Some of us on staff here at DCist are unrepentant video game nerds, so we couldn't help but notice this posting yesterday on the gaming site Penny Arcade about Marissa, a 9-month-old Annandale, Virginia, resident who was diagnosed with a rare pediatric condition called Infantile Spasms (IS). Marissa's dad, being a gaming fan like us, sent the guys at Penny Arcade an e-mail asking if they could take one of Marissa's three stuffed bunnies named......

Blogger Jeff Simmermon (he of the Murky Coffee iced espresso saga and a former DCist contributor) is asking people to help him gather some much-needed cash for the family of Marisol Caceres. As you'll recall, Marisol was found strangled in her apartment in Northeast last week, and her father has since been arrested for her murder. Jeff is a friend of Marisol's brother, Jose Andrade, and says the family is in desperate need of assistance.Marisol’s......

The local music community has come together several times over the past year and a half to support Callum Robbins, the son of local music mainstay J. Robbins and Janet Morgan. Cal was diagnosed with a genetic motor neuron disease called Type 1 SMA, or Spinal Muscular Atrophy. As explained on the DeSoto records page supporting Cal, The disease affects the brain's ability to communicate with the voluntary muscles that are used for activities such......

Team DCist came out in force for Saturday's 2008 Servathon, presented by Greater DC Cares and Fannie Mae. About 3,200 volunteers spent the day painting, cleaning and pruning the campuses of 39 D.C. public schools. Team DCist was dispatched to Harriet Tubman Elementary in Columbia Heights, and we all had a blast sprucing up the courtyard, repainting the playground, and brightening up some dull brown lockers in classrooms. Thanks to everyone who participated, especially our......

It only took three hours for the five alarm fire in a Mt. Pleasant apartment building to displace roughly 200 tenants. It didn't take much longer for Ryan Wakeman and Chris DeWitt to come up with a way to help. Under the moniker "The Queen of the Water Dolphins", Wakeman and DeWitt organized a benefit concert to raise donations for victims of the fire. "We wanted to do something useful with ourselves about the fire,......

This Saturday you can find all 50 members of Team DCist out at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Columbia Heights, landscaping the grounds, painting the windows, and fixing up playground games for Servathon 2008. We're thrilled so many of you stepped up to volunteer this year, and can't wait to meet you all somewhere other than a comment thread. We wanted to take one last opportunity to ask our entire readership for $5 or $10......

Civic-minded young Washingtonians have a chance to be a part of something bigger than just D.C., while at the same time helping their neighbors. Thousands of young people will give back this weekend as part of Global Youth Service Day (each individual project is one day, but the event runs from April 25-27). Global Youth Service Day started internationally 20 years ago. Independent organizations all over the world coordinate efforts in their respective cities to......

It's a rare day in the non-profit world when you have to ask people to stop volunteering, but alas, Team DCist has no more room for additional members at our Servathon project site, Harriet Tubman Elementary School. We now have 50 volunteers, almost double last year's participation. There are still plenty of spots available at other schools, so eager volunteers can still sign up, but you'll be assigned a different DCPS location. Team DCist has......

Sincere thanks to all of you who have volunteered to join the DCist team for this year's Servathon. Forty-six of you will be rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty with us on May 3. The good news is Team DCist finally has a site -- Harriet Tubman Elementary School at 3107 13th Street NW. The school was chosen primarily because it was one of the few places that could fit our massive numbers of......

In today's sad reminder that terrible people are out there walking among us, there is news today that an Alexandria charity, ALIVE (Alexandrians InVolved Ecumenically), has been the victim of a warehouse burglary, in which thieves made off with more than 1,000 pounds of food intended for the needy. ALIVE, which according to their website, "serves over 12,000 Alexandrians annually," works with community volunteers to provide Alexandria's less fortunate with a full spectrum of services,......

As soon as we realize the weather is getting (slightly) warmer and we're going to be outside a lot more, we also realize that, geez, it's a real pigsty out there. Although the annual Keep America Beautiful cleanup this weekend was canceled due to severe weather predictions, the die-hards behind Saturday's 20th Annual Potomac Watershed Cleanup won't let "possible lightning" stop them. Shannon Macken, with sponsor Alice Ferguson Foundation, sent us an email this morning......

There's motivator for your spring cleaning waiting for you in Capitol Hill on Wednesday. As part of Dress for Success' annual S.O.S. — Send One Suit — Week, Fed Ex Special Delivery will be collecting professional attire and accessories from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. by the Capitol South metro station. You may remember them from previous years; it's their third time soliciting assistance from the local community. These drives have managed to collect more......

There's good news: DCist is already one of the leading teams as far as recruiting volunteers and fundraising for this year's Servathon. But we need five more volunteers by Sunday, March 16, to get our team name printed on our shirts for free. (Don't you want a Team DCist shirt to wear to the gym? You know you do.) This year's Servathon will take place on May 3. Team DCist will head to a yet-to-be-determined......

Even with Mayor Fenty's re-organization plan of D.C. public schools, we all know they're still struggling, and not just academically. That's why DCist is organizing another team this year to participate in the annual Servathon, organized by Greater DC Cares and their sponsor Fannie Mae, which is focusing only on fixing up school facilities this year. The date to roll up your sleeves is May 3. Last year, 27 DCist staff members and readers turned......

