Sept. 5, 2022–Arlington, VA-based filmmakers Steve Dorst and Angie Gentile announced the Washington, DC premiere of their first joint documentary, DANI’S TWINS, at the DC Shorts Film Festival being held from September 8-11.
Their film documents the rare and risky pregnancy of Dani Izzie, one of the few quadriplegics ever to give birth to twins. The story is an entertaining, high-stakes drama, told from Dani’s perspective as she battles the odds to deliver healthy babies and become a mother.
On Thursday, November 10 at 12 PM (ET), the 29th annual Spirit of Community Awards and Luncheon will bring together business, civic, and philanthropic leaders, as well as Arlingtonians from all walks of life, for a celebration of individuals who have made Arlington a better home for all of us. This year’s celebration will be the first in-person event in three years. Registration for the event is now open.
For the first time in 29 years, three extraordinary people will be honored with The William T. Newman Spirit of Community Award. Individually and collectively, these recipients represent the passion, commitment, and community advocacy that define the Award and the absolute best vision of what Arlington can be:
Defying recent national higher education trends, Marymount University has recorded significant increases from last year in both applications and enrollment deposits for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Leading up to the Fall 2022 semester, a total of 3,551 applications were submitted from prospective students – a 44 percent jump from the 2,462 applications that the University received prior to the 2021-2022 academic year. This data represents both the largest total number of applications that Marymount has received as well as the highest year-to-year growth percentage in applications received over the last 16 years of recorded admissions data available.
Synetic Theater Appoints Ben Cunis New Managing Director
The filmmaker, theater artist and administrator returns home to Synetic Theater
Meet Toast, the 1-year-old bunny from Arlington! She’s recently become a small (both in size and in fame) celebrity, having risen to the top of her group in a contest called America’s Favorite Pet.
Toast was born at a Maryland farm called Tripple Spring Farms, and as a sweet and playful little girl, she used to participate in bunny meditation events at Lost Boy Cider in Virginia. She has since retired from the meditation circuit at the tender age of 3 months and lives with her owners, Amanda and Cody, and her new best friend, Ralphi the Dutch rabbit.
NEW YORK–A new report from Demos and For Us, Not Amazon (FUNA)–a coalition against an Amazon takeover in Northern Virginia–highlights how organizers are fighting for the rights of working people, immigrants and people of color as the multinational company prepares to open its new headquarters in Virginia next year. Read the report, Challenging the Dominance of Big Tech: For Us, Not Amazon in Arlington, VA, here.
FUNA coalition members cite local and state governments’ rush to accommodate Amazon without conditions regarding oversight or accountability to community members as an example of an economic system that supports corporations at the expense of people of color. As part of a campaign to bring Amazon to Virginia in 2019, state and local governments promised the company nearly $800 million in incentives. Meanwhile, local working people are without similar aid in the face of an increasingly uncertain economy, FUNA notes. For example, housing prices in the area skyrocketed after Amazon announced that Arlington would be the site of its second corporate headquarters, colloquially known as HQ2.
Arlington Community Foundation is excited to premiere and host the Age Friendly Grant Catalog featuring 12 grant ideas of organizations and programs serving older adults (55+) in Arlington, with grants up to $10,000 each. The public is able to view and ‘shop’ these grants at arlcf.org/AgeFriendly and donate any amount toward needs that inspire them.
It’s no secret that Arlington can be an expensive place to live, especially for those who survive on little income. Within this group are the thousands of older residents who have no reliable income, rely on modest government income, or whose only financial asset is the house they’ve called home for years, or even generations.
This Thursday, about 310 new students will arrive on Move-In Day and be celebrated as new members of the Marymount University family, as an estimated 33 volunteers consisting of Marymount faculty, staff and current students will be on location to assist these first-year Saints. Approximately 340 returning students will move into their residential living spaces on Saturday, in advance of the first day of Fall 2022 classes on Monday.
Welcome Week events, which will last from August 25 to September 5, include programming designed to help new students actively engage in the MU community. Notable events include Thursday’s Convocation in the Rose Benté Lee Center and an on-campus community service event on Friday. Click here for a full list of events, locations and times.
WASHINGTON — Company E, Washington, DC’s leading contemporary repertory dance company, will return its catered-to-kids performance of ‘To Sail Around the Sun’ to the Kennedy Center on National Dance Day, September 17th.
Through dance, live music and storytelling, ‘To Sail Around the Sun’ takes the audience on one child’s journey to gather all four seasons before dinner time.
NEW YORK (August 12, 2022) – Connor Garwood and Sarah Buzby of Arlington County, Virginia, will appear in the bright lights of Broadway on Saturday, September 17, as part of the annual National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) Times Square Video presentation. The one-hour video of roughly 500 photographs includes children, teens, and adults with Down syndrome from all 50 states. These collective images promote the value, acceptance, and inclusion of people with Down syndrome in a very visible way.
The photo of Connor and Sarah were selected from more than 2,400 entries in the NDSS worldwide call for photos. Their photo will be shown on two JumboTron screens in the heart of Times Square, thanks to the support of ClearChannel Outdoor. The two screens are located above Dos Caminos restaurant in Father Duffy Square. The presentation will be live streamed on the NDSS Facebook page from 9:30-10:30am ET on September 17.
President Joe Biden yesterday signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, which included the first NASA authorization passed by Congress in over five years. That section of the Act, Title VII of the science division, included the full text of Rep. Don Beyer’s Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act. Beyer chairs the House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics; he introduced the Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act to bolster NASA’s efforts to create the next generation of climate-friendly aviation while also reducing the impact of airplane noise in airport-adjacent communities.
“Climate change and aircraft noise have always been two of the most consistent constituent concerns in my district. I wrote a bill to address both problems – the Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act – which President Biden just signed into law,” said Beyer. “As the climate crisis continues to harm American communities, ensuring we are also tackling aviation emissions is vital. This piece of legislation does just that by making the necessary investments to develop the technology to make cleaner flight a reality in addition to driving innovation that would reduce aircraft noise pollution.”
