Monthly CA MAY 2014
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F C O L U M B I A A S S O C I AT I O N
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2 NAACP Recognizes YTC as 2014 Young Trailblazers Award Winner 3 Columbia Home Tour Returns Next Month 8 Be a Part of Your Community Events
Check out CA’s new strategic plan at ColumbiaAssociation.org/StrategicPlan
Strategic Plan W e’re fun. We’re excellent. We’re inclusive, trustworthy and connected. These are the values that guide Columbia Association’s (CA) approach to fulfilling its mission of working
the changing needs of the community. every day in hundreds of ways to make Columbia There are several other important goals in the an even better place to live, work and play. And plan, including enhancing connectivity and these values form the foundation of CA’s new environmental stewardship, maintaining CA’s strategic plan, which went into effect on May 1. open spaces, strengthening CA’s To develop this plan, CA communication and community reached out to numerous area engagement efforts, continuing to stakeholders, conducting surveys improve transparency, maintaining of and speaking with multiple With every strong fiscal discipline and departments of the Howard service investing additional effort in County Government, local we provide, community partnerships. nonprofits, community partners, As CA does all of this, it will commercial property owners, we strive for do so with those five values in village board chairs, residents, excellence. mind. We deliver fun and have local businesses, CA advisory a great time providing it. With committee chairs and CA team every service we provide, we members. strive for excellence. We Their thoughts brought us an celebrate diversity. We build lasting and even greater understanding of how the trusting relationships. And we foster needs, interests and expectations of the opportunities to connect with others. This community are changing. plan will guide the CA Board, its new Members of the community spoke often of president and its great staff as we all work to the value of CA’s programs, services and facilities, and how important it is that they are keep this the community of choice today — regularly evaluated and updated, evolving with and for generations to come.
C A M O N T H LY 1
NAACP Recognizes YTC as 2014
Young Trailblazers Award Winner By Mary Weeks
ecently, Columbia Association’s (CA) Youth and Teen Center (YTC) was awarded the 2014 Young Trailblazer Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This award recognizes the contributions of young leaders within the Howard County community. “To the kids, receiving this award means that they are making a great contribution to our community,” said Rene Buckmon, manager of youth and teen programs. “It encourages them to continue to be young
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The YTC was awarded the 2014 Young Trailblazer Award from the NAACP.
leaders within the Columbia and Howard County community and to always be the conduit forging a positive path for their peers to emulate.” YTC provides great programs and activities for youth in the Howard County area. The center offers programs such as the Teen and Middle School Advisory Committees, Teen Outreach Committee and mentoring groups for girls and boys that teach leadership and life skills. For more information about YTC and how your kids can get involved with programs and activities at the center, visit ColumbiaAssociation.org/Teens.
COLUMBIA HOME TOUR Returns Next Month he popular Columbia Home Tour will soon be returning for its fifth year. The self-guided tour will be held on Sunday, June 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are on sale for $20 from any of the 10 village community associations. On the day of the tour, tickets will be $25 and will only be available at Amherst House in Kings Contrivance. Proceeds will benefit the local charity Rebuilding Together Howard County, which provides free home repairs to lowincome families in Howard County. The Columbia Home Tour, which is sponsored by the villages of Columbia and Columbia Archives, provides an interesting perspective on what facets of architecture in Columbia endure and what facets change so as to reflect the needs and
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By David Greisman
styles of today’s residents. With a tour guidebook and map, participants will head to the five homes, where docents will welcome and guide them. People may tour as many homes as they wish and in any order they choose. This year’s featured homes include a California contemporary in Harper’s Choice, a transitional two-story on the golf course in Harper’s Choice, a modern rancher in Oakland Mills, a traditional two-story in Owen Brown and a Vantage House penthouse in Town Center. Participants are also invited to visit Amherst House for light refreshments and to see displays provided by Columbia Archives and Rebuilding Together Howard County. For more information, please go to ColumbiaHomeTour.org.
