North Woodside Community Yard Sale 2023

This year’s North Woodside Community Yardsale will be held on June 10-11. North Woodside households are welcome to participate in one or both days.  If you would like your sale listed on a map for advertising the sale, please enter your information into this form.

If you have trouble with the form, please contact the community yardsale organizer and share what you plan to sell so it may be added to the map, which will be circulated on our listserv, Nextdoor, etc. 

North Woodside Annual Meeting 2023

Dear North Woodside Residents,

Please join us for the North Woodside Citizens Association annual meeting!

When: Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Where: Grace Episcopal Church
(1607 Grace Church Rd., Silver Spring)

Pizza will be served starting at 6:30 and the meeting will begin at 7:00pm. Our new County Councilmember Kate Stewart will talk about her work on the council and answer questions. We will hear what the Board and committees have done this past year, review the NWCA budget, and vote on new Board members. Representatives from our committees and interest groups will be available to meet in breakout groups to let you know about their activities and give neighbors a chance to meet and get involved.

Please RSVP for the meeting so we will know how much pizza to order and how many families plan to use the onsite childcare.

Hope to see you there!

Wander Under Weeping Cherry

As noted recently by a neighbor on the NWCA listserv

The fabulous, giant, weeping cherry on 2nd Ave.* is in full bloom…. do take time to wander under it…

Want to behold cherry blossoms, but not up for the crowds and traffic around Washington, DC’s tidal basin? Take a stroll under this magnificent tree!

* Between Grace Church Rd. and 16th St.

No doubt a small sapling many a decade ago, the canopy of this weeping cherry now reaches high into the sky, spilling a swaying “bloomfall” of light pink blossoms over 2nd Ave. What young trees planted in North Woodside now will one day grow to great heights and beauty, and grace the path of future generations of neighbors?

If interested in planting a tree in the right of way in front of your house or on your property, contact the NWCA Tree Committee.

North Woodside Egg Hunt 2023

This year our egg hunt will take place on April 15, 2023, at 10 am at the Yeshiva Field. It is the weekend after Easter because we know many families may be traveling during spring break. RSVP is not required but is appreciated so we can make sure to have enough eggs and crafts for the kids.

If you want to donate any eggs are candy you may drop them off at the address below. And if you are interested in volunteering to pack and distribute eggs or with craft please email Luisa at the email below. Looking forward to seeing everyone this year!

Support the Montgomery Hills Street Fest!

The Montgomery Hills Street Fest is officially rescheduled!  Please mark your calendar to join us! 

WHEN: Saturday, April 29, 2023
,
from 3:00 -7:00 pm 

WHERE: on Columbia Boulevard, 
between 16th Street and Seminary Road

There will be music, games, artisans, food, drinks, elected officials, and information about the progress and next steps required to #FixGeorgiaAvenue! 

There are 4 ways you can help!

1. DONATE! Click on this Link to Donate to our Go Fund Me! Last fall, we had a tremendous response to our fundraising request! We are looking for additional donations to cover Street Fest costs and pay our “Hurricane Ian Tax.” These are costs we had to incur by canceling the fest in October. We appreciate your support and will be sure to list your name on the Street Fest website.

4. VOLUNTEER! The Street Fest is a volunteer-driven event and we need folks to help with set up, clean up, and serve as “street marshals” to help keep things safe during the Fest. Please visit the Montgomery Hills Street Fest website to sign up to volunteer.

2. SHOWCASE OUR COMMUNITY! If you know of artisans, local businesses and food vendors, community groups, etc. who would like to showcase their work at the Street Fest, please fill out this form.

3.  VISIT OUR WEBSITE Find out why we fest and see which bands, vendors, activities, elected officials and sponsors will be at the fest. Go to the Montgomery Hills Street Fest website. Let’s get together to #FixGeorgiaAve. 

Thank you for your support! We look forward to seeing you at the Montgomery Hills Street Fest on Saturday, April 29th!

— Montgomery Hills Street Fest Planning Committee

Neighborhood Input Requested: Community Tree Triangle

NWCA Board has approved a proposal from Kellie Cox of Strawberry Fields, LLC to provide a master plan landscape design for the county right-of-way space at the intersection of Luzerne Ave. and Glen Ross Rd. where the community tree sits.  Neighbors, please use this form to provide your input to the Community Design Committee and landscape designer for the project.

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING – Friday, March 17, 2023 at noon

In addition to using this form, all North Woodside neighbors are invited to a virtual meeting with Kellie Cox to learn more about the project and ask questions.  Please email Cheryl for the Zoom link.

Thank you for participating in the process!

Add a Heart to the Neighborhood Valentine Tree

The young members of the North Woodside Roots & Shoots group so much loved creating the neighborhood Thankful Tree in the fall that they wanted to do a similar participatory community art project every season.

It remains to be seen if the group can reach that ambitious goal, but they are now halfway there with the unveiling of the Neighborhood Valentine Tree (aka Community Tree).

Roots & Shoots members invite all neighbors to visit the Community Tree Triangle*, reflect on what they love about the neighborhood, and add a heart to the tree.

Extra hearts and markers for writing are in a plastic box under the tree. If the extra hearts run out, feel free to write on the backside of hearts already hanging on the tree.

The Neighborhood Valentine Tree will be on display through the end of February. 

More Fun: Go on a Neighborhood Heart Scavenger Hunt! In addition to the hearts decorating the Neighborhood Valentine Tree,  30+ hearts have been placed throughout the neighborhood.  There is at least one along every street in the neighborhood, including along most, but not all, blocks. How many can you spot?

