Got talent? Blue Crabs might need you

Friday, March 28, 2008

Rather than athletic ability, team representatives are looking for talented individuals to perform during the inaugural season.

Ventriloquist? Comedian? Singer? Dancer? If you have talent, you could earn a gig at the Regency Furniture Stadium.

‘‘As a spin-off to one of television’s most popular shows, we will be hosting our own version of ‘Southern Maryland’s Got Talent,” said General Manager Mark Viniard in a press release. ‘‘There’s no doubt that there are many outstanding individuals or groups with special talents, which could be showcased at the ballpark for our fans during the 2008 season.”

The rules are simple – perform your talent in front of a panel of judges and you could end up performing it for a stadium of people. The Blue Crabs are looking for clowns, singers, dancers, mascots, actors and live bands to perform on the field during the season. In addition, singers to perform the national anthem are being sought.

Positions open for the Blue Crabs include a PA announcer, on-field host, a promotional crew and others.

Auditions will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at North Point’s convention center. To register for an audition, go to www.somdbluecrabs.com or call Kim Hedden at 301-638-9788, Ext. 207. Registered participants audition on a first-come, first-served basis.

For those who can’t attend the audition, send a video or cassette to Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, 3200 Crain Highway, Suite 203, Waldorf, MD 20603.

Anthropologist on ‘Written in Bone’

Doug Owsley, a Smithsonian physical anthropologist who worked on the analysis of three lead coffins burials from the brick chapel in St. Mary’s City, is the subject of a new History Channel production.

‘‘Written in Bone” will air at 8 p.m. Saturday and follows Owsley’s search for physical evidence that shows the life, lifestyle and other characteristics of the buried. Owsley has examined thousands of skeletons, including those of Easter Islanders, Plains Indians, Jamestown and St. Mary’s City colonists and the Kennewick Man. He has been brought in to help identify war fatalities during the Persian Gulf War and victims of the Waco standoff, the Jeffrey Dahmer case and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon.

Historic St. Mary’s City staff provided images of the museum and the lead coffin burials to the show’s producers and the filmmakers who visited in November to shoot the excavations.

For more information, call 240-895-4990 or e-mail hsmc@smcm.edu.

Dedication ceremony

A dedication ceremony for the late George Brown – a black Union soldier, who served during the Civil War – will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Catherine’s Church in Port Tobacco.

The ceremony is a joint effort among several groups including members of the B Company, 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment from Washington, D.C.; the Department of Maryland Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, or SUVCW, from Crofton; General George G. Meade Camp 5 SUVCW of Odenton; Lincoln-Cushing Camp 2 SUVCW of Washington, D.C.; Maryland Division Sons of Confederate Veterans or SCV; Pvt. Wallace Bowling Camp 1400 SCV of La Plata; and Maryland Line CSA Camp 1741 of Upper Marlboro.

Brown, who was severely injured in battle while he was a corporal in the 19th Regiment, United States Colored Troops, returned home to Port Tobacco where he lived and worked on his farm. A widower who remarried, Brown is buried next to his second wife, Sarah at St. Catherine’s.

The stone, donated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Pvt. Wallace Bowling Camp 1400, was sought for nearly 50 years by the Rev. Edward O’Connell, a priest at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Port Tobacco.

Saturday’s ceremony will include an honor guard, the playing of ‘‘Taps” and guest speakers.

For more information, call Klaus Schmidt at 301-752-1610 or 240-375-7649 or e-mail kschmidt@cecoconcrete.com; call Jeffrey French at 301-335-3189 or 410-326-3728 or e-mail ffrenchej@aol.com; call Ben Hawley at 301-942-2804; or call Jim Dunbar at 301-934-1716.

The Big Readtakes the stage

The Charles County Arts Alliance, a partner in The Big Read, is hoping for big crowds at the Readers’ Theater staged readings of the play ‘‘A Lesson Before Dying,” the Romulus Linney play based on Ernest J. Gaines’ book.

The readings, held April 4 through 6, one each in the three Southern Maryland counties, are free.

Starting at 7:30 each evening, the readings will be held April 4 at Westlake High School in Waldorf; April 5 on the Leonardtown campus of the College of Southern Maryland; and on April 6 at Calvert High School in PrinceFrederick.

The cast will also hold a question-and-answer session following each reading.

For more information, go to www.charlescountyarts.org or call 301-392-5900.

Trashy volunteers needed

Volunteers are needed for the 20th annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup on April 5. The annual event draws volunteers from throughout the community – Scout troops, churches, schools, families and environmentally concerned citizens – to clean up the shorelines of the river.

From 9 a.m. to noon, volunteers armed with garbage bags and work gloves will descend on garbage like a rainbow on an oil slick.

‘‘Since 1989, 40,000 volunteers have removed more than 3 million pounds of trash from fields, forests, parking lots, shorelines, school yards and all areas of the Potomac Watershed that drain into the Potomac River,” said executive director of the Alice Ferguson Foundation Tracy Bowen in a press release. ‘‘This year our goal is to get more participation than ever so that we can continue to undo the damage to our beautiful lands and waters.”

Taking place in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the cleanup is part of the Trash Free Potomac Watershed Initiative, a regionwide effort spearheaded by the Alice Ferguson Foundation to reduce trash and litter, while increasing recycling, education and awareness of trash issues in the Potomac watershed. The goal of the initiative is to have the river by completely trash-free by 2013.

To learn more or to sign up to volunteer, go to www.PotomacCleanup.org or call 301-292-5665.

Share your life

Of the estimated 700 Americans who will die next month about 1,600 transplantable organs will be buried or cremated and seeing as April is the national donate life month, LifeSharers wants to help reduce the organ shortage in the country.

More than 98,000 Americans are on the national transplant list and most of them will die waiting for organs, according to LifeSharers, a nonprofit national network of organ donors. Of those who receive organs, 50 percent of those recipients have not agreed to donate their own organs when they die.

To find out more, go to www.lifesharers.org or call Dave Undis at 615-351-8622.

In the Nav ... alacademy

Local high school students interested in applying to a U.S. service academy can learn more about the application process during a forum April 7. Hosted by U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the program is in its 27th year and provides students an opportunity to learn more about an interesting and fulfilling career in the U.S. military. ‘‘Our nation’s service academies are among the most prestigious institutions of higher education in America,” said Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) in a press release. In order to pursue an appointment to a U.S. service academy, students between the ages of 17 to 22 must be nominated. Hoyer’s office will start accepting applications later this spring for any student eager to enter a service academy in summer 2009. Students unable to make the forum can find more information at www.hoyer.house.gov⁄services⁄academy.asp. The forum will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro.

staylor@somdnews.com