Franklin Park International Festival

September 29

On Saturday, September 29, Franklin Park in Greenbelt West held the first of three fall international festivals. There were vendors, games, music, and food.

The festival takes place by Springhill Drive between Franklin Park’s leasing office and one of its two swimming pools.

Lining up for the moonbounce

Cordell Williams (age 2) looks at the camera. Behind on the right, with fountains is Springhill Lake.

Princess is 9 months old.

John Pennington of Fishnet Restaurant cooks salmon.

Fishnet opened ten months ago at the old Berwyn Café site at 5010 Berwyn Road, College Park, MD. The owner (here seen on the left) is Ferhat Yalcin, a native of Istanbul, and a former manager at Corduroy, a top restaurant in D.C. At Fishnet, Yalcin is offering fish sandwiches and fish tacos inspired by his trips to Turkey. The new restaurant has received a number of good reviews including a feature in the Washingtonian’s Cheap Eats 2012 and a review by Washington Post’s food critic Tom Sietsema. Today Fishnet is offering free samples of salmon tacos and sweet corn bisque. Yalcin tells me that the corn comes from a local farm in Clinton, Maryland.

An employee of Franklin Park nails a tent to the ground.

“BB&T@Work is a premium package of BB&T financial products and services for employees of participating companies.”

DJ Lee. The building behind him on the left is Franklin Park’s Aquatic Recreation Center #1.

Finis Calhoun, a Franklin Park manager, hands out balloons to children.

Cotton candy

Waiting for cotton candy

Anthony McFarland (right), his son Noah McFarland (6), and Tisha Petteway at the Honey Bun Cake Factory tent. The business is based in Suitland and supplies cakes to a number of places in Prince George’s County including the liquor store on Greenbelt Road and Carolina Kitchen in Hyattsville. Today they are offering sweet potato cakes ($3) and rum cakes ($4), with free samples. The rum cakes are made from “real Jamaican rum,” Anthony McFarland tells me.

Stephanie Buffalow (left) is with Liberty Mutual Insurance in D.C.

Brianna Honey is a massage therapist with Terrapin Care Center in College Park.

She tells me that the practice is headed by Dr. Dan Kraus who specializes in the use of “chiropractic biophysics” technique.

The red line “represents where your neck is currently positioned,” and the green line “the normal, healthy position for your neck.”

Parnice Green of Suitland offers perfume, lotion, and other Mary Kay skin care products.

Bernadette Spriggs has products by Scentsy. She tells me that the company is based in Idaho and makes a variety of scented candles and warmers for these wick-less candles.

These Scentsy Bars have names like Mediterranean Spa, Newborn Nursery, Honey Pear Cider, Luna, and Mandarin Moon.

Ryan Singletary (sitting) is a managing partner of Power in One Clothing.

Fiona Teng (right) of ZipCar says that they have always had cars by the Greenbelt Metro but a week ago, they added a new location in Franklin Park, offering a Honda Civic ($10 per hour) and a Ford E150 cargo van ($15.75 per hour). The two cars at Franklin Park have been quite popular with residents, Teng tells me, especially the van which can be used to move furniture and mattresses, and she has heard from users that the cars are never there. The company will adjust once the usage pattern becomes clearer.

Membership is required. Special to this festival, ZipCar is offering special deal for $35 to join. Once a member, gas and insurance are included in the rental fee. Here Teng shows me the gas card inside the car which should be used by the driver to fill up the tank when it is ¼ full.

This ZipCar gas card can be used at gas stations to fill up the tank.

Shawn Johnson (left) and Vickki Simmons are consultants for Cookie Lee Jewelry.

Joe Chen (right) is the owner of Shanghai Tokyo Café at Baltimore Avenue and Berwyn House Road in College Park, next to the University of Maryland. The restaurant opened a year and a half ago, and on the left David Baker is its publicist. Today the restaurant is offering everything, including General Tso’s chicken, a spring roll, fried rice, and noodles, for $5. The stand is quite popular and they ran out of food quickly and had to go back to the restaurant to get more. Here they are starting to serve their second batch.

Amanda “Marie” Russell teaches fitness at Franklin Park’s fitness center three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. She teaches a variety of activities including kick boxing, line dancing, hula, and hip hop.

Franklin Park Manager Finis Calhoun and Director of Housing Partnerships Evan Allen. Allen tells me that they had a fall festival here in the past, but this year they want to try something different. So they planned three international festivals on September 29, October 13, and October 27 and hope to create something like a regular market. The last date, the last Saturday in October, will be Franklin Park Day because Fieldstone Properties took over the apartment complex two years ago in October. A booth costs $25 and they would like to see more community organizations participating. Anyone, Calhoun tells me, Franklin Park resident or not, is welcome.