Fall 2025 Beacon

Holiday Tree Lighting and Hanukkah Celebration

/ Anna White

The annual Holiday Tree Lighting* and Hanukkah Celebration will be on Sunday, December 14, 4:45 pm, at the Luzerne/Glen Ross island. Note: Rain date is Monday, December 15, 6:00 pm.

The celebration begins at sundown with the lighting of the menorah, a holiday singalong and tree lighting, visit from Santa Claus, and refreshments, including latkes (potato pancakes) and hot cider. Scroll down for the program and song sheet.

The first night of Hanukkah this year is December 14, so the first candle of the neighborhood menorah will be lit that evening and lighting the remaining candles will continue for eight nights. If you would like to help with setting up or cleaning up, preparing refreshments, posting street closure signs, or any other aspect of this event, please contact Melinda Frederick, program coordinator.

SSL service hours will be available to MCPS students who volunteer for this event.

The NWCA community will be notified via the listserv of any event updates. Donations to defray the costs will be gratefully received at the event or online.

Singers Wanted: Our Tree Singers group performs holiday music at the above event, and we’re always looking for new members. It is a cappella four-part harmony, so some choral experience and music reading skill is helpful. I can give you music in advance. We usually have two rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the event. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me. Thank you! – Julie Lees

2025 Hannukah and Christmas programDownload


* Recent historic newspaper research suggests that this year is the 99th anniversary of the first community holiday tree lighting in 1926. Wow, the tradition is much older than we realized!

Georgia Ave Improvement Plan Achieves Key Milestone

/ Anna White

By Geoff Gerhardt

On Thursday, September 4, state and local leaders gathered in Montgomery Hills to announce that the project to make long-awaited improvements to Georgia Avenue is now fully funded.

The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Draft Fiscal Year 2026–2031 Consolidated Transportation Program allocates funds needed to complete the $50.8 million Georgia Avenue project. Final design is complete, right-of-way acquisitions and utility relocations are underway, and construction will begin in spring 2028.

In announcing funding for the project, State Highway Administrator William Pines said, “[The State Highway Administration] is excited to see this important safety project advance, bringing improvements that will enhance safety, connectivity, and accessibility for all highway users. The partnership with the community has been critical to moving this project forward and we look forward to coming back to celebrate its completion.”

For more than 40 years, plans have circulated to transform Georgia Ave. in Montgomery Hills into a tree-lined boulevard that feels like a neighborhood street, not a highway cutting through the middle of the surrounding neighborhoods. For decades, those plans stalled. The heart of Montgomery Hills is too often treated as a place to drive through rather than a destination to walk, bike, gather, and shop.

When complete, the reimagined Georgia Avenue corridor will:

  • link to community assets—improved walking and biking access will make it easier for residents to connect with local businesses, Forest Glen Metro, downtown Silver Spring, nearby schools, and eventually the Purple Line.
  • be safer for everyone—replacement of the reversible lane with a median, improved sidewalks, and protected
  • cycle lane will make traveling along the corridor easier and safer whether you’re on foot, on a bike, in a wheel
  • chair, or in a car.
  • support local businesses—a more attractive, walkable environment invites people to stop, linger, and shop locally.
  • space for a community park—realigning southbound 16th St. will make room to develop a new neighborhood park.
  • create a sense of place—with trees, wider sidewalks, and space for people, Georgia Avenue will become the kind of main street that strengthens neighborhood identity.

This is a landmark moment for Montgomery Hills. After decades of waiting, the vision of a tree-lined boulevard that connects rather than divides is finally within reach. The progress we have seen on this project is due in large part to community input and activism, including strong support from residents of North Woodside and the North Woodside Citizens’ Association.

Neighborhood-Led Student Satellite Launches

/ Anna White
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, September 14, as seen on NASA’s livestream.


By Leticia Barr

It’s up! North Woodside’s own SilverSat CubeSat launched into space Sunday, September 14, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX rocket to begin its mission to tweet pictures to order from space.

Persistence paid off for SilverSat’s team of student engineers, who started out as a small group of local middle and high schoolers in 2017.

But the effort started three years earlier as a labor of love launched by North Woodside resident Dave Copeland, himself an aerospace engineer, along with his wife Cheryl Guerin Copeland, fellow North Woodside residents Leticia Barr and Jim Barr, and Woodside Forest neighbors Noelle Kurtin and Chris Rutledge. Their plan: Gather a group of middle and high school students to build and launch a miniature satellite known as a CubeSat.

It took a lot longer to pull off than they ever dreamed. “I thought it would launch by 2019,” Dave said. Their own children aged out of the project and graduated from high school, as have numerous students in the project. But others signed up to replace those who moved on, and successive teams plowed through the pandemic and other hardships to bring the project to reality.

The students packed the 10-cubic cm (about 4-cubic inch) satellite with a camera, radio transmitter and receiver, computer, solar panels, electronics, antenna, guidance systems, and other equipment needed for its mission to tweet from orbit.

Guided by Dave and a few other dedicated parents with the needed expertise, they tested and retested the satellite to make sure it worked and could withstand the rigors of space. They learned how to operate a radio transmitter, earned amateur radio licenses, and demonstrated their expertise to NASA’s strict standards.

North Woodside and Woodside Forest neighbors and founding Board members of SilverSat Leticia Barr, Jim Barr, Chris Rutledge, Cheryl Copeland, and Noelle Kurtin celebrate the launch at a home in Montgomery Hills. SilverSat President, Dave Copeland, attended the launch in Cape Canaveral.

“The goal of SilverSat has always been to provide area kids with an opportunity to learn something outside what they learn inside a classroom,” said Leticia, a former Montgomery County Public Schools teacher. Some of the students have chosen to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees and careers, and more than a few have come back to act as mentors to the team. Leticia’s daughter, Emily, was one of the founding participants. Now majoring in engineering as a senior at Harvey Mudd College in California, Emily watched the livestream of the launch from her dorm room and texted a photo of the rocket launch to the family group chat.

“The project was accepted into NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative in 2021,” said Dave.

Anyone can visit SilverSat’s websiteat Silversat.org/operations to request a photo. If it’s feasible, when the little satellite is orbiting over the right spot in the Northern Hemisphere, it can take a picture of that spot and then send it out over X (formerly Twitter) from its account @silversatorg for anyone to see.

SilverSat is on Bluesky bsky.app/profile/silversat.bsky.social, Facebook @SilverSat and Instagram @Silversat.

Fall 2025 Neighborhood Meet & Greet

/ Anna White

Join Us for a Neighborhood Meet & Greet!

The NWCA is hosting a casual Meet & Greet for neighbors on Sunday, November 16, from 10:00 am to noon, at the grassy area by the bench at 3rd Ave. and Lanier Dr. It’s a great opportunity to form new connections with neighbors or simply enjoy a relaxed morning outside with friendly faces.

We’ll have free seasonal refreshments, and we also welcome contributions of snacks or drinks if you’d like to bring something. No formal introductions or agendas, just a chance to get to know who’s around. Wear something warm so you can linger and chat comfortably. We look forward to seeing you there!

Contact welcome@northwoodsideca.groups.io.