October 2007 Good Neighbors
At the October meeting, WLCA gave out two
Good Neighbor Awards, recognizing people whose actions demonstrate that
individuals really can change the world – or at least their corner of it – for
the better.
If you have never been an eyewitness to a
crime, you may have wondered how you might respond if you did see an act of
violence or vandalism firsthand. Well, Julie Lane residents Mike and
Sandy Bainbridge didn’t have to think long or hard about what to do when
their next-door neighbor Andrea Martino’s home was broken into in August.
After observing a strange car back into Andrea’s driveway, Sandy, who was
working in her garden, watched as a man and woman got out and approached the
front door. She figured they didn’t belong there, so she went into the house and
called Prince George’s County Police. Sandy had also called Mike who was working
in the Burtonsville area and told him to return home. He arrived before police
and was able to note the license tag on what turned out to be a stolen vehicle.
Although the perpetrators escaped just before police arrived, Sandy’s detailed
physical description of the couple and Mike’s information about the car led to
an arrest of the male suspect within days.
If that weren’t enough, the very next day,
Mike and Sandy were at work right alongside Andrea in her front yard. All three
had spades and shovels in hand and were busy digging up plants and shrubs that
had obscured Andrea’s ground floor windows and made it an easier target for the
vandals. “I will never be broken into again,” Andrea has told other neighbors.
With friends like Mike and Sandy, we don’t think she has to worry.
Our other Good Neighbor Award was given to a
group of residents from the Jerald Road area that organized a benefit yard sale
for the family of Brad Benefiel, a West Laurel man who has been in a coma
since a choking incident in May. Brad grew up here, and these good neighbors,
many of whom have known him since he was a child, decided they needed to do
something to help the family with their mounting medical bills.
The group – including Clare Ferguson,
Lois White, Tom and Ruth Huber, Kay Ward, Chi Chi Turner
and Ann Riley – decided on a community yard sale and began soliciting
donations from neighbors and friends, arranged for trailers to be set up along
Jerald Road to serve as collection sites, and then promoted the event with signs
and fliers throughout West Laurel. Their goal was to raise $2,000. With the
proceeds from the September yard sale plus cash donations that came in as a
result of the publicity, the group raised more than $10,000 for Brad and his
family.
Please help us honor these West Laurel
residents for their generosity, selflessness and commitment to their neighbors
and the neighborhood. If you didn’t make it to the meeting to say thanks, be
sure to acknowledge their contributions the next time you see them.
