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During the early 1990s 2-year-old Katie Delaportas was at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore for a 12-week hospital stay. “I had taken my son to see Santa Bud,” says says Katie’s mom, Kathy Delaportas, who was living in...
I am homeless. I am not houseless, but I am homeless. There’s a difference. A couple of months ago I accidentally sold my home; just sort of stumbled into a deal. I had finally come to the realization that it was time to downsize, 12 years after…
Growing up, my insular family, just my parents and I, didn’t have any standing traditions. We didn’t serve a special breakfast. We didn’t always hang lights. Some years we didn’t have a tree. What I most remember happening every Christmas is my dad having to pause the...
I stumbled across a beach bar in Croatia last summer, and I’ll never forget it. Not because it was a great bar; it wasn’t. It was a concrete slab cut into the side of a cliff 40 feet or so above the Adriatic Sea just outside the...
Nestled in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, Old Town Winchester, Virginia, is a vibrant tapestry of history, culture, and community spirit. This charming district, with its rich flavor and welcoming atmosphere, invites visitors to explore its unique blend of the past and present. From its...
When Carolyn Perrygo began noticing changes in her husband John Perrygo, she expressed her concerns to their primary care physician who referred them to a hospital with a memory care specialty. It was there that...
The end of the calendar year is drawing near, and we know that means the holiday season is upon us. Historically, Thanksgiving and Christmas are a time to be thankful, rejoice with our families, and help...
Embedded in the lyrics of “Don’t Blink” (a song recorded by country music superstar Kenny Chesney and written about an interview with a 102-year-old man on the evening news) is the line, “Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think, so...
Staying physically active is an important part of aging in a healthy way, staying independent longer, and enriching senior citizens’ lives. And Washington County has just the place for that to happen. Washington County Senior Center is on...
People who have performed in theatrical productions get it. There’s a bonding experience when you work together on and off stage, and it often continues years after the curtain falls on the last performance. That’s exactly what led a group of...
Shane Azar-Myers opened UV Bronze Tanning in Waynesboro in 2012 to provide the area with affordable tanning. Before stepping out on his own, he had worked in the business for several years, learning the intricacies of operating a salon. So, he knew what it would take to be successful. Since then, he’s continued to...
Shortly after Martin Nikirk moved into his home on Chestnut Street in 2003 he received a 16-inch potted yellow pine tree as a housewarming gift from one of his parents. He planted the tree in his backyard and...
We know history runs deep in Washington County, but it runs much deeper than what happened on the Antietam battlefield on Sept. 17, 1862. Decades before the Civil War, Clear Spring, now a small town of fewer than 400 people, was a thriving community, serving as a...
Fresh fruits and vegetables and shelves full of healthy food are finally headed to downtown Hagerstown. Horizon Goodwill Industries, with help from many foundations, funds, and local businesses, will create a full-service grocery store on Prospect Street, where a...
My youngest daughter’s name is Summer. So, it’s safe to say that my favorite time of year is when it’s hot and sticky and the days last forever. But there’s something about fall. I guess that fall is supposed to be about endings, about leaves coming down to...
One day before Gabby Tennor was barely old enough for school, she was with her family listening to music. “When I started to sing, my mom was like, ‘Wow, you’re really good,’” says Gabby, now 10 years old. Recognizing that their daughter had talent, they...
Less than two miles short of the one-horse town of Chewsville and directly across Route 64 from the Wooden Keg Beer, Wine and Liquor Store hangs a sign (with an ancient golf ball globe on top) that partially belies the changes that are taking place beyond it. Though modernization of the facility is...
Kayla Crigger may be young, but she’s already doing something that plenty of people dream of doing, running her own small business. Just five years ago, flowers weren’t really on Crigger’s mind. As a sophomore in high school, she wanted to...
Hagerstown baseball fans spent the summer celebrating their new professional team and enjoying the city’s fancy new downtown ballpark while work progressed on a large indoor fieldhouse at the site of the old Municipal Stadium.. The success of the Flying Boxcars and the momentum toward turning the site of the decaying stadium into a 114,000-square-foot recreational center show the city...
When the Washington County Free Library decided it needed a way to get books to residents throughout the county and not just in Hagerstown, it was ahead of its time, and in 1905 it established the first bookmobile in the United States. A horse-drawn cart to…
Giuseppe Bellanca is a demanding coworker. He always wants to be fed, likes to nap at the desk, tends to play more than get his work done, and expects someone else to clean up his messes. But this funny…
It was more than five decades ago when a young guitar player named Lew Palladino was asked to sit in for a night with a band whose regular guitar player couldn’t make it. Then 14, Palladino ended up playing the entire week with that band in The Vogue Room in the Colonial Hotel in Hagerstown. The band…
On July 26, 1864, Gen. Jubal Early ordered Gen. “Tiger” John McCausland to proceed to Chambersburg and deliver a ransom demand. “At Chambersburg levy $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in Northern Money to pay for the houses of Andrew Hunter, Alexander R. Boteler and Edmund I. Lee of Jefferson Co. Va., which were…
I grew up in Washington County. More specifically I graduated from Boonsboro High School. More specifically than that, I was raised in Sharpsburg. From there we can…
Ilze Hays of Hagerstown doesn’t just see a plant but all the possibilities that plant may hold. Like dandelions. “The dandelion is one of my favorites,” says Hays, who shares her knowledge of plants on her Facebook page Herbtastic. “You can make syrup with…
On Sundays, Doub’s Woods Park in Hagerstown becomes a magical place with warriors and elves and battles and quests. This is all part of the Freehold of Phoenix Hollow…
In 2008 Gretchen Simard got tired of teaching in Virginia and made an unusual career switch. She got her contractor’s license and began remodeling homes. Her business was going along fine, but she uprooted…
When Joseph Wolfe was a child, a relative won a little green lizard at a fair and didn’t know what to do with it. “They reached out, and 13-year-old me was over the moon about it,” Wolfe says. From that anole, Wolfe’s love of…
“Mental health? There are a lot of signs but no one wants to take them seriously until something drastic happens,” says 18-year-old Aspen Marie Griffith. “Mental health is talked about a lot more, but there still isn’t much help. And going through therapy…
If Hub City Vinyl has a mantra, it should be “business in the front, party in the back.” During the day, there’s a record shop in the front of the store where lovers of vinyl can peruse, but in the evenings, Thursdays through Sundays, it’s Live at Hub City Vinyl, a place where…