THIS IS SURRATTS FOUNDATION E-NOTICE 2007-11 OF NOVEMBER 1, 2007

Hello Hornets:

Here are some items that may be of interest:

1.  HORNET GRIDIRON STAR FEATURED IN BALTIMORE SUN.  Foundation Board member Ellen Talbert-Miller (61 and former faculty) tipped me off to a front page article in the sports section of the Baltimore Sun on October 17 featuring Hornet football star Davin Meggett (07).

The article, which features a great color photo of Davin in his Hornet uniform, is entitled "In His Father's Quick Footsteps".  The article notes that Davin, a scholar-athlete with a 3.5 GPA who runs the 100 in 10.7 seconds, is the son of Towson State and NFL great David Meggett, and lives with his proud mother and step-dad, Victoria and John Davis.  Davin has accepted a football scholarship to College Park in the Fall.

The article quotes Hornet Coach Tom Green as noting that "the Terrapins couldn't get a better prepared player," and that "college scouts had no idea of his size and speed and then they saw his academic transcripts and they got pretty impressed".  Davin, who noted his desire to coach football someday, also had some very kind words for Coach Green in the article, counting him as a hero and stating: "I see him, and I want to do what he does.  He's so smart.  No matter what the other team puts up, he'll figure out how to beat it."

Congratulations, to Davin, Coach Green and the entire 2007 gridiron team!

2. ... AND HORNET GRIDIRON TEAM GETS MORE NICE PRESS.  On a similar note, Fox News DC ran a story on the team's great start entitled "Surrattsville Football Determined to Make Post Season History".  The story begins with the following: "For the first time ever, Surrattsville High School fans are talking playoffs. Their football team has been a doormat for decades. But after 57 years without a post-season game, the Hornets are determined to make history."

The story can be found at:
 http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=A69037446E2C1765B5687E9E6D4A6D3F?contentId=4591256&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1.

Way to go, Hornets!  (ED Note:  Does anybody have any information on the Hornet football team that reportedly made the playoffs a mere 57 years ago?)

3.  POLICE DISTRICT V "COFFEE CLUB" MEETS NOVEMBER 1.  The Police District V Coffee Club will hold a "Community and School Safety Town Hall Meeting" today, Thursday, November 1, 2007, from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m., at Mt. Ennon Baptist Church Chapel, 9832 Piscataway Road, Clinton Maryland 20735.  All interested area residents are invited to attend this meeting.  Please RSVP your attendance to alive@districtvcoffeeclub.com or by contacting Foundation Board member Catherine Taggart-Ross at 240-305-7399, or Tamara Davis Brown at 301-704-0930.

4.  DON'T FORGET TO GENERATE DONATIONS TO THE FOUNDATION WHILE SEARCHING THE WEB.  Please don't forget to set your web browser home page to the Yahoo-powered search engine, goodsearch.com, that generates donations to charitable organizations designated by its users.  You'll need to indicate "The Surrattsville High School Foundation, Inc." as your designated charity.  You'll recall that this is a painless way for each of us to increase the Foundation's fund raising efforts by simply making a small change to the way we do something many of us do each day web searching.

Here are the details.  Go to http://www.goodsearch.com.  In the indicated box, designate The Surrattsville High School Foundation, Inc. as the charity to receive donations from goodsearch's advertisers each time you search the web.  Then use goodsearch.com to do your web searching.  (You designate goodsearch.com as your homepage on your computer by going to http://www.goodsearch.com/MakeHomepage.aspx.)

Thanks for considering changing the way you search the web to generate donations to the Foundation.  (Goodsearch.com reports that if 1,000 Foundation supporters search the web twice a day, $7300 in donations will be generated for the Foundation each year!).

5.  ANNUAL CAMPAIGN OFF TO A GREAT START.  Thanks to the generosity of the donors listed below, the Foundation's 2007 Annual Campaign is off to a fantastic start!  Remember: the Foundation has no overhead, so every dollar contributed goes directly toward the support of a Foundation activity.  And no contribution is too small (or too large) to make a positive difference.  Please consider showing your support for the Foundation by participating in this year's campaign.  (A donor form is reprinted below, and is available on the Foundation's web site at www.surrattsville.org.)

