Send announcements to The Loudoun Connection, 7913 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102, e-mail to loudoun@connectionnewspapers.com or fax to 703-917-0991. Deadline is two weeks before the event. Photos/artwork encouraged. For more information, call Jennifer Lesinski at 703-917-6454.
Members of the Ashburn Volunteer Fire Department Explorer Post 1666 traveled to the 2005 National Fire/Emergency Services Exploring Competition hosted at the Brayton Fire Training Field at Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas, June 20-24. Members of the post who made the trip included Capt. Donesha Robinson, Lt. John Ayres, Lt. Stephen Bower, Brian Jang, Ryan McKigney, Nathan Lewis, Chaz Moxley, Hillary Pitts. They were accompanied by advisors Barbara Murphy, Stan Murphy and Max Triola. The team of Robinson, Bower, Lewis and Jang earned a second-place trophy in Search and Rescue Team Competition. Bower earned third place when he entered a timed individual competition in SCBA, correctly donning bunker gear including air breathing equipment. Approximately 100 Explorers competed in this individual event. The post meets on Wednesday night, at 7 p.m., during the summer at the Ashburn Fire House on Ashburn Road. The Explorer Post is accepting new members through out the summer, call AVFRD Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., at 703-729-0006 or come to the meeting.
Every year since 1999, a delegation from Doctors Overseas Lending a Helping Hand Foundation travel to the Amazon Jungle of Peru to treat and perform highly specialized surgery on men, women and children of all ages who need delicate and complex medical care and have no economic means. This year, Dr. Russel McDow, led a delegation of 24 professionals, taking equipment, surgical supplies and medicines for this medical mission. Although, they were confronted with many political obstacles, the team was able to perform 50 operations. The majority of operations were clubbed feet repairs. Other surgeries included hernia repairs, removal of diseased gall bladders, fractured bones and cleft lip and palate repairs. The need for medical assistance for people who live in the Amazon, the poorest region in Peru, is tremendous. Aside from the American donations that the foundation receives, many private individuals in Peru helped pay for the care of those less fortunate. All this effort is possible because of the donations by many private individuals and Loundon and Fairfax county institutions and organizations.
John C. Desmedt II has contracted under the Army ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program as a nonscholarship cadet, which is available to soldiers who have completed two years of college, and can complete their college degree requirements in two years. The students can receive a stipend, a flat-rate payment for uniforms, and use of their earned military educational benefits during the academic year as a contracted cadet in their last two years at an ROTC hosted college or university.
Upon graduation from college with a bachelor's degree and completion of ROTC courses, the cadet will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, National Guard or Reserve and will be required to fulfill a military service commitment.
Desmedt will attend the University of Richmond. He is the son of John C. Desmedt of Nokesville and Rhonda R. Dramstad Leesburg. The cadet graduated in 1997 from Brentsville District High School, Nokesville, and received a bachelor's degree in 2002 from Radford University.
Michael J. Wilhelm has graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md. The graduate received a medical degree and was commissioned to the rank of captain, with a minimum seven-year active duty service commitment.
The university is a tuition-free institution which manages a graduate nursing school, a graduate school with doctor of philosophy and master's degree programs, and a medical school that prepares men and women for careers as physicians in the Army, Navy, Air Force. The medical school curriculum includes a concentration of preventive medicine, primary care, military medicine and emergency medicine.
Wilhelm is the son of Alfred D. Wilhelm Jr. of Ashburn and grandson of Floyd Miller of Spokane, Wash. His wife, Sara, is the daughter of Franz and Ann Kelsch of Gilroy, Calif. The captain graduated in 1994 from The Potomac School, McLean, and received a bachelor's degree in the year 2000 from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Allstate employee, Mike Sanders, recently presented a $500 Allstate ÒHelping HandsÓ grant to the Ashburn Volunteer Fire & Rescue DepartmentÕs Explorer program. Sanders has been involved with the Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department since 1999 as a volunteer firefighter and supports their efforts to help save lives and properties throughout the Ashburn community.
The Allstate Foundation offers Helping Hands grants to recognize the outstanding efforts of qualified employees who volunteer in their communities. For more about The Allstate Foundation, visit www.allstate.com/Community.
Christopher M. Edwards has joined the United States Army under the Delayed Entry Program. The program gives young men and women the opportunity to delay entering active duty for up to one year.
The enlistment gives the new soldier the option to learn a new skill, travel and become eligible to receive as much as $50,000 toward a college education. After completion of basic military training, soldiers receive advanced individual training in their career job specialty prior to being assigned to their first permanent duty station.
The recruit qualifies for a $15,000 enlistment bonus.
Edwards will report to Fort Benning, Columbus, Ga., for active duty on Aug. 11. He is the son of Jsteven M. and Janis E. Edwards of Sterling.
Girl Scout Service Unit 70-03 held its 2005 Adult Recognition Ceremony and recognized the following people.
