Everybody Loves Snacks || A Todo el Mundo le Encantan los Snacks

The MRES and Thomas Stone PTOs have teamed up to help fill some of the gaps created by this year’s PGCPS budget constraints. Two schools, one fundraiser, and one simple ask: help us take care of the kids who call the Lower Gateway home. Donate if you can.

📣 Welcome

Date 10/2/2026
Issue #35

When I decided the boundaries of this newsletter—what counts as Neighborhood Happenings versus Happening Nearby—I used our elementary school boundaries as the guide.

The kids of Mount Rainier, Brentwood, North Brentwood, and Cottage City are split between Mount Rainier Elementary and Thomas Stone Elementary. On paper, that means two school communities. In practice, our kids grow up in the same little corner of Prince George’s County.

So I really love that, this month, the PTOs of the two schools are working together.

The MRES and Thomas Stone PTOs have teamed up to help fill some of the gaps created by this year’s PGCPS budget constraints. Two schools, one fundraiser, and one simple ask: help us take care of the kids who call the Lower Gateway home.

Rachel Bush
Editor
rsbush01@gmail.com

My Top Five

1. 🌎 MUNDIAL Festival — Saturday at Joe’s: free performances, activities, food + community resources.

2. 🍎 Fall at the Gateway Farmers’ Market — Shoulder Season sampling this weekend, with Secondhand Saturday, Fall Fest + Halloween still to come.

3. 🤖 Data Centers + AI Community Forum — Sunday at the Mount Rainier Nature Center, with free supervised childcare.

4. 🌱 Brentwood Pocket Park Expansion Celebration — Celebrate the expanded Pocket Park on 10/10, help with native planting + take home a free native plant.

5. 🎒 Keep PK Snacks Stocked — Mount Rainier + Thomas Stone PTOs are teaming up to help fill gaps created by this year’s school budget constraints. 

🏛️ City Updates

Brentwood

• Tue, 10/6: Town Work Session

• Wed, 10/7: Green Team/Tree Committee Meeting

• Sat, 10/10 (10 AM–12 PM): Pocket Park Celebration & Native Plant Giveaway Brentwood MD

• Thu, 10/15: Community Advisory Meeting

Cottage City

• Tue, 10/6 (6:30 PM): October Work Session Cottage City

• Sat, 10/10 (5–9 PM): Support Your Local Firefighters at Pizzeria Paradiso; 10% of participating proceeds benefit the Brentwood Volunteer Fire Department. Cottage City

• Mon, 10/12: Town Hall Closed for Indigenous Peoples’ Day Cottage City

Mount Rainier

💰 Recreation Activities Grants: The Mount Rainier Recreation Committee is accepting applications for reimbursement grants of up to $2,500 to support eligible community events, activities, and programs in the city. Next application deadline: 10/16.

• Tue, 10/6 (7 PM): Legislative Meeting of the Mayor and Council

• Mon, 10/12: City Administrative Offices Closed for Native American Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day

• Thu, 10/15 (6:30 PM): Recreation Committee Meeting

• Mon, 10/19 (6:30 PM): Arts Commission Meeting Mount Rainier

North Brentwood

• Mon, 10/5 (7:30 PM): Town Meeting via Zoom. North Brentwood, MD

🎒 School News

PGCPS Calendar

🦅Mount Rainier Elementary:

Here's what's coming up at Mount Rainier Elementary over the next 7 days — stay in the loop!

If you're in the MRES WhatsApp community, details for each of these will be shared there as they get closer. And if you haven't joined yet, now is a great time. You can also follow along on Instagram.

Also, mark your calendars: the Zombie Run is on October 17! We've been holding practice runs, and all the details are being shared through our WhatsApp channel. More coming soon!

• 10/2 (F): Early Dismissal, 10:50 AM

• 10/5 (M): PTO Meeting

• 10/6 (T): Zombie Run Practice, Part 2

• 10/7 (W): National Walk to School Day

• 10/16 (F): No school for students — Professional Development Day

🐅Thomas S. Stone Elementary 

Thomas Stone is in full swing for Hispanic Heritage Month, including a Spirit Week from 10/5–10/9 with themed dress-up days celebrating Hispanic and Latino culture. The school also recently held a celebration of the life of Ms. Sheila Pulley-Kouame, bringing families and staff together to remember a longtime member of the Thomas Stone community.

• Fri, 10/9: Last day for crossing guard Monica at the stoplight before she moves.

• Fri, 10/9: Deadline to join the group order for Thomas Stone black hoodies.

