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Each Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Yaron Semititsky serves hungry customers at his Organic Falafel Stand, located across the street from the Citgo gas station at 7224 Carroll Ave. in Takoma Park.

Semititsky, a 28-year Takoma Park resident, said the idea for the stand came from conversations with customers at the Olive Tree food stands he has set up at local events like the Takoma Park Street Festival for the past 18 years.

"Every year, while we were doing that people asked, do you have a restaurant? And we would always say no, but we are looking at opening one soon," he said.

The stand, which opened about a month ago, serves all-vegetarian dishes, with sandwiches on pita bread available for $5.95 or platters with sides like hummus dip or baba ganouj, typically made from eggplant and mashed spices, for $7.95.

The stand serves popular tofu and vegetarian versions of popular Middle Eastern foods like falafels, typically made from fried fava beans or chickpeas. After considering his options, Semititsky said Takoma Park offered the best opportunity for his new enterprise with its atmosphere of diversity and love of organic and natural foods.

"We've got a lot of positive feedback," he said. "A lot of people are telling us they are very happy to eat here."

Rink collecting coats,

food and toys

The Wheaton Ice Arena and Cabin John Ice Rink collected more than 100 coats during the special public "Keep your neighbors warm skate" held Nov. 14. The coats are being distributed throughout area Montgomery County Public Schools.

The Wheaton Ice Arena will also collect nonperishable food items during its Holiday Skating Spectacular, this Saturday from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. The free event also will feature local ice skating stars.

Canned food donations will also be collected at the Wheaton Train during the Wheaton Wonderland, a new winter program featuring crafts, story times and rides on the historic Ovid Hazen Wells carousel. Wheaton Wonderland will be open 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6 for children and free for adults, but with a canned food donation, participants will receive $1 off admission.

In addition to food, the Wheaton Ice Arena is also collecting toys for children in need this holiday season as part of the annual local Angels for Children Toy Drive, which provides Christmas toys to disadvantaged children in Wheaton.

The Wheaton Ice Arena is located at 11717 Orebaugh Ave. For more on the Wheaton Wonderland and the Holiday Skating Spectacular, visit www.MontgomeryParks.org.

Deadline for housing vouchers extended

Waiting list openings for the Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing programs will be extended through Saturday, according to a news release from the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County.

Due to economic circumstances, the agency expects to receive applications at a pace surpassing previous wait list totals. During the last opening in 2006, HOC received nearly 18,000 applications for the voucher program.

The demand for assistance has caught the attention of scam artists, who have placed misleading applications on similar Web sites and are charging a fee to applicants – those asked to pay a fee to apply should not do so, the release said.

Apply online at www.hocmc.org or pick up a paper application at any county public library, government service center or HOC office. Online applications must be submitted and paper applications postmarked no later than midnight Saturday. All applications must be completed online or sent through U.S. mail.

For more information about the application process or the online scam, call the HOC Waiting List Hotline at 240-773-9159.

Spooky and

adventurous theater

Spooky Action Theater, a Washington, D.C.-based production company, will perform "Tales of Doomed Love (or is it ever worth it?)" at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at The Black Box Theatre at Montgomery College. Black Box is located at the corner of Philadelphia and Chicago Avenues in Takoma Park. The show follows six characters turning five classics of love and loss upside-down in an evening of theatrical storytelling.

Tickets are $15 and $5 for students at the door for Sunday show while the Saturday show is part of "Pay What You Can Saturdays." For tickets call 1-800-494-TIXS or visit www.spookyaction.org. Parental discretion is advised for children age 13 and younger. For more information call 202-248-0647.

Adventure Theater, based out of Glen Echo, will take its production of winter classic "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" this week to the Round House Theatre, 8641 Colesville Road in Silver Spring. The production began Monday and will show at 7 p.m. today through Saturday and 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The production is based on the story by C.S. Lewis and is directed by Steven S. Mazzola

Tickets are $10 and can be reserved by calling 301-634-2270 or e-mailing tickets@adventure

theatre.org.

