Due to the continued closure through September 2020 of the Schweinhaut Senior Center, our bimonthly SFCCA meetings will not take place during the summer and early fall. Along with March, the May, July and September meetings have been cancelled. We hope to resume in November with the meeting scheduled for November 16. Any changes or updates will be posted here. Thank you, and stay well!
Click SFCCA 20 May-Jun for our Coronavirus Special Edition newsletter.
Dear neighbors,
As a preventative measure against possible community spread of the coronavirus, Montgomery County government is closing all of its senior centers for an “indefinite” period of time. This then is to inform you all that the South Four Corners Citizens Association’s (SFCCA) community meeting scheduled for 7 PM Monday, March 16 at the Schweinhaut Senior Center has been cancelled. Our next bi-monthly meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 18, same time, same place, same speaker. Hopefully, we will be able to proceed as planned by then.
With Optimism,
Laurence Dickter
SFCCA
If you have never been victimized by the scam artists and fraudsters who are becoming increasingly sophisticated while taking advantage of new technologies, it is probably not because you haven’t been targeted. Whether it is online, over the phone, or door-to-door, scams succeed because they look or sound like the real thing and can catch even the savviest person off guard.
Please join us at our upcoming SFCCA meeting as we welcome Tracy Rezvani, Investigative Program Administrator for the Montgomery County Office of Consumer Protection. She will describe some of the scams we can expect in our email, over our phones, in our mailbox, and at our door, and what steps we can take to protect ourselves against those who are out to steal our identity and our money. Ms. Rezvani is an attorney with over 20 years’ experience in consumer protection law. She has authored numerous consumer protection publications, managed law firms specializing in consumer protection class action litigation, and advocated on behalf of individuals and non-profit clients. She also has extensive experience as a researcher, as well as in interpreting and applying consumer protection statutes. It is our good fortune to have an outstanding advocate like Tracy Rezvani come to our neighborhood to share her insights and wise counsel with us. We hope to see many of you there.
There’s no place like home. By a wide margin, surveys of Americans 50 and older show that they want to remain in their current residences and communities as they age. Enter Silver Spring Village, part of the national village movement that provides volunteer assistance and a wide variety of enrichment activities to adults who wish to “age in place”. While each Village is unique, they all share the same vision: Caring neighbors of all ages helping older neighbors to thrive.
Please join us as we welcome Doug Gaddis, Executive Director of Silver Spring Village, Inc. to SFCCA’s upcoming community meeting. Mr. Gaddis’ presentation will focus on the Village’s activities, services and volunteer opportunities, while briefing us on its recent decision to expand its current reach into our neighborhood. Mr. Gaddis brings more than three decades of related experience to his leadership role in the Village. He completed coursework at American University towards a master’s degree in nonprofit arts management, but has spent most of his career working in resource development for agencies focused on education, leadership development, disabilities and now seniors in the Washington, DC region. A native Kentuckian, Mr. Gaddis currently lives in Kensington and keeps active in the arts world as a professional lyric tenor.
Learn more about Silver Spring Village in our most recent Jan/Feb 2020 newsletter, https://southfourcorners.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/sfcca-20-jan-feb.pdf, page 7. And find out how to join and/or volunteer for Silver Spring Village by attending the meeting!
You’re invited! The Tamara Kucik Team is holding their bi-annual Go Green Day!
Free Shred, Donate, Dump event benefiting A Wider Circle. Please bring non-perishable canned and boxed food donations, such as stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, canned vegetables, boxed potatoes, mac & cheese, vegetable broth, cornbread mix, and/or Giant and Safeway gift cards (for perishables). Then jump right in on these FREE services:
Questions? Contact tk@tamara4homes.com
Please join us as we welcome Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich to our community meeting at the Schweinhaut Senior Center. He will first brief us on the priorities of his administration before spending the remainder of the meeting answering questions, and listening and responding to your observations and concerns.