6.  FOUNDATION BOARD STILL SEEKING LOCAL VOLUNTEERS.  The Board of the Foundation is still in need of volunteers from the Clinton area to provide the out-of-town Board members with a "local presence" in the School community.  If you're still in the Southern Maryland area, and you would be willing to volunteers a few hours in the coming year to the noble cause of the Foundation, please let me know by email at hsmith@smithdowney.com

7.  SCHOOL SUPPLIES FOR AFHGAN KIDS.  I received this email from Rix Mills (62), rixmills5@aol.com,  in response to the item we ran about his experiences in Afghanistan in the last e-Notice:  "Hi Henry:  I am on a personal campaign to get notebooks, pencils, pencil sharpeners, crayons, coloring books, scissors, rulers, and that kind of thing for the kids here who have nothing in their schools.  If you know of anyone who wants to send these type things to me to distribute to truly needy kids, I will gladly send them the cost of postage to make it happen.  I will take care of the distribution, reporting back with pictures and run the risk of doing this outreach project because nothing is without danger here.

My hope is that someone or ones will pick up on the theme of the piece which is to give something of themselves to help others that are extremely less well off than they can imagine and hungry for knowledge that will help them make their country a better place to live in the future.
Perhaps even a class at Surrattsville could take this on as a class project and really make a difference to another person's and country's future.

Suzan Martz Holmquist (62) is already sending me some of these materials and they will be distributed to farmers' kids immediately so that they can record the things that they are learning in their humble schools and avoid the evils of growing poppy that turns into heroin that their parents have practiced for generations.

I am working on a counter narcotics project here in northern Afghanistan involving heroin and I try to encourage the people who are growing this poison not to and to give their kids something that they need as a way of swaying them to the right side of the law; admittedly not an easy job but someone has to do it.   Rix"

8.  SURRATS SPORTS TRIVIA.  I received this email from Charlie Rodgers (70) in response to a reference to Tina O'Connell Harman (74) in an item in the last e-Notice: "Hi Henry:  Unless there is another alum named "Tina O'Connell (74)"  she holds a unique distinction.  Tina was the mascot for the 1961 Surrattsville basketball team, and I believe she was a cheerleader when she attended Surrattsville.  The 1961 basketball team lost only one game, by one point, that year to La Plata High School.  Her brother Mike (61) was point guard on that basketball team.  Mike was the 1960 football team's quarterback.  (I believe that team went undefeated, and that Mr. Vaughn was the coach of both teams).  Charlie"

(ED Note: If the 60 football team went undefeated, perhaps the Fox News "57 year drought" article above should read "47"?)

I passed Charlie's email along to Tina, and got the following cute response:

"That is so funny!  Yes, I was the cheerleading mascot in 1961-62 for football and basketball. But I was not a cheerleader in high school.  Charlie Rodgers's sisters, Donna and Vicki, and I were cheerleaders for the Clinton Boys Club.  My dad was a coach for the St. John's parish basketball team (one player was Paul Proctor), and then for several Boys Club teams.  My Dad made up this cheer for us: North, South, East, West, Tear the hair right off their chest!  Yayyyy Clinton!  I think my brother Mike (61) was captain of the Hornets' football, basketball and baseball teams.  Tina"

(ED Note: I don't recall us having very hairy chests when playing on those fun Boys Club teams of the early 60s!)

9.  CLASS OF 82 REUNION INQUIRY.  Cathy Telli (82) would like to hear from any 82 grads interested in putting together a 25 year reunion this year.  Please send her an email at cathy_telli@yahoo.com if you have any interest.