Wheaton High hosts Theater Café coffee house

Join Wheaton High School drama students and the Comedy Club at Northwood High School for a night of entertainment and drinks in an old-fashioned coffee house, 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday at Wheaton High School's auditorium, 12601 Dalewood Drive in Wheaton. The first annual Theater Café will have coffee, desserts and drinks for purchase as Wheaton and Northwood students perform monologues, skits, music and comedy for the crowd. Admission is free.

Upcoming library events

The final meeting of the "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!" poetry lecture program will be held 7:30 p.m. today at the Takoma Park Maryland Library, 101 Philadelphia Ave. in Takoma Park. Middle school participants from the past three workshops will present their poems tonight at the final meeting.

The library will also host a holiday gift-making program 6 to 8 p.m. Monday for kids with parental supervision. All materials will be provided by the Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library.

The library will hold its 18th Annual Winter Solstice event 7 p.m. Thursday. The event will feature performances by Bill Jenkins, a local music instructor, and the Foggy Bottom Morris Men, a local music and performance group. The event will take place in the library's Children's Room.

For more information, or to register for library events, call the library at 301-891-7259.

The Long Branch Library, 8800 Garland Ave. in Silver Spring, will host preschool story time 10:30 a.m. Friday at the library for children ages 2 to 5-years-old and their parents. Participants will take part in finger plays and enjoy stories.

Call the library at 240-777-0910 for more information.

Brookside Gardens host first New Year's Eve party

This year, the Garden of Lights will stay open Dec. 31 until 10 p.m. for Brookside Garden's "First Family Friendly Night," featuring a musical performance, crafts and give-a-ways for kids, shopping, the train exhibit, the conservatory display and as always the beautiful setting of lights. Refreshments will be available for purchase. The first night opens 5:30 p.m. with the last car admitted at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $15 per car or van. Brookside Gardens is located at 1800 Glenallan Ave. in Wheaton. For more information call the Garden of Lights hot line at 301-962-1453 or visit them online at www.brooksidegardens.org.

Urban District

meeting relocated

Thursday's meeting of the Silver Spring Urban District Advisory Committee will be held 3:30 p.m. on the third floor at the Silver Spring Urban District Office, 8110 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring. Parking is available in the rear of the building.

The committee usually meets at Discovery Communications Inc.

Silver Spring author writes book on Haitian history

Frederick-based book publisher PublishAmerica is releasing a book from Silver Spring author Rodrigue Vital titled "The Years of Haiti in the Shade of the American Empire: Why Did Haiti Collapse?"

Vital is a former Haitian journalist who attended Berlin's International Institute of Journalism before completing his graduate studies in international relations and public policy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Vital immigrated to the United States in the late 1980s to reunite with his late father, a former member of a rebel group in Haiti, according to a news release from PublishAmerica.

The book chronicles the history of Haiti-U.S. relations.

For more information or to purchase the book, visit

www.publishamerica.com.

New art gallery in Silver Spring pushes limits

The Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center in Silver Spring will hold an exhibit called "The Sky Is Not the Limit," showcasing "the heights of the astral Plains, the depths of humanity's  earthly existence, and the joy of creation within," according to a press release from Pyramid Atlantic.

The exhibit, which began Dec. 2, includes a framework of prints and handmade paper through Jan. 24. 

The "Sky Is Not the Limit" features artworks by Denise Bookwalter, Helen Glazer, Walt Goettman, and Elzbieta Sikorska as selected by Félix ¡ngel, curator of the Inter-American Development Bank's Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. The works will be displayed in Pyramid Atlantic's Main Gallery at 8230 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring.

For more information, e-mail jdominguez@pyramid-atlantic.org.

Performer wins Web-based music awards

Silver Spring resident Diane Ligon was voted one of the "Best New Artists For Preschoolers" and "Best New Artists For Young Children" by the Children's Music Web Awards of 2008. Ligon won the awards by submitting songs from her show "Mother Goose and her Fabulous Puppet Friends." Ligon is the only artist who won awards in both categories for the same CD. The show tours locally through the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area. The songs are set to a variety of musical styles including classical, opera, country, rock 'n' roll, jazz, salsa, disco, and hip-hop.

Ligon has performed at public and private schools, libraries, festivals and theaters. She also has performed "Mother Goose and Her Fabulous Puppet Friends" at the "Saturday Morning at the National" program at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., and will be returning in March.

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.