Freestate Wanderings Newsletter of the October 2020 Freestate Happy Wanderers (FHW) (One of America’s Walking Clubs (AVA)) Club 190 President VP Treasurer Secretary Bob Wolfe (301) 879-6898 Tom Mosely (301) 367-3654 Sue Barna (410) 960-7450 Linda Hassell (410) 437-2164 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Next Scheduled Club Business Meeting is October 8th 2020 6:30PM CCP-Corona virus 19 MASKS Required/ Social Distancing Check for E-mail announcements For the next newsletter kindly submit items by OCTOBER 28th 2020 Submit news to Linda : [email protected] and photos to Phill: [email protected] Freestate Happy Wanderers meetings are held at the Savage United Methodist Church 9032 Baltimore St, Savage, MD 20763 – Faith and Ministry Center Turn onto Gorman Rd from. US Route 1. At the traffic light, .3 mi., turn right onto Foundry Street passing both the Bollman Truss Bridge and the Antique Mill Market , passing Washington street to Baltimore Street. The Faith and Ministry Center is to your right. Doors open at 6:15 p.m President Bob Wolfe Freestate Presidents Remarks (301) 879-6898 [email protected] FHW – President’s Remarks. We are slowly returning to a sense of normalcy, although we have a ways to go still. We’ve held club meetings in the parking lot of the Faith and Ministry center where we could be outside and socially distance. We just returned to an inside meeting this month. In May we held our election of officers virtually. All four of us were willing to run again, and we were re-elected. So I am continuing as President, Tom Mosely as Vice President, Linda Hassell as Secretary and Sue Barna as Treasurer. Traditional events are now being held again, although many have been postponed until 2021. Mary and I walked Columbia’s event at Centennial Lake in July. Nice walking with you Barb and Pam for a bit. We had a group walk at Downs Park in August followed by a picnic lunch at the Hassell’s. Thanks for having us; and it was good to see some of you again. Annapolis Amblers had a nice walk at Serena Park that several of did. Also look for Baltimore’s upcoming event in Havre de Grace on October 10th. We are still going forward with our October event at the St. Nicholas Catholic church in Laurel on Saturday October 17th. The address is 8603 Contee Road, Laurel, MD. Their bazaar is not going to be held, so we reduced this to a one day event. The start times are between 9:30 and 12:00. Thanks to Rita and Mike Goerling for organizing this event. We are still planning on doing our New Year’s events, although we are currently explor- ing options on food and the start/finish configuration depending on the situation. Freestate rescheduled our April Fairland Park event to be a Black Friday event on Novem- ber 27th. However, look for announcements to ensure this event is still on. We’re still coordinating with Maryland Park and Planning on the start point and reopening of the facility. We should know more in October. Thanks to Bob Lumbert for sanctioning our YRE events for next year. We’re adding a YRE next year at Fort Smallwood Park in Pasadena, MD, thanks to Barbara Esker. Most of the start points of our YREs have now reopened, although as I write this the Ocean City con- vention center is still closed, and the Brookside Gardens visitor center is only open from 10 am until 2 pm. Despite the start point being closed for 5 months, I’ve had 9 different people walk the Brookside Gardens events over 140 times. The gardens and regional park never closed, and the flowers are still nice with the new gardens from the renova- tions a couple years ago taking shape. Freestate Presidents Remarks President Bob Wolfe The AVA has evolved and now offers new capabilities to help with these changing times. We can now generate a .pdf sheet of event’s stamps that can be cut and then pasted or taped into your books. I have the ability to generate them via my.ava.org with our club account and then email them to the participants. I’ve done that a lot for those walking Brookside Gardens, and if someone walks your event and needs “stamped,” please have them email me. This can also essentially eliminate insert cards, since they can be done for any event. Please note this if someone forgets their books and does your event. We can also now sanction YRE events as a Parallel Registration, meaning both a physical walk box and as an On-Line Start Box (OLSB) event. The Seneca Sugarloafers have converted their YREs to this, and we are look- ing to do this for Mt. Airy. It adds flexibility if the start point closes. As a POC there’s some extra work with the OLSB directions and approval, but this seems like a logical option