(Enlarge) Rachel Warfield, center, and her cousin, Caroline Buckingham cool down a bit from the heat as Rachel enjoys a snow cone cup during the 2008 Clarksville Picnic. This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, June 27 at St. Louis Church, in Clarksville. (File photo/2008)

The 131st annual Clarksville Picnic Saturday, June 27 will have something new and exciting. Folks travel from far and wide as well as locally to attend the picnic, but this year will be the first ever St. Louis School alumni gathering.

An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people are expected so be on the alert for familiar faces. As many as 1,000 volunteers and months of planning have gone into this event which runs from noon until 9 p.m.

Many entire families have had years of experience working the picnic. Others are just beginning a new family tradition. It's the largest single fundraising event of the year for the church.

John Regnier is general chairman of the 131st Picnic with Tony Kopera serving as co-chairman.

Parking and admission are free. There will be all kinds of carnival games, fast food snacks, crafts made in Clarksville, white elephants, used books, pony rides, hay rides face painting, a bake sale, plant sale, bingo, silent auction, raffles and more.

This year's quilt raffle features autumn colors in the "bowties" pattern. The $20,000 money raffle and white elephant sale are the biggest financial contributors.

A major draw of the event is the family style chicken and ham dinner served from noon until 6:30 p.m. Last year, volunteers served more than 3,000 dinners. Dine in and visit with family or friends. Take-out is another option. Some families drive to the church just to pick up take-out dinners. The cost is $12 for ages 11 and older, $6 for children 5-10 and free for children younger than 5.

There's plenty of entertainment for picnic-goers. Illusion by Vick is scheduled for 1-2 p.m. Angelstone, a Christian rock band will be featured from 2-4 p.m. The Joe Carta Bluegrass band plays from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Cloggers from 6:30-7 p.m. are always delightful.

The Joe Carta Western Band closes the entertainment schedule from 7-9 p.m. when all the winners have been announced and it's time for all the tired participants to go home to rest for the night before clean-up begins.

As the school year closes, we pause to acknowledge some of the achievements of our young people. Eleven River Hill High School students submitted poems in the annual Caitlin Dunbar Memorial Poetry Contest. The theme was "My First Rose." Each submission was passionate and unique in its interpretation of the theme making the selection of winners difficult. In the end, River Hill rising senior JennaMarie Hill won first place, while rising junior Stephanie He was second and 2009 graduate Rachel Kim was third. Congratulations, girls.

In addition to the poetry contest, the Dunbar family sponsors the annual Caitlin Dunbar Dance Award. It's designed to reward a beginning dance student for going the extra mile in dance class and taking introductory dance seriously rather than merely a fine arts elective.

This year's winner was rising sophomore Mariel Salvatierra. Way to go!

That's the good news about Caitlin Dunbar Memorial awards. The bad news is there was not one applicant for the Caitlin Dunbar Scholarship this year. Don't let this opportunity pass you by. RHHS parents and students, check it out.

Angela Tenaglia is making family proud. She just completed her sophomore year at Salisbury University where the accounting major made dean's list. Angela recently received the good news that she has been accepted into Salisbury's Perdue School of Business. Angela graduated from Reservoir High in 2007. Best wishes!

Fifth-grade students made sure they would be fondly remembered, missed and welcome to return to visit Clarksville Elementary as they and their parents served breakfast to the staff. Food is a good way to win friends and influence people.

Light refreshments and desserts were served as students, parents, staff and friends bade farewell to Karen Feagin, a first-grade teacher at Clarksville Elementary. Karen has been at CES for nearly a quarter-century. Time does fly.

Parents, teachers, students, staff and friends in the community help to make great schools. PTSA members, ESOL and ITL teacher Lisa Hansen and Neyda Monlier, ESOL guidance counselor developed and organized a Refugee Awareness Night at River Hill High.

Their effort was recognized by the Howard County PTA and rewarded with the Joan Dykstra Award of $300 to RHHS PTSA. We are so blessed to live in Howard County and must remember those who can only hope and pray for a fraction of our blessings.

When the Walking Wednesday program closed at Pointers Run Elementary earlier this month, students had covered an impressive 2,837 miles. That would take you all the way to Los Angeles with a couple hundred spare miles for seeing the sights along the way.

Many thanks are sent to volunteers who helped out each week and saw the excitement of each passing lap or completion of the 5-mile card.

In just the last four weeks of the program, Sherry Eulitt's kindergarten class walked 99 miles and Laura Rieben's kindergarten class walked 96 miles.

For the year, first-grade walked 715 miles. Top individual walkers were third-grader Ryan Skochinski at 22.5 miles, fifth-grader Michael Smith at 22 miles and fourth-grader Noah Kalinshman at 20.75 miles.

Walking is a wonderful habit to develop while young. Maintaining that habit contributes to better physical and mental health for a lifetime. Where have you walked today?

user comments (0)