The popular Columbia Home Tour returns Sunday, June 1. Participants can take a self-guided tour through five unique homes around Columbia.
Enjoy a free lunchtime concert at Lakefront Wednesdays. This year’s concerts start May 7.
Lakefront Wednesdays Lunchtime Concert Series Starts this month re you in the mood for a little bit of R&B? How about some funk or rock songs? Well, we have you covered at this year’s Lakefront Wednesdays Lunchtime Concert Series. That’s right, the lunchtime concerts are back! Enjoy live concerts by the lake on Wednesday every week in May and June. In addition to great live music, guests will receive free cold beverages and be eligible to win a raffle! This year’s performers include
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By Erin McPhail
series favorites and popular local musicians representing a wide variety of musical styles, including rock, folk, jazz, blues and R&B. To get a sneak peak of these great artists, or to find more information on the Lakefront Wednesdays Lunchtime Concert Series, please call 410-423-1891 or visit ColumbiaAssociation.org/ LakefrontWednesdays. We will see you at the lake!
The 2014 Concert Series Lineup Includes: May 7: Ted Garber, rock/folk May 14: The Dan Haas Band, various genres May 21: Angela Sheik, electro-acoustic May 28: Unity Reggae Band, reggae Janice B, R&B/soul June 4: June 11: Damon Foreman, rock/funk June 18: Pan Fried Steel, steel drum June 25: Cara Kelly & The Tell Tale, blues/soul
C A M O N T H LY 3
Columbia DogPark Opening May 24 By David Greisman
ome out May 24 — and don’t forget your pooches and pups — for the grand opening of Columbia DogPark, the first dog park in Columbia. Dog lovers have been, uh, hounding Columbia Association (CA) for some time about giving their canines a great place to run and play. Fortunately, they were barking up the right tree. CA listened and found a great spot: Columbia DogPark is located on 2.7 acres at 5901 Rivendell Lane, off Cedar Lane and adjacent to Columbia SportsPark in the village of Harper’s Choice. The May 24 grand opening is a free opportunity for people and their dogs to see the park, which has a two-acre area for large dogs (more than 25 pounds) and 0.7 acres for small dogs (less than 25 pounds). CA staff will be on-site that day for those
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interested in annual registration. The annual rate is $35 for CA residents and $40 for non-CA residents for a maximum of three dogs per household. One-day passes to Columbia DogPark also are available for $5 for CA residents and $6 for non-CA residents.
The Columbia DogPark grand opening will take place on Saturday, May 24 from 10am-noon.
But there’s no need to wait until then. Pre-registration for Columbia DogPark is available at CA’s Open Space Management Division at 9450 Gerwig Lane in east Columbia. Dog owners will need to fill out an application and liability waiver form and will need to provide a copy of a current dog license and rabies certification. Registered users will be issued a Columbia DogPark Dog Tag for each registered dog, giving them access to a facility that is open from sunup to sundown, seven days a week. There is a maximum of two dogs per handler in the off-leash areas. For more information on Columbia DogPark, please contact CA’s Open Space Management Division at 410-312-6330 or go to ColumbiaAssociation.org/ DogPark.
Congratulations to the Winter 2014 Excite Columbia Graduates he winter 2014 class of Columbia Association’s Excite Columbia graduated in early April. Excite Columbia is a five or six-week program implemented by CA Communications and Community Engagement Division. The main goal of the program is to educate, inform and give residents an in-depth view on how CA operates and serves the community. Excite Columbia also provides a forum for CA and community members to interact and engage with one another. We would like to offer congratulations to the following graduates: Marcelino Bedolla (pictured), Lisa Cole, Bill Dragovich, Fenise Dunson, Atal Eralp (pictured), Maria Gavrilas-Guinn (pictured), Marianne Heritage (pictured), Sharon Richardson, James Robinson (pictured), Gloria A. Smith. The next session will take place in the fall. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please email Communications@ColumbiaAssociation.org.
