Newsletter of the Rose Hill Civic Association
November 2009
President
Carl Sell
703.971.4716
Vice President
Linda Nichols
703.971.0755
Secretary
Beth Kohm
703.338.4876
Treasurer
Carolyn Slenska
703.922.4135
Editor, The Rambler
Marty Williams
703.910.6316
Neighborhood Watch
Woody Betts
703.971.0520
Webmaster
Jim Sapp
303.816.0944
RHCA, P.O. Box 10891, Alexandria, VA 22310
President’s Message
Special Thanks to Veterans and the Season at November 24 RHCA Meeting
Join your neighbors to give special thanks to our veterans and the season at the November 24 meeting of the Rose Hill Civic Association. It will be held at the John Marshall Library beginning at 6:30pm. RHCA chaplain Dave Nichols will lead us in a tribute to the veterans and a prayer of Thanksgiving. Any resident of the community or faith is invited to make appropriate comments.
As a special treat, we will be serving homemade chicken potpie compliments of Chef Linda Nichols. Salad, bread, and ice tea will also be provided. Take a break from your busy schedule and holiday preparations to join us in thanksgiving for our veterans and the season. Dessert item donations would be greatly appreciated.
Remember that the meeting will be held at the Library and will begin at 6:30pm. Serving will continue until 7:30 or when the potpie is gone, whichever comes first. We must vacate the library at 8pm because of early closing hours due to budget cutbacks.
There is also some business on the agenda. We need to authorize participation in the annual Christmas Eve dinner for the police at the Franconia station and sup-port for the needy through Koinonia. We also will be asking for approval to support Edison High School’s all night graduation party next June at Lee District Recreation Center.
The Police Community Advisory Committee pro-vides dinner on Christmas Eve and breakfast on Christmas Day for our local police because area restaurants are normally closed. Koinonia delivers food and clothing to area needy families throughout the year with a special emphasis on the holidays. The graduation party keeps our local teens occupied and safe on their special occasion.
RHCA historically donates $100 to each activity. We encourage additional personal contributions to Koinonia at 6037 Franconia Road, Franconia, VA 22310. For information call 703.971.1991 or visit koinoniafoundation.org.
Christmas Lights
The Rose Hill Civic Association will award certificates to those in the community who go beyond the call of duty in lighting up their houses and property for Christmas and the Holiday Season. The judges will be out and about on Monday and Tuesday, December 21 and 22, so be sure to have your lights turned on those dates. And remember, it takes hours to tour the community so try not to turn them off before 9pm. Winners will be published in the January edition of The Rambler. Pictures of some of the best properties will be part of a special slide show on our website, myRoseHill.com. We invite input from any resident who wants to nominate his or her property or that of a neighbor; that way we’ll be sure not to miss them! Call or email Linda Nichols or myself and we’ll pass along the nominees. Rose Hill usually is awash in holiday lights and cheer and we expect the same this season.
Linda’s Christmas Party
Once again, Dave and Linda Nichols are opening their home for a Christmas party and dinner. The event will be held starting at 6pm on Saturday, December 19, at the Nichols’ residence, 6416 Rose Hill Drive. Bring a dish to share. Be prepared to join in the singing of Christmas carols. Call Linda at 703.971.0755 and let her know what you plan to bring so she can coordinate the menu.
Membership Drive
Because there is no RHCA meeting in December and therefore no Rambler, we kick off our annual membership drive with the November issue of The Rambler. The drive will run through the first quarter of 2010. Dues are only $10 but we do ask you to consider a contribution to either the maintenance of the landscaping at our entrance sign and/or the general fund. Dues are set at $10 by our bylaws, but that doesn’t provide enough revenue to pay for nine issues of The Rambler, let alone other community programs such as the Rose Hill Beauty awards each spring and contributions to specific worthy activities that benefit our community. The more members we have, the more things we can do for the community. We are blessed with a large group of volunteers who deliver The Rambler and keep our community safe as Neighborhood Watch captains. We always can use more help. We also need sufficient funds to operate. As usual, our books are open to anyone who asks and a financial report is printed yearly in The Rambler. There is a membership form on Page 3 in this issue or go online to myRoseHill.com and print one out. Thanks for your support!
October Gang Update
More than 40 members of the community turned out at the October RHCA meeting at Rose Hill Elementary to hear an update from the police on gang activity both within Northern Virginia and our immediate area. The bottom line is that although there is gang activity in our midst, our schools and police seem to have a handle on the problem. They stressed they depend on information from the teachers, school staff, and the community to keep tabs on gang activity. Most interesting was the information as to how police turn graffiti into identification of gangs and individuals. If you see graffiti, take a picture of it, and call the police. Having the photo provides a record in case it disappears. Gang members usually wear the same color on a particular piece of clothing. Be aware of gatherings of groups of young people in the same spot and report any unusual activity to the police non-emergency number 703.691.2131. Never, never con-front suspected gang members. Call the police. Information pieced together from several sources can help thwart gang activity in our area. There’s more information online at preventgangsnova.org. The police representatives were impressed by the turnout, saying that showing of support such as they saw in Rose Hill is a huge help in the effort to control gang activity. And, everyone enjoyed the pumpkin bread and cider!
It’s The Law!
