AROUND THE PARK AGAIN By Sharon Lee Tegler
Brought to you by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services
As executive director of the Good Neighbors Group, Julie Shay is always on the move. Stopping to chat with a friend recently, she bubbled over with the latest news from the neighborhoods in and around Severna Park where one or another GNG program or project is underway.
Excited about the project she recently took part with GNG’s newest spin-off, the Rogue Gardeners, Shay mentioned how the eight-member group worked together to remove invasive vines from the banks of the Upper Magothy River. (Five of the eight appear in the opening photo including Woods Church Gardners Group member Karen Royer, Lise and Jim Crafton, Lynda Wilkinson and Magothy River Association president Paul Spadaro.
She was even more enthused about the phenomenal success of Good Neighbors Group’s Sixth Annual S(o)uper Bowl Food Drive that was held February 9 through 12.
“We had 56 neighborhoods participate this year with 11 new ones. That definitely rivals our best year since starting the food drive in 2018,” Shay said. “The amount of food collected was enormous and exceeded previous totals. We helped fill the food pantry shelves of five recipient charities including the Anne Arundel County Food Bank, SPAN, ACAN, Celestial Manna at Severna Park Evangelical Presbyterian Church and My Brother’s Pantry.
Donations were collected at neighborhood captains designated drop-off locations and most often stored in their homes.
Once collected, donations were transported to the food drive’s designated charities and came rolling in on drop-off day every way possible, from minivans to red wagons.
The volunteers at the Anne Arundel County Food Bank, SPAN, ACAN, Celestial Manner, and My Brothers Pantry were delighted to receive them and expressed their gratitude. As SPAN directors Maia Grabau and Michele Sabean reminded us at the end of the holiday season, donations slack off during the mid-winter months so donations like these are really appreciated.
On February 22nd, the Good Neighbors Group gathered in the lounge at Cafe Mezzanotte to announce the neighborhood winners for the 2023 S(o)uper Bowl Food Drive.
A total of 18,961 food items were donated all-told. The winning neighborhood by volume was Shipley’s Choice with 1,516 items collected. The per house winner was the Winchester On Severn neighborhood with 10.10 items per house. The two neighborhoods most improved were Severna Park’s Oakleigh Forest (collecting 434 more items than in 2022 and Broadneck’s Schoolers Pond (collecting 133 items more than 2022.)
Shay and the Good Neighbors Group first came to the attention of area residents through their Earth Day Celebrations which have been held in Severna Park for almost two decades, most recently at Severna Park High School. This year, however, the group was not granted permission to hold the event at the high school and had to seek another location.
“Briefly, we wondered if we should discontinue the Earth Day Celebrations since we’d been doing them for almost 20 years.,” Shay said.
“Luckily, we’ll be able hold it this year on the grounds of Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company and we are thrilled. We’d like to send some money their way to help with their efforts to build a new fire station.”
She added that Chris Myers worked with her on the organizational side in past years, with the pair running the event on their own. Fortunately, this year several people have volunteered to work with her on different aspects of the celebration. Severn River Association executive director Jesse Iliff will organize all the environmental groups, Cafe Mezzanotte owner Tommie Koukoulis will organize the food vendors, Kate Langston from SassWell will handle the wellness groups and Refill Goodness co-owner Jenny Vedroni will organize the marketplace. Students from the Leadership Institute at Severna Park High will be volunteering during the actual event. The Earth Day Celebration will be held at Earleigh Heights Fire Station at 161 Ritchie Highway on April 29th from nine to noon.
Another of Good Neighbors Group’s longest-running efforts is the Severna Park Blood Drives that are held every eight weeks in conjunction with Anne Arundel Medical Center. The blood drives are co-sponsored by Park Books, Garry’s Grill and The Big Bean with volunteers Deb Hoffman and Lynda Wilkinson handling the scheduling.
The Anne Arundel Medical Center bus is next scheduled to arrive in front of GNG headquarters at 553 Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard in Severna Park Village is March 3 from 8 am to 2 pm.
Back in 2006, when Julie Shay founded the Good Neighbors Group, she’d sensed that Severna Park was growing at such a rapid pace that residents were losing their sense of neighborhood, their sense of community. She wanted to find a way to bring people back together by tackling projects that could help the community. Seventeen years later, the town and surrounding areas are more crowded than ever.
“The neighborhoods are so sprawling that, if you don’t have a reason to communicate with someone, you may not. However, people are extremely good-hearted if they only know how to help so I try to break things down into finite steps that we can all relate to and inspire people to say, ‘Oh, I can do that,'” said Shay.
GNG’s ever-evolving projects fulfill people’s need to be in touch and involved, especially the S(o)uper Bowl Food Drive where neighbors are communicating with each other and having a lot of fun.
When asked if there are any new projects in the organization’s immediate future, Shay named three that involve the Rogue Gardeners.
Work already began and is ongoing on the first project which involves adding aquatic grasses and native plants to land surrounding the small pond in front of Cafe Mezzanotte which can be seen from Ritchie Highway.
The second project is more of a collaboration between the Rogue Gardeners and a new group they want to support.
Shay learned from Berrywood resident Helen Chapman that she’d become fed up with people discarding trash along her community’s sidewalks and roads so she started a neighborhood Litter Brigade. The Rogue Gardeners so loved the idea that they’ve invited the Litter Brigade to join them for one of their random projects where help is needed. The group plans to gather at Lake Waterford shortly to clear the land around it of litter and invasive vines and add some native plants.
“Lake Waterford has some of the cleanest water in Anne Arundel County and is also a major spawning spot for yellow perch and we’re dedicated to preserving the pristine environment around it,” Shay said.
The Rogue Gardeners’ most exciting project – to revamp the planting beds surrounding the old Severna Park Train Station – is being undertaken in conjunction with Watershed Steward D. J. Giles and the Severna Park Improvement Association which owns the land. A Rogue Gardeners’ committee, headed by Karen Royer, Master Gardener Alison Milligan, Lynda Wilkerson and the late Ann Jackson, had already removed some invasive vines smothering the existing plantings in the left-hand portion of the garden that’s to the left of the Severna Park & Arnold Chamber building.
Shortly after the work was completed, Ann Jackson sadly passed away. The gardeners wanted to do something to honor Jackson – a Watershed Steward and accomplished gardener who’d trained many others and launched a number of community gardens and rain gardens. They group met with Jackson’s husband and Giles and proposed making that small corner of the railroad station property into an educational garden in honor of Anne. Alison Milligan will design the garden using native plants that attract bees and butterflies – a space that would draw people to the Riggs Avenue part of the small downtown that is Olde Severna Park.
Those projects are just some of the Good Neighbors Group’s activities that allow members of the community to be involved with others in something meaningful. For information on Good Neighbors Group, visit Home – Good Neighbors Group.
The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress.”
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee.