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From Left: Former Harper’s Choice CA Board Representative Cindy Coyle, James Robinson, Marcelino Bedolla, Marianne Heritage, Atal Eralp, Maria Gavrilas-Guinn, CA Board Chairman Andy Stack.
CA’s Annual Charge Helps Fund Swim Programs By Aria White Connor
olumbia Association’s (CA) annual charge helps fund many of CA’s programs and activities, including the free Summer Lakefront Festival concerts and movies, village elections, open space and more. Money from the annual charge also supports the upkeep of CA’s 23 outdoor pools and helps CA provide programs to ensure that all residents have access to the pools, regardless of income level. CA’s Aquatics Department will be holding free swimming lessons on the following dates: Thursday, June 20, at Kendall Ridge Pool, at
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CA offers programs each year give residents easy access to CA’s outdoor pools. 10:15am or 11am; and Friday, June 21, at River Hill Pool, at 10:15am or 11am for the World’s Largest Swim Lesson. CA will also be hosting Columbia Swims from June
21-Aug. 3 this year to help ensure that all Columbia residents have the opportunity to be safe around water. This program is for ages 6 and up (under 13 must be accompanied by an adult).
All About the Clippers Swim Team he Columbia Aquatics Association (CAA), better known as the Clippers Swim Team, is a competitive swim team sponsored by Columbia Association. Columbia has had a competitive swim team since the late 1960s. The present day Clippers began in 1987 with 30 swimmers. The team now has more than 330 swimmers ranging from 6 to
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18 years old, in 12 different practice groups. Swimmers practice from September through July, from three to eight times a week and sometimes twice a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Practice starts as early as 5:30 a.m. and end as late as 8:45 p.m. to accommodate as many participants in the program as possible. Many swimmers go on to swim in college, masters
programs, triathlons and, more importantly, for physical fitness. Swimming is a sport that many can continue to enjoy all throughout their life. During the championship month of March, the Clippers will be sending 50 swimmers to the Maryland Swimming State Championship Meet at the Naval Academy, 63 swimmers to the Junior
A variety of skill stations will be available at each class, including water acclimation, basic skills to feel safe in/around water, how to respond to an aquatic emergency and more. Sessions will be held on Saturdays at Talbott Springs Pool, from 5-6pm and Sundays at Running Brook Pool, from 5-6pm. Cost is $2 for CA Members/Columbia Card Holders and $8 for nonmembers. Participants may attend multiple classes. You can register by calling CA’s Aquatics office, visiting any CA pool, or visiting ColumbiaAssociation. org/Pools. This year, CA’s 23 outdoor pools will open on Saturday, May 24. Learn more about the ways CA uses the money brought in by the annual charge by visiting WhyIPayCA.org.
Championship Meet at St. Mary’s College and 20 swimmers to the Speedo® Championship Series Meet at Virginia Tech. At a recent meet, the Clippers hosted swimmers ages 6 to 18 at Howard Community College. More than 700 swimmers participated in more than 2,800 events! The 200 Clippers swimmers achieved more than 650 best times at the meet. For more information, visit ClippersSwim.org.
C A M O N T H LY 5
CA’s World Languages Café
Celebrates 1-Year Anniversary By David Greisman
t began at one table and then went from another to the next, on and on, all singing “Happy Birthday,” each table doing so in a different language. They were celebrating the first anniversary of Columbia Association’s World Languages Café program, which this past March marked one year of hosting monthly evenings of conversation and culture in 15 different languages. Thanks to the continuing partnership and support from Wegmans, the World Languages Café provides community members with a great place to speak a language they know or are learning, to converse in a friendly atmosphere, meet new people who enjoy learning about other cultures, increase their fluency by speaking and listening, pick up useful
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phrases to use when traveling and recall their childhood languages. The World Languages Café meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month at the Wegmans Café, located at 8855 McGaw Road in Columbia. More than
400 people have come through, usually with between 60 and 100 people there each month. “Language and culture are just intimately intertwined. When people come to practice a language, they’re
also getting in touch with the culture,” said Laura Smit, manager of CA’s International Exchange and Multicultural Programs. “There aren’t that many opportunities in Howard County to practice language.” Languages include Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Language tables are hosted by native speakers who will facilitate conversation; these gatherings are not grammar or vocabulary classes. To find out if there will be a native speaker of the language you are interested in practicing, if you’re interested in hosting a language table that is not listed above, or for more information, please contact Laura Smit, at 410-715-3162 or Laura.Smit@ ColumbiaAssociation.org.
