News in Review: Community Groups Fight to Keep Schools Safe and Keep a Tab on Crime

This week in Silver Spring, a community group urges members to join fight to save school safety program, a blood drive at The Nora School, meet Chef Egg who is this week's volunteer from Whole Foods and the Patch crime summary map.

1. Keeping school safe is a major concern for community members in Silver Spring. In an email sent to members, including civic associations representing 8,000 households, Safe Silver Spring Chair, Tony Hausner, asked members to sign on to a letter sent to county leaders supporting the School Resource Officer (SRO) program. 

2. Whole Food's Chef Egg is highlighted in the Volunteer in the News section for his exceptional work of keeping Silver Spring residents healthy. Since June of 2007, Erik Berlin (a.k.a Chef Egg ) has served as a conduit between the Whole Foods Market and the community, teaching healthy food habits to the greater Silver Spring area. 

3. Being a parent can be difficult since the rules aren't all laid for you but Patch's Parent Columnist Karen Brown offers her view on how to work at it. This week she writes about how spending time with your kids separately can give parents a tighter bond.

4. Montgomery County officers were busy this week. Keep a tab on crime in downtown Silver Spring with the Patch crime summary map. You can click on the bubble on the map and read about the crime incident.

5. In the Arts, the Chinese New Year celebration at the Silver Spring Library and ideas fro your next Great Escape.