Appreciation Pins: Lillian Cephas and Joy Dyer; Outstanding Leaders: Delia Andrews, Ginger Griffin, John Karman, Julie Kuhman, Andrea Linears, Charlene Mossesso, Debbie Watts and Regina Willard; Outstanding Volunteers: Nancy Foote, Lisa Lampert and JoAnn Sultan. The following received year pins recognizing years of service. Fifty-year pin Barbara Patton. Twenty-five-year pin, Debbie Comer. Fifteen-year pin, Mindy Cebulski. Ten-year pin, Beth Cadieux and Debbie Watts. Five-year pin, Sandy Cummings.
Sarah Perrett, a rising seventh-grader at Mercer Middle School, has been selected to participate in the Junior National Student Leadership Conference, a leadership development program for outstanding middle-school students. This year, approximately 1,500 gifted middle-school students from across the U.S. and from 45 countries around the world will participate in the conference. Students will attend special workshops and classes where they study distinctions of leadership. Through participation in the program, students develop their abilities to think on their feet, engage in critical analysis and to effectively communicate.
The Loudoun County Public Library received the LpeRCy award from the Library Public Relations Council, June 27, at the council's annual dinner at the American Library Association in Chicago. The award recognizes outstanding publicity materials produced by libraries serving populations of different sizes. The Loudoun County Public Library received this award for the brochure designed and distributed during the 2004 One Book-One Community project, which described the program and book activities associated with Simon Wiesenthal's, "The Sunflower: On the Limits and Possibilities of Forgiveness."
Christian J. Smith has graduated from Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Benning, Columbus, Ga., and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
During the 14 weeks of training, the officer candidate received "basic soldiering" instruction in leadership, professional ethics, soldier team development, combined arms tactics, weapons defense, combat water survival, squad drill, intelligence, field training exercises, and navigation, maintenance, communications, staff and general military subjects, and physical training and conditioning.
The candidate was tested on leadership skills and team work abilities required of a commissioned officer. The student utilized acquired skills to function in "leader and follower" positions in squad and platoon sized elements in a stressful and demanding field environment.
Smith, an armor officer, is assigned to the U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion, Fort George G. Meade, Laurel, Md.
He is the son of Annette R. Green of South Riding and Christian J. Smith Sr. of Waldorf, Md. In 2001, the lieutenant received a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland University College, Adelphi.
The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia recently honored two members of the Loudoun
Sheriff's Vice-Narcotics unit for their efforts in two high-profile narcotics cases.
Investigators Ken Dondero and John Bailie received the 2005 Award for Public Service during a ceremony held Friday, June 17.
Dondero was recognized for his work leading up to the 2004 arrest of former D.C. police officer, who was a member of a drug trafficking organization that distributed ecstasy and methamphetamine in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, including Loudoun County.
Bailie received recognition for his 2004 investigation of a
prescription fraud conspiracy case where four suspects were charged federally with fraudulently obtaining more than 15,000 pills of a scheduled II controlled substance called Roxicodone.
Loudoun's outstanding volunteers were lauded April 19 at the Board of Supervisors meeting, and LINK president Nancy Smith and vice president Robert Duchesneau received the Loudoun Volunteer Services Outstanding Volunteer Organization Award. LINK is comprised of 14 member churches in Herndon and eastern Loudoun communities, united in a common cause to provide food, grocery gift certificates, new beds, hygiene supplies and financial assistance to qualified people in need, 52 weeks a year. In 2004, home food deliveries were provided to 747 families, more than 3,000 people. More than 400 deliveries were made to support organizations such as the Embry Rucker Shelter, Good Shepherd Alliance Shelters, ADAMS Center Mosque, The Closet and William Water House. LINK volunteers work with the public school special programs to assist families with school children in need. LINK is also teaming up with the Herndon and Loudoun Community Free Clinics to help supply prescription medication to those they serve. Through an awarded Health and Human Service grant from U.S. Representative Frank Wolf, LINK will distribute funding to each clinic.
The Loudoun Symphony Association announces the appointment of Mark Allen McCoy as music director and conductor of the Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestra, an educational program of the Loudoun Symphony Association Inc. He replaces Ron Dillard who served in this position for three seasons, from 2002 through 2005. Dillard recently moved from Loudoun County to Kentucky.
McCoy has been music director and conductor of the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra, the Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestra's parent organization, since 1998. He is also director of orchestras at Towson University in Maryland. He served as cover conductor for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra during its 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 seasons and was music director of the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestras from 1995 to 1998. Also, serving one season as music director of the Orchestral Academy of the Tropics in Miami, Fla.
McCoy received acclaim as the only American chosen as one of six finalists during the 1997 "Arturo Toscanini" International Competition for Conductors held in Parma, Italy. In November of the same year, McCoy received an "Honorable Mention" certificate and medal at the prestigious Tokyo International Conducting Competition, conducting both the Tokyo City Philharmonic and the renowned Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. McCoy was also a first prize winner in the 1996 Freedman Conducting Competition.
McCoy holds degrees from the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City, the University of Illinois and pursued doctoral studies in conducting at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he served as Assistant Conductor to the Peabody Camerata Contemporary Ensemble and Preparatory Sinfonia Orchestra. He is a three-time recipient of a Peabody Career Development Grant and was awarded the Harold Randolph Prize for Outstanding Musicianship and Performance in 1995.