10.  NEWS FROM THE GROWING YOUNGER, AND BOLDER, SET.  I received this email from the always-getting-younger Ann Weaver Pelle (71): "Dear Henry: Here's a good web site that talks a lot about kids our age:

 http://growingbolder.com/gbinsider/volume9.php?autoplay=4825#o4825

The folks from "Growing Bolder" came out from Orlando and found me last Thursday and our twirlers wound up on their website.  We had a ball!  The girls are gearing up for some really important things.  Again, we will be twirling on this year Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas at the end of January.  Then we have been invited to twirl at Disney three times during the weekend of February 15, 2008.  Not to mention our show schedule is now over five pages long!
Who knew?   You can go to www.thevillagestwirlers.com, then go to "Most Recent," and you can see tons more cool things we are doing!  I also started a drum corps, of course called The Villages Twirlers Drum Corps.  They are just starting but are so faithful and getting better every day!  Like us, they hadn't touched a marching drum or marched in 40-50 years!  Later!  Ann"

Good luck to Ann with her latest efforts to keep all the residents younger down in The Villages in Florida!

11.  A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE.  Rick Smith (71) sent the following email that might bring back memories for those of you who were alive during that long ago period known as the 1960s:  "Hi Henry:   This is the best presentation of the 60s that I have ever seen online. It is very well done. Just click on the link and sit back and enjoy the memories:
http://moreoldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm.  Smitty"
      
12.  SEEKING FOUND RING.  Some months ago, an alum notified us that her Mom had found a Surratts ring, I believe somewhere in Southern Maryland.  We believe we may have found that ring's owner, but can't find the record of the ring's finder.  Please contact me at hsmith@smithdowney.com if you were the reader who was kind enough to report this found ring.

13.  MORE GOATMAN SIGHTINGS.  We received a tip about another Goatman article, this one in the Bowie Blade and accessible on-line at:

 http://www.bowieblade.com/vault/cgi-bin/bowie/view/2007B/10/18-35.HTM.

Curiously, this article makes no mention of the unquestionably most famous Goatman sightings -- those on Floral Park Road and elsewhere in the Clinton area!

14.  SUMMER OF LOVE REMEMBERED.  We've pasted below an article by local cultural historian Mark Opsasnick about an Ambassador Theater 40 year reunion to be held on November 3.  If you happened to go to the Ambassador in that magical musical year to see the likes of Jimi Hendrix (who was paid $1700 for his seven appearances at the Ambassador!), you might be interested in reading the article and perhaps attending the reunion.

15.  PTSA SCHEDULES HSA WORKSHOP.  On Tuesday November 6, at 6 p.m., the very active Surrattsville PTSA is sponsoring a workshop for parents to give them ideas on how to help their students pass the High School Assessment tests.  All interested parents are encouraged to attend.


I hope you're all enjoying a wonderful Autumn!

All the best, Henry Smith (71), hsmith@smithdowney.com



MANY THANKS TO THESE DONORS TO THE FOUNDATION'S 2007 CAMPAIGN!

Pat Becker Oles (71)
Steve Profilet (71)
Michelle Shelley Wilson Block (68)
Sally Saker Weingarten (77)
Janet Goddard Sullivan (54), In memory of her brother, Jesse "Skip" Goddard, Jr. (56)
Roy Nestor (72), In Memory of Jana Sims Nestor
Kurt Aktug (88)
June Jacobs Brown (44)
Thomas V. Mike Miller (60)
Linda Dorsey Blum (66)
Vicki Forsht Williams (65), In joyful celebration of the marriage of Nancy Oursler Maynard (65) and Larry Schillings (65)
Vicki Forsht Williams (65, and former faculty), In memory of Eugene Colgan, former (and greatest!) Principal
Ellen Talbert-Miller (61, and former faculty/administration), In memory of Eugene Colgan, Principal and mentor
Bob Marr (71)
Deborah Cox Marr (72)
Vicky Simontacchi Young (57), To Honor the Class of 1957
Henry Smith (71)
Donna Rae Sturtevant Smith (70)
Melissa Gilcrest (69)
David Kraus (65), In memory of Ed Andrauskas, Faculty
Jeanine Carroll Maclary (73), In memory of James R. (Jimmy) Carroll
Dan Bayne (71), For the Charles Waddell Scholarship Fund
Anne Noyes (former faculty)
Nancy Miller (67)
Judy Gordon Mentlik (65)
Mike Blair (71)
Lark Bergwin-Anderson (71)
Tom Travis (76)
Sally LePla Travis (76)
Helen Bovbjerg Niedung (54)
Joan Penn Revis (61)
Homer Revis (56)
Teri Pepper Dimsey (77), In memory of good times with Chris Smith
Lora Baker Couchman (77), In memory of good times with Chris Smith


