middletown is the garden spot of the county, which it might be, but we do have people here in need."

Tickets for dinner are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets are available in advance by contacting Jim Zimmer at 240-236-7530 or James.Zimmer@fcps.org, or Robert Beavan at 240-236-7561 or Robert.Beavan@fcps.org.

Property donated for future Middletown hospice house

An organizational meeting for a new hospice house planned for Middletown is scheduled from 7:30-9 p.m. Tuesday at the Middletown Municipal Center, located at 31 W. Main St. At the meeting, committees to advocate for the Hospice house will be formed.

Four committees will be created at the meeting: Steering, Publicity, Communications and Fundraising.

The four acres of land that the Hospice house will be constructed on was donated by Robert Fry, Sr., and his sons Robert Fry, Jr., and W. Brian Fry in memory of Ann Fry, their wife and mother, respectively. The Hospice house will be called "Ann's Home."

For further information, or to join a committee, contact Joyce Routzahn at 301-371-6157.

Carroll Manor class sends clothes, blankets to Haiti

Students in Carroll Manor Elementary School's special education Challenges class collected blankets and clothing to donate to Haiti. The Challenges program is for students with autism and other severe communication disorders. The group collected 40 bags of clothes, which they sorted, folded, boxed and sent to the Haitian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Valley Elementary student

wins essay contest

Claire Edwards, a fifth-grade student at Valley Elementary School, won the 2009 essay contest sponsored by the Frederick Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The contest asked students to write about the completion of the transcontinental railroad from a first-person perspective.

She wrote her essay from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant working on the railroad. The Daughters presented Claire with the award at their February meeting. Her essay will now move on to the organization's national competition.

Middletown Volunteer Fire Company to hold jewelry raffle

The Middletown Volunteer Fire Company will hold a jewelry raffle during its "Girls Day Out" event, on March 20. The fire company will raffle off more than two dozen pieces of jewelry provided by Kay Jewelers. Attendance is capped at 350 people, and tickets cost $30. Food and drinks are included in the ticket price.

Doors open at 10:30 a.m., and drawings for prizes will begin at noon with a drawing held every 10 minutes until 3 p.m.

For further information or to purchase a ticket, call John King at 240-575-4600. A complete list of items in the raffle is available at www.middletownvfd.org/events.php.

Community pulls together

to aid library, athletics

Thanks to a host of Frederick County students, teachers, businesses and residents, about 80 children in the Dominican Republic have been afforded the gift of literacy and athletics.

And as residents Shari and Howard Scher gear up to visit the country again this summer, the community has an opportunity to provide even more resources to children in the town of Los Tacones de las Galeras de Semana.

The Schers accompanied their friend and Peace Corps member Chris Doherty to the town about a year-and-a-half ago, where they witnessed the students of the town playing baseball on dirt fields without proper shoes or equipment. Moreover, a tour of the students' school showed very little in literacy resources.

During her visit, Shari Scher, who also works in the Frederick County Public School system, said she couldn't sit back and do nothing.

"It was very clear that they didn't have anything, and I thought, ‘Wouldn't it be cool to start a library here?'" she said. With the help of the Frederick community, the Schers were able to outfit four teams with baseball gear and more than 1,000 books in a library for the students.

And the donations came in from all over, Scher said.

The owners of Middletown Sportsland provided uniforms with lettering and numbers for the teams for a low cost. The Brunswick Railroad Little League team led the charge for monetary donations. The Frederick Reading Council provided a plethora of Spanish language books. And a host of students and teachers in Frederick County schools donated thousands of dollars as well as Spanish-language books, Scheri said.

"Thanks to ... the people of Frederick, we now have over 1,100 books in the library...we have this whole baseball team..." Scher said. "This isn't our project, this is everybody's project."

In August, Scher hopes to take another load of books, donations and athletic gear to the students. Residents who want to donate Spanish-language books or make monetary or other donations can do so by e-mailing Scher12345@comcast.net.

Do you have an item for Valley Voice? Contact reporter Tripp Laino at 301-846-2130 or tlaino@gazette.net.