Enjoying Clarendon Day
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Enjoying Clarendon Day

A microcosm of Arlington activists, artists, animals.

Sue Grace stands in front of two of her paintings hanging at the pop up art gallery in the 2800 block of Clarendon Boulevard, across from Orvis. Studio space is hard to come by in Arlington, and these artists are grateful for the time they will have in this space. Grace likes the diffuse light in the studio. For more information see www.suegrace.com

Sue Grace stands in front of two of her paintings hanging at the pop up art gallery in the 2800 block of Clarendon Boulevard, across from Orvis. Studio space is hard to come by in Arlington, and these artists are grateful for the time they will have in this space. Grace likes the diffuse light in the studio. For more information see www.suegrace.com Photo by Eden Brown.

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André Demi serves tapas from the newcomer restaurant, “Pamplona,” to attendees of Clarendon Day. Pamplona has been open for 18 months. One of the customers tried the chicken croquettes and pronounced them as good as anything she had eaten in Spain this summer. The vegan croquette also got rave reviews from samplers. See http://pamplonava.com.

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Blaise Hartsoe, of McLean, set up a table on mental health awareness. She is pursuing her “Gold Award” (the Girl Scouts’ equivalent of an Eagle Scout) and this project is part of her effort to spread awareness of mental health issues in young people. She said she became aware of the number of people her age who are going through mental health challenges and wanted to make others aware of the issue. Hartsoe goes to Bishop O’Connell High School. Her website is: stopastigma.weebly.com

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Mark Riley and Brian Webster, pastor of Christ Church, Arlington, who founded the Turkey Trot fundraiser 13 years ago, encouraged residents at Clarendon Day to sign up for the 5K race. The Arlington Turkey Trot is a dog friendly run. Riley and Webster signed up the dog in the picture wearing the Turkey Trot bandana, Juno, a poodle who is hoping some turkeys show up for the trot. For more information, see www.arlingtonvaturkeytrot.org.

Clarendon was full of families, craft beer, dogs of all shapes and sizes, activists, young couples, old couples, jewelry makers, massage therapists, and great food on Sept. 22.

One of the most impressive displays at Clarendon Day was a table set up by Blaise Hartsoe, bringing attention to the website she set up to bring greater awareness of mental illness to her contemporaries — middle and high school students. Her website’s mission is to educate teens on mental health illnesses to end the mental health stigma and to encourage teens suffering from mental illness to seek help. See www.stopastigma.weebly.com

Another impressive “display” was the Gallery Clarendon pop up art studio space, chock full of art and artists, which joined the Clarendon Day lineup this year. The space is a temporarily vacant commercial space where artists can paint, hold classes, display art, and share information. For more information, see: http://galleryclarendon.org.

Other displays worth checking out were the local branch of Moms Demand Action for gun sense in America (see www.facebook.com/MomsDemandActionVA) and the Commons Church (see https://www.arlingtoncommons.org) and Virginia’s pro-choice NARAL (https://naralva.org) and Spark Yoga (https://www.sparkyoga.com).