| Top News |
Volunteers help fund homelesss shelter
By Keith McMillan
Media General News Service
MANASSAS At a small, 40-bed homeless shelter along Nokesville Road, Rob Sturm frowns at certain numbers: 950 people were turned away last year because the shelter simply didnt have the space for them.
While he talks, a standing-room only GED class goes on downstairs. Sturm hopes future clients wont suffer the same fate, one reason why hes leading a capital campaign for Securing Emergency Resources through Volunteer Efforts (better known as SERVE) to build a new facility.
The non-profit organization could break ground at a new 5.5-acre site later this fall. The effort, which would place a complex on Dean Drive, just behind the current site, is backed by Manassas and Prince William. [more]
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Teen’s death saves a mother’s life
Transplant donor’s family meets recipient for the first time
By Lucy Chumbley
Manassas Journal Messenger
 Last July 25, 18-year-old Manassas resident James “Marty” Romans was driving along Haymarket’s Logmill Road when a car swerved over the center line and into his path.
Romans lost control of his car, which spun into a field at Rolling Wood Farm, where preschool teacher Michele Failla, 49, kept a horse.
Failla was waiting for a liver transplant.
The accident was serious. Marty’s guardians, Chuck and Sadie Swanston (his great aunt and uncle), had a tough decision to make.
“At the hospital, they had told us that Marty might not make it. I was standing by his bed, and I knew we had to make a decision, so I stepped outside the curtain and asked my husband what we should do,” said Sadie.
She is telling this story Sunday afternoon from her Manassas living room, which is adorned with Bible verses and pictures of Romans and his sister Becky, 21. Failla, the recipient of Romans’ liver, is holding her hand. [more]
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Teen’s body is found in quarry
By Keith Walker
Media General News Service
Divers found Kevin Williams body less than an hour after they entered the water Sunday at the Haymarket Quarry where the 17-year-old Sudley boy drowned on Saturday.
Family members stood at the edge of the quarry, talked quietly among themselves and watched as six divers entered the water and began the search at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Frankie Rourke, a friend of Williams, also watched from the cold, windy cliffs during the recovery operation.
Rourke planned to accompany Williams and four other friends when they went to the quarry on Saturday afternoon, but preparations for a homecoming dinner kept him from going with the other boys.
We had been talking about it for a few weeks It was homecoming at my school. I told him I couldnt go because I had to get ready, Rourke,15, said. [more]
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Sudley students open bug hotel
By Kevin Killen
Manassas Journal Messenger
 Students “bugged out” Friday at Sudley Elementary School during Scary Story week.
The school library hosted a tour of its “bug hotel,” capping off a week in which students learned about many creepy critters like spiders and cockroaches, said librarian M.L. Cochrane.
“The kids all had a lot of fun there; they all really seemed to enjoy it,” she said.
Cochrane said that she transformed the library in about two hours Thursday afternoon, and that she got the idea from the title of a popular children’s book.
Pam Moody, Sudley principal, said the whole idea was Cochrane’s, but most of the staff contributed in some way.
“The bug hotel is a children’s book, so Mrs. Cochrane thought it would be neat and educational to make the bug hotel come to life,” she said. “She is really into doing things like this for the students, and she does something like this about three times a year.” [more] |
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| Opinion |
| Mom on the run
The Learn & Play catalog was buried in the mountain of mail that our neighbor brought in while we were at the beach in August. I saw it when we came home and sorted it into the recycle pile, but my five-year-old son dragged it out, studied every product on every page and, looking at the back cover, announced, This is what I want to be for Halloween!
It was a Max Steel costume: Part Man. Part Metal. All Action! Youre the planets first bionically-enhanced man. Now go out and save the world! Bodysuit and plastic headpiece. $24.95 And here was my son, 10 weeks before Halloween, announcing he wanted it. [more]
Pro-Nader campaign is a cheap dirty trick
Deceptive political campaigning is not what voters need or want, and practitioners of this dark art should be exposed and held up to the light.
Today, new Republican ads about the presidential race are to begin airing in Wisconsin, Washington state and Oregon. But the ads are promoting the candidacy of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, not the candidacy of GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush.
The ads produced by the Republican Leadership Council, a moderate GOP group feature Nader criticizing Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore. The intent of the ads is to help Bush by convincing would-be Gore voters to vote for Nader instead. [more] |
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| Sports |
 Conquistadors Conquer
Seton’s boys soccer team rejoices after its 2-1 victory over Frederick-sburg Christian Academy for the Delaney Athletic Conference championship Saturday. With the win, the Conquistadors remained undefeated with a record of 14-0-2 and will now gear up for the state tournament Nov. 7, 9, 10. [more]
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Obituaries
It’s My Town
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