CIRS Mold Toxicity Treatment in Great Falls, VA

Winners of the National Merit Scholarship's $2,500 scholarship were chosen from finalists representing less than 1 percent of U.S. seniors.

Mark Hand, Patch Staff

MCLEAN, VA — In the second round of scholarship winners in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program announced Wednesday, students from McLean and Great Falls were among the winners.

There are 2,500 winners of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's $2,500 scholarships from its own funds and organizations sponsoring awards through the corporation. A committee of college admissions officers and school counselors chose the winners based on their application information.

Winners are named in each state in proportion to the state's share of U.S. graduating seniors. According to the corporation, these winners "are the Finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies." Students may use the one-time scholarships at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university.

Virginia had 71 scholarship winners, 15 of whom live in McLean and two of whom live in Great Falls.

The scholarship winners who live in McLean are:

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Jackson C. Baldrate

Robert DeMartino

Benjamin Joel

Timothy Johanson

Taein Kim

Dominic J. King

Stephanie Ma

Alexander D. Pomper

Kozmo Rhyu

Anisha Talreja

Patrick Foran Wolff

Emma Yang

Olivia Zhang

Isabella Xindi Zhu

Lilian Zhu

The scholarship winners who live in Great Falls are:

Josephine Amspaugh

Angela J. Zhang

These winners joined around 840 corporate-sponsored scholarship recipients named in April. These scholarships were sponsored by about 107 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations and typically go to National Merit Scholarship finalists who are employees' children or students pursuing college studies or careers that the sponsor wants to support.

On June 7 and July 10, more scholarship recipients will be announced. Around 3,800 students will receive these college-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners.

In all, over 7,140 high school students will be awarded approximately $28 million in National Merit Scholarships this year.

Students were entered into the National Merit Scholarship competition as juniors taking the PSAT in 2021. In September 2022, around 16,000 semifinalists were named based on each state's proportion of graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the top scoring entrants in their states and represent less than 1 percent of seniors in the U.S.

To be considered for finalist status, semifinalists had to submit a detailed scholarship application with an essay and details on extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions as well as demonstrate an outstanding academic record and have an endorsement from a high school official. Around 15,000 finalists met requirements for finalists status and were eligible to be chosen for corporate-sponsored, National Merit Scholarship-sponsored and college-sponsored awards.

Virginia Route 7 runs east and west between Winchester and Alexandria. It is a heavily used route today, and it was a heavily used route when Alexandria was a major port city. The highway was used to transport goods from Winchester and Leesburg to Alexandria, where they were shipped around the world. Along this route were plantations and mills. Although many of the plantations and mills are long gone, the Colvin Run Mill in Great Falls remains, and it is still a working mill.

What is special about Colvin Run Mill? It is in its original location, although the area around it has changed to include the rerouting of Virginia Route 7. (Colvin Run Road was the original Route 7.) It is still a working mill, one of the few in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Region.

The items that are made by the mill are sold at the general store, which is located on the site. You can buy items like candy and souvenirs, but it is also a museum. (Unlike the mill, the general store was relocated to this site.) The general store is also where you pay your admission and start your tour. Although the general store is nice to see, the purpose of visiting the Colvin Run Mill is to see the mill itself.

As you leave the general store, you’ll pass the miller’s house, which today houses a small museum that tells how the family lived. From the house, you arrive at the mill and see the water flowing into the millrace to power the waterwheel. In the mill, the tour guide shows you the workings to the mill and how the milling works.

Colvin Run Mill is owned and operated by the Fairfax County Parks Authority. It is located at 10017 Colvin Run Road in Great Falls, Virginia, easily accessible from Virginia Route 7. Parking is on site. The guided tour includes the general store, miller’s house, and the mill. Please note that the site is not totally wheelchair accessible, and walking is required between each site. Admission is required. You can get more information here.

Stop in sometime and take a tour to learn why this mill is so special.

John Cowgill frequently writes about interesting destinations in the Washington, D.C. region.

The Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (NVCT) has announced its newest conservation success in Great Falls.

The 13-acre-plus property within the Pond Branch watershed in Dranesville District will be preserved in perpetuity courtesy of a conservation easement donated by a Great Falls couple, NVCT officials said Oct. 27.

