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Silver Spring resident Lauren Harkins has been selected to join high-profile celebrities, iconic floats, giant balloons and elite marching bands in performing at the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thanksgiving Day Thursday.

Harkins attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in Loch Sheldrake, N.Y., this summer, a program with alumni including Natalie Portman, Zach Braff, Josh Charles and Robert Downey Jr.

She will join 60 fellow performers from that program in a first-ever singing/dancing finale for the famous parade. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, celebrating the holiday since 1924, is viewed live by more than 2 million spectators along the route and an estimated 65 million NBC viewers nationwide.

Harkins, 15, has attended Stagedoor Manor for one year and has appeared locally in the Imagination Stage Acting Conservatory production of "The Realm." She is a 2009 graduate of Imagination Stage's Acting Conservatory.

More than 400 singer-dancers auditioned and applied for the Macy's performance troupe. There are 22 states and three countries represented in the cast, ages 10 to 18.

Take an "enchanted tour"

of Forest Glen

Join the Save Our Seminary group beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday for the last guided walking tour this season of the historic Silver Spring Seminary district in Forest Glen. The tour will meet at 2755 Cassedy St., and parking signs will be posted along Linden Lane.

The tour will highlight the seminary's historic buildings, including the ballroom and other interesting landmarks in the district. Registration is not required, but there is a suggested donation of $5 per person.

For more information, please call the Save Our Seminary nonprofit group at 301-589-1715, or visit the group's Web site, www.saveour

seminary.org.

Unique fashion show

to celebrate unique store

A fashion show featuring models wearing clothes from Unique Thrift Store in Silver Spring will be held 10 a.m. Dec. 9 at the store, which provides a wide range of affordable, quality merchandise to accommodate the needs of its customers. The models are county residents who have benefited from the Unique Closet program, which distributes $100,000 in donated gift certificates to families in need to be redeemed at the Unique Thrift Store, located in the Hillandale Shopping Center at 10121 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring.

Unique Thrift Store owners and staff, and Montgomery County leaders, including County Executive Isiah Leggett, have been invited, along with representatives from more than 80 community partners, to celebrate the success and continuation of the third year of the Unique Closet Program.

Unique Thrift Store opened its doors in the Hillandale Shopping Center in August 2006. Since then, it has actively contributed to the community through partnering with local charities and providing almost 200 full-time jobs and benefits to local residents.

For more information, visit www.uniquethriftstoremd.com

Next stop: Holiday season

at historic railroad station

The Silver Spring Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station & Museum will hold a holiday open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 5 at the station, 8100 Georgia Ave. The event is free and includes refreshments. Attendees can tour the station, view real trains outside, see a photograph exhibit from former B&O station agent Robert Davis, listen to the Seraphim Singers Acapella Quartet at 1:30 p.m., hear a reading of the holiday story "Polar Express,"and ride a toy Thomas the Tank Engine.

For more information, contact Judith Christensen of Montgomery Preservation Inc. at 301-655-5477 or judith.christensen@starpower.net.

The 1945 Silver Spring Colonial Revival B&O Railroad Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Montgomery County Master Plan Historic Site.

It is owned and operated by Montgomery Preservation Inc. For more information visit www.montgomerypreservation.org.

Silver Spring resident to spin his luck on game show

Silver Spring resident Michael Avant, the director of community-based services for the YMCA of Washington, will be a contestant on the popular game show Wheel of Fortune Friday. He loves music and plays the guitar, piano and the drums, according to a press release from Sony Pictures Television. Avant tried out for the show at a Wheelmobile event in Reston, Va. The show will air on WJLA Channel 7.

County's Valerie Ervin to visit Takoma Park City Council

County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring will sit before the Takoma Park City Council at the regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Azalea Room in the Community Center, 7500 Maple Ave.

Ervin will brief the council on county-level policies and decisions that impact the city and city residents and the council will ask her questions and address important topics at the meeting, which is open to the public as part of the weekly City Council meetings.

For more information, please visit the city Web site at www.takomaparkmd.gov or call 301-891-7267.

Choose an alternative to department store gifts

Tired of receiving the same old tacky ties and loaf after loaf of sticky fruitcake during the holidays? Break tradition in a good way and head to the 11th Annual Takoma Park Alternative Gift Fair from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 5 in the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, 310 Tulip Ave.

Show your progressive loved ones you really care by donating to a local environmental "green" project or inner-city youth charity this year. The fair will also feature a bake sale and live music, same as last year, all for a good cause. A full, 100 percent of the money you spend goes toward the noble cause of your choice.

For more information of to volunteer to help at the event, please send an e-mail to aggw_inc@yahoo.com.

Pyramid Atlantic sponsors new exhibit, residency opportunities

Moving Parts, a new exhibit sponsored by Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, is an innovative, interdisciplinary arts project conceived by Kelly O'Brien and co-directed, in collaboration Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and CityDance Ensemble.

The project involves 10 book artists, each interpreting an aspect or theme from The CityDance Ensemble's 2008-2009 season. A documentary about the project including artist interviews and dance performances is also a part of the collector's set. The boxes will be available at the exhibit's launch party 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Hillyer Art Space, 9 Hillyer Court NW in Washington, D.C.

For more information on Moving Parts, e-mail gschermerhorn@

pyramid-atlantic.org or visit the blog at movingpartsbooks.blogspot.com

/2009/10/blog-post.html.

Send Silver Spring news to Staff Writer Jason Tomassini and Takoma Park news to Staff Writer Jeremy Arias at The Gazette, 13501 Virginia Manor Road, Laurel, MD 20707. The fax line is 240-473-7501. Tomassini can be reached at 240-473-7559 or jtomassini@gazette.net; Arias can be reached at 240-473-7564 or jarias@gazette.net.