for most events. For those of us walking in our neighborhoods, the Virtual Online Program Walking the Appalachian Trail is still ongoing. I completed the program on June 24th. ”So you can’t see beyond the bend in the road? So watch whereyou’re walking in the meantime.” ”NEXT FREESTATE HAPPY WANDERERS WALK EVENT October 17, 2020 – Freestate walk event at St. Nicholas Catholic Church, Laurel, MD details on AVA.org and on FHW webpage. No restrooms but the Dinosaur Park, on one 5-Km trail and other 5-Km trail AVA Special Program “Little Free Library”. Big Give was a success – thanks to everyone $100,000 raised and was needed by AVA. Share Your Adventures with your fellow club members – send to Phill Wilder [email protected] for upcoming newsletters. Pictures and captions welcome. CONGRATULATIONS – Club members and friends celebrating their walking accomplishments appearing in The American Wanderer (TAW): Pam Potter 375 events; Tom Jackson 3800 events; Trudy Perkins 400 events and 3500 km; Rich Perkins 3000 km; Alice Filemyr 9000 km; Jeffrey Giddings 850 events and 8000 km; Don Smith 14,000 km; Darrell Neily 1350 events; Susan DeHetre 900 events and 19000 km. Walkers we know Charlie Kaiser 4300 events, Klaus Waibel 5100 events and Annette Tollett 55000 km. Lots of “k’s” and events for Freestate members and friends. Keep sending in your books. AVA: America’s Walking Club FREESTATE “I WALKED THEM ALL” PATCH PROGRAM Rita Goerling and Charles Kaiser have completed and received their patches. Ladies from Linda sold 36 New Walker First State Webfooters are walking for the patch. Anyone else walking for the patch? Packets MEMBERSHIP: Membership renewal 2020-2021 had been completed and all but three renewed membership. We added several Lifetime members: Karen Kaufman, Delaware. Charlotte Lord our POC in Ocean City and Andrew Nitz from Greenbelt. Counting on our membership to help our sport grow. Invite new walkers to the October 17, November 27 and New Years events. Special gift to all members bringing a new walker. The AVA will be moving as noted in TAW. Lease is up and looking for new space. Continued…….. The heart beat continues…….. FELLOW CLUB MEMBER Don Conway was interviewed and featured on several Washington DC TV Channels and at the Sandy-Spring Slave Museum. The Negro Baseball League (NBL) celebrated 100 year anniversary. Don took his NBL displays to several area community centers and the Sandy Spring Slave Muse- um. His interview is available https://www.mymcmedia.org/sandy-spring-museum-celebrates-100- years-of-negro-league-baseball. List of Upcoming AVA Walk Events – Walk details on MDVOLKS.ORG and the AVA.org web- site. Always check for changes. Events October 10, 2020 – Havre de Grace – see websites for details October 17, 2020, St. Nicholas Catholic Church. Laurel, Outside registration and stamping of books. October 24, 2020 – Rehoboth Beach, First State Webfooters November 27 at Fairlands, Beltsville New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day 2020-2021 June 5, 2021 – Kinder Farm Park – National Trails Day You live in a neighbor which would be great for a walk. Volunteer to be the Point of Contact and a whole Team of people will join you to put on a walking event. Try it.!!! REMEMBERING VOLKMARCHING FRIENDS Sue Barna, 6405 Woodvale Pl., Elkridge, MD 21075- Medical treatments Bill Brabant, 8747 Contee Road, #404, Laurel, MD 20708 – Living Alone Fran Looper, 7861 Poplar Grove Road, Severn, MD 21144 – Shoulder Surgery Frank Santora, 4021 12th Street, Chesapeake Beach, MD 20732 – Medical treatments & Birthday Dave Sealing, 7418 Cherry Tree Dr., Fulton, MD 20759 – Knee Replacement Phill Wilder, 9462 Glen Ridge Dr., Laurel, MD 20723 – Home working on Newsletters Col. Ken Wilson – Sunrise Assisted Living, 8300 Burdette Rd. #C717, Bethesda, MD 20817 Sad news that club member and volunteer Bruce Daniel passed away on July 31, 2020. Cards can still be sent to: Mrs. Nancy Daniel and Family, 8817 Cardinal Forest Circle, Laurel, MD 20723. HOPEFULLY “A HAPPIER NEW YEAR IN 2021” Freestate is planning to have our New Year’s Events in Savage, Maryland. This is all dependent on the COVID19 situation with the state/county and church at that time. Look for more information as we get closer to New Years. Atlantic Region Calendar (Official Regional Director's Calendar) details on the MVAvolks.org/homepage website or ava.org website for detailed information in our area. America’s Walking Club - AVA Activity Notes Rita Goerling did a very walk-worthy achievement of walking all of FHW YRE’s. Maryland was part of the founding of our country, the forming of our nation, the holding together of our Union.