HOW TO KEEP YOUR GARDEN HEALTHY
by Paula Minaert Yoga Space — which has become a fixture in Hyattsville since it opened on Gallatin Street five years ago — offers something new for 2010: adaptive yoga for people with multiple sclerosis. Founder Douglas Thompson, a longtime city resident, had a student a few years ago with MS who came to his classes and suggested that others with the disease could benefit from them. So Thompson took a workshop for teaching yoga to people with MS and other disabilities. He is also a certified yoga instructor (through the Himalayan Institute) and teacher of stress management. Thompson’s approach to his work, he says, is to see a need and then fill it, rather than offering a service and hope people come. For example, his mother-and-baby classes were quite popular for a while, and now there’s an interest in adaptive yoga. The studio also offers classes in belly dancing and Pilates. People have come to his classes with medical conditions ranging from cerebral palsy to cancer, Thompson says, adding that the therapeutic value goes beyond the physical. “One woman had lost two of her children days after they were born,” he says. “She came for healing. Yoga does so many things for so many people that I can’t even
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YOGA SPACE continued on page 10
Hyattsville seniors are happily taking advantage of classes offered at the North Brentwood center. PAGE 6
Hyattsville
Winter got your garden down? Miss Floribunda gives tips and tricks to combat the snow and wind. PAGE 5
Yoga Space makes room for everyone
MOVING AND SHAKING
NEW YEAR, NEW YOU Looking for a new hobby? Our guide to local area classes can help you find a teacher. PAGE 8
Life&Times
Vol. 7 No. 1
Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper
January 2010
Local pastor marks 25 years by Amira Aycock
Neighbors who witnessed the fire were impressed by the quick
“Look,” Tim Seay chuckles as he flips on the basement lights of the Baltimore Avenue building many locals call The Castle. “A church with a bar in it!” He is not kidding. I see a long bar flanked by pool tables. “This bar only serves soft drinks, though,” he tells me with a smile. Seay is the head pastor and cofounder of Crossover Church, a non-denominational Pentecostal church in Hyattsville located at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Baltimore Avenue. If the name doesn't ring a bell, the building will: It's a quarterscale replica of England's famous Windsor Castle and was built in 1918 as the Maryland National Guard Armory. Deactivated in 1972, the labyrinthine building has been used as a civic center and a bar and dinner theater before its most recent transformation. The theater is now a 300-seat sanctuary, the bar is a hang-out for youth, and the industrial kitchen houses one of the church’s many
FIRE continued on page 11
CROSSOVER continued on page 11
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF HYATTSVILLE Smoke from an electrical fire billows from the old WSSC building at 4017 Hamilton Street.
Fire hits former WSSC HQ by Paula Minaert A fire broke out Dec. 30 in the former Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission building on Hamilton Street, bringing firefighters from the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department, Prince George’s County Fire Department, and other jurisdictions. Investigators determined that an electrical malfunction was responsible for the fire, which caused approximately $1,000 in damage, according to PGFD spokesperson Mark Brady. The unoccupied building has been empty since before the property was bought by Douglas Development in 2004. Hyattsville Mayor William Gardiner said that Douglas Development sent out a crew very rapidly to secure the building after the fire.
“A number of windows had to be broken when the firefighters were trying to contain the fire,” he added.
HEARD AROUND HYATTSVILLE HL&T visited Rhode Island Reds and asked, "What is your New Year's resolution?"
“To do the things that I do, well.“ — Jonathan Barrett
“To do a little yoga every morning.” — Susan Heald
“To have 2010 be as good as 2009.” — Dave Tilley
“To prosper here in Hyattsville or die trying.” — Chris Brophy, owner
Included: The January 13, 2010 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section