Montgomery County will celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a Tribute and Musical Celebration and Day of Service activities on Monday, January 20, 2014.

Day of Service Activities

The Montgomery County Volunteer Center is organizing and coordinating indoor family-friendly service projects at locations across the County. The projects are all approved for Student Service Learning hours.

• Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli Road, North Bethesda -
  1 to 3 p.m. Activities include decorating cards for troops, assembling peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for local shelters, constructing fleece blankets for Montgomery Hospice and packing snow day boxes for Meals on Wheels. There will also be a Volunteer Fair that will showcase local non-profit's ongoing volunteer opportunities in Montgomery County.
• Seneca Creek Community Church, 13 Firstfield Rd, Gaithersburg
  9:00AM to 11:00AM  
• Silver Spring Civic Building, 1 Veterans Place
  10AM to 12:00PM, organized by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
• International Cultural Center, 19650 Club House Road, Suite 205
  3:00PM to 5:00 PM  

All four sites will be collecting non-perishable food items for Manna Food Center to distribute to those in need; as well as, sleeping bags and blankets for local shelters.

To see more MLK Day projects and to pre-register for any of these events, visit the website. For questions contact servicedays@montgomerycountymd.gov, or call 240-777-2600.

Musical Celebration

This 20th anniversary of Montgomery County's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute and Musical Celebration carries the theme of "Honoring the Legacy: Celebrate, Serve, Remember." The annual event will take place on Monday, January 20 at 3 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, and will feature a diverse array of performers. The 2014 recipients of the Children of the Dream, Humanitarian and Literary Arts Awards will be announced.

The annual celebration is free and open to the public. Tickets are required and may be reserved beginning January 2 through Strathmore's website at www.strathmore.org (go to Events and Tickets), via phone at 301-581-5100 or in person at the Strathmore box office. For individuals unable to secure advanced tickets, a stand-by line will form outside the Music Center at 2 p.m. on the day of the performance. No lines may form before the designated time. At 2:45 p.m. all tickets are null and void and patrons in the stand-by line will be allowed entry subject to available seating. Sign language interpretation will also be available.

For more information about the musical celebration, email Yvonne Stephens, or call 240-567-4203 or email Julian Norment, or cal 240-777-8413.

Help the Hungry Food Drive

Manna Food Center is partnering with select Montgomery County Giant Food stores to hold Service Day food drives in honor of MLK Day 2014. The food drives will be held on Saturday and Sunday, January 18 and 19. For additional details and volunteer registration information, contact volunteer@mannafood.org.

A delegation from Montgomery County participated in the formation of a Statewide Rapid Response Network at the MD Carey Law School Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies Institute in Baltimore.  Pictured from right are Imam Yahya Hendi, Co-Chair of Clergy Beyond Borders; Steve Sawmelle, Jewish Islamic Dialogue Society; Rabbi Gerry Serotta, Co-Chair of Clergy Beyond Borders; Rev. Terri Murphy and Rev. Mansfield Kaseman both with the Clergy Response Committee.  Our program is being used as a model for the state.

As I told our staff last month: "There is good news and bad news. The good news is that we are going to have a great new partner at Montgomery College. The bad news is that it will be Karla Silvestre."

Karla will start as the new Community Engagement Director at Montgomery College on January 13. Karla came to Montgomery County in July of 2008 from Philadelphia where she had held a top job at a highly regarded immigrant serving nonprofit.
 
It was amazing to me to see someone come into a brand new county with a large government bureaucracy and a very demanding and vibrant community leadership and learn so fast and be warmly accepted by so many so quickly. She did it with such modesty and professionalism. No bravado. No drama. Karla got back to everyone who contacted her and helped solve their problems without regard to whether they were powerful or powerless.

What an enormous job she was given - to serve as liaison to Montgomery County's largest and fastest growing immigrant community. And then the job got bigger and bigger. And Karla kept stepping up to the task.

The County Executive and I asked her to lead the County's first Sister City initiative with Morazan, El Salvador. Despite the extra burden on an already packed portfolio, Karla stepped right up and helped us invent what a Sister City relationship meant to Montgomery County. Rather than complain, Karla observed that the Sister City program was a great engagement tool for our outreach to Montgomery County's number one country of origin of our immigrant population.

 

Next came the 2010 Census. Again, no complaints about the extra work. Again, she saw the Census as an opportunity to meet new people and learn new things.

 

When the budget challenges caused by the international economic meltdown took their toll on the Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity, the Recreation Department turned the Center over to the Office of Community Partnerships. And the County Executive and I once again turned to Karla. She stepped up to the challenge and has built a robust network of immigrant serving government agencies and nonprofit partners helping to meet the County Executive's challenge that Montgomery County become the nation's most welcoming community. In addition, Karla has been a key player in the national network of immigrant friendly local governments sharing Montgomery County's best practices with the nation and the world.

 

World of Montgomery Festival, Latino Youth Collaborative, Hispanic Gala... The new initiatives kept coming while the ongoing core work of closing health, educational, and economic disparities continued. And Karla kept delivering in the modest, collaborative, and professional style that made her so special to her government colleagues and community partners.

 

We are grateful to Karla for her extraordinary service to the residents of Montgomery County, and we look forward to working with her in her important new position at Montgomery College. But most of all, we appreciate Karla for showing us what it means to be a model public servant, always getting twice the work done anyone could reasonably expect, quietly serving others and never claiming credit, always welcoming and collaborative. Thank you, Karla.

 

Bruce Adams

Director, Office of Community Partnerships


Latino Community Liaison Position

Because of Karla Silvestre's new position with Montgomery College, the Office of Community Partnerships has an opening for the Latino Community Liaison. As the office seeks to strengthen the services provided by the Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity, the position will include helping the Gilchrist Center extend its reach in underserved areas of the County. Applications will be due by January 31, 2014 with the hope that we will be able to fill the position by the middle of March.To apply for the Latino Community Liaison job, candidates should use the main link to the Office of Human Resources recruitment, create an account, and then apply for the position (IRC 13099).