Picnic in the Park Brings Flights of Fancy

The landing of a Maryland State Police helicopter was definitely the highlight of the June 2 Picnic in the Park sponsored by Arbutus Improvement Association. The roaring behemoth--powered by twin jet engines capable of reaching a top speed of nearly 170 miles per hour--circled overhead before landing on the athletic field behind Arbutus Middle School.

For a small neighborhood event on a Sunday, the picnic featured nearly a full complement of elected officials, including Dels James Malone and Steve DeBoy, councilman Tom Quirk, and county executive Kevin Kamenetz.

Aside from free hot dogs and chips, there were crafts and face painting for children, buckets of soap bubbles, delicious do-it-yourself cupcakes from , child fingerprinting and identification by officers of , scout Troop 109 from the Dewey Lowman Post, , the music of Joe Wickless and much more.

Pilot Craig Thompson and paramedic Lt. Walt Kerr, western region commander, allowed people to inspect the craft--about 80 percent of its missions are medical--and pepper them with questions. When it came time to leave the crowd edged back to the other side of Sulphur Spring Road and watched as the rotors screamed to life and lifted the helicopter to its next mission.