Cross posted from Delegate Surovell's blog, The Dixie Pig

Yesterday, I trekked into the woods with about twelve volunteers to help clean up a creek in my district called Quander Brook. There is a map of Quander Brook to the right. It starts as three streams originating from the Old Quander Farm (West Potomac High School), and two branches in the Fairview Neighborhood that join near the JPG Rosenfeld property (Chuck E. Cheese) and then parallels U.S. 1 down to Great Hunting Creek.

The segment of the stream we cleaned up, also runs through 8.5 acres that was recently donated to Fairfax County by the Fairchild Family for use as a County Park.

Today, I attending our Pre-Session Public Hearing at the Fairfax County Government Center with most of the rest of the Northern Virginia Delegation. We heard from about 70 Northern Virginians over the course of about four hours.

Many of the people we heard from were physically or mentally disabled, their family members, or caretakers. Many people struggled through their conditions to simply speak or to relate what they go through on a daily basis, others asked us to sustain funding for Medicaid waivers just so they could have some semblance of a normal life. We heard from an eight-year old with ostogenesis imperfecta and a brain injury who spoke from her wheelchair and had the most incredible smile before, during and after her comments notwithstanding her daily struggle.