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Gazette-Star SERVING SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COMMUNITIES
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Thursday, November 14, 2013
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Residents urge leaders to bring in better stores, address quality-of-life issues BY SOPHIE PETIT STAFF WRITER
Quality of life in Prince George’s County lags behind its neighbors and a few more distant jurisdictions, residents told officials Nov. 6. “I go to Alexandria in Virginia for work every day, and it’s clean. There’s no trash, the homes are old, but the lawns are mowed,” Emily Hickey of Lanham told elected officials. “Then I drive through my neighborhood, and I see trash and Christmas decorations up all summer long ... . Other people say Prince George’s is a slum.” Hickey was one of about 100 residents who at-
See AMENITIES, Page A-8
PHOTOS BY GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Ann and Ed Gardiner at home in Bowie with 152 shoe boxes filled with school supplies, toiletries and toys they have purchased or collected through donations. The supplies will be distributed to children in need all over the world through the Samaritan’s Purse evangelical charity.
BOWIE WOMAN THINKS
INSIDE THE BOX TO SPREAD JOY 90-year-old fills more than 100 shoe boxes with gifts for children in need n
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SOPHIE PETIT
STAFF WRITER
Ed Gardiner of Bowie said his wife, Ann, has a problem: She can’t stop giving, and it’s getting worse. For the past 13 years, Ann Gardiner, 90, has made holiday shoe boxes filled
Store changes parking plan to gain approval n
with gifts for children in need in developing countries. She made 11 boxes the first year, 17 the second and 42 the third. This year, she made 152, Ed Gardiner said. “We set the limit to 143 this year. Then she says, ‘I’m just going to do four more.’ I said, ‘OK, but that’s it,’” he said, laughing. “But then she does four more. I’m putting my foot down!” The colorfully designed boxes were stacked on the Gardiners’ living room floor in the home they’ve lived in for 50 years
See BOX, Page A-7
Wal-Mart officials say about 300 jobs would be created at Oxon Hill site BY CHASE COOK STAFF WRITER
One of the shoe boxes filled with toys, school supplies and more collected by Ann and Ed Gardiner.
Wal-Mart has updated its pitch for a proposed Oxon Hill store near John Hanson Montessori School in an effort to appease nearby residents and Prince George’s County officials. The new proposal moves the store closer to Oxon Hill Road and increases the number of parking spaces from 486 to the county required 507, as Wal-Mart aims to get approval, according to the proposal. “It is a pretty major move to flip-flop the building and parking that way,” said Nina Albert, Wal-Mart
See WAL-MART, Page A-7
Church rallies to aid typhoon victims Pastor: ‘We are all appealing to all human beings regardless of race and gender’
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BY CHASE COOK STAFF WRITER
CHASE COOK/THE GAZETTE
(From left) Ariel Matira, pastor at Oxon Hill Filipino Seventh-day Adventist Church; Rocky Twyman of Rockville; and Joel Rizalino of Beltsville pray in front of the Seventhday Adventist Church on Monday for the Filipinos suffering from Super Typhoon Haiyan.
An Oxon Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church is reaching out to residents, community groups and others as it plans a fundraiser Saturday for the Filipino people of the Iloilo Province in the Philippines, an area devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan. That province, along with other areas of the Philippines, was hammered by
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A BATTLE OF BRAINPOWER
Area schools see victory and defeat at Tuesday’s elementary school quarterfinal Science Bowl rounds.
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Douglass vs. Gwynn Park highlights first week of high school football playoffs.
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Super Typhoon Haiyan Friday through Saturday. Emergency response officials estimate the death toll in the affected areas to top 10,000. “All of us are being moved or touched by seeing the pictures,” said Pastor Ariel Matira of Beltsville. “Probably as of now, [the Filipino people] don’t know if they have food to eat. We are all appealing to all human beings regardless of race and gender. Let us be united.” Matira’s church is holding a fundraiser from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the church’s new location, 7412 Livingston Road in Oxon Hill, in an effort to collect canned food, clothing and money
Automotive
that can be sent to the Iloilo Province. The event will feature music, food and group prayers as Matira and his congregation collect donations. Church deacon Romy Dumling of College Park said he worked disaster situations before as a colonel in the Philippines Army so he knows that the people of his country are struggling to get food and water. The military works with local groups to distribute the food, so once the donations are collected and the church finds a way to get them overseas, the Filipino organizations will find a way to get the goods to those in need,
See FUNDRAISER, Page A-8
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