As students prepare for the start of a new school year, the Prince William County Republican Committee and Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (VA-10) conducted a back-to-school supply drive to benefit some of the County’s neediest students. The Committee collected a large amount of supplies and delivered them on Wednesday to Parkside Middle School and Sinclair Elementary School, both in Manassas.

“I thank the Prince William County Republican Committee for putting this important back-to-school supply drive together and helping the students of Prince William County grow academically,” said Congresswoman Comstock. “It was an honor to join the initiative. These supplies will help low-income families, so every child has the tools for success. I hope the Prince William County community has a wonderful year of learning.”

This is the third year that local Republicans have collected supplies for Title 1 schools or schools with a high population of low-income students. They donated to Occoquan Elementary School and Rippon Middle School in 2015 and Vaughn Elementary School and Fred Lynn Middle School in 2014. Title I schools are academic institutions with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families.

“The Prince William Republicans are grateful to be able to serve the community throughout the year through various projects and activities,” said GOP Chairwoman Dottie Miller. “This school supply drive is a great way for us to use private sector resources to support education, because these students will be Prince William’s leaders of tomorrow.”

Items collected included backpacks, pens, no. 2 pencils, water-based markers, glue sticks, three-ring binders,

pocket folders, and loose-leaf notebook paper. Any Prince William County resident can participate in the Committee’s Community Service Initiatives no matter what their political affiliation is.

F. Sharon Swope and Genilee Swope Parente have sent Private Investigator Sam Osborne on yet another quest in Treasured Fate, the fourth book of The Fate Series. In the current book, Sam helps a farmer friend who advertises for a wife and gets a lot more: a battle against a murderer and a search for a missing treasure.

The Dumfries, VA Applebee’s is helping the authors celebrate by inviting local residents to the launch of the book September 15.

Swope and Parente are a mother/daughter duo who began writing late in life: Swope is now 88 and Parente is 62. Since the successful launch of the first book in the series, Twist of Fate, the two have made it their mission to encourage others to seek their dreams regardless of age or other limitations. Swope is legally blind from macular degeneration and is physically limited, yet she and her daughter have traveled all over Northern Virginia to speak and to sell their books.

“I never could have imagined that I’d have a book series as well as a book of short stories published in just a few years,” Swope said.

Both Swope and Parente have always wanted to publish fiction, but didn’t make the dream come to life until inspiration came from the success of children’s book author Allyn M. Stotz, who is another of Swope’s daughters and who now has six books under her belt. Although the elder Fate Series author has always been creative and active, pursuing quilting, painting, pottery and genealogy, just to name a few, she also has had numerous characters and plots running around in her head.

“Getting them down on paper and into the minds of readers is a joy,” she said. “I would encourage anyone who has wanted to write their stories to find a way to make it happen—hopefully before they are 82 years old!”

Swope was a columnist and helped to run her hometown newspaper in Ohio with her husband for most of her career. Parente is a full-time freelance writer and editor, who is working on her own young adult series.

The Dumfries Applebee’s hosted book three of the series, Violet Fate. The restaurant is acknowledged in several of the Fate Series books because the authors meet there regularly to fine-tune their mysteries.

“The staff has had to listen to us come up with devious new ways to kill off characters, steal, kidnap, hide evidence and now, hide and retrieve a treasure. We figure they’ve been part of our story,” Parente said.

The book launch is 4 to 7 at 3330 Pine Bluff Drive, Dumfries, VA.

In January 2016 Adventure Brewing Company purchased Blue & Gray Brewing Company, the oldest brewery in the Fredericksburg area. 

Since that time, the team from Adventure Brewing has kept the Blue and Gray moniker while the transition of federal and state licensing has taken place. As of July 16, the official name will become Adventure Brewing South.

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From Prince William County Department of Economic Development: 

Adding to its growing portfolio of life sciences companies, the Prince William Science Accelerator is set to welcome yet another resident – Celetrix LLC (Celetrix) – a biotechnology company. The company will be the fifth tenant located within the brand new wet lab facility.

“We view our decision to locate in the Prince William Science Accelerator as critical to our continued success. Our new location allows us the opportunity to foster and leverage relationships with other tenants within the Science Accelerator,” said Celetrix Chief Executive Officer, Jian Chen. “Moreover, it places us within close proximity to strategic assets in Innovation Park such as the National Institutes of Health Biomedical Research Laboratory, the Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences Northern Laboratory as well as George Mason University’s (Mason’s) Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine; while enjoying the benefits of a cost effective, state-of-the art wet lab space; and access to a talent pipeline that is second to none.”

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Eight authors from Write by the Rails, the Prince William County chapter of the Virginia Writers Club, are scheduled to appear on July 30, 2016, at McKay Used Books in Manassas, Virginia, where they will donate $1 of each book sale to the American Cancer Society. Authors will sign copies of their books to patrons and thank them for their contributions to cancer care and research.

Scheduled to attend are Antonia Kilday, Natalina Reis, Zachary and Mickey Tamer, P.M. Hernandez, Carol Covin, Maria Yeager, Lincoln Farish, and Victor Rook. These authors have written books in a wide range of genres: romance, mystery, poetry, children’s books, sci-fi, horror, and more. Organizer Victor Rook explains why they’ve decided to make this event a charitable event.

“In the past year we’ve lost two of our members to various forms of cancer. Most recently we lost Robert F. Dorr, author of over 75 books on aviation and hundreds of articles. In October of 2015 we lost author Marvin Josaitis. Both attended last year’s group signing at McKay’s. We’ve also had several of our current members touched by cancer over the past few years.”