Spring into Summer with Cool HVAC Upgrades By Jeremy Scharfenberg
s an ENERGY STAR® Partner, Columbia Association (CA) is actively working to upgrade its heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment in order to reduce energy consumption, maintenance costs and greenhouse gas emissions. For both new and existing facilities CA is choosing equipment
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that meets ENERGY STAR standards and/or exceeds building energy code requirements. Several of these new HVAC units, which are among the most energy efficient available, can be seen on the roof of the Supreme Sports Club. And spring is a great time for Columbia residents to upgrade air conditioning equipment before the heat of summer sets in. The Baltimore
Gas and Electric (BGE) Smart Energy Savers Program offers up to $900 in rebates for ENERGY STAR certified heating and cooling equipment. If your equipment is more than 10 years old, it might be time to replace it. Choosing ENERGY STAR certified equipment can help you improve comfort, reduce energy use and save money. Although ENERGY STAR certified models can
sometimes be more expensive upfront, the additional cost is typically recovered through lower energy use. So start saving today! To learn more visit BGESmartEnergy.com. To learn more about ENERGY STAR, visit energystar.gov.
CA Board Recap
At the Columbia Association (CA) Board of Directors meeting held on Thursday, April 10, these recommendations for action were approved: • The
Planning and Strategy Committee recommended to the board approval of the Comprehensive Plan for Serving Older Adults, as amended, as a guiding framework and that the staff report annually on the progress of implementation of the plan.
•
The Planning and Strategy Committee moved its End-of-Year report to the board for its review.
• The
board approved the recommendations from the Subcommittee on Advisory Committees.
• The
board approved the issuance of long-term debt.
• The
board approved the Minority Business Policy with a targeted 12 percent procurement from minority businesses, with a sunset date of April 30, 2017.
• The
board elected Nancy McCord as a representative to the Inner Arbor Trust Board of Directors.
• The
next scheduled Board of Directors meetings will be held on Thursday, May 8 and 22.
• Meetings
are held at CA Headquarters, which is located at 10221 Wincopin Circle, across the street from The Mall in Columbia. Meetings begin at 7:30 p.m.
For current CA Board of Directors meeting minutes and agendas, visit ColumbiaAssociation.org/Agendas. Podcasts from board meetings also are available at ColumbiaAssociation.org/Podcasts.
We Want To
HEAR FROM YOU! What do you want to read more of in the CA Monthly newsletter? Columbia Association (CA) currently writes and publishes this monthly community newsletter featuring CA news, events, programs and projects. The newsletter is inserted on the first Thursday of each month in the Columbia Flier and is posted online. You can read the latest issue at CAMonthly.org. Take a look and let us know what you would like to read more of in the newsletter. Visit bit.ly/camonthly to let us know what you think, or email Communications@ColumbiaAssociation.org.
