PBA Update

Sandi Parrish

Executive Director

Our June general membership meeting is one of my favorite lunches. We award our scholarships to local high school seniors. We have been providing scholarships since 1990 and have awarded more than $200,000. Steven Lewis was awarded the Isabel Shipley Cunningham Scholarship Award in memory of Cunningham, an Annapolis author and former teacher who spent years writing both of the Pasadena Business Association history books, “Between Two Rivers” and “The Pasadena Peninsula.” Damian Wirth received the Ed Lauer Scholarship in memory of Ed Lauer of Lauer’s Supermarket & Bakery. Ed Lauer was a founding member and first president of the Pasadena Business Association 33 years ago.

Jillian Taylor received the Debi Smigovsky Grim Scholarship Award in memory of Debi Grim, who started the PBA Education Committee and A Child’s Christmas program. Anthony Liberatori, Layla Tiberio and Raymond Kovacsics were also awarded scholarships.

We award a scholarship to three local eighth-grade students. Navaya Taylor, Ella Shannon and Aidan Durham were the recipients. We feel this encourages and prepares them to apply when they are seniors in high school.

Thanks to the Maryland Yacht Club for the great venue and food. The view is spectacular and a great backdrop for our scholarship pictures.

The PBA Education Committee is collecting school supplies for the 2019–2020 school year. We are focusing on grandparents raising grandchildren. Many of our members put out a box with a flyer attached and watch the supplies roll in. We are currently looking for a PBA member business that can put out all of the supplies that we collect out on a specific day in August and invite the families to bring their list and get whatever we have to offer.

We have grandparents raising grandchildren, and aunts and uncles raising siblings’ children due to circumstances within the family, so we want to help them. We partner with the schools in the Northeast and Chesapeake feeder systems on this project and they will let the grandparents, aunts and uncles know of this school supply distribution. We appreciate any and all help and I know that the grandparents appreciate it too.

Our second annual Shop Local Festival was a great day to spend with local businesses. We had many giveaways, entertainment, crafts for children and games for the family to enjoy. Thanks to all of our vendors for participating and especially our business sponsors. The platinum sponsor was Costello’s Ace Hardware & Hearth. The gold sponsor was Huff Insurance. Silver sponsors were Idea Weaver Promotions, Hometown Exterior House Cleaning, Servpro of Pasadena/Gibson Island/Lake Shore, Lauer’s Supermarket & Bakery, Bay Vanguard Bank, Farmers Insurance – Pam Negron, Celebree School, Mt. Carmel Learning Center, Himmel’s Landscape & Garden Center, Stacie’s Natural Touch, and Century 21 Don Gurney.

We are gearing up for our 16th annual golf tournament on September 11 at Compass Pointe Golf Courses. This tournament is open to the public and event proceeds will benefit the PBA community assistance projects, which provides the fifth-grade straight-A lunch, school supply drive, Educational Excellence Awards, Veterans Day ceremony, tree lighting ceremony, A Child’s Christmas, Caring & Sharing parade, Friends of Downs Park donation and support for the Friends of Hancock’s Resolution, National Night Out, flag site at Route 100 and Mountain Road, and new flags.

Please bring your family, friends and employees for a fun day on the golf course with the PBA. We will have a light breakfast, hot dogs on the turn, and a picnic lunch of sausage and peppers, pulled pork, coleslaw, baked beans and dessert catered by Cheshire Crab.

Our annual crab feast will be on Wednesday, September 25, at Kurtz’s Beach from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, so mark your calendars and spend a relaxing evening with friends and family eating crabs and other great food.

Check our website, www.pasadenabusinessassociation.com, for upcoming events like the trade show (always the second Thursday in October), Caring & Sharing parade, (always the first Sunday in November), Veterans Day ceremony (always on Veterans Day), and the tree lighting ceremony (always the first Tuesday in December).