Motorcycle ride to honor fallen firefighter, officer

Findley was also a volunteer firefighter at the Beltsville department.

The event will begin at 10:30 a.m. and riders will meet at 11800 Laurel Bowie Road in Laurel.

Riders will travel to the cemetery in Davidsonville where Findley is buried and the ride will end at the Main Street Sports Bar and Grille, located at 531 Main St. in Laurel.

The fee to participate in the motorcycle ride is $25 per person and an additional $10 as a passenger.

The event is being sponsored by the Main Street Sports Bar and Grille as well as Budweiser and Red Knights MD 1.

All proceeds will go to Findley's family. For more information contact the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department at 301-937-3160 or e-mail the event planners at findleymemorialride@beltsvillevfd.com.

University Park theater company gains recognition

Active Cultures, a theater company based out of University Park, won the STAGE International Script Competition for the best play about science and technology.

"Photograph 51", a play written and developed at Active Cultures won the award on Aug. 5 from a pool of over 150 other submissions.

Active Cultures is currently in its first year of operation and "Photograph 51" was the third production ever put on by the local theater group.

"Photograph 51 gave the local scientific community theater something to be proud of," said Mary Resing, the play's artistic director. "We are thrilled and quite a bit surprised that Photograph 51 has received this level of international recognition."

For more information on Active Cultures, visit its Web site at www.activecultures.org.

University of Maryland alum wins prestigious award

A University of Maryland, College Park alumni has received the 2008 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution in Government.

Nancy Linton is a 1998 graduate of UMD's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, from which she received her Bachelor of Science. Linton received her award at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference in Baltimore in February. She is currently working as a systems engineer at Laurel's Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

UMD alum wins Beltsville Garden Club Scholarship

University of Maryland, College Park Alumni Lindsay Halterman won the 2007-2008 Beltsville Garden Club Scholarship in May.

The award is given out by UMD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Scholarship Committee to a student from Prince George's County with a sincere interest in horticulture.

Halterman graduated from the UM in May with a degree in Landscape Management. Halterman, originally from Huntingtown, graduated from Calvert High School in 2003.

Halterman was also a member of UM's PLANET (Professional Landcare Network) team chapter during her time at the University.

During her senior year, Lindsay traveled with the team to North Metro Tech in Atlanta to compete in the PLANET national competition. Members of the Maryland team competed in 25 different events including business management, and woody identification to landscape design and estimating.

A total of 64 teams from schools across the country were on hand in Atlanta.

Halterman placed first in the sales competition while the Maryland team placed 17 in the team competition.

Park Police seeking public comment in Riverdale

The Prince George's County division of the Park Police is up for reaccreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc, and as part of the assessment process, will be holding a public information session on Monday.

The session will begin at 7 pm.

CALEA is an organization made up of law enforcement officials from an array of departments and areas and bases their accreditation on standards for equipment, practices, policies, procedures and administration.

The Prince George's County division of the Park Police has already earned CALEA accreditation twice. The accreditation period lasts three years.

"We like to give the public a chance to come and speak if they have any concern," said Lt. Stanley R. Johnson of the Park Police.

The public information session will be held in the auditorium of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Park and Recreation Administration Building located at 6600 Kenilworth Ave. in Riverdale.

Public comments at the information session will be limited to 10 minutes per person. Comments are supposed to be directly related to CALEA's standards.

Residents who are unable to attend, but would like to offer a comment are encouraged to call and leave a message at 240-876-4253 on the date of the information session, between noon and 4 p.m.

Telephone comments are also limited to 10 minutes per commenter.

Johnson said the CALEA accreditation is important to ensuring the Park Police provide the best service possible because CALEA standards are so high.

"The major advantage is you have people from the outside that review your policies and procedures," he said. "I think that's a bonus because they have no bias in seeing how we perform our duties. We really have to maintain these standards throughout this three-year period."