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Dora the Explorer was at Mary's Center!!!

Mary’s Center hosted on March 9 the launching of the U.S. Census Bureau “Children Count Too” awareness campaign featuring Dora the Explorer.

“Children Count Too” is a campaign designed to remind parents to include babies and young children on their 2010 Census forms. “Every child counted in the 2010 Census will help identify communities in need and bring resources to address specific vulnerabilities, whether they are in health care, child care, education, transportation and affordable housing. Only through well funded comprehensive and multiservice programs, places like Mary’s Center will be able to have an impact on the nation’s health care outcomes,” said Mary’s Center President and CEO Maria Gomez.

Mary’s Center has been working in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau to make sure our community is ready for the 2010 Census. Helping participants to complete census forms and answering their questions and concerns is critical; thus, starting March 19, and for the following month, the Center for Census Assistance will be in our Adams Morgan location on Tuesdays (11:30am-3:00pm) and Wednesdays (9:30am-11:30am).

“We cannot afford to miss a single child living in America. A complete and accurate count of our nation’s youngest is critical to their health and education, and the strength of our communities and work force,” said US Census Bureau Director Robert Groves.

Children from our playgroup and our family literacy program were thrilled to see Dora the Explorer in person.

Noche Tropical: Mary's Center's Friends Celebrate 21 Years of Service!

It was a night to remember! There were nearly 250 of Mary's Center's friends and corporate sponsors. There were two distinguished members of Congress: Xavier Becerra and Eleanor Holmes Norton. And two members of the Obama administration. And as master of ceremonies: National Public Radio's Ray Suarez.

All kinds of good food, and wonderful live music.

These are just a few highlights of the spectacular 2009 Noche Tropical, Mary's Center's annual fundraising gala, held Thursday night, October 8th, at the beautiful Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, DC.

Keynote speaker at the event was Neera Tanden, senior advisor to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Ms. Tanden, who worked as Director of Domestic Policy for the Biden Presidential Campaign before joining the Obama administration, congratulated Mary's Center on 21 years of outstanding service to the medically-underserved populations of Washington, DC. She also spoke about the urgent need for health care reform in the U.S.Congressman Becerra, left, with Mary's Center President and CEO Maria Gomez and National Public Radio's Ray Suarez, MC for the gala

Also recognized at the gala was Ana Recio Harvey, the former President and CEO of the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Harvey recently was named head of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership. In that capacity, Ms. Harvey will work to promote women-owned businesses. In helping to empower women, Ms. Harvey advances a major priority of Mary's Center President and CEO Maria Gomez.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a long-time friend of Mary's Center, congratulated Mary's Center "for helping our city to grow and thrive economically while... simultaneously supporting our most vulnerable families and children." She echoed many when she noted that "in giving back, you are receiving. I applaud Mary’s Center and all of you here today for your efforts to improve the well-being of our families in DC and for helping every child in the District to have a chance to thrive and succeed."

Guests at the gala had a chance to view a wonderfully-inspiring video that displayed the many reasons that Mary's Center has to celebrate the past year, most notably, a visit from First Lady Michelle Obama in February 2009. Mrs. Obama used her visit to Mary's Center to focus on the need for all of us to "give back" to our communities.

Also addressing the crowd at Noche was teenager Akrem Muzemil, who talked to the crowd about how Mary's Center helped to steer his life in the right direction when he first arrived in the U.S. from Ethiopia five years ago.

Author Allison Silberberg, whose book, Visionanaries in our Midst features a profile of Mary's Center, was at Noche Tropical, too, signing books. On the dance floor was music man Verny Varela and his band, and there were lots of people dancing, including Maria!Mary's Center President and CEO Maria Gomez hits the dance floor at Noche Tropical!


An auction and dessert buffet ended the evening. The gala celebration left Mary's Center with one more year of rich memories!

Mary's Center Celebrates One Year at Silver Spring Site

A year after Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care opened its first Maryland location in Silver Spring, officials gathered to celebrate the Center's anniversary.

The Center was praised for providing critically-needed health care, education and social services to more than 2,000 residents in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties.

“We feel very proud to commemorate our first anniversary at this location,” said Maria Gomez, Mary’s Center’s President and CEO. “The increased volume of residents from Montgomery County and Prince George’s County who are coming for services to our Center is a live testimony to the urgent need for broader health care reform in this country. As President Obama has said repeatedly, we Americans are desperate for health care reform. We need a system that will serve the millions of families who lack access to adequate health care and social services in this country.”

