Steve Testerman owns and operates Young's Nursery, Garden Center and Hardware Store on Woodville Road in Unionville. Testerman has built up the store and stock over the past several years and offers a hardware ranging from tiny rivets and fasteners to fine tools.

Ten puppies is a lot for a first-time mother to handle, but Mave took it all in stride, said Carol Rollman, her owner.

Mave, 3, exercised daily during her pregnancy. She herded livestock and chased predators away from her home, Sycamore Spring Farm on Elmer Derr Road, Rollman said. more »

Lt. Clark Pennington loves his job.

In 12 years with the Frederick Police Department, Pennington has worked as supervisor of the police academy/training, supervisor of community services and patrol, hostage negotiator, motorcycle officer, and now patrol commander and public information coordinator.

Sgts. William Burwell and William Wolbert are coordinating this year's drive, which includes more than 75 events and 200 drop-off locations in western and central Maryland.

Roy Wilson Craddock may hear the train a comin', but it ain't the whistle outside Folsom Prison. His track is headed toward the Maryland Senior Idol contest.

Craddock was selected from four finalists of the Frederick County senior idol contest to represent Frederick County at the state competition.

The county's first idol was held recently at the Lynfield Event Complex. Contestants had to be 60 or older and perform individually.

more »

Two Frederick men will say goodbye in January to their lives of comfort to help others living in poverty a world away.

Dr. Julian Choe, 51, and Mark Zimmerman, 46, will spend as many as seven years as missionaries in the Dominican Republic. more »

An 8-year-old train enthusiast came to Point of Rocks a few weeks ago to see one of the country's most famous historic train stations. He left wondering why his new favorite station had fallen into disrepair, and he decided he wanted to help fix it.

"It needed to be painted and get the windows fixed," said Connor Fischer (left), a third-grader who lives in Darnestown. more »

After a stint cheering for the Baltimore Ravens, Christina Heller didn't wait long before getting involved again with a sports-affiliated cheer and dance team.

Now director of the Frederick Lady Outlaws, the cheer squad for the semi-professional Frederick Outlaws football team, Heller is looking to choose the best women to rev up the team and the fans. more »

"Nothing gets in the way" of a day's work, said Dennis Crum of Frederick.

When he said it, he was at his post. He counts and greets customers at the Costco warehouse at 10 Walser Drive, Frederick.

Crum, 66, does his job these days from a wheelchair. more »

Frederick police Sgt. Bruce DeGrange grew up around guns.

His father competed in marksmanship events and would take him to practices.

"He practiced at the old Linganore Rifle Range off of Plant Road," DeGrange said. "My father helped build that range." more »

By day, Kirsten N. Brown focuses on sending violent criminals to prison.

At night, she goes home to a man who helps put them there.

Married five years to Robert V. Brown Jr., a patrol officer with the Frederick Police Department, Kirsten Brown said criminal justice can't help but run through her household. more »

Archie Rogers has been in business in Frederick since 1973. He closed Rogers Office Supply & Equipment in 2000 but continues to operate Rogers Engraving & Stamps Plus out of his home.

Working in downtown Frederick over many years has come with some unforgettable moments, like the 1976 flood that filled his downtown warehouse with 4 feet of water in four hours. more »

When Ray Stine saw two passengers making out in the back seat of his taxi many years ago, he didn't interrupt them, he said.

"That was OK, but I still kept the meter running," said Stine.

His longevity behind the wheel has come with some unforgettable moments. "I have some stories that you can't print," said Stine. People tend to confide in taxi drivers, he said. more »

Jim Plamondon, who owns the Roy Rogers corporation with his brother, grew up in a family whose business interests were in food and hospitality.

That, and his legal background, prepared him well to serve as chairman of the Restaurant Association of Maryland.

Association members recently elected him to that one-year position after eight years in various positions on the association's board. more »

Pete Allen never leaves home without a plastic bag stuffed in his back pocket.

He usually recycles the sleeve to the newspaper. By the end of his morning walk it's usually full of trash he found along the way.

"I would like to do it every morning, but the weather doesn't always permit that," said Allen, 82. more »

Hua Mulan. Joan of Arc. Two of the most famous historical women to dress and fight as men. But as recently as the Civil War, women took the guise of men to be able to fight for their country.

Of more than 3 million enlisted soldiers in either Civil War army, an estimated 400 were women in disguise, an act that carried a harsh penalty if discovered.

Audrey Scanlan-Teller portrays one of these secretive women in battlefield re-enactments. more »

Jenny Barger's artistic talent helps brighten up the Home Depot on McCain Drive in Frederick.

And it won her a spot in the top five of a national contest.

