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The Quince Orchard High School Marching Cougars wore new uniforms for the first time Friday at the school's home football game versus Sherwood High School.

The game was the last home game that seniors will play at Quince Orchard.

"It's been 20 years since they've had new uniforms and they're expected to keep them for the next 15 years or so," said Deborah Sze, whose daughter Rachel plays baritone. The Marching Cougars, named Maryland State Marching Band Champions in 2008, now sport black, white and red jackets bearing the QOHS emblem, black slacks and tall black hats with plumes, Sze said. Previously, the band wore white hats with white plumes.

Drum Major Holly Chiswell, a trumpet player who was chosen by faculty to lead the band for the 2009-2010 school year, will wear a different uniform that is all white, Sze said.

Montgomery County Public Schools paid for the approximately 70-member band's uniforms and Director of Bands Phillip Proctor invited students and parents to participate in designing them, said Sze.

Appreciating heritage

Families at Brown Station Elementary can get a new flavor of fun Friday night at the school's International Heritage Festival, where students and parents will lay out a potluck feast from a smattering of global cultures. The festival runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Gaithersburg school, 851 Quince Orchard Blvd.

Financial aid info

Watkins Mill High School is hosting a financial aid workshop for parents of college-bound seniors, presented by a financial aid representative from Montgomery College.

The workshop is at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 in the school's media center, 10301 Apple Ridge Road in Gaithersburg.

Topics will include the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and state aid from the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

Watkins Mill recommends the FAFSA form to be completed for all seniors — regardless of family income — and to register for the FAFSA Personal Identification Number as soon as possible.

The FAFSA form must be filed between Jan. 1 and March 1.

Get help with the FAFSA at www.studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALS

WebApp/students/english/fafsa.jsp. For more information on student aid or Watkins Mill's workshop, call Debbie Prochnow, the school's college and career information coordinator, at 301-840-3957.

Teen dating conference

"Choose Respect Montgomery," a teenage dating conference for students 12 to 18 years old and their parents, will be held 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday on Montgomery College's Rockville campus.

The event, which is being sponsored by the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council in collaboration with Montgomery College and other county agencies and community organizations, will feature lunch, door prizes and workshops for teens on healthy teen dating behaviors, recognizing abuse, misuse of technology and more.

There will also be workshops for parents, which will be offered in English and Spanish.

To register, visit www.choose

respectmontgomery.eventbrite.com. For more information, call 240-777-5573 or visit www.montgomery

countymd.gov.

The event will be held in Montgomery College's Theatre Arts building, located at 51 Mannakee St.

Symposium will discuss how

to keep teens safe

A symposium titled "Keeping Teens Safe So They Can Be Successful" will be held Nov. 18 at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in Derwood.

Agencies that help parents with teenagers will set up information tables from 6:30 to 7 p.m. The presentation will begin at 7 o'clock.

An assistant state's attorney will discuss legal problems and a medical expert will discuss mental and physical problems teens most frequently encounter. The director of prevention, education and training at the Family Support Center will explain how to keep communication open with teens and how to respond when a teen confides about a problem.

The symposium is sponsored by the Every 15 Minutes Committee of the Magruder High School PTSA. Every 15 Minutes, which depicts the dangers of drinking and driving, will return in 2011. The off-year focus is empowering teens to seek adult help when they or a friend is in harm's way, despite concerns of betraying a friend, being the snitch or overcoming fear of retaliation.

For more information, contact Patty Winters at patty.winters

@verizon.net or 240-421-7166.

Help them catch

the reading bug

Parents can stock up on fodder for bestowing a love of reading on their children, at seasonal book fairs at several elementary schools in and around Gaithersburg.

Brown Station Elementary's "Reading around the World" fair runs through Friday at the school, at 851 Quince Orchard Blvd.

At Diamond Elementary, the scholastic book fair runs through Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 4 Marquis Drive in Gaithersburg. On Thursday, books will be on sale until 8 p.m.

A bounty of books will be for sale at South Lake's fair today and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; at the Montgomery Village school, 18201 Contour Road.

QOHS college fair

Come to the Quince Orchard High School College Fair from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the school cafeteria, 15800 Quince Orchard Road. Admissions representatives from area schools will be on hand — University of Maryland College Park, Hood College, Salisbury University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Frostburg State University, Howard University, University of Maryland Baltimore County and more.

All high school students are invited. Learn about admission requirements, financial aid, programs of study, campus life. Talk to a parent about the college process at the Parent to Parent table. Ask questions in a comfortable environment.

For more information, call QOHS' main office at 301-840-4686.

Education Notebook accepts short news items and photographs about events, people and good news at your school. We feature fundraiser, event and meeting announcements, student and staff achievements, requests for donations, new education initiatives and anything else that goes on in your school. Please send us story ideas at least a week in advance of the event. Contact Melissa A. Chadwick at mchadwick@gazette.net, fax at 301-670-7183 or 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD, 20877.