Laurel is offering a class for residents who want to be prepared for the worst.

The Community Emergency Response Team class will prepare residents to be volunteer responders in case of emergencies such as floods and fires.

“People come out of the woodwork to help in a disaster, and it’s a good thing,” said Marty Flemion, director of emergency services in Laurel. “But the people coming out may not know what they’re doing and get hurt or become part of the problem.”

Classes will teach residents how to work with firefighters, police, public works crews and victims during an emergency.

Volunteers who complete the course can also be included in future disaster exercises and notified when their help is needed during an emergency.

Laurel has trained about 50 CERT members since 2003, Flemion said. Those volunteers have helped first responders during emergencies like floods and blizzards.

The free classes will take place Thursday evenings from Feb. 16 to April 1, and will be taught by instructors from the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute and the Prince George’s County Office of Homeland Security.

For more information, call 301-725-5300, ext. 2109.

UMD student advances in national journalism competition

A University of Maryland, College Park, journalism student has placed sixth in the collegiate Hearst Journalism Awards Program, advancing him to the semifinal round of judging.

UM senior Brendan Ponton said winning the collegiate journalism competition would be equivalent to a collegiate football player winning the Heisman Trophy, an annual award for the most distinguished college football player of the year.

“It’s considered the most prestigious journalism contest for college,” he said.

For the television features portion of the competition, Ponton entered two broadcast feature stories, one that he worked on for a class assignment and the other as a reporter for Capital News Service, a news wire service operated by the University of Maryland.

Final submissions for the semifinal round are due March 2 and winners from that round will go to San Francisco for on-the-spot assignments and scholarship opportunities, according to the Hearst Journalism Awards website.

Ponton said he will be graduating in May and hopes that his achievement in the competition thus far will aid in his search for a job in broadcast journalism.

“I think [the competition] is something that’s considered prestigious, so it will help me stand out in the application process,” he said.

His father, Tom Ponton, said he is proud of his son’s achievements and said the UM journalism program does a great job at preparing its students, noting that he was a 1982 graduate from UM’s journalism school.

“He’s worked very hard,” Tom said. “In life, it’s great to see hard work rewarded. He is interested in entering the very challenging world of journalism and we’ll see where that goes.”

‘Chromosome’ wins spelling bee for Laurel student

Kathryn Wnuk-Fink correctly spelled “chromosome” for the win at the sixth annual spelling bee Jan. 12 at Hammond Middle School in Laurel.

Kathryn, 11, a sixth-grader, will go on to represent the school in Howard County’s competition March 9 at Reservoir High School, sponsored by Friends of Howard County Public Libraries.

The winner at the county level will go on compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, held from May 27 to June 1 in Washington, D.C.

Eighteen Hammond sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students competed in the school-wide bee.

Another Laurel student, sixth-grader Alexa Shyama, 11, took the second place spot and will act as alternate for the countywide competition.

Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department starts new ambulance program

Three members of the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department recently completed requirements to become Maryland- and Prince George’s County-certified Advanced Life Support providers.

As a result, the department has implemented a Paramedic Ambulance program that will provide advanced life support medical care in addition to the standard emergency medical services.

The PA will provide ALS medical care with at least one Maryland-licensed and county-certified ALS provider and one county-certified Basic Life Support provider.

A large number of the Hyattsville volunteers also attended certification classes and are certified to provide ALS assistance.

“I am proud of the Hyattsville volunteers for placing a Paramedic Ambulance in service, thus enabling them to provide that extra level of advance life support service that is so critical to the citizens and residents of Hyattsville and surrounding communities,” said Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Chief Marc Bashoor.

The PA program will provide services during 12-hour shifts for weekends and special events.

Anacostia Watershed Society to teach students how to grow rice

The Anacostia Watershed Society, a Bladensburg-based nonprofit organization for promoting and preserving a healthy watershed, will host an educational program on growing wild rice beginning in March and is looking for students to be a part of the program.

Brent Bolin, the AWS director of advocacy, said Rice Rangers is a three-pronged service learning program to teach students about wetlands, show them how to plant seeds and give them hands-on learning experience on growing wild rice around the Anacostia.

“This is a really cool experience for service education for kids,” Bolin said.

He said the program is targeted for students in grades three through seven.

Bolin said those interested in signing up for the program should go to anacostiaws.org/programs for more information or contact Ariel Trahan at 301-699-6204 or atrahan@anacostiaws.org.

Roll the dice at Moose Lodge’s annual Vegas Night

The College Park Moose Lodge will host a Las Vegas Night for those feeling lucky on Saturday.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for an evening of poker, table games, a cake wheel and video horse races, which the lodge’s Pat Crouse said is the big attraction for the event. The lodge has been hosting Las Vegas Night for about 20 years.

