Chris Ullman, an executive with the Carlyle Group, learned to whistle by listening to his father whistle Gilbert and Sullivan songs. He honed his skills during college, and improvised jazz and blues songs in a friend’s band. In 1992 he got 2nd place whistling “In the Mood” by Glen Miller at the International Whistler Competition, and got 1st place 4 other times. He appeared on “Jay Leno” and his boss at Carlyle got him and invitation to the Oval Office to whistle for Pres. Bush (43), who asked him to whistle a “Country & Western” song; to which Chris asked, how about the “Lone Ranger”? (not knowing any C&W songs) and he whistled “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony” plus “Take the A Train” by Duke Ellington (which he also did for us).

Kenneth Merritt served as the Chief Clinical NCO for the Department of Nursing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He retired as an E9 after serving 29 &1/2 years. He is currently Fisher House Foundation Manager in Bethesda. Fisher House is a non-profit organization that builds and donates homes to Military and VA installations to have a place for the family members to stay while their love ones are receiving medical care at the Military/VA Medical Center. The Federal Government will pay for 30 days at a hotel for visiting families. Fisher House extends the housing for visiting families for up to 3 years. When the demand is more than Fisher House capacity, they use donated frequent-flyermiles for local hotel stays.

Glen Echo Park began in 1891 as a National Chautauqua Assembly, which taught the sciences, arts, languages, and literature. By the early 1900’s to 1968, Glen Echo Park had become a premier amusement park. In 1971 the US National Park Service began managing the park and collaborated with artists and arts organizations to create a rich arts program in the spirit of the original Chautauqua movement. Each year, more than 400k people come to the park for arts classes, festivals, exhibitions, dances, children’s theater, music performances, and nature programs, etc. To get a schedule of events go to www.glenechopark.org.