Author Carol Covin is one of those members, and she will be signing copies of her book “Who Gets to Name Grandma?” Carol had received treatment for breast cancer and is also working on a book documenting her experience titled “Cancer Should Come with a Secretary.”

The “Super Summer Author Fair” will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., July 30, 2016, at McKay Used Books, 8345 Sudley Rd., Manassas, VA 20109.

Manassas author Belinda Miller shares news about her award for her book series the Ragwort Chronicles. 

The Ragwort Chronicles, Along the Way: Roscoe’s Journey, by Manassas resident Belinda Miller has been named by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group as one of the best indie books of 2016. Upon notification of the award, the author said, “I am humbled and honored to be considered amongst the most talented in the indie arena. Thank you.”

Along the Way, Roscoe’s Journey is a finalist in the Children’s Picture Book (ages 6-10) and Overall Design categories in the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the world’s largest not-for-profit book awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors. The awards are judged by leaders of the indie book publishing industry, including many coming from long-standing careers with major publishing houses, to identify books that deserve to reach a wide audience.

“Our awards program is known as the ‘Sundance’ of the book publishing world,” says Catherine Goulet, Chair of the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards program. The Ragwort Chronicles, Along the Way: Roscoe’s Journey, is a fantasy adventure book for elementary school children — the second of three in the Ragwort Chronicles series, and is complementary to Miller’s original series, “Phillip’s Quest.”

The characters are the whimsical Ragwort gnome-brothers of Brokenfell village, each with their own personalities, ideas and journey, but all with the same goal — to get to Twistedoak. The adventurous gnome, Roscoe, takes his journey from Brokenfell, through the Dark Forest and Bandersnatch Swamp. Along the way, he finds out about true friendship and the meaning of being “rich.”

Published by Winterfrost Publishing, the book features the brilliant illustrations of Canadian artist, Annie Wilkinson and was designed, formatted and printed by BookLogix of Alpharetta Georgia.

 The number of self-published titles produced annually in the U.S. has increased dramatically, growing 437% from 2008 to 2013. The awards were presented on May 11 in a ceremony at Chicago’s Newberry Library. In addition to the grand prize winners, top indie books were named as winners and finalists in 70 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Adult.

A complete list of 2016 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at www.indiebookawards.com. 

Sung H. Lee, has joined Whitlock Wealth Management, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., as a financial advisor.

His office is located at 12848 Harbor Drive, Lake Ridge VA 22192. Lee began his career at Ameriprise in August 2001. He is a graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia PA with a BS in Finance.

Originally from Baltimore, Lee recently moved to Prince William County with his wife and son. As a financial advisor, Lee provides financial advice that is built on a solid understanding of client needs and expectations, and provided in one-on-one relationships with his clients. For more information, please contact Sung Lee at [email protected], or (703) 492-7732. 

From Manassas City Councilman Ian Lovejoy: 

Share a Brew and Fight Cancer Too, a fundraiser to benefit the Children’s Cancer Research Center, raised several hundred dollars, says Councilman Ian Lovejoy, one of the event’s organizers.

Held at Badwolf Brewery on Kao Circle on June 3, the event drew a crowd despite torrential rain.

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Prince William County today welcomed Systaaq Diagnostic Products Inc. (Systaaq), a molecular diagnostics company that specializes in developing early diagnosis for infectious diseases, to the Prince William Science Accelerator in Innovation Park.

Systaaq is the newest tenant in the Prince William Science Accelerator that will benefit from an innovative and synergistic community of scientists within an already well-established life sciences industry cluster and access to George Mason University Science & Technology Campus, uniquely located at the epi-center of Innovation Park.

The company joins existing wet lab space tenants: Ceres Nanosciences; ISOThrive; and Virongy located at 9385 Discovery Blvd., Manassas, Va. 20109.

“Having outgrown our existing space in Baltimore, Md., we needed to find adequate, cost-effective, wet lab space preferably in an environment that was best-suited to the groundbreaking work we do,” shared Systaaq’s President, Dr. Shahid Aziz. “The Prince William Science Accelerator is the ideal choice for us as it provides the highest-value, lowest-cost option within the Greater Washington, DC metropolitan area.”

“We are thrilled to be part of such a vibrant research ecosystem surrounded by other similar, new and established life sciences companies, not to mention George Mason University and its associated research programs,” added Aziz.

“It is with a great deal of excitement that we welcome Systaaq to the Prince William Science Accelerator and to Prince William County,” said Jeff Kaczmarek, Executive Director, Prince William County Department of Economic Development. “Their work in developing timely and accurate diagnoses particularly with respect to infectious diseases has the potential to significantly reduce costs, improve wellness and above all, save lives. Considering the profiles of the other life sciences companies currently located in Innovation Park and the game-changing research already taking place, I have no doubt that Systaaq will be a natural fit within our life sciences cluster and I eagerly await the synergistic opportunities that will naturally arise.”

Established in 2014, the Prince William Science Accelerator supports the growth of early-stage and small life science companies. It features approximately 9,000 square feet of wet lab space subdivided into nine labs. Wet labs range in size from 439 sq. ft. to 1,141 sq. ft. and have shared amenities such as conference rooms, a reception and receiving area.

The addition of Systaaq will allow for two-thirds occupancy with full tenancy expected by the end of 2016, given strong interest in the remaining three labs. To learn more from the Prince William County Department of Economic Development, Virginia Science and Technology entrepreneurs are invited to attend a Lunch & Learn with Lab Tours, to be held at Mason’s Science and Technology Campus, from 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 pm on June 14th, 2016.