As of November 18, 2009, it is illegal to park watercraft, motor homes, campers, trailers, vehicles greater than or equal to three axels, vehicles with a gross weight of 12,000 pounds or more, and vehicles transporting more than 16 persons (except school buses) on ANY public street in Rose Hill. The law also applies to any public street in any residentially zoned community in Lee District. Until December 18, police will be issuing warning tickets. After that date, tickets will be issued warning owners to remove the vehicles within 48 hours. If the vehicle is not moved within that time frame, a ticket will be issued. Forty-eight hours later, the vehicle will be subject to towing and storage fees will begin to accrue. Owners are advised to understand the limitations of parking on private property if they intend to do that. This new law is intended to improve vehicle passage in communities such as Rose Hill with narrow streets. RHCA suggests that owners of unlawful vehicles move them as soon as possible to avoid fines and storage fees. Our Neighborhood Watch captains will be on the lookout for violators.
Nationals Ticket Group
There is an opening in my Nationals’ baseball season group if anyone is interested. There is one full slot for 10 games or two slots for five games each. We have four tickets for each game located in the first row of upper deck Section 309 behind the third base dugout. Great seats! The price is $20 per seat or $80 per game (no increase for premium games). You must take either 10 or 5 games, or you and a friend can split two tickets for either 10 or 5 games. We hold a lottery to select games. Watching Ryan Zimmerman play third base is worth the price of admission! The stadium is easily accessible via Metro or the best bet is to drive to RFK Stadium and take the FREE shuttle to Nationals’ park. Give me a call at 703.971.4716 or email me at sellcarl@aol.com.
Another Rose Hill
Although not an incorporated town, Rose Hill shows up on the Virginia map on Route 58 in the extreme southwestern part of the state. The border with Kentucky is not far north and the border with Tennessee isn’t far south. The community is located in Lee County and once was the site of Martin’s Station, the westernmost fort on our country’s frontier in 1775. The area also was known as Boone’s Path because it is about 20 miles east of the Cumberland Gap, Daniel Boone’s passageway into Kentucky. Sources of community pride are the library and Rose Hill Elementary School (enrollment 220). Sound familiar? The school is on the original site of Martin’s Station Fort. It was built in 1952 and has 15 teachers. Another source of pride is the annual Christmas parade in early December sponsored by the Thomas Walker Civic Club. There are two banks, two food stores, and a number of other businesses. More than 20% of the workforce is self-employed, three times the national average. As of the 2000 census, there were just over 700 people in Rose Hill. It advertises itself as a warm and friendly community on its website, rosehillvirginia.org.
—Carl Sell
Former RHCA President Michelle Park Dies
Michelle Savine Park, age 85, passed away on October 29, 2009, at the Greenspring Retirement Community in Springfield, VA, in the company of her children. Michelle and Kenneth Park moved to 6221 Climbhill Road in 1953 where she remained until her move to Greenspring in 2001. Michelle, born in Paris, France, was a survivor of the Nazi occupation of France and was active in the French resistance movement. Following World War II, she met Kenneth Lothrop Park while he served in the US Army Air Corps at Orly Air Field in France. In 1947, she moved to the US to accept Kenneth’s marriage proposal and began work as the secretary to the French Consul in Washington, DC. She was naturalized as an American citizen in 1952.
She taught French at Burgundy Farm Country Day School in Alexandria from 1970 to 1989. She was active as a leader of Girl Scout Troop 464, was a founding member of Hope United Church of Christ in Alexandria, and volunteered as the President of the Rose Hill Civic Association and Rose Hill Elementary PTA. She maintained a stubborn stance in several instances of her life such as when she was removed as a Rose Hill Precinct Republican Judge of Elections after publicly endorsing Democratic candidates and, whenever teased by her children about her French accent, she would refrain “when you speak French as well as I speak English, then you can criticize.” She was an avid birder and recycler beginning in the 1950s. She campaigned against the introduction of non-biodegradable shopping bags and fought bulk mailing rates because they encouraged junk mail. She enjoyed volunteering and restoring books at the John Marshall Library.
She was preceded in death by husband Kenneth on November 11, 1977. She is survived by her brother Jean-Antoine Savine and sister-in-law Marie-Therese Six of Embrun, France; daughter Aline Park Brinckman and son-in-law Douglas Brinckman of Blacksburg, VA, and grandchildren Jason, Anne, Matthew, and Kenneth; daughter Christine Park Pryplesh and son-in-law David Pryplesh of Fairfax, VA, and grandchildren Catherine and Jonathon; and son Andrew Savine Park of New York, NY. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, www.alz.org, or to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, www.komen.org.
—Andrew Park
Advertising in the Rambler
We have recently received several inquiries concerning advertising in the Rambler. While a listing in the Business Directory is free to Rose Hill residents who own their business, placing an actual advertisement is open to all with rates as follows per month:
Business Card size
3 1/2" x 2"
$10
Quarter page size
3 1/2" x 4 3/4"
$25
Half page size
7 1/2" x 4 3/4"
$50
Full page size
7 1/2" x 9 3/4"
$100
Ads may be bought for either one month only, month-to-month, or as many months in advance as desired. Our newsletter is published nine times a year, excluding July, August and December.
Advertising in the Rambler is an excellent way to reach the 700+ homes in our community. In addition, the ads each month are placed on our website www.MyRoseHill.com for the world to see.
Anyone interested in placing an ad may call the editor (me) at 703.910.6316. I will need the artwork sent to me either electronically in a .tiff or .jpg format or as a hard copy through the mail. Checks made out to RHCA may be included with ads mailed to me, or sent to our PO Box 10891 for quick access to the treasurer.
Marty Williams
