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McLeanWellbeingPage 11Photo by Donna Manz/The ConnectionOpinion, Page 6 Entertainment, Page 10 Sports, Page 12 Classifieds, Page 14McLean NativeGives In-houseConcert inViennaNews, Page 8McLean-raised singer, songwriter, entertainment-businessman Joel Stein, nowliving in Los Angeles, gave a free inhouse concert at the home of Nina andDan Somerville in Vienna on Aug. 2.More than 40 old friends, including hisMcLean High School principal, came outfor the performance.Walk ‘N RollComes to VirginiaNews, Page 3Northern Virginiain NeutralNews, Page 4www.ConnectionNewspapers.comAugust 6-12, 2014online at www.connectionnewspapers.comMcLean Connection August 6-12, 2014 1
2 McLean Connection August 6-12, 2014www.ConnectionNewspapers.com
McLean Connection Editor Kemal Kurspahic703-778-9414 or mclean@connectionnewspapers.comNewsWalk ‘N Roll Comes to VirginiaMcLean resident headingthe efforts to bringDogFest to the area.By Nikki CheshireThe Connections summer winds down and comesto a close, one organization’s local chapter is turning the tail endof summer into a tail-waggingevent. McLean resident Laura Clark is heading an effort to bring Canine Companionsfor Independence’s DogFest Walk ‘N Rollevent into Virginia.“Canine Companions is the largest nonprofit in the nation that breeds, trains andmatches service dogs for people with disabilities,” said Clark, chairperson of the D.C.area Walk ‘N Roll.Clark is a volunteer puppy raiser for CCI,which means she raises a puppy for a yearand a half, focusing on socialization, behavior in public places, and upwards of 35 commands. But Clark felt she could do more tohelp.“When I became a puppy raiser andstarted learning more about the organization, I saw that other cities were having thisDogFest walk,” Clark explained, her puppyin-training Kiva curled by her feet. “ThereAPhoto by Nikki Cheshire/The ConnectionMcLean resident Laura Clark and her puppy-in-training Kiva advocatefor Canine Companions for Independence and the upcoming D.C.DogFest Walk ‘N Roll event in September.weren’t very many cities having it, and theclosest city was pretty far away. We foundout they were looking for new cities to hostan event, so I volunteered to be chairperson.”Clark says she tries to donate 5-10 hoursa week to the planning and coordination ofthe event, but that some weeks are morehectic than others as the walk draws nearer.The event will be held on the morning ofServing Families For 90 YearsPushing the boundaries has led to success, says Northern VirginiaFamily Services CEO.“The budget was 182,000 at the time,”By Reena SinghThe Connectionn organization does not thrive for90 years by chance.Northern Virginia Family Services, a county institution, has impactedfamilies throughout the region for nearlya century with no sign of slowing down.CEO and President Mary Agee, whohas been at the organization for 46 ofthose years, has seen the nonprofit flourish during her time there.“In reading the history, there were alot of passionate and smart people thatwere on the board in the ‘20s, ‘30s and‘40s,” she said. “Very adaptable and veryprincipled. That’s the other thing thatstruck me — that the decisions werebased upon doing the right thing andnever turning a child away.”She said that even today, her staffis willing to push boundaries whilestill adhering to the comPhoto by Tonya McCrearyMary Agee, NVFS president andCEO, and Karen Horowitz, directorof volunteer and internship engagement, present Ralph Lickeywith the Presidential Award forCommunity Volunteers at theagency’s annual meeting, June 12,at the Capital One headquarters.NVFS opened its doors in 1924 as a family counseling center; it was run by a singlevolunteer at the time.Agee joined the 11 person staff in 1972.She just announced her retirement, effective next June, on Monday.she said.The budget is now 32 million and staffcount has soared to 150 people. One ofthose staff members is current Chief Operative Officer Cheri Villa who has been withthe organization for five years.“One of the reasons I came here was towork with Mary on her vision,” she said.Recently, the organization has helpedfamilies who have suffered during the recession to adapt to the change.“I think one of the most interesting thingsis when you look at our history, it’s a reflection of the region as a whole,” said Villa.“As community needs have emerged, Northern Virginia Family Services has stepped in.”In the last 20 years, affordable housingand mental health issues were added to thelist of NVFS’s concerns. However, Agee doesnot think they were ever a non-issue for thearea.“The needs in the community have absolutely not changed,” said Agee. “The thingthat has changed is the faces that use them.”She said that the organization had thechance to help its community during theSept. 