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Hyattsville Life & Times | May 2014
FromTheEditor
This town is your town, this town is my town by Rosanna Landis Weaver
This is my final official editorial for the Hyattsville Life & Times. On June 1, I begin a new fulltime job with the As You Sow Foundation and need to end treasured part-time work. (Yes, this means the HL&T is hiring. See the ad on p. 3.) Though the foundation is located in California I am fortunate to be able to work from home, which is a
A community newspaper chronicling the life and times of Hyattsville Mailing address: PO Box 132, Hyattsville, MD 20781 http://issuu.com/ hyattsvillelifeandtimes http://facebook.com/HyattsvilleLife http://twitter.com/HvilleTimes Hyattsville Life & Times is published monthly by Hyattsville Community Newspaper, Inc., a 501c(3) nonprofit corporation. Editors welcome reader input, tips, articles, letters, opinion pieces and photographs, which may be submitted using the mailing address above or the email addresses below. Executive Editor Susie Currie susie@hyattsvillelife.com 301.633.9209 Managing Editor Rosanna Landis Weaver rosanna@hyattsvillelife.com 301.277.5939 Production Ashley Perks Advertising advertising@hyattsvillelife.com 301.531.5234 Writers & Contributors Amanda Alley, Katy June-Friesen, Lauren Kelly, Gray O’Dwyer, Molly Parrish, Scarlett Salem, Fred Seitz Board of Directors Joseph Gigliotti - President and General Counsel Chris Currie - Vice President Susie Currie - Secretary Peggy Dee, Karen J. Riley, Valerie Russell, Gretchen Brodtman, Debra Franklin, T. Carter Ross Rosanna Landis Weaver - Ex Officio Circulation: Copies are distributed monthly by U.S. Mail to every address in Hyattsville. Additional copies are distributed to libraries, selected businesses, community centers and churches in the city. Total circulation is 9,300. HL&T is a member of the National Newspaper Association.
good thing because I’ve never loved Hyattsville more. I’m sad to leave the HL&T, but would be so much sadder if I needed to leave the fantastic town. My time as managing editor has let me get to know the town and the people in it a bit better. The city is lucky to have the amazing HL&T staff and board, and the hard-working members of our City Council and staff (and a special good-bye to the incredible Abby Sandel who is leaving her position as well this month.) However, for my final editorial I want to talk about my other part-time job, which has also given me a glimpse into a part of our community I previously had little connection with. I’ve been teaching English as a second language to recent immigrants in an evening class at Northwestern High School.
Teachers always get a special glimpse at humanity, the dayto-day unfolding knowledge of lives. Teachers learn more about students than their grasp of the subject, gaining a bit of insight into the character and home life of the person being taught. I remember that from being a student, and it worries me sometimes as a parent. (“Oh,” I imagine the teacher saying, “based on what I see in that backpack, young Weaver has a very chaotic home life.”) From that perspective, I have been nothing but impressed with the students I had the pleasure of teaching over the past year. In teaching numbers and time we would do an exercise on “What time did you wake up this morning?” and every answer, every time we did this, made my 6:30 wake up seem like sleeping in. I encountered
a great deal of kindness from these students: They were patient with my stumbling teaching, and supportive when I was ill. I also encountered a great deal of courage and commitment. One bitterly cold January night, a day when the schools had closed for no reason other than the temperature, a student called me to see if winter class registration was on as scheduled. I reminded her that because the classes follow the Prince George’s County school schedule it would not be. However, since I was already at the library decided I would go down the street to Northwestern and see if there were others there. I found a crowd of over 40 people standing in line in the windchill cold, many of them without gloves and wearing sweatshirts rather than the parkas
the weather demanded. Once the term began, students would learn to listen for closures, but at registration many did not know of this policy. The doors of the school were locked, the halls were dark, but outside they waited in case the doors would open. I made some calls and was able to let these students know when registration would be rescheduled, but I was so very struck by the experience. That happened to be right around the time when iconic folk singer Pete Seeger passed away. I have a children’s book of “This land is your land” that I took in to read to my class. Some of the words are challenging and the concepts difficult to grasp for beginning English speakers. Sometimes in Hyattsville’s history — as noted in HPA’s recent look at recent history — the concepts may be difficult to grasp for those who have been speaking English their entire lives. Hyattsville continues to grow and flourish because it defines itself not by those that it excludes but by those it welcomes. This place is made by
NEWS BRIEFS LATIN-AMERICAN RESTAURANT TO OPEN IN FORMER CALVERT HOUSE A new sign is already up for the restaurant taking over the Calvert House space, though the restaurant is not expected to open until July. Samuel Umanzor, a Hyattsville resident for over 10 years, will be opening his second location of Lesly Restaurant Bar & Grill. He opened the first restaurant in Falls Church in 2010, naming it after his oldest daughter. That restaurant features Latin-American food, and includes karaoke nights and live bands. Umanzor expects both the menu and the entertainment will be the same at the new location. “I think this is a good place for a restaurant,” says Umanzor. SEX-ASSAULT SUSPECT STILL AT LARGE At press time, Hyattsville police were still searching for a rapist who struck in the early hours of May 4 near the Mall at Prince Georges. Shortly before 2 a.m., according to Sgt. Chris Purvis, the man followed the 20-year-old victim out of the Prince
MATTHEW CREGER Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department President Thomas Falcone presents a plaque to Sister Geraldine McPhee, SND, (left) and Sister Janet Cahill, SND, at St. Jerome Church on Saturday, May 10. The HVFD honored the nuns during a Mass celebrating the 100th anniversary of the service of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at the Hyattsville parish.
George’s Plaza Metro station, heading west towards T.J. Maxx. Holding her at knifepoint behind a dumpster, he raped her and then fled the scene. Police have released surveillance footage of the suspect. “We are working a lot of the tips and have some good leads,” said Purvis. Anyone with information is asked to call the Hyattsville City Police Criminal Investigation Section at 301.985.5060.
PEDESTRIAN FATALITY IN WEST HYATTSVILLE At 4:20 a.m. on May 10, a pedestrian was fatally struck in the 5600 block of Ager Road. At press time Prince George’s County Police were still investigating the incident, which occurred near the West Hyattsville metro station, and had not released further details. — Rosanna Landis Weaver and Susie Currie