AMBASSADOR THEATER 40TH REUNION

From: Mark Opsasnick
www.capitolrock.com

Hey Folks:  I hope youll join us at the following Ambassador Theater celebration on Saturday, November 3, 2007 in Washington, DC.  I will not be presenting this afternoon, but I will be there enjoying the festivities and hanging at the after-party at RFD.  Read on:  Jimi Hendrix! Canned Heat! Moby Grape! John Lee Hooker in Adams Morgan! Crystal Mesh, Mosaic Virus and Natty Bumppo!

The Ambassador Theater Lives!
Washington, DC's Psychedelic Concert Hall 40th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, November 3, 2007 3PM
DC Historical Studies Conference
FREE. No Admission Charge
Info and registration at www.historydc.org

34th Annual Conference on Washington, D.C. Historical Studies
November 1 - 3, 2007
Location: The Historical Society of Washington, DC
(Old Carnegie Library) , 801 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
Presented by: Cultural Tourism, D.C.
D.C. Public Library, Washingtoniana Division
George Washington University
The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
Ambassador Theater Panel Contact: jeff@planetkrulik.com 202-966-5304

For six glorious months beginning in July 1967, the Summer of Love landed right in Adams Morgan when three entrepreneurs convinced a skeptical neighborhood to allow DC's very own Fillmore--The Ambassador Theater.  Tony Finestra, Court Rodgers and Joel Mednick were selling fire extinguishers on college campuses when they heard the siren call of San Francisco, and after visiting the Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom, decided to pour all available resources into duplicating that psychedelic experience in an abandoned movie theater at 18th and Columbia Road. Within months, they had defied the odds and opened a psychedelic concert hall, hippie hangout and community center that also boasted The Psychedelic Power and Light Company, one of the most happening psychedelic light shows on the East Coast!  Every name rock band on tour at the time passed through the Ambassador, including a five night stand by Jimi Hendrix in August '67 (with two 3PM matinee performances), as well as the Fugs, Canned Heat, Moby Grape and many more.  It was even one of the staging points for the March on the Pentagon, with Norman Mailer rallying the protesters from the stage days before the October 21, 1967 march.  WAMAdc President Mike Schreibman was not only there, he helped run the place, and he'll be part of a panel discussion, that includes Richard Harrington and Annie Groer of The Washington Post, and more guests to be announced.  Promoters Court Rodgers and Joel Mednick have been invited, as well as Jerry Marmelstein who helped run The Psychedelic Power and Light Company light show, and Michael Paper who ran sound and was the announcer. We've also located Bill Havu, drummer for the band Natty Bumppo, as well as Walter Hart who ran the head shop on the mezzanine of the theater.  The presentation will include a slide show of concert posters, personal photos, and newspaper clippings from the mainstream, college and underground newspapers, and memories, anecdotes and recollections provided by members of the audience. It will be moderated and presented by Jeff Krulik, who was six years old at the time but wishes he could have been there for the Vanilla Fudge.  Cultural historians Mark Opsasnick (www.capitolrock.com), Mara Cherkasky (www.culturaltourismdc.org) and Bob Embery (DC Monuments fanzine) will assist.  Party afterwards at RFD (two blocks away on 7th Street): Immediately after the panel, the event continues at RFD Washington 810 Seventh Street, NW www.lovethebeer.com.