13 at Pentagon Row in Arlington, anoutdoor shopping area only a few milesfrom D.C. “There’s this really beautifulcourtyard area with shops surrounding thecentral part where we’ll have a festival,”Clark explained. “We have people who havepre-registered and have organized teams sowe’ll have some of our puppies there, we’llhave some of our matched teams or servicedogs, we’ll have released dogs, we’ll havefamily dogs; just a whole variety of peoplewho’ll be there.”The event will kick off with a presentation, followed by a mile-long ceremonialwalk that everyone is encouraged to participate in. “It’s a people walk as much as itis a dog walk,” said Clark.The festival will include numerous boothsand vendors from area businesses including Starbucks, Smoothie King and USAA.PetSmart is a major sponsor, and will havebooths with fun activities for the dogs aswell.Clark said the fundraising goal is 60,000,which is what it costs to breed, raise, trainand match one service dog with a disabledperson. Currently, the group has raised over 20,000.“These last couple of months will be a bigpush for groups to continue fundraising andfind any final business sponsors that wouldlike to support us,” Clark said.More information on the walk is available at cci.org/dogfest.NVFS CEO andPresident MaryAgee is retiringnext summer.Photo byReena Singh/The Connectionresponse after a plane struck the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.“It was an honor to be asked by theCommunity Foundation of the NationalCapital Region to design a program thatwould support the families that wereimpacted by the attack on the Pentagon,”she said. “What that taught was how toperfect a case management model —help them recover from trauma and bringin a number of resources.”She said the leadership the organization showed made NVFS a nationalleader in trauma response. It is currentlypoised to help the numbers of childrenthat have crossed the border into Texas.But it does not do the work alone.Many of the issues that leaders at NVFSare passionate about are also tackledwith other local organizations.“I think collaboration is a big part of oursuccess,” she said. “These issues are so bigthat you have to tackle them together.”McLean Connection August 6-12, 2014 3
NewsNorthern Virginia in NeutralIncome growth in Fairfax and Alexandria lags behind state andnational averages.nity into actually having lots of jobcenters there and having lotsof younger people going therebefore they start families.”Part of the change forLoudoun is the kind of construction that’s been happening in recent years. The countyhas seen a number of newmixed-use developments thatinclude residences, shoppingand offices. The Village atSource: Bureau of Economic Analysis Leesburg, for example, wasone of the first of its kind in thearea. That was followed by OneLoudoun in Ashburn and Crescent Place, a trend that is slowlymaking Loudoun more friendlyfor millennials.By Michael Lee PopeThe Connectionaycheck growth in FairfaxCounty and the city of Alexandria are lagging behind the state and the nation, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. A lookat per capita personal income fromthe last five years shows Northern Virginia struggling to keep up as everybody else recovers from the recession.Fairfax County had the lowest rateof growth, only 2 percent. Alexandriaisn’t much better, showing a 3 percentgrowth in per capita personal income.Arlington has the highest per capitapersonal income, although its growthis just under the state and nationalaverage. The only bright spot inNorthern Virginia is Loudoun County,which has seen a 15 percent rate ofgrowth from 2008 to 2012 (the mostrecent year available). For the mostpart, Northern Virginia is stuck.“The region has stopped growing,” said Stephen Fuller, directorof the Center for Regional Analysisat George Mason University. “Highwage jobs and most new jobs arepaying below the average for alljobs.”Part of the explanation is that thetypical American household is getting poorer, according to a newstudy by the Russell Sage Foundation that shows the inflation-adjusted net worth for the typicalAmerican household has dropped36 percent from 2003 to last year.Another part of the explanation isthat the region is emerging fromthe recession with a serious hangover. Stimulus spending was drying up justas Northern Virginia is facing a series oftroubles related to a dysfunctional federalgovernment.“This area is highly dependent upon thefederal government,” said Frank Shafroth,director of the Center for State and LocalLeadership. “Sequesters, shutdowns andfreezing Department of Defense and domestic appropriations can be very disruptive.”PTHE GREAT RECESSION came on theheels of one of the worst business cycles onrecord in terms of job creation, a phenomenon that’s true for per capita personal income as well as household income. By 2009,when the bottom fell out of the global financial system, the typical working-ageAmerican household was earning about 5,000 less than it did in 2000. Since 2009,when the recovery officially began, household income has fallen even more.