• Mon, 10/12: First Book Club

• Fri, 10/16: No school for students — professional development day. pgcps.org

🌎 Stay Local

🎉Business Announcements

• Mount Rainier businesses and commercial property owners can apply for up to $50,000 through the city’s Façade Improvement Program. Applications are due 11/1.

• Brentwood held its first Business & Economic Development Roundtable on 9/28, kicking off a new monthly gathering for local businesses, entrepreneurs, artists, restaurants, shop owners, wellness professionals, musicians, investors, and other local professionals.

🎭 Neighborhood Happenings

• 🎶 10/2 (F), 8–10 PM: Marie Tatti — Listening Room Concert — $20

• 🌎 10/3 (Sa), 3–6 PM: MUNDIAL Festival — FREE | Volunteer

• 🤖 10/4 (Su), 3–5 PM: Community Forum on Data Centers & AI Risks — FREE; free supervised childcare, Mount Rainier Nature Center

• 🎬 10/8 (Th), 6 PM: Common Ground Screening — FREE

• 🌱 10/10 (Sa), 10 AM–12 PM: Brentwood Pocket Park Expansion Celebration — FREE

• 🎨 10/10 (Sa): Bladensburg Waterfront Art Festival — FREE

• 🧴 10/10 (Sa): Butter Me Up with CocoaShea

• 🎲 10/15 (Th), 6:30–8:30 PM: Game Night @ Brentwood Community Center — FREE; 1st & 3rd Thursdays

• ♻️ 10/15 (Th), 6–9 PM: Circular Showcase — $10

• 🧴 10/17 (Sa): Butter Me Up with CocoaShea

• 🗳️ 10/17 (Sa), 2:30–5 PM: No Kings: Your Vote = Your Freedoms! — FREE, Driskell Park

☮️Volunteering, Mutual Aid, Advocacy

• 🌱 Create a Wildlife Habitat at Home: Prince George’s Audubon Society’s Wildlife Habitat Program offers County residents free, one-hour visits with trained Habitat Advisors to help with native plantings, lawn reduction, invasive removal, water conservation, and creating habitat for birds and pollinators. Email audubonwildlifehabitat@gmail.com to sign up.

• 🤝 Community Volunteer Opportunities: Find current ways to volunteer and get involved locally.

• 🪧 ICE Out Yard Signs: Congregation Action Network yard signs are available for purchase and pickup in Mount Rainier.

• 🗳️ Election Protection Volunteers: Get trained to volunteer with the nonpartisan Election Protection program, including opportunities for poll monitoring, voter outreach, and social media monitoring.

• 🧚 Call for Fairy House Artists: Neighbors have turned the base of the fallen tree in the Food Forest into the beginnings of a fairy house. Artists of all ages can stop by anytime and add to the magical stump.

• ✍️ Maryland Campaign Finance Petition: The Indivisible Maryland Coalition is circulating a petition asking the Maryland General Assembly to adopt additional campaign-finance disclosure and corporate-spending rules.

📚 Mount Rainier Public Library 

• The library will be closed the next two Mondays, 10/5 and 10/12, for staff training and Indigenous People’s Day. Due to these closures, our Monday programs (storytime, English conversation club, and Job Seekers) will not take place over the next two weeks.

• Saturday, 10/3, 1PM: Kids Create: Papel Picado  - Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by making Papel Picado with us. You can see all of the other Hispanic Heritage Month programs across our Library System here.

• Check out our October events calendar here.

📚 Farmers' Market

Sweater weather is here, and the Gateway Farmers’ Market is leaning into fall! 🍂 Stop by every Saturday from 9 AM–1 PM at the Vol. Fire Dept. parking lot, 3716 Rhode Island Ave.

🍎 10/3: Sample the Shoulder Season with free tastes of apples, pears, peppers, fresh apple cider, pumpkin pastries and Pecan Meadow Farm’s pumpkin whoopie pies.

👕 10/10: Secondhand, 2nd Saturday Market with vintage clothes, vinyl, home decor + the Kids Clothing Swap. Halloween costume donations welcome!

🥧 10/24: Fall Fest! Live music, chef samples featuring market produce, free professional family portraits + a pie-eating contest.

🎃 10/31: Halloween Costume Contest for kids and adults, with Market Bucks for the winners!

💚 SNAP/EBT & WIC accepted + matched up to $20 each week.

☕ Nearby Happenings

• 🎉 10/3 (Sa), 12–6 PM: College Park Day — FREE

• 🐈 10/3 (Sa): Trap, Neuter, RUN 5K — A Cat’s Life Rescue fundraiser at Heurich Park; same-day registration available

• 🍂 10/17 (Sa): Riversdale Harvest Fest

• 👕 10/25 (Su): HY-Swap — FREE; volunteer or sign up for a shopping window

☕ Etc.