The site, which includes a mix of forest and agricultural fields, will continue to serve as a wildlife haven that also minimizes flooding, improves air quality, and preserves native-plant life.

The conservation easement will protect the property from future development, preserve its natural habitat and agricultural value, and maintain its scenic open space and historic significance, officials said.

The Hardman family, the property’s longtime owners, said they appreciated people who assisted in the site’s perpetual protection.

“Over the 30 years we’ve lived in Great Falls, the disappearance of our area’s pastures and woodlands has heightened our appreciation of our own property’s woods, rolling terrain and creek bed,” the family said in a statement released by NVCT. “Our many large trees improve air quality, provide relief from the intense summer heat and provide a safe habitat for wildlife.”

NVCT began working with the Hardman family more than a year ago to see if their dream for the future of the property could become a reality.

The property’s main house, built in 1979 and expanded over time, is nestled within an expansive matrix of natural lands surrounding the Potomac Gorge. The area teems with wildlife, as witnessed by regular sightings of a wide range of mammals and resident and migratory birds, NVCT officials said.

Several wildlife species of concern, including wood turtles and brown and tri-colored bats, have been detected at the site, according to the Virginia Department of Fish and Game’s Fish and Wildlife Information Service.

The property includes segments of Mine Run, a tributary directly connected to the Potomac River about a mile away, and some of these areas have been recognized by state and county officials as critical to maintaining watershed quality.

The Fairfax County government has designated more than 6 acres of the property a Chesapeake Bay Resource Protection Area. About 8 acres of the site are covered by tree canopy, consisting mostly of good-quality, large-diameter trees in a wide range of native species.

“It’s unusual to get such a mix of agricultural and forest values protected along with a critical stream,” said NVCT conservation director Matt Gerhart. “We feel grateful to the Hardmans for taking such an important step for the sake of the property and Great Falls’ future.”

The easement also represents a successful collaboration from a partnership between NVCT and the Georgetown Pike Rural Preservation Trust, a new local volunteer effort to protect and enhance the Georgetown Pike corridor.

Since its founding in 1994, NVCT has protected nearly 9,000 acres in urban and rural areas. For more information, visit www.nvct.org.

(Updated at 4:55 p.m.) After more than two years of development, a new set of regulations will officially preserve dark skies around Turner Park Farm Observatory in Great Falls.

At a meeting on Nov. 21, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved zoning changes that aim to reduce light pollution and preserve dark skies within a half-mile of the observatory.

The proposal was significantly pared down after several community meetings and town halls. The changes will only apply to future lights on properties located within a half-mile of the observatory.

Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said he was satisfied with the proposal, which he called a “very reasonable approach” to the challenge facing the community.

“It’s not unanimous in the community, but I will say that the opposition is much less almost justified than it was when this thing started,” Foust said.

Under the zoning ordinance amendment, motion-activated outdoor lights must be 1,500 lumens or less — a drop from the current limit of 4,000 lumens or less.

Additionally, all lights need to be fully cut off — meaning the bulb can’t be exposed — which is currently not required. Still, an exception to the cut-off and shielding requirements will remain for lights at a door or a garage of up to 1,500 lumens per fixture.

The regulations would also set limits on the number of up-lights or spotlights allowed. Currently, any number are allowed as long as they’re fully cut off or shielded to confine light. The changes would limit each fixture to 300 lumens.

Unlike at previous public hearings, divisive testimony was limited. Several testifiers spoke in favor of the changes to the zoning ordinance.

Jennifer Falcone, a representative for the Great Falls Citizens Association, said the proposal is integral to protecting a “treasured community resource.”

“I live within this area,” Falcone said. “Given the evolution of lighting technology and the introduction and popularity of LED lighting, GFCA believes this measure is especially appropriate.”

Eileen Kragie, president of Dark Sky Friends, a nonprofit organization that aims to preserve dark skies, emphasized that the changes are sorely needed.

“Light pollution is growing at twice the rate of the population,” Kragie said. “In 20 years, stars won’t be visible.”

Mount Vernon District Supervisor Daniel Storck said the proposal’s approval could pave the way for future changes.

“This is in my mind…the start of a process that is mostly voluntary,” Storck said. (The spelling of Supervisor Storck’s name has been corrected.)

The amendment’s passage came on the same day that the Board of Supervisors approved zoning changes that will permit brighter electronic signs in more urbanized and commercial districts.