Marc Elrich was sworn into office on December 3, 2018 as Montgomery County’s seventh elected Executive. As an At-large member of the County Council for 12 years prior to last year’s election, he represented each and every County resident. Before that, he served 19 years on the Takoma Park City Council, while teaching at Rolling Terrace Elementary School for 17 of those years. While Mr. Elrich has remained a strong advocate for middle class and lower-income individuals and families, for environmental and consumer protections, and for tenant rights throughout his long career in public service, he perhaps is most widely known for his consistent opposition to excessive, unsustainable land use and development policies, along with his insistence that developers pay their fair share of the additional public services and infrastructure costs that their projects have generated.
This is a great opportunity for all of us to interact, “up close and personal,” with
the head of our County government, so we hope to see you there!
Please join us at the upcoming meeting when we welcome Jamie Kuhns, our featured speaker. We are all fortunate to live in Montgomery County where we never have to travel far from our own backyard to a local park. Jamie Kuhns holds the position of Senior Historian in the Cultural Resources Stewardship Section for Montgomery Parks. It is her job to produce the research necessary to design the Parks’ museums and to develop interpretive tours.
Most recently, Ms. Kuhns worked on developing the Woodlawn Museum in Sandy Spring, which highlights the area’s agricultural landscape, the Underground Rail Road, local free black communities and the Quaker experience in Montgomery County. She is currently the cultural resources project manager for the new Josiah Henson Museum scheduled to open next year and the author of the just published, deeply researched biography of Reverend Henson, whose 1849 autobiography inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s landmark novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Ms. Kuhns has worked in various capacities at several museums and archives in Delaware and Virginia before coming to Montgomery Parks. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history, from Radford and James Madison Universities, respectively, and is currently completing a doctoral degree in the history of American civilization.
The Election of SFCCA Officers will also take place at this meeting. Members will nominate and elect the next President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary to serve our community. Join us and vote!
Sunday, May 5 at 11 amThe South Four Corners area could be dramatically impacted by the addition of four toll lanes to the Beltway. We need a good turnout from our neighborhood for this event – please join us! This meeting promises to be an informative event that should bring us up to date on where things stand, what we can expect next and what we can do to influence the direction of this project going forward. Let’s make our voices heard!
Please join us for the next SFCCA meeting as we welcome Montgomery County historian Ralph Buglass, who will give an illustrated PowerPoint presentation on his “Top 10” lesserknown, but important historical places and spectacular nature spots in our County. Learn about some famous residents’ homes and houses designed by prominent architects, spots with connections to events of national significance, oases of natural beauty, unique museums, still-standing relics of our past, and more.
Ralph Buglass, a Montgomery County native and avid history buff, has taught at lifelong learning institutes associated with Johns Hopkins and American universities, as well as Montgomery College. He speaks frequently to community and business groups, as well as at national conferences. Mr. Buglass, who has a B.A. in American history from Cornell and an M.A. in journalism from American University, is also a docent at Montgomery Parks’ restored Kingsley schoolhouse in Clarksburg’s Little Bennett Park.
Join us on the 18th for this informative and entertaining program!
Please join us as we welcome newly elected District 20 Delegate Lorig Charkoudian, who will represent us in the Maryland state legislature once it convenes this coming January. She will preview what we might expect during the legislature’s annual 90-day session, while sharing with us her own goals and priorities as a first-term Delegate. Following her presentation, you are encouraged to ask questions, express your concerns and suggest to her what issues you would most like her to focus on in Annapolis.
Dr. Charkoudian, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, is the long-time Executive Director of Community Mediation MD which develops ways to address social challenges and works with state agencies to implement those approaches. Over the years, she has worked on dozens of legislative initiatives in Annapolis, championing issues such as support for small businesses, criminal justice reform, and healthy food for low income communities.
Dr. Charkoudian has served in leadership roles with numerous community organizations. She has coached youth baseball and is an avid runner, having recently completed a 70 mile run over two days from Hagerstown to Baltimore to raise funds for the Maryland state re-entry mediation program.
