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C COMMUNITY OMMUNITY NE N NEWS EWS www.gazette.net
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Thursday, September 12, 2013
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Page A-4
New outlet mall Stair climb honors fallen firefighters hosts job fair as opening nears Some wear full gear during event held to honor Sept. 11 victims n
BY CHASE COOK STAFF WRITER
900 positions will be filled at National Harbor n
BY CHASE COOK STAFF WRITER
Prince George’s County jobseekers will have an opportunity to vie for about 900 full-time and part-time positions at National Harbor’s upcoming Tanger Outlets starting with a Sept. 17 job fair. The mall will have more than 85 brand name and designer stores when it opens in November, said Quentin Pell, Tanger Outlets spokesman. The fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 17 and 4 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 18 at the Southern Regional Technology and Recreation Complex, 7007 Bock Road in Fort Washington. Shuttles will be available from the Rosecroft Raceway to help with parking, said Queen Moore, Tanger Outlets office administrator. “It will be a very powerful shot in the arm for us in the creation of new jobs,” said David Iannucci, assistant deputy chief administrative officer for economic development and public infrastructure. Iannucci said the mall will bring in shoppers from around the area and also satisfy the needs of county residents who have been calling for high-quality stores for some time. Rick Tyler of Temple Hills
said he planned on helping residents in and around Temple Hills by distributing job fair information, but decided not to after seeing a job fair flier didn’t have specific job information. “When they advertised the job fair they didn’t say what stores would be there,” Tyler said. “People won’t know whether they want to apply for a job or not.” Specific details on the stores and specific types of jobs will not be available until about a day before the job fair, said Moore, adding that information on specific stores would not be released because not every store is finalized yet. Some of the announced stores that will be calling the National Harbor site home include Michael Kors, a Coach Factory and Calvin Klein, according to the outlet mall’s online directory. The mall’s Facebook page has announced a new store each week since June 12. “I’m impressed,” Iannucci said. “There will probably be more than two dozen stores this county has sought for a while.” Kettering resident Arthur Turner said he was pleased by the stores announced so far, but he wished a list would be released to the public because it was hard keeping up with the Facebook posts. “It’s important to know who has been inked,” Turner said. ccook@gazette.net
Kenilworth takes lessons to the great outdoors
Jonathan Diiorio was in New Jersey training as an emergency medical technician on Sept. 11, 2001. “I knew immediately when the first tower went down,” Prince George’s County firefighter Diiorio of Chesapeake Beach said of the terrorist attacks that day. “I knew a lot of firefighters just died.” Diiorio recited the Pledge of Allegiance at the third annual 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb held by the Prince George’s County Fire Department. The stair climb is an event where participants pay homage to the 343 firefighters that died by walking up flights of stairs and ringing a bell in their honor. This year’s event was the biggest so far, with more than 400 people registering, and most of the proceeds go to the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation, said Mark Brady, spokesman for the county fire/ EMS department. Officials were unsure at press time how much money was raised. The event was held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor, and a side stairwell of the resort was used by participants when climbing stairs. “I think these events are important not only for firefighters but the country in general,” Diiorio said. “I was honored to represent firefighters who have served.” The first 343 registered re-
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Jerry Dowling (center) of the Andrews Air Force Base Fire Department climbs the stairs Saturday at Gaylord National Resort during the 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb at National Harbor. ceived a free lunch and a picture of a firefighter that died that day, Brady said. Participants paid $25 for registration. A majority of that money is used to assist families of fallen firefighters, Brady said. Throughout the morning, while people were climbing the stairs or walking a 3K, a 1.86-mile walk, set up for those who didn’t want to or couldn’t climb, announcements were made and a moment of silence was held during key times of the Sept. 11 attack. At 8:46 a.m., the time that
$143,000 grant will rebuild old walkway
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BY SOPHIE PETIT STAFF WRITER
BY SOPHIE PETIT STAFF WRITER
SOPHIE PETIT/THE GAZETTE
Kenilworth Elementary School students clap and cheer during a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil the school’s new outdoor classroom on Sept. 6 in Bowie. fect way to raise environmental awareness among students, which benefits everyone when more people care about a community’s beauty and health. Bowie resident Morse Hall, 41, who has a daughter in second grade at Kenilworth Elementary, said his family recycles and plants native species, and he is glad his daughter can now do the same at school. The classroom cost $6,200 to build and was fully funded by the school’s parentteacher association, said PTA Vice President Christina Bayes, who came up with the idea a year ago. The PTA combined money raised through fundraisers last school year, like November’s plant sale, with the money in its savings account to pay for landscape designers to build the classroom, Bayes said. Focus now turns to maintaining the outdoor classroom by securing equipment