The Great Falls Citizens Association (GFCA) will continue its mission to protect natural resources and dark skies and mitigate impacts of development and traffic, said Christopher Rich, who earlier this summer was elected the group’s president.

“We’re concerned the character of the community could change,” said Rich, who succeeded longtime president William Canis. “We’re in this isolated Eden and trying to keep it that way.”

Great Falls has a unique location along a bend in the Potomac River and is one of the most interesting areas along the East Coast, with “fascinating and incredible” natural geography Rich said.

The lack of a crossing for 30 miles between the American Legion Bridge and Point of Rocks means the community is blessed with many gorgeous riverside parks and vistas, he said.

Great Falls also has some human-produced gems, such as the mill, general store and blacksmith shop at Colvin Run Historic Site and the astronomical observatory at Turner Farm Park, he said.

But the community, which formerly consisted of farmlands, still has ample property available for development, and massive new homes are popping up, Rich said.

While GFCA has comparatively little sway, given Virginia’s solid reputation as a property-rights state, “we must be attentive to what’s happening, speak up and use our voice,” Rich said.

One of the community’s main arteries, Georgetown Pike, originally was designed as a commuter road for horses and wagons headed to Washington, D.C., but GFCA still would like to reduce cut-through traffic on it, he said.

The group also is keeping up pressure on the Virginia Department of Transportation not to replace one-lane bridges on Walker and Springvale roads with two-lane spans.

GFCA also is monitoring a proposed Fairfax County dark-skies amendment that would impose extra lighting restrictions on homes within a half-mile of the Turner Farm observatory. The latest revision of the proposed ordinance, which would apply only to future homes within that zone, is “a compromise, but better than nothing,” Rich said.

Rich grew up in the Washington region, attended high school in Bethesda, and earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Colorado College in Colorado Springs. He spent one of his undergraduate years in India, hoping to become a filmmaker, then served for three years in the Peace Corps, where he worked at a rural bank in the Philippines.

While with the Peace Corps, Rich went to the U.S. Embassy in Manila for a snack and became acquainted with a young man who drove a nice car and lived in a home with electricity and cold beer in the refrigerator. Informed that the man worked for the U.S. Foreign Service, Rich took the agency’s test and, after a brief stint with the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., spent the next nearly 30 years living in the Middle East and Asia.

Rich was posted to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey and Egypt, and later spent two years in Washington, D.C., at the Human Rights Bureau. He spent his final two years with the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. He also was the Obama administration’s spokesman regarding the Keystone/XL Pipeline.

Earlier in his career, Rick did work concerning Love Canal, a Superfund cleanup site near Niagara Falls. He now is CEO of the U.S. Water Partnership, which helps communities domestically and abroad tackle water-related challenges.

“I consider myself to be passionate environmentalist, but a moderate one,” said Rich, a lifelong hiker, backpacker, river enthusiast and fly fisherman who also skis and has climbed mountains around the world.

But he acknowledged some developments and roads that he opposed in the past have proved downright convenient, if not indispensable.

Rich likely will bring more of an environmental focus to GFCA, as evidenced by his efforts with residents, youth groups and the Fairfax County Park Authority to revitalize and naturalize the oak grove behind the Great Falls Grange, Canis said.

“Chris has the vision to see how that one project can serve as a demonstration project for all Great Falls residents, showing them the way to naturalize their own property and thereby enhance environmental sustainability community-wide,” Canis said.

Gerald Peters, who is active in the Great Falls Grange Oak Grove Naturalization Project, said Rich has helped recruit and schedule volunteers to remove invasive vines and ground-cover plants at the site.

“Chris immediately gains respect for his willingness to pitch in on worthwhile projects and positions,” Peters said. “His friendly responsiveness and range of knowledge on many topics gives me, and apparently many others, confidence that he will do the jobs well that he signs on to.”

Rich will bring new energy and a fresh look to the GFCA board and already has appointed some new committee co-chairs, Canis said. The new president also has the integrity, open-mindedness and commitment needed to preside constructively over the group’s board meetings and interact well with GFCA’s large membership, which grew significantly last year, he said.

“With his past career as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, he brings to GFCA a knowledge of effective negotiation with key government stakeholders, a skill set that will serve him well with county and state officials with whom GFCA works continually,” Canis said.