The Chesapeake Garden Pullers did it. They raised over $1,800 for the John Hopkins Pediatric Oncology, with a few checks still coming. That sum more than doubles last year’s benefit pull.     Clyde Schuyler, the president of the puller’s club, was so distressed by the meager $800 they raised last year that he almost skipped this year’s benefit pull. Now he’s happy he didn’t.     The money raised goes to Johns Hopkins Pediatric...

When the U.S. Lighthouse Society wanted to get Thomas Point Shoal Light ready for visitors, Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County helped with a mini-grant.     Kneseth Israel Congregation used a mini-grant to explore a century of the Jewish Experience in Anne Arundel County. Annapolis Maritime Museum used another to show people around historic Eastport. Another mini-grant supported a kayak tour of the Rhode River. Yet another helped the...

Paralympian Clark Rachfal came home to Annapolis from the London Paralympic Games Sunday, September 15.     Rachfal, 29, was diagnosed with Leber’s congenital amaurosis when he was four. The degenerative eye disease has slowly taken his sight, leaving only fuzzy outlines on his periphery.     “I can see less than I saw yesterday, and more than tomorrow,” he says.     Leber’s hasn’t stopped Rachfal, who won last year...

Something has been nibbling on husband Charlie’s cantaloupe. I suspected the squirrels, and Charlie blamed mice or voles. Friend Fritz Riedel happened to snap another candidate: an eastern box turtle. It’s circumstantial evidence, but very convincing. Charlie’s conclusion is a new twist on the fable of the turtle and the hare: Turtles are faster than humans at getting to a ripe cantaloupe.     –Sandra Lee Anderson, St. Leonard What’s growing in...