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THE ROAD TO UTOPIA
Gazette-Star
Subjects arrive from around the world for Greenbelt film festival. B-1
SERVING SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COMMUNITIES
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Thursday, October 17, 2013
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Military to alert Bowie for next drill More than a dozen Bowie residents called 911 reporting sounds of gunfire n
BY SOPHIE PETIT STAFF WRITER
After hearing a loud boom followed by sounds of what appeared to be explosions around 3:30 a.m., Mary Lampe, 70, of Bowie, said her husband, Don, promptly called 911. “We thought it was gunfire, and it sounded like it was coming from the direction of Melford,” said Mary Lampe, who lives on Forest Drive, recalling the Oct. 7 incident. “It was disturbing to be honest.” At 4:23 a.m., a Prince George’s County police helicopter crew that was surveying the area discovered the sounds were coming from an unan-
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Sarah Rollins (right) puts a flier in a mailbox while her daughter, Alisha Rollins-Taylor (left), and friend, Kris Richardson, walk through the Beechtree neighborhood in Upper Marlboro to publicize their Oct. 26 breast cancer awareness 5K walk/run.
Walking to fight breast cancer BY CHASE COOK STAFF WRITER
Sarah Rollins hasn’t missed a breast cancer awareness walk since 1998, when her maternal grandmother lost a two-year battle with breast cancer. “When we lost her to breast cancer, it was a very hard blow,” said Rollins, who lives in Upper Marlboro. Rollins said she would find whatever breast cancer walks she could each year. This year, she decided to form her own with her daughter, Alisha Rollins-Taylor, in their Beechtree community. The walk is 5 kilometers — about 3.1 miles — and will take place from 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 26, starting at the Beechtree Community Center, 15511 Beechtree Parkway in Upper Marlboro. Prince George’s County has the
UPPER MARLBORO RESIDENTS ORGANIZE FIRST AWARENESS EVENT n
highest breast cancer mortality rate per 100,000 women in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., region, according to a 2010 study by Susan G. Komen, the nonprofit organization that raises money for awareness, research and assistance for women impacted by breast cancer. This money could pay for small grants to help women pay for medical bills or meals for themselves and their children when undergoing treatment, said Brittany Fowler, Susan G. Komen Maryland’s spokes-
nounced military training exercise in Davidsonville, said Bowie Police Chief John K. Nesky. The drill scare has prompted military officials to announce future drills. “We had no idea, so we kind of converged on the area, set up a perimeter and tried to judge where things were coming from. The county helicopter was able to determine it was a military exercise,” Nesky said. The Lampes were one of 18 Bowie households that called 911 reporting sounds of explosions and gunfire, said Charlynn Flaherty, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Public Safety that manages the emergency dispatch center. The United States Air Force based in Joint Base Andrews near Upper Marlboro conducts regular training exercises in Davidsonville. However,
See DRILL, Page A-7
South county tries luck at swaying casino site choice
woman. It also could go to health departments to help fund preventive care. Seventy-five percent of the money stays in Maryland, Fowler said. Registration costs $25 before the event and $30 the day of the event. The money is collected through a Susan G. Komen online donation portal. Cash donations are collected, then deposited in the donor’s name, Rollins said. “There is no reason anyone should die [because of] breast cancer,” Rollins said. “Do the preventative care and do the mammograms.” Rollins, a surgical technician, said her experiences in the operating room have shown her that breast cancer can be beaten if women get screenings and are willing to have mastectomies to get
Forest Heights passes resolution, forms petition against National Harbor location n
BY CHASE COOK STAFF WRITER
Southern Prince George’s residents are ramping up opposition to a proposed casino at National Harbor as the selection process for developers begins Monday. Forest Heights passed a resolution Oct. 7 officially opposing MGM International Resorts building a casino at National Harbor, less than a mile from homes in the town and in Oxon Hill. The town also created an online petition that went live Oct. 10, col-
See WALKING, Page A-7
lecting signatures against the harbor site. Residents from Oxon Hill, Fort Washington and Forest Heights protested at the site Oct. 9, holding signs and T-shirts with the words, “No to a casino.” “We don’t want to think of Prince George’s County as, ‘That’s where the casino is,’” said Forest Heights Mayor Jacqueline Goodall. “We want people to think of it as a place to raise their children.” Goodall said the casino shouldn’t be built at National Harbor because it is too close to the community. The best option would be Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, she said, because people who live there bought their homes after the raceway was
See CASINO, Page A-7
Bowie resident’s ‘mistake’ led to N.Y. runway n
Russian native transforms theater costumes into couture dresses BY SOPHIE PETIT STAFF WRITER
When Evgenia Luzhina-Salazar emigrated from Russia 22 years ago, she barely knew how to speak English or how to sew. Now she’s a successful costume designer and more recently a celebrated fashion designer, appearing in one of New York’s fashion shows. “My life is very funny. Everything I have reached now is by mistake,” said LuzhinaSalazar, 56, who has lived in Bowie for about 10 years. Luzhina-Salazar said her first “mistake” was meeting Andrei Malaev-Babel, cofounder of one of Russia’s first private theater companies, who hired her as the costume de-
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FURTHERING LATINO OUTREACH
County Executive Rushern L. Baker III has appointed his first full-time Latino liaison.
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signer for his new company in Moscow. Malaev-Babel, 46, said he began collaborating with American theatre companies in the early 1990s and decided to permanently move to the United States, eventually directing a production at the Prince George’s County Community College in Largo. “I couldn’t think of a better designer to collaborate with, so I was able to convince Prince George’s Community College to sponsor Evgenia’s visa as a guest artist to come and design my production at the college,” he said. Malaev-Babel went on to co-found the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio in Washington, D.C., in 1997 and put Luzhina-Salazar in charge of costume and set design. “She built things out of nothing ... She was wonderful at working under budget with the very meager means we could offer her,” he said. It was the first time Luzhina-Salazar actu-
ally made a costume, she said. “Here, you have to design and make it,” she said. “I learned by myself. I’m not sure even if now I’m doing it correct or not.” Luzhina-Salazar made her second “mistake” when the Stanislavsky theater closed in 2006 and she took home all the costumes she had made, she said. That same year, she transformed them into elaborate dresses and put on her first runway show — “Passion Runway.” She debuted the show in her backyard, then at the Russian Embassy and Sylvan Theatre Stage in the District, she said. To her surprise, she was selected to appear in New York Couture Fashion Week’s Spring 2014 collection show from Sept. 6-8, she said. This year was her third appearance in the show. “Suddenly everybody knows me and the
SPORTS
Laurel quarterback second in the county in yards passing.
PHOTO BY LISA HOLTE
See RUNWAY, Page A-7
A STRONG START
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Fashion designer Evgenia LuzhinaSalazar of Bowie, in New York Couture Fashion Week’s Spring 2014 collection show in September.
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