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More than 60 local Girl Scouts decorated Christmas trees for a good cause at the Westfield Montgomery mall in Bethesda on Friday. The scouts represented eight troops and attend schools from around the area, including Potomac Elementary School, the Bullis School, Cabin John Middle School, the McLean School, Herbert Hoover Middle School and Thomas W. Pyle Middle School. The girls decorated five trees with ornaments they created themselves, and the trees will be raffled off to benefit children's screening programs at the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington. The charity screens more than 7,500 children annually for vision loss and 5,000 adults for glaucoma, and also operates an eyeglass clinic that serves nearly 8,000 low-income and homeless people. The trees were donated by Behnke Nurseries. Though this is the first year that the event has taken place as Westfield Montgomery, some of the scouts have been taking part in the tree decorating activity since 2007, according to scout mom and volunteer Diane Berinstein.

A frequent customer of Behnke Nurseries, Berinstein agreed to gather a group of scouts to decorate the trees after Gary Ingram, a former manager at Behnke, offered to donate them and help raffle them off for charity. The first year, the group of scouts gathered at Berinstein's Potomac home to create the ornaments.

This year, Westfield Montgomery approached the scouts and offered to host the tree decorating as a part of "Kid's Day" celebrations at the mall. The funds will benefit the Prevention of Blindness Society along with the Girl Scouts of the Nation's Capital in order to provide scholarships for scouts in need.

For the scouts, along with the satisfaction of knowing that their work is benefitting charity, "there's also the pride of having their artwork — these ornaments are a form of art — being put on display and enjoyed by the public," Berinstein said.

The trees will be displayed for a week before raffle winners are announced. "I hope it's a big new venue for years to come," Berinstein said.

Students transform

trash to treasure

Artwork created by students at Potomac's German School will be on display throughout the month of December at the Potomac Library. The 18 students, most in first grade, created their work using kitchen cabinet doors under the tutelage of artist-in-residence Marcie Wolf-Hubbard. Wolf-Hubbard has worked with children throughout the area on various art projects. She got the kitchen cabinet doors from Community Forklift, a group that collects excess construction materials, provides the materials to community members at a low cost, and aims to keep construction waste from filling up landfills. "The kitchen cabinet doors are good, because they're basically something that's already framed for you, and you're recycling," Wolf-Hubbard said. Wolf-Hubbard created a series of 15 mixed-media paintings and used the idea to spark the project with the children, she said. "It's always good to have them use their hands and use different material," she said. The students, for example, used coffee grounds to add pigment and texture to their artwork, she said. The Potomac Library is located at 10101 Glenolden Drive in Potomac. For more information, call the library at 240-777-0690.

NIH honors Nobel Laureate

A symposium was recently held at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda to honor longtime NIH scientist and Nobel Laureate Marshall Nirenberg.

Nirenberg, 82, who still runs a lab on the Bethesda campus, was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for his work interpreting the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.

The symposium in Nirenberg's honor marked the designation of the deciphering of genetic code as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the America Chemical Society, according to Carol E. Torgan, a spokeswoman with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at NIH.

Nirenberg, a Potomac resident, first came to NIH in 1957 as a postdoctoral fellow and joined the staff as a research biochemist in 1960. Since 1962, he has served as senior research biochemist and chief of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

He was the first federal employee to receive the Nobel Prize.

In a reception following the symposium, Nirenberg recalled wisdom passed down to him from his mother, according to Torgan.

Nirenberg remembered a time when he was about 6 or 7 years old and was playing with blocks on the floor. He showed his mother his creation and she asked what it was. He told her he didn't know and asked what she thought it was.

"She said, ‘That's not the way to create. You have to know what you want to create before you build it,'" Nirenberg recalled. "I've never forgotten that."

Help an animal in need

House With a Heart, a senior pet sanctuary in Laytonsville, will hold its first annual Holiday Open House from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. The free event will be at House With a Heart, 6409 Stream Valley Way, and include refreshments and a chance to meet the pet sanctuary's residents. Donations are not required but a list of suggested donations such as paper towels, bleach and laundry detergent is posted at www.housewithaheart.com.

House With a Heart founder Sher Polvinale received the Humane Award of the Year from the Montgomery County Humane Society at its annual Love Ball on Nov. 7 for her work with the sanctuary.

Shop for holiday treasures

at Glen Echo Park

The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture is currently showing its holiday art show and sale in the park's Popcorn Gallery. The show wraps up Jan. 10. Residents searching for holiday presents can peruse and purchase artwork on display, which will include glass, ceramics, photography, painting, jewelry and holiday ornaments. The park's resident visual arts groups, including the Yellow Barn Studio & Gallery, Glen Echo Pottery, Photoworks, the Art Glass Center at Glen Echo, and Glassworks will all have work on display. Resident artists including mixed media and textile artist Bonnie Lee Holland, beading artist Cassie Lynott, photographer Katherine T. Andrle, and silversmith and metal artist Blair Anderson will also have pieces for sale in the show. A reception in the Popcorn Gallery, in conjunction with the park's Winter's Eve holiday event, will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the park, located at 7300 MacArthur Blvd. in Glen Echo. For more information, visit the park's Web site at www.glenechopark.org or call 301-634-2222.

A service to honor many faiths

The Geneva day school and Geneva Presbyterian church are gearing up for their third annual multi-faith worship service. Children and their families will come dressed in folk costumes from countries around the world as the community will share holiday traditions from the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist and Christian faiths. Children will also sing traditional songs and play hand chimes, and treats from a wide variety of countries will be shared after the service at coffee hour. The service will take place at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the church, located at 11932 Seven Locks Road in Potomac.

A concert to help restore

a local landmark

Join in a holiday concert aimed to raise funds to restore a historic Poolesville church. The Sugarland Forest Community and the Montgomery Countryside Alliance are announcing the concert, which will take place at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul's Community Church, 14730 Sugarland Lane in Poolesville. The concert will feature gospel performer Melvin Caldwell, of the Willing Heart Community Church in Washington, D.C., and his music group. The historic church is situated in the country's Agricultural Reserve, and is the centerpiece of the Sugarland Forest Community, which was established by freed slaves. The church is in need of painting and exterior repair, and funds raised from the concert will go towards the $17,000 repair work. Tickets are $25, and additional donations are welcome. Seating is limited. To purchase tickets, e-mail caroline@mocoalliance.org.

This column is for you. Send press releases, news tips and other information to Erin Donaghue by phone to 301-280-3007, by e-mail edonaghue@ gazette.net, by fax to 301-670-7183 or by mail to 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877.