Good News Hagerstown, Inc.

10/25/2026

🎃👻 HAGERSTOWN, YOU SHOWED UP! 👻🎃

What a SPOOKTACULAR day at Meritus Park! With an estimated 1,000+ people coming out to enjoy the fun, today was full of costumes, laughter, and community spirit! 🧡⚾

Good News Hagerstown was thrilled to be part of Stryker & Skipper’s Spooktacular! From face painting and temporary tattoos to candy and a little extra sparkle, our volunteers loved helping families make special memories. Seeing those excited faces is exactly why we do what we do! 🎨✨🍬

💚 To our incredible volunteers: THANK YOU! You brought patience, creativity, kindness, and so much energy to a very busy day. Whether you were painting faces, applying tattoos and glitter, handing out candy, welcoming families, or helping everything run smoothly—you made a difference. We are so proud of this team!

🌼🎃 A special thank-you to Sam’s Club for donating pumpkins and mums to help us make our space festive and welcoming!

⚾ Thank you to the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars and Meritus Park team for bringing the community together, and to every family who stopped by to spend part of the day with us.

This is what happens when a community shows up for its kids. 🧡

📸 Have a favorite photo from today? We’d love to see it in the comments!

Good News Hagerstown — GO FOR GOOD! 🌱

10/16/2026

🎃🍪 SOMETHING SWEET THIS WAY COMES… 🍪🎃

Our friends at Sanders Cookie Jar have Halloween looking frightfully delicious! 👻 From colorful jack-o’-lanterns and smiling mummies to spooky ghosts, bubbling cauldrons, and spiderweb cakes—these treats deserve a spot at your Halloween celebration.

The scariest part? Having to pick just one. 🕸️😂

🧡 Sanders Cookie Jar also supports Good News Hagerstown’s food-rescue efforts, helping us share a little sweetness with local families. We’re grateful for a neighborhood business with such a generous heart!

📣 SWEET OPPORTUNITY: THEY’RE HIRING!
Sanders Cookie Jar has a part-time position available. Interested in joining their team? Contact the bakery directly for details and how to apply!

Stop in for a treat, show this local business some love, and share this post with someone looking for part-time work. 🍪✨

Which cookie gets your vote: 🎃 pumpkin, 👻 ghost, or 🧻 mummy?

10/11/2026

🍂 Big smiles. Colorful faces. A whole lot of heart. 💚

Good News Hagerstown loved spending yesterday, October 10, at Hub City Vineyard’s Fall Fest! From face painting and temporary tattoos to conversations with families, our volunteers had a wonderful time sharing a little joy with our neighbors. Even the grown-ups got in on the fun! 🎨😊

Thank you, Hub City Vineyard, for welcoming us and bringing the community together!

A HUGE thank-you to our volunteers: Kylee, Amanda, Debi, Haley, Mike, Shawn, Rose, Kris, Ellen and Judy. Your time, creativity and kindness made our part of the day possible. A special shout-out to Kylee for sharing her wonderful face-painting talent! 💕

HCV church family—we would love to get to know more of you! Looking for a practical way to put your faith into action right here in our community? Come serve alongside Good News Hagerstown.

We rescue and share food, support youth with shoes and clothing, care for community gardens, and bring people together through inclusive classes and family activities. Whether you enjoy helping children, gardening, organizing supplies or lending a hand at events, there is a place for you.

💬 Interested? Message us or comment “I’d love to help,” and we’ll connect with you about opportunities.

Please follow Good News Hagerstown Inc. and share this post with someone who would enjoy serving with us!

🌱 Let’s Grow Good News Hagerstown—together.
"www.goodnewshagerstown.org" (https://www.goodnewshagerstown.org)

City Vineyard

10/07/2026

🌸 Some gifts grow far beyond the garden.

From all of us at Good News Hagerstown, thank you to Sunny Meadows and Ethan for an incredibly generous donation—including four beautiful arrangements! Your kindness has helped make the beauty pictured here possible, and it is opening the door to something especially meaningful.

We are preparing to help a local funeral home provide flowers for families who cannot afford them. Every loved one deserves to be remembered with dignity, beauty, and love. A family’s financial circumstances should never make their farewell feel less important.

Sunny Meadows’ generosity is helping us begin this new ministry of compassion. What you have given will reach beyond our gardens and into families’ lives during some of their hardest moments. 💚

And to all my fellow plant lovers, I have to share this personal recommendation: the Growers Blend soil from Sunny Meadows is the best soil I have ever used for container gardening, indoor tropical plants, and houseplants. If you love your plants like I do, stop by Sunny Meadows and ask about it!

Ethan, you have truly been an answer to prayer on so many levels. Thank you for believing in our work and helping us share beauty, kindness, and care throughout our community.

Please show Sunny Meadows some love and support the local generosity that makes work like this possible. 🌱

With heartfelt gratitude,
Shawn Boward & the Good News Hagerstown family

Go for good.

10/03/2026

🪴 INDOOR PLANT WORKSHOP UPDATE! 🌿

We're so excited by everyone who commented GROW on our last post! We're putting together the final details for our October indoor plant prep workshop.

To help us finalize the setup:
1️⃣ Do you prefer a weekday evening or a Saturday morning?
2️⃣ What's the #1 houseplant question you want answered?

Drop your preference in the comments! If you haven't reserved your spot yet, comment GROW below or email [email protected]. Let's keep growing together, Hagerstown! 💚

10/02/2026

💚🎶 HEART & SOIL—with a little rock ’n’ roll!

We put our heart and soil into this one—and gave it a little soul, too! 🌿

Good News Hagerstown Inc. proudly designed and donated the living centerpieces and custom album displays for REACH of Washington County’s Taste of the Town at Hub City Vinyl! 🖤💛

Colorful ornamental peppers and ornamental cabbage/kale, black-and-gold pots, vinyl-record bases, and a little musical mischief… these centerpieces had personality!