“It’s depressing,” said Richard Fry, a se-“The region hasstopped growing.”— Stephen Fuller, director ofthe Center for Regional Analysisat George Mason UniversitySource: Bureau of Economic Analysisnior researcher at the Pew Research Center. “Household income is down, and evenduring the years it was supposed to be recovering it has actually continued to fallfurther.”Here in Northern Virginia, demographicchanges are at the root of why per capitapersonal income has remained flat. As development and redevelopment moves forward, low-income families are being pricedout of Arlington and Washington, D.C.Meanwhile, the older housing in FairfaxCounty and Alexandria are drawing lowerincome families.“The older apartments were designed forsingles, but they are now occupied mostlyby families with children,” said David Versel,senior research associate at the Center forRegional Analysis. “If you look down Route1, all the apartments near Fort Belvoir werebuilt for singles and young couples. Nowthey have predominantly immigrant families.”4 McLean Connection August 6-12, 2014“We’re not seeing as manymansions or large single-family houses being built, and weare seeing more smaller units,which means smaller households with fewer children,”said Versel. “That means foreach new household thatmoves in, there are fewer dependents and thus the percapita income will be higher.”ACROSS AMERICA, thepoor are getting poorer. A newstudy by the Russell SageFoundation concludes thathouseholds at the bottom ofthe wealth distribution lost theSource: Bureau of Economic Analysis largest share of their totalwealth, and researchers who conTHE ONE bright spot in Northern Virginia ducted the study believe the slow reis the fast growing exurbs of Loudoun covery will continue to generate inCounty, where per capita person income creased wealth inequality in the comincreased from 52,000 in 2008 to 60,000 ing years. The study also concludedin 2012. Researchers who study the shift- that the Great Recession caused an uning demographic patterns of Northern Vir- precedented decline in wealth holdingsginia say part of the explanation for this is among American households. Inflathe different kind of people who are now tion-adjusted net worth for the typicalmoving to Loudoun County, which is grow- household in America dropped 36 pering at the fastest rate in Northern Virginia. cent from 88,000 in 2003 to 56,000The county’s population has doubled in the last year, and most of that drop camelast 15 years, and so has the county’s de- in the wake of the Great Recession. Ulmographic profile.timately, the researchers concluded, the“One of the things that is really changing data show very few signs of significantin Loudoun is having more younger people recovery from the losses in wealth exgoing out there, and families without chil- perienced by American families duringdren going out there,” said Hamilton the Great Recession.Lombard, research specialist for the Demo“The housing bubble basically hidgraphics Research Group at the University a trend of declining financial wealthof Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Pub- at the median that began in 2001,”lic Service. “And that’s just kind of a trans- wrote Fabian Pfeffer, one of theformation from being a bedroom commu- study’s authors.www.ConnectionNewspapers.com
lost (adj): 1. unable to findthe way. 2. not appreciatedor understood. 3. no longerowned or knownMaplewood GrillRestaurant WeekAugust 11th - 17thAdoptDonateVolunteerlostdogandcatrescue.org3 Course DinnerBrunchEverySunday 35.14703-281-0070SpecialLunchesEvery Day132 Branch Road., S.E. Vienna, VAVisit www.maplewoodgrill.com for SpecialsFREE ESTIMATES!Patios, Walkways,Walkways, RetainingRetaining Walls,Walls,Patios,LandscapingLandscaping andand soso muchmuch more!more!LandscapeLandscape SpecialSpecial10%10% OffOff AllAll HardscapingHardscaping throughthrough LaborLabor DayDayBonsai,Orchids &Cactus 25% OffNursery StockFountains,Fountains,Benches &&BenchesStatues 25%25% OffOffStatuesBlooming Tropicals25% Off6050-75% OffPotteryesric 8!Pt 00es e 2wcLo Sin30% OFF35% OFFJapanese MaplesOverOver 150150 varietiesvarietiesPlayground Chips& Organic Compost 29.99 cu. yd.BulkMulch 24.99 cu. yd.9023 Arlington Blvd.,Fairfax, Virginia2 miles west of I-495 on Rt. 50.1 mile from I-66 (Vienna -5025Open 7 days a weekVisit our new Web site: www.cravensnursery.comMcLean Connection August 6-12, 2014 5
