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When it comes to his artwork, Arnold Altshuler hopes to make people smile.

Altshuler, 83, a resident of Sunrise at Fox Hill, a Bethesda senior living community, is well known as the "artist-in-residence." He spends hours creating his whimsical pieces, whether it's paintings, "treasure boxes" decorated with colorful baubles and beads, or wood sculptures depicting a giraffe with long eyelashes, an ostrich with tennis shoes or a Canada goose wearing hockey skates.

"That's the idea," Altshuler said. "If people smile, I know I've done my job."

A native of Brighton, Mass., Altshuler has been an artist all his life. His favorite material to work with is wood — his wife used to work at the National Zoo in Washington, which inspired his love of creating the animal sculptures.

"I enjoy working in the third dimension, because you can feel it," Altshuler said.

Along with brightening the days of residents and staff at Sunrise at Fox Hill, however, Altshuler hopes that sales of his work will help benefit earthquake victims in Haiti.

An open house is set for from 2-4p.m. Sunday at the senior community, at 8300 Burdette Road in Bethesda. The artwork is priced between $30 and $250, and proceeds will benefit the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund.

"As soon as we came to Arnie with this idea, he insisted the proceeds benefit the earthquake victims," Alyssa Caroselli, the community's Life Enrichment Manager, said in a statement. 

"We have a number of team members who have family in Haiti, so it hit us all close to home. That's just Arnie."

Those who attend the open house and wish to purchase Altshuler's work should visit www.clintonbushhaitifund.org and donate the cost of the artwork.

Onesies and twosies

If you have small children, especially multiple small children, mark your calendar.

The Montgomery County Parents of Multiples, a nonprofit volunteer organization and support group for mothers of "multiples" holds its Semi-Annual Children's Clothing & Equipment Sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Julius West Middle School, 651 Great Falls Road, Rockville.

Mothers of twins, triplets and more will be unloading new and gently used clothing (from preemie sizes to size 7+), childproofing equipment, strollers, high chairs, playpens, bathtubs, cribs and furniture, toys, supplies and more.

The sale will be closed from 11:30 a.m. to noon, said Lisa Levin Reichmann of Gaithersburg, MPCOM's president in an e-mail to The Gazette. Remaining items for sale will be half-price from noon to 1 p.m.

"We're looking forward to another successful sale," said Reichmann. "Last time we had over 125 member families selling and 600-plus shoppers!" Cash and checks are accepted. Admission is $2 for adults. Due to space constraints and safety concerns, shoppers may not bring strollers into the sale. 

For more information, go to www.mcpom.org/

saleinstructions.php, call 301-419-8008 or e-mail sale@mcpom.org.

Kudos

Congratulations to Sarah Barnes Hansen, a Holton-Arms senior who has been selected as one of 3,000 candidates from amongst a pool of nearly 3.2 million graduating seniors across the country in the Presidential Scholars Program. 

Five hundred semi-finalists will be chosen in early April. In May, a panel appointed by the president will announce those who have been awarded the title of Presidential Scholar. For more information, visit www.ed.gov/programs/psp.

Help – and hearts – for Haiti

Second grade girls at Wayside Elementary School in Potomac started the Hearts for Haiti program last month to help earthquake victims in Haiti. The girls, who are also in a Brownie Troop #205 together, took bottle caps, turned them into magnets, and either decorate them with hearts or wrote messages on them to people in Haiti. They sold them for $1 each outside of the Safeway at the Fallsgrove shopping center on Feb. 25, and raised $300 from that sale for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund for Haiti. The girls are continuing to sell them, and Marie Minarich, a mother of one of the girls, Maddie Minarich, said March 3 that almost $400 had been raised.

Set your alarm and ‘Wake up' to social networking strategies

The Wheaton and Kensington Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to host a "Breakfast Mixer" to teach businesses how to market themselves with the popular social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Debby Marindin, social media instructor with Montgomery College Workforce Development & Continuing Education, will be on-hand to advise local business leaders on marketing and technology trends. The mixer will take place from 7:30 to 9 a.m. March 17 at the Wheaton Regional Library, 11701 Georgia Ave., Wheaton. The cost is $5 in advance for chamber members or $10 at the door. Advance payment can be mailed to the Wheaton & Kensington Chamber of Commerce, 2401 Blueridge Ave., Suite 101, Wheaton, Md., 20902.

For more information, contact Vicky Surles at 301-949-0080, e-mail wkchamber@wkchamber.org, or visit www.wkchamber.org.

A special speaker at Congregation B'Nai Tzedek

The Ambassador of Israel to the United States, Michael Oren, will speak during the evening service beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Congregation B'nai Tzedek, 10621 South Glen Road in Potomac. Oren will discuss current issues concerning Israel and the Middle East. 

For more information, call the congregation at 301-299-0225.

This column is for you! Share your good news! Send items to Erin Donaghue via e-mail at edonaghue@gazette.net, fax at 301-670-7183 or snail mail to 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877.