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I have a habit of chasing things, and I can’t sit still. If there’s a minute, I’m going to fill it with activity. When I was younger I filled those minutes with typical kid things—kicking a soccer ball, riding my bike, dealing a game of solitaire on a…
Franklin County residents know July is packed with a dynamic lineup of fairs, festivals, and celebrations with opportunities almost daily to attend one event or another. As usual, the month kicks off with the Franklin County Fair (July 5 to 12). This is the annual…
As the tiring Friday evening in May gradually withdrew from sunny skies to rays of artificial stadium lighting, enduring firework fanatics (mostly youngsters) anxiously awaited their favorite outfield attraction. But well before the bangs, booms, and pops of the…
As Washington County and the United States celebrate their semiquincentennial, the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts presents the 2026 Cumberland Valley Photographers Exhibition, a juried display featuring…
Rae Tucker has noticed a pattern whenever she’s out around Hagerstown in a Girls Inc. van. Strangers will run up to her in excitement. “I was a Girls Inc. girl!” they tell her. In many cases these girls are now the age of having…
How did the project originate?
The National Mural Awards partnership originated through Jason Tetlak, the executive director for the National Mural Awards. He participated in 2025 Hagerfest Music & Art Festival as a…
The senior population of Hagerstown has grown by more than 20 percent during the last two decades, a shift that is placing new demands on the city’s social fabric. As this demographic continues to expand, there is an increasing need for a more…
At the peak of his artistic talents, American landscape painter Frederic Church was one of the most influential and popular painters in the United States. To celebrate his work and the 200th anniversary of his birth, the…
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce hosted its 27th Annual Business Awards event on February 25 at The Maryland Theatre. More than 460 community members and local businesses leaders were on hand to help honor this year’s…
I’m not going to lie to you and say the river doesn’t change. I’ve heard that. I’ve heard people say it all my life. I disagree. In my lifetime, I think the river will change probably just as much as I will, if not more. I might not see it easily with my own eye, but I know…
Malia Briggs may be graduating from Chambersburg Area Career Magnet School this month, but she leaves with much more than an impressive 4.0 grade-point average and an athletic scholarship to Tulane University in…
When Sarah Bowman found herself with free time after going through a divorce and having her daughter step back from her own intense sporting schedule, she thought she’d try pickleball one night a week for fun. She had seen an ad for…
Gayle Schreiber fought to the very end. “She didn’t want to leave us,” says her daughter Zoe Schreiber. “She didn’t want to leave her family.” Gayle, a Hagerstown resident who was once a potential Olympic swimmer, former Maryland State Police trooper and…
When it comes to the Washington County Ag Expo and Fair, it’s no secret that the event remains successful year after year thanks to community leaders and dedicated volunteers. It truly takes a village to pull off all the activities scheduled daily at the…
The Maryland Symphony Orchestra presented the first concert of the Maryland Symphony Youth Orchestra (MSYO) in February, marking a significant new chapter in the organization’s commitment to music education and…
Annette Gavin moved to the United States from the United Kingdom in 1994 to become an associate professor of equine studies at Wilson College in Philadelphia. During her tenure, she recognized a significant gap in equine care, and…
The second North American presentation examining how Nordic artists celebrated the concept of home, national identity, and personal expression is on view until May 17 at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition, first shown at…
The need for large animal experts for a variety of occupations is thriving in Washington County. Decades ago, entrepreneurs saw a need in Western Maryland and established businesses with hopes of success. Not only have these businesses found…
Sierra Rowe fell in love with horses when she was just seven years old. At that young age began riding English and competing in hunter/jumper shows, but when she discovered the speed and thrill of Western riding, she became enamored with the…
For more than 200 years and now through nine generations, the Schnebly family has worked the land, milked cows, and operated Crown Stone Farm. So, it’s no surprise the historic farm was honored as the…
The opening of Oklahoma on April 11 at Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater, marks a special milestone for owners Laura and Shawn Martin. The last time the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic graced the…
The Hagerstown Flying Boxcars soar into their third season with a new manager, a new schedule structure, and new hopes to shed the expansion team label and offer fans a competitive team in the Atlantic League. The Boxcars struggled on…
Trans Ova has been paving the way with dairy and beef cattle genetics for more than 40 years, with the original office opened in 1980 in Sioux Center, Iowa. It was not until 2012 that the livestock reproductive company also…
As a teenager, ambitious Herman Benjamin Mellott volunteered to serve in World War I. But the U.S. Army told the boy he was too young to fight and sent him home to Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Disheartened, the boy known locally simply as…
Pickleball remains the fastest-growing sport in America, and the opening of a new indoor, multi-court facility on Sweeney Drive will make access to the sport much easier here in Hagerstown. Dill Dinkers, a rapidly growing…
Maine has its lobster fests. In Wisconsin, the town of Ellsworth hosts the Cheese Curd Festival, and every September New Orleans celebrates Beignet Fest as visitors brush powdered sugar from their clothes and enjoy the…
It is a story as old as time itself—the spouse, the lover, a murder. And it is one James Rada, Jr., an Amazon.com bestselling author, tells in his most recent book Blood on the Badge. The book explores the…
The roots of the Valley Art Association date to 1938, and for the better part of a century the VAA has given local artists of all mediums a place to work, display, and sell their art. This year the VAA celebrates its 35th year in the…
From a rickety steam train, newly deployed Ron Twentey beheld the devastation of a war-ravaged Korea. Shellshocked survivors lived in shacks, shanties, and even cardboard boxes. Later in his deployment, the toll of the conflict would…
Culture and Cocktails isn’t just a lecture. It’s an immersive engagement as soon as you step through the front door of the Miller House, a pristinely restored and well-kept home dating back to the 1860s that has served as the…