Newsletters 

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December 2025

 

Dear Community Members,

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Happy Holidays to you and your family. We send our best wishes for Peace and Joy this holiday season and a New Year of Health, Happiness and Prosperity.

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I am happy to share that we have a full, active and engaged Board with the recent additions of Jackie Ovad as Vice President and Amy Baker as secretary. I hope you had the chance to see a more detailed introduction of our new Board members on our website.

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Jackie Ovad has been a resident of Sagamore Forest for over 19 years and previously served on the Board of SFWHCA as the Treasurer for several years in 2005. She lives with her husband Dave, their teenage daughter and beloved 18-year-old handsome tabby cat…Jasper. Jackie is a full-time real estate professional, a Top Producer Agent for 20+ years and her husband is a professional pilot.  She has a degree in Business Administration and Marketing.

 

Amy Baker has been a resident of Worthington Hillside II for more than 5 years. She lives with her husband, Mike, her mother, and their two beloved pups. With over 33 years of experience as a social worker, Amy has dedicated her career to developing and supporting programs that serve our community’s most vulnerable populations, including those facing homelessness, mental health issues, and addiction challenges.

 

Your Board has been quite busy this last quarter. Let me highlight a few updates on our community activities.

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Website (SFWHCA.com) and Email (SFWHCA@gmail.com)

• Our new community website (SFWHCA.com) and Facebook page is catching on and we have seen over 200 individual interactions with our website since its launch. Most people access our site using their mobile device/phone. Remember we value and appreciate your thoughts and opinions. It is easy to communicate with us by going to our website home page and hitting the “Contact Us” button at the upper right corner.

• We have also created a Board Community Welcome video and published it on our Facebook page, YouTube and our Community Website located under the Board of Directors tab. Take a look…not too bad for amateurs!

• We continue to request and collect email addresses as you desire to share. We are happy to share we have tested our ability to communicate through email with 2 recent email notifications of our Community Clean-Up day held on October 25th. Those who provided us emails have responded positively noting they received the emails.

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Entrance Landscaping

• We have been paying quite a bit of attention to beautifying and improving our 6 entrances. We hope you notice and like what we are doing. We have just completed the holiday decorations at each entrance. We hope you enjoy them.

• This Fall at all the entrances:

  • The white fences were scrubbed and cleaned

  • Fall decorations including pumpkins, corn stalks, hay bale, scarecrow, mums and some ornamental cabbage plants were placed

  • A fresh layer of mulch was applied and each received some trimming and pruning in and around the entrance sites and,

  • The entrance at Bond and Timber Grove Road received two new evergreen bushes

• We will continue to provide some decorative arrangements for our entrances as appropriate and as supported by our annual dues collection.

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Spring Landscaping Plans

• This spring, we’ll once again focus on each entrance for pruning, general maintenance, and adding new trees, shrubs, and flowers. As you can imagine, watering and upkeep at these entrances take considerable time and attention to keep everything healthy and looking beautiful.

• We’re looking for a little help! One idea is for residents to “adopt” an entrance—similar to a block captain approach—to help care for the spring plantings. We’d love to hear your thoughts or other ideas on how we can make this a true community effort.

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Community Clean-Up Day – October 25

• On October 25, we held our Community Clean-Up Day, offering two dumpsters free of charge for residents from 7 a.m. to noon. About 25 neighbors participated, and your Board members were on hand to meet and greet everyone who stopped by. Despite the chilly, windy weather, we stayed the course and enjoyed connecting with so many of you. Thank you for your positive feedback, great conversations, and thoughtful suggestions—we truly appreciate your involvement!

 

 New Residents

• Eric and Kathryn Simon of 1 Timber Run Court

• Eric and Jemie Chen of 3805 Timber View Way

• Donta Taylor and Monique Lafarsha Ellett of 4033 Log Trail Way

• Shawn and Emily Girch of 13 Trighton Court

• Alyssa Huntley and Kevin Gholie of 12622 Mount Laurel Court

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It’s that time of year again—2026 annual dues are now due!

We kindly ask for your contribution of $120.00. A huge thank you to those who have already contributed and to those who have gone above and beyond by donating from missed previous years and have given above the requested amount.  These dues remain very modest compared to neighboring HOA communities (Fields of Sagamore Community is $768/annually). They play an essential role in maintaining and enhancing our community. Your support allows us to decorate and improve our entrances, maintain the landscaping and support other social events/functions that bring neighbors together to connect and celebrate.

