Anne Arundel Community College’s Bookstore was one of 17 college bookstores in the United States and Canada to be named to the 2013 Collegiate Retailer of the Year Honor Roll by the National Association of College Stores Foundation.

The AACC Bookstore was selected for its high quality based on six criteria— campus connection, academic support, customer commitment, shopping experience, workplace culture and profitability.

The AACC Bookstore is a true market innovator, leading the charge for textbook affordability and introducing cutting-edge technologies to enhance the shopping experience. The AACC bookstore offers competitively priced new and used textbooks, e-books and rentals. They also offer a 10 percent discount prior to the start of each term and boost one of the lengthiest refund periods in the industry. In both 2011 and 2012 the bookstore won awards for Innovation (m-commerce applications for the iPhone and Android platform) from the National Association of College Stores before earning a place this year on the NACS Honor roll and ranking among the top 17 finalists for the Collegiate Retailer of the Year Award.

For information, visit the website, www.aaccbooks.com.

Twelve properties featured on a walking tour of Guilford on Sunday, April 28, 2013

BALTIMORE— Guilford is celebrating its centennial, with the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage (MHGP) tour on Sunday April 28, 2013 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. as the first of many events during the year (www.guilfordassociation.org). There will be twelve properties including Sherwood Gardens, the most famous tulip garden in North America. Over 80,000 tulips are expected to be in full bloom. Another highlight is the Chancery Road “Turnbull House,” the former home of famous Baltimore artist Grace Hill Turnbull featuring a mix of Spanish Mission and Arts and Crafts styles. Turnbull’s church-like studio, with stained glass windows and a bell tower, awes many visitors. The Rugby Road home, formerly owned by famed poet Ogden Nash, is a Tudor Revival structure built in 1927.

The charity benefit tour is $30 in advance and $35 on the day of the tour at any of the homes. For tickets and more information, visit: www.mhgp.org or call: 443-939-4023

The annual spring tours are a central component of the MHGP’s efforts to cultivate awareness of Maryland’s rich architectural and cultural heritage, from historic to contemporary settings. Each year, proceeds from the tour support designated preservation projects in each host community. The profits from the Guilford tour will be used help maintain Sherwood Gardens, which get no government support. To date, the Pilgrimage has raised well over $1 million dollars for the preservation and restoration of architecturally significant properties throughout the State of Maryland while entertaining and informing many thousands.

  Parking is available on the streets of the neighborhood. The first 700 ticket holders to visit the gift shop at Second Presbyterian Church (site #10) located at 4200 St. Paul Street, will receive a special limited-edition artist-designed Guilford Centennial poster featuring Sherwood Gardens courtesy of Guilford’s Centennial Sponsor, PRITTE. All proceeds from the café and gift shop will benefit Sherwood Gardens.

  The organizers expect over 1000 visitors. Ann Giroux, Tour Chairman said, “To avoid crowds don't show up at house number one. Check the tour map on the website and start with one of the last homes.”

  Guilford is over 200 years old. The publisher of the Baltimore Sun, Arunah S. Abell owned the entire area from 1872 to 1907 when he sold it to developers for one million dollars.

  More information about Guilford’s Centennial Celebration is available at: www.mhgp.org. or www.facebook.com/GuilfordCentennial.

Mayor Encourages Registration for Clean Community Competition

BALTIMORE— On Saturday, April 20, 2013, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined Department of Public Works Director Alfred H. Foxx, residents, community leaders and elected officials to kick off the 2013 Mayor’s Annual Spring Cleanup. The first event took place at the intersection of Homewood Avenue and East North Avenue in the Greater Greenmount Community Association neighborhood. The community association won first place in the 2012 Clean Community Competition. Mayor Rawlings-Blake thanked Greater Greenmount and all Baltimoreans for their continued participation in Baltimore’s Annual Spring Cleanup.

“We are grateful for the thousands of volunteers who have committed to make their neighborhoods cleaner, safer, and stronger this weekend,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “Together, communities are showing that drive and spirit that makes our city such a great place to live, work, and learn. Today represents another example of why I know we can grow the city by 10,000 families over the next ten years.”

The Mayor’s Annual Cleanups started in 2000 with volunteers removing 2,500 tons of debris from their neighborhoods. Since then, as a result of this annual event, nearly 20,000 tons of debris has been removed. This year, over 200 community organizations and 5,800 volunteers signed up to participate in the spring-cleaning tradition.

The mayor thanked a coalition of city agencies and nonprofit organizations for coming together in the effort to clean the city, its parks, and its streams. These include the Department of Public Works, Department of Transportation, Department of Recreation and Parks, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods, Baltimore Housing, and the Baltimore Police Department.

Mayor Rawlings-Blake also visited the New Auchentoroly Terrace Association and participated in alley cleanup activities there.

BALTIMORE— On Saturday, April 27, 2013 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., residents will have another opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Local law enforcement agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration will host events for National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

Prescription drug take back programs address a vital public safety and public health concern. Drugs that languish in home medicine cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. According to the Partnership for a Drug Free America, abuse of prescription opioids kills more people than heroin or cocaine. Prescription opioids were involved in 38 percent of the overdose deaths in Maryland in the last four months of 2012. Between 2008 and 2012, the percentage of prescription drug-related admissions to Maryland state-supported alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs increased by 116 percent, with prescription opiates involved in one in five treatment admissions in 2012.

Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines— flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash— pose potential safety and health hazards.

"The Prescription Drug Take Back Day is one of the tools we can use to help reduce prescription drug abuse in our communities,” said Dr. Gayle Jordan-Randolph, DHMH Deputy Secretary for Behavioral Health. “Marylanders can play a critical role in helping to curb abuse by taking this opportunity to safely dispose of their unused prescription medications." 

Nationally, there has been an overwhelmingly positive response to Prescription Take Back events. In October 2010, the DEA held the first, ever national Drug Take Back event, and has since collected more than two million pounds of prescription medications.

Unwanted medications can be brought for disposal to a collection site near you. Inquiries can be made at 11-800-882-9539, or to find a Take Back location near you, please visit DEA's website at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html.