Barger, 25, took fifth place in the contest by Home Depot for an Employee Appreciation Badge design. more »

Marge Lyburn isn't wasting any time before she starts enjoying a well-earned retirement from Frederick County Public Schools. Her last day as principal of Linganore High School is June 30. On July 5, she and her family will embark on a cruise to the Bahamas. more »

Blaring horns usually mean frustrated drivers. But at the corner of South Market Street and Clarke Place from 7:30 to 8 a.m. each weekday, they just mean hello.

Orville K. Johnson, 79, has stood at this intersection almost every morning for more than 20 years, smiling and waving at traffic.

"I don't know their names, but I know their faces, and they remember me," Johnson said. more »

When Christopher Elbich moved to Frederick for a job at Catoctin Mountain Park, he left behind a bustling life in Philadelphia.

"I'm used to meeting double the population of Thurmont every day," Elbich said in an e-mail.

With his wife, Julie, and two children, Severin, 4, and Joni Marie, 1, Elbich accepted a transfer to the park as an interpretive ranger. more »

Don Linton is well-known as a local businessman and one of three incorporators of The Community Foundation of Frederick County.

Less well-known is his passion for Frederick's development history.

"Telling the Frederick story is not emotional, but it's pretty deep, and I love to tell my story," the Frederick native said. more »

Long before President Barack Obama made a recent visit to an Arlington, Va., burger joint to indulge his craving for a cheeseburger and to provide a presidential foray into daily life, Harry S. Truman rolled into Frederick on a post-White House road trip.

After quenching his Chrysler's thirst for gas and his own with an ice-cold Coke, Truman garnered a flurry of light-hearted media coverage.

In the photo, Carroll Kehne Sr., left, helps Truman fill his car during a June 1953 road trip he took with his wife, Bess, six months after leaving the White House. more »

On March 31, Marianne Kobylenski retired after more than 21 years with the Frederick County Sheriff's Office.

Twelve hours later, she returned to school. She went straight to the head of the class.

As program administrator of a federal grant awarded to Frederick County Public Schools, Kobylenski teaches educators how to keep students and staff safe during crises. more »

Jake Nodar thought surviving in Alaska was going to be easy.

He had seen the nature shows where bears plucked salmon from rivers teeming with fish.

But when he and eight others were dropped in the wilderness as part of the Discovery Channel's new show "Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment," the Darnestown resident and professional horse trainer learned that finding food wasn't as easy as standing by a river catching fish. more »

Wise beyond his 12 years, Jason Polansky knows that life isn't perfect.

"I have a positive attitude about things," he said. "Life is good, but you're always going to have mountains to climb over."

The Thurmont Middle School seventh-grader has had plenty of hikes, having been born with bilateral anophthalmia, a rare syndrome causing a baby to be born with empty eye sockets. more »

Dwight Reever retired from the U.S. Postal Service at the end of February after nearly 30 years.

He hasn't completely left it behind, though.

In his basement he has cabinets and shelves of mail memorabilia, including postal scales from the 1930s and 1940s, mailbags, hats and buttons dating from the days of the U.S. Post Office Department. more »

Rain or shine, Charles Bare is stationed at Crestwood Boulevard and Hanover Drive, making sure Orchard Grove Elementary students safely cross the street, morning and afternoon.

Bare, 83, began working as a crossing guard in 2006, after years of jumping from one career to the next. more »

Casey Landahl, a Frederick 5-year-old, decided she didn't want presents at her recent birthday party. Instead, she wanted anyone who would have given her a gift to donate something to Pets-4-Pets Cat Rescue, a local no-kill nonprofit that finds suitable homes for felines. more »

While caring for abused and neglected children, Chelsea Spade has learned compassion for their parents. The Myersville resident is volunteering for a year at Casa de Esperanza de los Ninos in Houston, and then hopes to become a teacher. more »

His job title is store manager, but to the teens and young adults who work for him, Romania native Toader Harris is a father figure who teaches and encourages them.

Harris' secret for success is having a great attitude.

"Your business will always be good as long as your attitude is good. We don't carry negativity in the store. It would be very easy in this economy to walk around with a long face," Harris said. more »

Making it fit. For a quarter century, those three words have defined TLC, or Tracy Lin Creations, Tracy McGuirk's alterations business.

The store has found its own custom fit among the specialty shops of Shab Row. more »

BEALLSVILLE -- A couple of farm fields separate Jane Hunter and her husband from the Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility near Dickerson.

From the edge of the Hunters' driveway, the plant's 275-foot smokestack is visible.

"You can hear it," Hunter said. Not during normal operations, but during breakdowns, she said. more »

John Kinnaird knows what small-town life is all about. Just read his "Don't hassle me, I'm a local" bumper sticker.

Kinnaird moved to Thurmont on April 8, 1960, with his parents and younger sister. "Unless I am forced out, my plan is to stay here," he said. more »

Grace Rice started driving a school bus on May 13, 1957.

"I had 22 days to drive that year, then a whole summer to worry if I could do it or not," she said.