Calling all foodies and would-be good citizens: It's never been so easy to donate to a good cause. This Thursday, area restaurants will be participating in the annual Dining Out for Life event, where over 130 restaurants have agreed to donate between 25-100 percent of their night's sales to benefit Food & Friends. Food & Friends prepares, packages, and delivers personalized meals to more than 1,400 people in the D.C. metro area living with HIV/AIDS,......

Aside from donating to charity or saving for your child's college fund, the best use of $6.75 is the quarter-chicken platter with fries and salad at Skorpios Maggio's Family Restaurant (affectionately known as Skorpios) in Vienna.  Hot rotisserie chicken, dusted with a lemon peppery spice blend, served to you on a divided plate with thick cut steak fries and a simple lettuce salad covered generously in feta and dressed with oil and vinegar, and a......

NBC4 reported last night that food banks are not the only local charities feeling the holiday crunch this year: the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program in D.C. also says it is suffering from a decline in donations compared to last year. So we are posting this photo of a crying baby we found to make you feel bad -- bad enough to donate some toys to needy local kids, that is. There are something......

Many people only think to donate non-perishable food items to food banks during the holiday season, but it seems this year in D.C., not enough people have gone even that far -- on Saturday the Post reported that area food banks are critically short of food donations at the very same time that demand for free and discounted food is going up. The Capital Area Food Bank reported that it only had about 230,000 pounds......

Still in the office, D.C.? Yeah, us too. We hope you're only sticking around because you don't need to travel this holiday season. If so, enjoy the empty halls, bask in the quiet, and call it a day early. If not — well, good luck on the roads and at the airport. It sounds like they're going to be predictably nasty. There Seems To Be Some Sort of Holiday Occurring: And consequently you can......

The name may be unfamiliar, but the players behind Club Tiger Promotions are highly recognizable to any one who follows the D.C. music scene. Local artists Carol Bui and Jay Smith of Middle Distance Runner have started an all-ages venue, The Lab in Alexandria, which will both give under-age bands a place to play with their more seasoned peers and serve as an environment where, as Bui puts it, "kids feel totally comfortable and safe......

If you're not looking forward to setting your Thanksgiving or Christmas table with your best Ikea acrylic, you might want to take a short road trip this weekend to get some new wares. The Valley Craft Network, a 26-year old association of professional artisans and craftspeople, is holding its annual holiday studio tour this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nestled in the Middletown and Pleasant Valleys west of Frederick, Maryland, the......

Washington has a ton of good things, but also a lot of problems. One we often hear about is a general lack of customer service in some local businesses — sometimes people are slow, rude, forgetful, or a combination of the three. We've seen it all over, from fancy joints to Mickey D's, but it seems to be worse here than elsewhere on the East Coast. Somebody could make a lot of money by renting......

Pie and helping people are two of our favorite things. Thanks to the folks at Food and Friends, the two are brought together with their Slice of Life program. The charity--which provides meals, groceries, and nutrition counseling to people in the D.C. area with AIDS, cancer, and other major illnesses--is holding a pie sale, just in time for Thanksgiving. Generous people (and pie lovers) can help out by purchasing their holiday pies from Food and......

MONDAY >> Were you out of town this weekend, wishing you were home soaking in the goodness that was the DAM! Festival? Fear not. Tonight there is one more show, and it happens to be the festival's biggest. The chanteuse to give all other indie chanteuses a run for their money, Cat Power, is taking the 9:30 Club stage with the Dirty Delta Blues, and a little help from openers Childballads. $25 or your......

Written by DCist Contributor Stephanie Taylor Mark Andersen came to Washington decades ago as a student of international relations, but was heartbroken by what he saw right in his own backyard. What he describes as the distance between the city's idealism and its reality, particularly in terms of radical income disparities and the effects of historic racism, were too much for him to ignore. So he became a different type of diplomat, founding Positive Force......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own such......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Into the Wild Annandale native Chris McCandless had just graduated from Emory University in 1990 when he donated his substantial life's savings to charity and set out on the road under the name of "Alexander Supertramp." His highly publicized disappearance ended two years later when his body was found in the Alaskan wilderness, and the......

>> President Bush is set to announce plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by around 30,000 by next summer -- which is the same, pre-surge level it was about nine months ago. [AP via WTOP] >> D.C. firefighters put out a fire in the parking garage at Union Station this morning. [AP via WTOP] >> The 2007 American League of Lobbyists Hoops for Hope Charity Game is tonight at GW's Smith Center,......

Just as a new videotape from Osama bin Laden was released over the weekend, tomorrow marks the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, and as in year's past, there will be events, speeches and vigils across the country to remember the dead. But with more time now between us and that tragic day, it does seem as though the way we want to honor the anniversary......

>> Heading over to check out semi-crazy ambient rockers Deerhunter play with Clockcleaner tonight at the Black Cat seems like an entirely reasonable thing to do. 9 p.m., $10. >> NYC's Beat the Devil host a CD release party at the Red and the Black with Brandon Butler and Revival. Doors 9 p.m. $8. >> The charity organization Bartending for Change hosts a benefit for Food For All at a happy hour from 6:30......