up to work like it was going to be a regular day. ... They ended up losing their lives.” Some of the participating firefighters wore their work gear, adding about 60 pounds of weight to the climb. Stefan Anderson, a firefighter for Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad 49, wore his gear and climbed all 110 stories. “We want to experience what they experienced,” he said. “It’s for remembrance and tribute to the fallen.” ccook@gazette.net
Yorktown to gain a new path to school
Classrooms with a view
Kenilworth Elementary School students won’t have to gaze outside during class as much since for a portion of their day they’ll be taking the classroom outdoors in a first of its kind program in Prince George’s County. The outdoor classroom features a garden-like area, with no walls or roof or chairs, has a rain barrel, native plants sprouting from colorful pots and mulch spread over the ground where students can sit. The Bowie school’s 332 students will all be coming to the classroom to learn every subject from music to math, said Kenilworth Elementary’s principal Rodney Henderson. “It allows students to take what they learn conceptually in the classroom and bring it outside and see it,” Henderson said. For example, when students learn about butterfly life cycles in science class, they will now have a better opportunity to see actual butterflies in the outdoor classroom. “I like it. I like butterflies,” said firstgrader Makenzie Gilliard, 6, of Bowie, one of several students who wore sparkly butterfly wings to the Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by school staff, community and county leaders, including school CEO Kevin Maxwell and Bowie Mayor G. Frederick Robinson. Maxwell said the new classroom is a per-
American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the World Trade Center, the first moment of silence was held. Many of the firefighters committed to climbing 110 flights of stairs in honor of the firefighters who climbed that high in the World Trade Center, Prince George’s County Chief Marc Bashoor said. Last year, Bashoor said he climbed 140 flights of stairs and planned on doing at least 110 this year, as well. “For me, it’s pretty emotional,” he said. “These guys got
including gardening tools, butterfly houses and seed, said PTA President Tara Adams. To offset costs, the PTA has submitted an application for a grant through the Chesapeake Bay Trust, an Annapolis nonprofit grant-making organization, Adams said. Kristin Foringer, a representative from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, said projects like this are what the organization strives to help. “We want to see kids outside,” Foringer said. Besides money, the classroom also needs manpower. Adams said she lives near the school and her husband regularly cuts the grass around the outdoor classroom and pulls weeds. “There’s definitely a community involvement,” Adams said, “I just can’t wait to see where it’s going to go.” spetit@gazette.net
More of the Yorktown Elementary School community might start walking to school and nearby shops since Bowie can now afford to replace a deteriorating walkway, city officials said. The more than 40 years old, about two feet wide, worn and crumbling asphalt walkway runs for half a mile along the east side of Race Track Road, between Idlewild and Yorktown drives, and is owned and maintained by Prince George’s County, said Joe Meinert, director of the Bowie’s planning department. The $143,000 federally funded Safe Routes to School grant will allow Bowie to upgrade the deteriorating pathway to include accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act, such as wheelchair ramps, as well as two crosswalks. Additionally, the money will pay for two bike racks on the school’s property, according to city documents. “Back then, everyone would walk to school,” Meinert said. “More would do it if they had a safe way of getting there.”
Of Yorktown Elementary’s 315 students, 265 ride the bus, and the rest either walk or are driven to school by their parents, said Principal Taryn Savoy. Ashley Ells, 29, lives on Yorktown Drive and picks her kindergartner up from Yorktown Elementary every day. She said she doesn’t have to use the walkway to get back and forth from school, but she does use it to get to work at the Hilltop Plaza, about half a mile from the school, and would never take her son on that walk because his stroller would barely fit on the overgrown walkway, she said. “[The walkway] is hard to get through. It’s very crowded and nasty and kind of scary,” Ells said, adding that other mothers at the school share her concerns. Ells said if the walkway was improved, she would take her son on walks around the area. “The Safe Routes to School grant will help ensure that our students are able to travel to and from Yorktown Elementary safely along Race Track Road,” Savoy said. “Our school community is grateful for the city’s support.” The city is in talks with county officials to decide a project time line, officials said. spetit@gazette.net