The song choices were deliberately tongue-in-cheek. “Dr. Love,” anyone? “Purple Reign,” perhaps? The peppers brought the heat, the cabbage brought the ruffles, and the records brought the rhythm. 😂🎵

We’re especially proud of these creations. Bringing plants, imagination, and a good cause together is exactly why we love making living art.

A special thank-you to Lou Scally and REACH for recognizing Good News Hagerstown during the evening! We were delighted to contribute to an event supporting REACH’s important community work. 💚

🌟 DID YOUR CHAIR PICK YOU?
A winning number beneath a chair at each table sent these living centerpieces home with lucky guests! Here’s how to keep the encore going:

🌶️ Ornamental peppers: Plenty of sunshine! Protect from frost; indoors, use your sunniest window.

🥬 Ornamental cabbage/kale: A sunny outdoor spot and cool fall weather. Cooler temperatures can make their colors even prettier!

💧 Both: Check the soil daily. Water when the surface starts to dry, without letting the root ball dry out completely. Remove the nursery pot to water, drain fully, then return it to the decorative container. You can also replant into well-draining soil in a pot with drainage holes.

Keep the record dry—this band doesn’t need a swimming pool! 😉

🍽️ A tasting note: these were selected as ornamental plants. Peppers and cabbage/kale can be edible, but food-safe growing treatments haven’t been verified for these particular plants. Enjoy their beauty unless their suitability for eating is confirmed. The peppers may be extremely hot, and ornamental cabbage/kale can be bitter!

📸 Took one home? Share a photo and tell us which song you received! We’d love to see our living art enjoying its encore.

Grow Good News Hagerstown. 💚

09/29/2026

09/29/2026

🍂🍂🧡 What a beautiful day of community, kindness, and fall fun at the McCleary Hill Fall Festival with Hagerstown Housing Authority!

Our hearts are full, and we have so many wonderful people to thank!

🎃 A VERY special thank-you to Runaway Bull Farm and its awesome owner, Jaime, for generously donating 50 gorgeous pumpkins to Good News Hagerstown for the children at the festival! Your kindness helped make this day extra special. We are so grateful that you shared a little piece of your farm with our community. ❤️

If you haven’t visited Runaway Bull Farm, please go experience this beautiful local treasure! It has that nostalgic farm charm that makes you want to slow down and stay awhile—with gorgeous sunflowers and flowers, a pumpkin patch, and activities for the kids. A beautiful place to make family memories, and so close to home! 🌻🚜

📍 17163 Lappans Road, Hagerstown, MD
🌐 Plan your visit: "www.runawaybullfarm.com" (https://www.runawaybullfarm.com/)

Please help us thank this generous local farm by showing them some love and planning a visit!

🌱 To our incredible volunteers—Debi, Sherry, Haley, John, Dr. Alexander, Jess, Rose, and Billy Jean—you made us so proud!

Debi and her granddaughters brought the fun with temporary tattoos. Rose and Sherry shared their wonderful face-painting talents, while Sherry’s son Lincoln handed out mustaches and was such a polite, thoughtful helper! Jess and John helped children plant flowers to take home. Dr. Alexander assisted children and parents with care, and Haley and Billy Jean gave families a warm welcome at registration.

Every one of you brought something special. Your patience, creativity, and willingness to jump in helped children feel welcomed, encouraged, and celebrated. We hope you know how much you mean to us. 💛

Thank you to Hagerstown Housing Authority for bringing everyone together, and to the Washington County Health Department, Boys & Girls Club, Head Start, and all the other organizations that set up and shared their time and resources with families.

To our McCleary Hill neighbors: thank you for spending the day with us! From flowers and pumpkins to painted faces and little mustaches, we loved being part of these moments with you.

This is how we Grow Good News Hagerstown—one act of kindness, one helping hand, and one child’s smile at a time. 🌻🧡

09/21/2026

Magic on a cloudy day! 🌸☁️✨

From the planters along Franklin Street in downtown Hagerstown to the Flying Boxcars ballpark and other spots around town, our flowers are bringing a little light to the gray skies!

We love hearing how much you’re enjoying them. Thank you for noticing, sharing your kind words, and appreciating the care that goes into keeping these spaces beautiful. 💚

At Good News Hagerstown Inc., we hope every planter brings a smile and another reason to love our community. There’s a little magic in watching something you’ve planted brighten someone else’s day. 🌿

Where have our flowers caught your eye? Share your favorite spot or tag us in your photos! 📸

Let’s keep growing something beautiful together.

09/20/2026

🌿 BRING THE GREEN INDOORS!
Get your plants ready for winter with Good News Hagerstown.

You may know our work from the colorful Franklin Street planters, our beautification at the Flying Boxcars stadium, and the Jonathan Street Community Garden. Now we’re planning an October workshop to help you enjoy growing indoors!

As cooler weather approaches, we’ll explore:
🪴 Preparing houseplants to come indoors
🔎 Checking for unwanted insect hitchhikers
☀️ Finding the right light in your home
💧 Understanding winter watering and care
🌱 Simple ways to propagate plants

Our proposed beginner-friendly workshop will include demonstrations, time for questions, and a small houseplant project to take home. Bring photos of your plants and the questions you’ve always wanted to ask!

Interested? Comment GROW, message our page, or email [email protected] with the subject “Indoor plant workshop.” Tell us whether a weekday evening or weekend works best for you.

We’ll announce the date, Hagerstown location, fee, and included supplies before registration opens. Joining the interest list is free and carries no commitment.

Net proceeds will support Good News Hagerstown’s community programs, including Angel Tree.

Let’s keep growing—even when the garden moves indoors! 🌿