Rice said she decided to become a bus driver because it allowed her to stay home with her children and make some money. more »

Wishes do come true for Sasha Williams.

Last month, the 13-year-old and her family took a four-day trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., thanks to the Kids Wish Network.

The network is a national nonprofit organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. more »

For five years, Manda Gardner Mackintosh taught art to children in Frederick County elementary schools. Now she's put her teaching experience to work helping students, including adults, get in touch with their creative sides.

As the new school year began -- along with her marriage to Drew -- Mackintosh, 28, moved her classroom to a new setting when she opened a business in the Villages of Urbana -- Urbana Art & Soul. more »

It took 75 years for George Wireman's dream to come true.

"It started when I was about 12 or 13 years old," he said. "I was given an electric train for Christmas. When we put the tree up, it wasn't complete without the train underneath." more »

Scott Asbury was on his own at 15 years old. He spent his nights at different friends' homes and his Ford Explorer essentially became his "apartment on wheels."

Even when times were tough, there was always music.

Today, Asbury, 19, has an up-and-coming hip-hop career.

Even when it is warm outside, Will Scheetz spends his workdays in the cold — and he enjoys every minute of it.

As a Zamboni driver, Scheetz has been resurfacing the ice at Skate Frederick for 14 years. more »

Michael Bonett (at far right) had been in the Republic of Georgia for two months as a Peace Corps volunteer when conflict broke out in South Ossetia, and he had to leave abruptly."

I was not able to say goodbye to many of the friends I had made," he said in an e-mail about his experience. "I did not get to say goodbye to my host family until I was in Armenia." more »

URBANA -- John Yaglenski describes the holiday light show in front of his family's house as "tastefully tacky."

The display is animated and synchronized with music transmitted on a local radio station. more »

The Daughters of the American Revolution honored Joanne Snouffer Parsley with its Outstanding Junior national award.

A resident of Barnesville, Parsley received the award at the 2008 Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution's national convention. more »

Frederick resident Steven Ranney went to Vietnam in 1968 as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army.

After just three weeks as a forward observer, he was wounded in the head, and he spent the next 15 years learning to walk and talk again.

"That was the end of the war for me," he said.

Ranney never intended to visit Vietnam again. more »

Frederick police officer Chris Herman asked tough questions of his students last week, but they proved to be fast learners.

"Communication -- what does it mean?" Herman asked. more »

Patrick McKinney (left) has what he calls a normal life. He enjoys spending time with his family, he works as a safety specialist at Fort Detrick and he plays in a rock band on the side.

But life hasn't always been this good, he said, and it's taken some hard times to help him appreciate what he has. more »

Diamante Blackmon wants to take total control or, better yet, kill the music scene with overwhelming beats and rhythms.

When the Walkersville High School junior is not in class or on the football field, he's hatching his musical world domination under the name D.J. Carnage. more »

Now working for the prosecution, Leroy Ambush III used to work for the defense -- as an outside linebacker for the University of Maryland football team.

Five years removed from the college gridiron, Ambush is still quick on his feet, anticipating legal maneuvers at the Frederick County Courthouse. more »

When dog trainer Pat Sutton gives her dog Shadow a command, she speaks in a soft, low voice.

In her business, Blue Ridge K-9, Sutton doesn't use submissive techniques. She believes training should be fun for dog and owner. more »

When Janice Laster moved to Frederick in 1993 with furniture and belongings of her great-grandparents, she closed a loop in her family history that began more than 120 years ago. more »

NyxoLyno Cangemi decided in late August to take the plunge and re-enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard.

After taking the oath in an airplane, the Petty Officer First Class plunged 13,500 feet to Earth, skydiving over Williamstown, N.J. more »

MIDDLETOWN — Mark Yannone played baseball, basketball and football as a teenager, but no sport provided the thrill he was seeking -- until he found skateboarding. more »

The 1949 black Lincoln was just what Heidi Duthoy and Larry O'Hara had in mind for their wedding.

It was classic. It had whitewall tires, shiny silver details and "suicide" doors that opened outward like French doors. They spotted it while walking in a Frederick neighborhood, just down the street from her parents' home. more »

Forty-four years after Taneytown psychologist Robert Lea went to the Tokyo Olympic Games as an alternate oarsman on the U.S. team, his son is in Beijing pursuing a cycling medal.

Bobby Lea, 24, who now lives in Mertztown, Pa., is scheduled to hit the track Saturday in the single-person points race. more »

This summer, John, a fourth-grader at The Banner School, began collecting aluminum cans to raise money to create gift baskets for preemies at Frederick Memorial and Shady Grove Adventist hospitals. more »

Buddy is a 9-year-old Lab-shepherd mix who takes his job very seriously.

Buddy provides entertainment, companionship, or just a warm body to sit with at Sunrise Assisted Living in Frederick.

The residents, mostly senior citizens, as well as volunteers and staff treat him as one of their own. more »

more »

more »