THE GAZETTE
Page A-14
Wednesday, October 16, 2013 z
PHOTOS BY TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Faryaal Sultan (left), 17, a student at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in Rockville, and Heba Elradi, 15, a Clarksburg High student, eat traditional food at an Eid al-Adha celebration held Tuesday near Damascus.
CELEBRATION
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friends and family at the Damascus home. She encouraged her Muslim friends to stay home for the holiday. “I told them you could make up the work, but you can’t make up the prayer,” she said. Some friends, she said, decided not to skip so they wouldn’t miss a test. Hebatallah said she doesn’t think it’s fair to hold classes on the Eid holidays. She can catch up on work she missed, she said, but teachers don’t repeat the lessons. “I feel like I’m losing valuable education,” she said. The Damascus party was at the home of Galila Ibrahim, 9, who attends Damascus Elementary School. Galila said she stayed up late Monday night helping her mom prepare for the festivities. Skipping school on an Eid holiday is the normal practice for Galila. But she said she missed a school official’s visit on Tuesday with other members of her math program; she had wanted to attend. Galila said she enjoys the Eid holiday because “all of our families and friends come here in this big house and celebrate!” Heidi Wahba of Clarksburg attended the party with her four children, who are home-
schooled. Wahba said she thinks more people were at a prayer service she attended Tuesday than last year. “We went to prayer in the morning and there were a ton of kids there,” she said. The celebration at the Damascus home brought people from around the area, she said, including those from Frederick and Howard counties and from Virginia. Saqib Ali — one of the coalition’s co-chairs and a state delegate candidate — said he attended a prayer service along with about 5,000 others at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring. With the large number of people present every year, Ali said, it was hard to tell whether attendance was up from last year. Ali has described the holiday closures as “a civil rights issue.” Samira Hussein — a family service worker for the county school system and a coalition leader — said she was among thousands of people at the service at the SoccerPlex. She said it was hard to tell if attendance was up from last year, but she saw many families who attended with all of their children. “If they had to go to school, it just takes the joy out of the festivities,” she said. lpowers@gazette.net
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Continued from Page A-1 Suite 1, is “ecstatic” to receive the contribution, said Executive Director John P. Kleiderer. The clinic is a nonprofit community health clinic that serves uninsured, low-income residents of Montgomery County. “This is an example of a public servant who is giving back to the community and giving directly to those going through a difficult time,” he said.
Kleiderer said the money will go toward the clinic’s ongoing health services and education programs. “His contribution is directly going to impact the lives of hundreds of families,” he said. Delaney is one of the richest members of Congress, with family trusts and retirement accounts worth at least $51 million, according to a financial disclosure statement released by his campaign last year. jedavis@gazette.net