OpinionMcLeanBrightening Outlook for End of SummerLocal pleasures to offset discouraging news.he news here has been a bit disThe current stubborn road block to extendcouraging, and that’s without con- ing health coverage to at least 200,000 verysidering the human tragedy and poor Virginians, including another unsettlingdisaster of several different inter- narrative about Democrats losing control of thenational situations.Virginia Senate because of the resignation ofThe unsettling narrative rolling out from the one senator who was apparently offered a greatRichmond trial of former Gov. Bobjob and a judgeship for his daughter, isMcDonnell and his wife MaureenEditorial dispiriting.would hopefully result in action onThe failure in Fairfax County of acampaign finance reform in Virginia.proposal to allow the building of affordUp until the news about “gifts” to family able studio apartments to house working poormembers of Gov. Bob McDonnell, almost all people is discouraging on several fronts. Theelected officials would defend Virginia’s noto- proposal was many years in the making. Whyriously unregulated system of allowing candi- did this proposal come forward without supdates and elected officials to take unlimited port from members of the Board of Superviamounts of money and unlimited gifts from sors? Even if it was approved, it appeared toanyone or any company at all. Because Vir- lack commercial viability. Back to the drawingginia has such strict disclosure requirements, board? (There is some good news pendingelected officials seem to think that it’s OK to about more federal money for affordable housbe awash in all that money. Voters can look up ing in the county.)who is giving money and draw their own conSo here are a few end-of-summer activitiesclusions. How could it hurt if the details are that can serve as antidote.Go on a Sunset Kayak Tour in Great Falls, Friday,all out in the open?It isn’t just disclosure of gifts to family mem- Aug. 8, 5-7 p.m. Riverbend Park, 8700 Potomac HillsSt., Great Falls. Experience the end of the day with abers that needs reform here.tour of the upper Potomac. Ages 14 . 59- 74. RegDiscovering that the system is entirely self- ister at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/regulated with no independent auditor, no eth- riverbend-park/kayaktours.htm.Try out Tai Chi for free. Beginners’ Practice. 8-9 a.m.ics commission and no penalties for failing to McLeanCentral Park basketball court, 1468 Dolleyreport gifts or contributions should give vot- Madison Blvd, McLean. Open to all, including first-timers some pause. Consider that only four states, ers, every Saturday morning. 703-759-9141 orincluding Virginia, have no limits on contribu- www.freetaichi.org/practice.shtml.Dance on Aug. 16, 8-11:30 p.m. Colvin Run Dancetions. Most states have limits; for example, in Hall, 10201 Colvin Run Road, Great Falls. 8-9pmMaryland, individuals can give 4,000 to any Mambo lesson; 9-11:30 p.m. 15. 703-759-2685.Go to the farmers markets and enjoy the localone candidate and 10,000 total in a four-yearelection cycle. We’ve already had one session bounty.Oak Marr Farmers Market. 8 a.m. - noon, Wednesof the General Assembly without a meaning- days. Oak Marr Park & RECenter, 3200 Jermantownful reform effort.TRoad, Oakton. viennamkt.htm.Frying Pan Farm Stand. Wednesdays. 8 a.m.-12:30p.m. 2709 West Ox Road, Herndon. r Lakes Farmers Market. Wednesdays. mers-market-fairfax-va.Herndon Farmers Market. 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Thursdays, May 1-Nov. 13. Twelve Vendors sell a variety ofproducts including kettle corn and fresh made Italianpasta. Old Town Herndon, 700 Block of Lynn ets/herndonmkt.htmFairfax’s Government Center Farmers Market. 3-7p.m. Thursdays, May 1-Oct. 30. Ten vendors includinga Middle Eastern delicacy bakery and custom organicice cream shop.Fairfax County Government Center,12000 Government Center Parkway, /governmentcntr-mrkt.htm.McLean Farmers Market. 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Fridays,May 2-Nov. 21. 1659 Chain Bridge Road, mcleanmkt.htmReston Farmers Market. 8 a.m.-noon. Saturdays,May 3-Nov. 9. Named the best farmers market inNorthern Virginia by Virginia Living Magazine. LakeAnne Village Center, 11401 North Shore Drive, arkets/restonmkt.htmOakton Farmers Market. 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturdays.Year round. Unity of Fairfax Church, 2854 Hunter MillRoad, Oakton. www.smartmarkets.org/Great Falls Farmers Market. 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturdays. Year round. Great Falls Village Centre, rg/FarmersMarket.html.Vienna Farmers Market. 8 a.m.-12 p.m., Saturdays.Faith Baptist Church Parking Lot, 301 Center StreetSouth, Vienna. www.viennafarmersmarket.com.Fairfax Farmers Market. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays,May 10-Nov. 1. 10500 Page Avenue, n Farmers Market. 10 a.m.-2 p.m.,Sundays. Parking lot of the National Automobile Dealers Association 8400 Westpark Drive, McLean.www.smartmarkets.org/Lives Disrupted by Virginia Anti-gay LawsBy Jennifer Shearin and Julie Naffhen Julie and I decided to build ourfamily through adoption in 2007,we knew we would need to complete a homestudy first. We called two localadoption agencies to f
Sept. 13 at Pentagon Row in Arlington, an outdoor shopping area only a few miles from D.C. “There’s this really beautiful courtyard area with shops surrounding the . Smoothie King and USAA. PetSmart is a major sponsor, and w