* Intersection of Glen Ross Rd. and Luzerne Ave.

Addressing Our Community Tree Triangle

by Cheryl Copeland


The NWCA Community Design Committee formed in early 2021. Our original discussions focused on the location of a memorial bench, but our goal was and remains to take a broader look at the use of neighborhood green spaces. We are interested in placemaking within the shared publicly owned pieces of land that are part of the fabric of North Woodside.

There are areas within our neighborhood that are imbued with memory as places for community interactions. One of these is the triangle at the intersection of Luzerne Ave. and Glen Ross Rd. where the community tree sits. It has served for decades as the place where neighbors come together to celebrate winter holidays. In the summer of 2020 it was where our youth called neighbors to action. And popular food trucks popped up alongside it in 2021. Alas, those moments, when the community injects the space with energy, are brief and few. The minimally maintained triangle is forgettable at best, and not many neighbors are drawn there during other times of the year. This place could be so much more than it is! At the urging of an adjacent neighbor, the Community Design Committee has begun to address this opportunity.

The land that we are referring to as the Community Tree Triangle is owned by Montgomery County and maintained by the Department of Transportation (MCDOT). Community Design Committee members have already been in communication with our assigned project contact (our county arborist) and a MCDOT traffic engineer. These officials appear very willing to approve NWCA’s efforts to improve the site. We’ve learned that permits will not be required, but county review of a design and coordination of its implementation are. We will maintain regular communications with the various county entities to ensure that improvements can move forward.

With the approval of the NWCA Board, members of the Community Design Committee solicited proposals for a master plan from three local women-owned landscape design firms. We met with each firm at the triangle and shared the following guidelines for the design:

  • Replace the grass with plantings of native species sourced from environmentally conscious growers and suppliers to attract pollinators and provide food and cover for birds. Consider the educational opportunity these types of plantings could offer the community.
  • Maintain and possibly enhance the use of the area for the annual neighborhood holiday tree and menorah lighting events.
  • Consider features like stepstone pathways to invite the community to engage in the space.
  • Consider sight lines for traffic safety throughout the year.
  • Long-term maintenance should be minimal.
The NWCA Board voted to approve the proposal from Strawberry Fields

After careful review and input from the committee, the NWCA Board voted to approve the proposal from Strawberry Fields Design, LLC, to provide master plan landscape design services. Strawberry Fields was selected for its experience working with Montgomery County and on community projects of similar scope and scale and previous work in our neighborhood. Owner Kellie Cox is communicative, engaging, and knowledgeable. The board agreed to move forward with this investment in the design for a piece of land within our neighborhood because of the potential impacts on the community as a whole: visual, environmental, safety, and use.

Neighbors will be invited to engage in the design at key points in the process:

  • Prior to the landscape design work beginning, neighbors will be able to provide input via an online form and participate in a neighborhood meeting to chat with the designer, ask questions, and offer their ideas.
  • Once Strawberry Fields has developed a preliminary design plan, the Community Design Committee would share it with neighbors for further input at a meeting and/or via the neighborhood listserv and website.
  • It would also be shared with our county contacts for their review and input.
  • Strawberry Fields would take all the above input into consideration before finalizing a master plan.


The timeline for all of this will be sent out via the listserv in the coming months. We look forward to hearing what our neighbors would like to see happen with our shared space in the heart of our community!

The landscape master plan is a first step in making the Community Tree Triangle a more special place for our North Woodside community. Implementing that plan will require funding to turn drawings into plants and stepstones and flowers. At almost 2,200 square feet, this is a large area. The cost to achieve our goal is not yet known, but we can anticipate that it could be substantial. Rest assured that the Community Design Committee is already exploring ways to meet the challenge, such as grant opportunities, work parties, fundraising initiatives, and phasing the work to implement as funds become available.

Donations are always appreciated as an investment in our shared community design efforts. Interested neighbors may go to visit the NWCA donation page and follow instructions for contribution to the Neighborhood Beautification and Memorial Fund.

If discussions about the potential improvements to our neighborhood green spaces interest you, please join our Community Design Committee email list.

On December 18, 2022, neighbors gathered at the Community Tree Triangle for the 74th Annual Tree Lighting and 5th Annual Menorah Lighting and enjoyed hot cider and latkes. Photo by Phyllida Paterson

Happy Holidays!

To all who celebrate the various holidays of the season…Happy Hanukkah!…Happy Solstice!…Merry Christmas!…Happy Kwanzaa!…Happy New Year!

Here are a few photos of last weekend’s community Menorah Lighting, which was followed by the community Tree Lighting and a visit from Santa. Photos by Genevieve McDowell Owen, Phyllida Paterson, and Rebecca Doran

Many thanks to all the neighbors who contributed their time, talents and resources to the event. It takes a village!

And for those who missed, a new song sung at the event:

Woodside Wassail (words by David Kitzmiller)

Wassail, wassail, all over the town!
Our punch, it is red, and our cookies, they are brown.
The goodies are spread by the old Christmas tree,
From the wassailing bowl, we’ll drink to thee!

Here’s to North Woodside Civic so good,
Which strives to keep order in this neighborhood.
From 16th to Linden, all’s well we will say;
So we’re gathered together to brighten this day!

Wassail, wassail all over Woodside!
Remember your neighbors in this wintertide.
At Luzerne and Glen Ross, we’ll now light our tree,
From the wassailing bowl, we’ll drink to thee!

Light and love to all. And stay warm–the northern winds sure are a blowin’ out there!