From: Sarah Chasson <sarahchasson@verizon.net>

St. Columba's Nursery School is renovating its playground, and it
needs your help! Some of you may know that St. C's is renovating its
playground to make it more challenging, yet safer with new wood and
up-to-date equipment. It will have the same feel, but also great new
features like an ark to climb on and through, a sand quarry, and a
rock climbing wall. It will also be fully wheelchair accessible so
that kids of all physical abilities can get to the highest points on
it. A playground of this magnitude would be prohibitively expensive
to outsource, so it will be a "community built" playground: members of
the church, preschool and neighborhood are being asked to donate their
time to framing, building, raking, and all the other construction work
necessary to make this vision a reality. We need people of all skill
levels to participate – we will find a job for you to do even if you
have never held a hammer before! It will also be a great opportunity
to make new friends and work alongside old friends to achieve a
fabulous goal. If you can help out in any way during May 2nd through
May 6th, please send an email to playgroundvolunteer@gmail.com.
Thanks! The St. Columba's Playground Committee.

I would like to recommend a seamstress, Cathy Neston; Cathy made
balloon valences for my dining room. She completed them on time and
did an excellent job. I am happy to recommend her work. You can contact
Cathy at cneston@netscape.net .

This year's Deal spring musical, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, will be performed
on March 22 and 23 at 7:30 in the Deal auditorium. ONCE ON THIS ISLAND
is based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, and is a retelling
of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid set in the French
Antilles. It is filled with the music and rhythm of the islands. Over
seventy Deal students will be involved in the production. Tickets are $5
for adults and $2 for students and children, and will be available at
the door.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

My cleaning person, Rosa, is looking for additional work. She is very
efficient and reliable, has a car, and speaks English. I highly
recommend her. You can contact her at (301) 648-0241.
Ruth

From: Solberg, Andrew (MPD) <Andrew.Solberg@dc.gov>

When the weather warms up again, it would be a great time for
residents to go out back and paint their street address on their
supercan, the garage wall, the back fence, or somewhere that is
immediately visible to emergency personnel. It should include the
house number and the street name.

Andy Solberg
Second District

Hello everyone,
As many of you know Ward 4 lost Victor Reinoso - our school board
rep-
he moved on to become the Deputy Mayor for Education. Our Ward is
preparing for a special election, this May 1st to select his
replacement. Many of us worked hard to elect Reinoso, and now we
have a chance to elect another dedicated, honest, knowledgeable Ward
4 resident, parent, mother and above all someone who has our kids
interest at heart. we have seen her often in our neighborhood at
schools, gatherings and meetings. For those who have not met her
I have pasted some info about her for your convenience.
let me know what you think.
Kindell
Mai Abdul Rahman has lived in Washington, DC for more than 25 years.
She is married to Hassan Abdul-Ali and together they have raised
their 4 children in the same Ward 4 home since January 1988. As a
parent and a former DCPS teacher, Mai Abdul Rahman has experienced
the day to day agony of dealing with a faltering school system that
is mired with inefficiency, poor judgment, incompetence, cronyism
and corruption. She recognizes that we have a public education
crisis that impacts every citizen and business.
Mai Abdul Rahman believes that the fundamental right to free
educational opportunities is a basic value for all students. This is
not a privilege or an ideal but rather a right that all our children
deserve regardless of gender, color, social standing, learning
capacity or style. Mai believes that all children in the District of
Columbia have a right to a high-quality public education. It is time
to implement this right!
Mai Abdul Rahman: Integrity, Experience, Knowledge and Performance
For more than 15 years, Mai Abdul Rahman has devoted much time and
energy studying the issues facing our children. Mai has built a
reputation of integrity, honesty and hard work as an activist,
teacher, parent, and PTA board member.
· Mai hosted and produced "Spotlightoneducati on" a cable television
educational program where she advocated educational reform in the
District of Columbia and helped support successful school
initiatives.
· Mai helped efforts to establish Universal Breakfast for all DC
Children.
· Mai participated in the Ready Schools Project (RSP) that focuses
on the systemic support that DC public schools can provide high
quality teaching.
· Mai took part in principal and staff interviews at several DCPS
schools. The results were made public by DC Voice "Starting Off
Right 2005: A School System in Transition" reports.
Mai participated in D.C. Hunger Solutions a project that provided
policy recommendations to DC officials to fight hunger and improve
the nutrition, health, and well-being of children and families in
the District of Columbia. The results were addressed to city
officials and published in ""Healthy Food, Healthy Communities:
Assessment and Scorecard of Community Food Security in the District
of Columbia for the Mayor's Commission on Food and Nutrition" - July
2006
Mai is an expert on Quality management and has been published in QA
Briefs, a Harvard University publication. She has worked as
Marketing Executive and most recently ans a United Nations
consultant.
Mai Abdul Rahman will advocate for our children as she has advocated
for her children who attended Lafayette, Deal, Wilson, School
without Walls, and Washington Latin.
Mai taught at Lafayette and Shepherd Elementary Schools for more
than 5 years.
For additional information Please visit her website: Mai for DC
School Board.com or share your views on our schools by sending her
an e-
mail at: maifordcschools@ gmail.com.