“Folks can buy a horse for $10, name it, and cheer it on in the race,” Crouse said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Admission is free, and proceeds from games and sale of refreshments benefit Mooseheart Child City and School, a residential school in Illinois for children whose families are unable to care for them; and Moosehaven, a development for retired Moose members in Florida.

The lodge is located at 3700 Metzerott Road in College Park.

Northwestern High marks Walter Reed institute partnership with ceremony

Northwestern High School hosted a signing ceremony Wednesday with Col. Ralph Erickson, commander of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, to formalize the partnership between the institute and the school’s science programs.

Throughout this year, the Hyattsville school has hosted Walter Reed personnel every Thursday and Friday to teach select students about specific sciences through hands-on science projects.

Assistant Principal Jennifer Love said Northwestern High’s ceremony, which included Principal Edgar Batenga, students involved in the program and county Board of Education member Amber Waller (Dist. 3), was a way to show appreciation for Walter Reed and the illustrate the school’s commitment to the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

It’s been an amazing opportunity for our students,” Love said. “We really want to change students’ perspectives about science.”

Love said 75 students have been recipients of this partnership, noting that Walter Reed comes to the forensics and environmental health science class and the Biomedical Club meetings after school.

“Our goal is to increase the students’ confidence and their knowledge, to be able to put that knowledge into practice,” Love said.

University to host talk about sexual violence

Bowie State University will host a discussion about sexual violence and gay and lesbian community issues from 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 2 on campus.

The event is free and open to all Maryland and Washington, D.C.-based college students, faculty and staff.

It will take place in room 102 of the Center for Learning and Technology at Bowie State University, located at 14000 Jericho Park Road off Md. 197 just north of the city of Bowie.

The talk is the fourth in a series presented by BSU in partnership with the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault based in Arnold in Anne Arundel County.

The purpose of the series is to educate people about prevention efforts, trends and victim services and also offer chances for people to share information and collaborate.

For more information, visit www.mcasa.org or call MCASA at 410-974-4507.

Tour sites important to county’s black history in February

Tour sites important to Prince George’s County’s black history, such as the home of Doswell Brooks, the first black superintendent for Prince George's County's black schools, on Saturdays in February.

Tours will be from noon to 3 p.m. Feb. 4, Feb. 11, Feb. 18 and Feb. 25, and start at the Palmer Park Community Center at 7720 Barlowe Road.

Admission is $20 for county residents to tour 17 sites and $24 for anyone who lives outside the county.

The event begins with a brunch.

Call 301-773-5665 for more information.

Forum tonight to gauge residents’ thoughts on county growth

The event "Where and how should Prince George's grow" is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight at the CSC Building at 7900 Harkins Road in Lanham.

A panel featuring County Councilman Mel Franklin (D-Dist. 9) of Upper Marlboro; former District 5 county councilman and state senator David Harrington; and David Iannucci, the office of the county executive's assistant deputy chief administrative officer for economic development, will discuss development around Metro stations, updating old planning documents and more.

To RSVP for the event, visit http://csg.citizen-networks.org/site/Calendar/823434320.

School system seeks public input on budget

As Prince George’s County Public Schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. wrapped up his community forums this week on his proposed $1.6 billion budget for fiscal 2013, the school board began its public hearings on the issue.

Board members, who hosted a public hearing on the budget Tuesday, will have two additional hearings Feb. 16 and Feb. 21 at the Sasscer Administration Building in Upper Marlboro.

A meeting on the budget for Spanish-speaking families is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 7 at Northwestern High School, at 7000 Adelphi Road in Hyattsville.

Laurel school one of three in Prince George’s recognized for work with gifted students

Walker Mill Middle School recently received the Maryland Excellence in Gifted and Talented Education award and will be recognized with citations from the Maryland State Department of Education and from Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).

The ceremony will be held Feb. 29 at Laurel's Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Laurel's Montpelier Elementary and Oxon Hill's Valley View Elementary schools were also chosen as state EGATE award winners. EGATE winners like Walker Mill in Capitol Heights were chosen based on their curriculum and extracurricular activities offered to students.

Tips to keep pets warm, safe in winter months

As the region finally starts to see signs of winter weather, the county’s Animal Management Division has offered a number of tips to keep residents’ pets healthy and cared for in the winter months.

If you own a dog who stays outside, the law requires that you provide a dog house of adequate size for your pet that is “draft-free” and raised off of the cold ground, non-absorbant bedding like straw or wood chips and non-frozen drinking water in a container that is secured against being tipped over.

The division also suggests that you keep cats, puppies younger than 6 months old and short-haired dogs inside during the winter. Give dogs larger portions of food, as outdoor dogs require more calories to produce and maintain proper body heat.

After an outing with your pet, be sure to wipe its paws with a wet cloth because ice and snow-melting chemicals like rock salt can irritate paws.