A year ago, Mary’s Center’s 3,600-square-foot primary care center, located at 8709 Flower Ave. in the Long Branch area of Silver Spring, became the first federally-qualified health care center in Montgomery County. The Flower Ave. center offers a full range of much-needed services to underserved communities in the region, regardless of ability to pay.

”Our Maryland facility extends Mary’s Center’s 20-year experience to residents in Maryland who desperately need quality and culturally-appropriate services,” says Dr. Mark Fracasso, Mary’s Center’s Vice President of Medicine. “We’ve also established vital partnerships with Montgomery County agencies and local organizations, as well as with the Washington Adventist Hospital. These alliances have enabled us to meet the most urgent needs of our clients.”


The Maryland heath center has a multidisciplinary health-care team providing women's services, including obstetrical and gynecological care, as well as pediatric, adolescent, and adult health services. The center also offers a broad range of social services, counseling, and health education programs to its clients.

"Mary's Center has been a wonderful safety net for our most vulnerable residents in Montgomery County,” said Uma Ahluwalia, Director of Montgomery County’s Department of Health and Human Services. “We look forward to continuing this partnership in addressing health care and the need for social services that produce positive health outcomes for our residents in the Long Branch community and the county at large."

The one-year anniversary featured numerous local and state lawmakers, public health officials, and other supporters of Mary’s Center.

"Mary's Mary's How Does Your Garden Grow?"

Thanks to a generous donation of perennial garden plants by the Garden District, a DC indoor and outdoor plant store located on 14th Avenue, Mary's Center now has a wonderful new garden! Come by and walk the flagstone path through the roses and back to the big old peach tree.

Or take a few minutes -- or your lunch break -- to rest on one of the lovely wooden benches.

Sit and enjoy all the new life growing up around you.

You will see dozens of new spring plants, including hosta, geraniums, lilacs, forsythia, red grasses, delphinium and black-eyed susans. Not all of these plants are in bloom at this season, but they will come back year after year showcasing their colorful spring and summer finery.

Pictured here is little Isabel holding an umbrella during one of our many recent rainstorms. Mary's Center is good at growing adorable little chidren, that's for sure!

A BIG THANKS to the Garden District for helping to give the entrance to Mary's Center a fresh green look!

Mary's Center Hosts Make-Up Marathon!

More than 100 women turned out in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on Wednesday evening, May 27th for a social event to benefit Mary's Center. Supplying the make-up talent for the women attending was a very talented crew from Saks Fifth Avenue. The event, intended to raise awareness about Mary's Center's mission and need for resources, was by all accounts great fun and a big success. (Even Mary's Center's President and CEO Maria Gomez had her make-up done.)

Pictured here, from left to right, are the three chairs of the host committee: Margie Harlem, Marla Garchik, and Hanita Schrieber (who is also on Mary's Center's Board of Directors and the Chair of the Center's philanthropic board), then Mary's Center's President and CEO Maria Gomez, and the Chairperson of the Board, Mary MacPherson.

Stimulus legislation is helping Mary's Center!!

Mary's Center is already putting to work the federal government's stimulus money that is aimed at helping shore up cities across the nation.

Over the next two years, Mary's Center will receive $340,551 from the stimulus program. A total of $1.7 million has been allocated to health clinics in the District that serve the growing number of individuals who need health care but have no money or insurance to pay for it. Mary's Center is using the first of the monies to bring back into service its vitally-important mobile dental clinic, which had to be closed six months ago for lack of funds. Dental service is provided primarily to children and pregnant women. Maria Gomez, President and CEO of Mary's Center, said that pregnant women are at higher risk of giving birth prematurely. They can also suffer more serious complications, if oral infections are not detected and treated properly.

Called the Mama & Baby Bus, the mobile clinic is equipped with a dental chair and a new X-ray machine, making it easier for patients because they won’t need to travel to a hospital or a radiology center to get their films done.

At this point, the mobile bus is available in DC four days a week. The stimulus money is also helping to pay the salary of a new dentist, Dr. Oluwole Ajagbe, as well as his assistant and a dental hygienist.

Gomez noted that the stimulus grant became available on extremely short notice and that the grant-writing effort demanded a very quick turnaround (less than two months.) The process of applying for grants is normally much more drawn out. However, in these very tough economic times, Gomez said that Mary's Center could demonstrate a clear and urgent need for health services, as more and more people are losing jobs and their insurance.

Mary's Center plans to add three more dental chairs to its new health clinic being built in Ward 4.