IMPORTANT CA PHONE NUMBERS CA Headquarters ...........................................................410-715-3000 CA Membership Service Center...............................410-730-1801 Aquatics Office ..............................................................410-312-6332 Columbia Art Center ....................................................410-730-0075 Columbia Athletic Club ...............................................410-730-6744 Columbia Association Camps...................................410-715-3165 Columbia Gym ................................................................410-531-0800 Columbia Horse Center...............................................301-776-5850 Columbia Ice Rink.........................................................410-730-0322 Columbia SportsPark/SkatePark .............................410-715-3054
Columbia Swim Center................................................410-730-7000 Columbia Teen Center .................................................410-992-3726 Fairway Hills Golf Club................................................410-730-1112 Hobbit’s Glen Golf Club ...............................................410-730-5980 Inclement Weather Hotline........................................410-715-3154 Indoor Tennis, Columbia Athletic Club..................410-720-0149 Owen Brown Tennis Bubble ......................................410-381-7255 Supreme Sports Club ...................................................410-381-5355 The Racquet Club at Hobbit’s Glen ........................410-715-3080 Wilde Lake Tennis Club...............................................410-730-3767 C A M O N T H LY 7
May
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Dog Day Afternoon Sat, May 3 • 11am-3pm Hopewell Park 410-423-1891
Red Ribbon Community Yard Sale Sat, May 3 • 8am-noon Harper’s Choice Community • 410-730-0770
Remembering Jim Rouse - Birthday Party Sun, May 4 • 5-7pm Merriweather Post Pavilion 410-715-3103
Lively Arts for Little Ones Presents: “Rocknoceros”
Town Center Village Board Meeting
Fri, May 9 • 10am • Slayton House Theatre • 410-730-3987
Bingo Ladies Night Out
Fri, May 9 • 10am • The Other Barn • 410-730-4610
Rainbow Theatre
Summer Camps Open House
Sat, May 10 • 11am-2pm Columbia Gym • 410-715-3165
Thu, May 8 • 6pm Owen Brown Community Center • 410-381-0202 Thu, May 8 • 7:30pm CA Headquarters 410-715-3000
Thu, May 15 • 7pm • The Other Barn • 410-730-4610
Fri, May 16 • noon-1:30 pm The Hawthorn Center Joan@HickoryRidge Village.org
Thu, May 8 • 11:30am-1pm The Hawthorn Center 410-730-7327
Sat, May 17 • 10am Wilde Lake Park 410-715-3103
Columbia WalkAlong
The Art of Ghana
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Family Bingo at The Other Barn
Birds in the Backyard
50+ Lunch
Fri, May 9 • 6-8pm Columbia Athletic Club 410-715-3169
Thu, May 15 • 7-9pm Amherst House 410-381-9600
Thu, May 15-Sat, Jun 14 (Reception: Sat, May 17, 3-5pm) • Times vary Slayton House • 410-730-3987
CA Board of Directors Meeting
KidSpace 2nd Annual Hip-Hop Dance Off
Wed, May 14 • 7pm Historic Oakland Manor 410-730-4744
Bernice Kish Gallery May Exhibit: Jenny Singleton and Beatrice Hardy
Mother Daughter Night Out
Thu, May 8-Sun, May 18 (Reception: Sat, May 10, 2-5pm) • Times vary Columbia Art Center 410-730-0075 • 410-715-3162
Visit ColumbiaAssociation.org/Events to learn about more great events happening in Columbia!
Sun, May 18 • 10am River Hill Village Center Parking Lot 410-531-1749
River Hill Flea Market
Culture Fest on North Africa and Middle East
Sun, May 18 • 1:30-4:30pm Howard County Library System’s Miller Branch 410-715-3162
Columbia Association Aquatics Advisory Committee Meeting
Tue, May 20 • 7-8:30pm Columbia Swim Center 410-312-6332
CA Board of Directors Meeting
Thu, May 22 • 7:30pm CA Headquarters 410-715-3000
Sat, May 24 • 8am-noon The Hawthorn Center Parking Lot Joan@HickoryRidgeVillage.org
Flea Market
Thu, May 29 • 4:30-6pm Historic Oakland Manor 410-730-4744
Afternoon Tea
SplashDown Teen Night
Fri, May 30 • 7-9pm Columbia Swim Center ColumbiaAssociation.org/Pools
p Hi op H DANCE OFF
SAVE THE DATE: Columbia Home Tour
Sun, Jun 1 • 11am-5pm Various locations ColumbiaHomeTour.org