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For transparency, we’ve posted a breakdown of planned 2026 expenses and payment instructions on our website under the “Dues” tab. We’re pleased to share that Zelle has been added as a new payment option on our website! You can now make contributions easily through Zelle, PayPal, or by check. We value your feedback and remain committed to keeping you informed about how your contributions support our community.

 

Larry Strassner, President

Jackie Ovad, Vice President

Amy Baker, Secretary

Dave Reed, Treasurer

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August 2025

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Dear Community Members,

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 We are excited to introduce you to our new Board of Directors and announce our new website. I would first like to recognize and thank Albert DellaRocca and Graham Bouton for their outstanding and generous years of service to our community in the roles of President and Treasurer.

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Albert’s vision and guidance as President has been instrumental in fostering a sense of unity and cooperation among residents. His devotion to addressing our concerns, organizing events, and ensuring the smooth operation of our association has greatly enhanced our living environment, making our community a better place for all of us.

Graham’s six years of service provided stability and continuity in our fiscal stewardship allowing us to continue to provide services needed to maintain our community while maintaining a comfortable reserve for unexpected expenses.

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Both of these men contributed their time and commitment to our community and we are fortunate to have their continued support and engagement as we transition into these new roles and responsibilities.

 

Let me introduce Larry Strassner, our new President to you.

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Hello, my name is Larry. I am a retired registered nurse executive with extensive experience as a chief nursing officer and chief operating officer at hospitals and health systems in Maryland and Pennsylvania. I have been a proud resident of the Hillside II community for the past 10 years, living with my husband Dave and our beloved cats. For many of you who are walkers on Log Trail Way, our home is often recognized by the festive horses at the entrance to our driveway, always dressed in holiday attire. Gardening is one of my passions, and you can often find me outside tending to the gardens or brainstorming new gardening projects.

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As your newly appointed president, I am thrilled to bring my organizational skills, attention to detail, and leadership experience to this role. I am passionate about taking on challenges and am eager to collaborate with our community to enhance and grow our association. My goal is to foster a sense of unity and celebration within our community. I have always been a proactive leader who engages others and works diligently to achieve collective goals.

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Let me introduce Dave Reed, our new Treasurer to you. Hello, my name is Dave. I am a retired UPS driver. I am the past president of our Timberwood Homeowners Association in Abingdon, MD. I have been a proud resident of the Hillside II community for the past 10 years, living with my husband Larry and our beloved cats. I am often the lawn cutter, waterer and leaf blower part of the gardens. I am a detail guy who brings a strong sense of organization and fiscal accountability. I have for years maintained a meticulously accurate and detailed excel spreadsheet that tracks and trends income and expenses. I am the guy who pays no interest (LOL)! Larry thinks I missed my career as an accountant, the guy with a visor and pocket protector for his pens. With a little nudge from Larry and others and the support of Graham I am happy to support our community in the role of Treasurer.

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NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED........ SFWHCA.com

We have been working on new ways to communicate with the community and keep you informed. We are excited to officially launch our new SFWHCA website. You can reach this site at SFWHCA.com by mobile or computer. Please provide us feedback by using the Contact Us button at the bottom of our home website page. We are interested in how to continue to improve the content on this site so that it is pertinent and valuable to our residents.

As you will see, we have a section on our website for Newsletters. We are committed to continuing to mail the newsletter and post to our new website but are considering at some point eliminating the expense of a USPS mailing and just publish at the website. Your thoughts on this are also welcomed and appreciated.

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The community directory has been reviewed and updated. Please provide your preferred email address for direct communication if necessary. This information will be kept confidential and used solely by the Board.

Additionally, please indicate which types of activities or events you and your family would find useful or interesting and/or you might want to volunteer to support.

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Your feedback is invaluable to us. Whether you have suggestions, comments, or questions, we are eager to listen. Please share your thoughts and help us improve. Your input makes a difference! The Announcements section of our website will be used to share updates and provide information between newsletters. We recommend visiting this section regularly to stay informed about any new developments.

 

Respectfully,

Larry Strassner, President

Dave Reed, Treasurer

SFWHCA Board of Directors

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