Saturday, September 12 | 9:00 AM | Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf

Here is the part people miss about RunFest: you do not have to run. The certified 10K and 5K courses loop through the St. Charles neighborhoods and finish right at the Blue Crabs stadium, but the Festival Village that follows is free and open to anybody who wanders in.

That is where the Taste of Southern Maryland lives, which is the actual reason to show up if lacing up at 9am on a Saturday is not your thing. Local food, a finish line worth watching, and a stadium lot that is genuinely easy to get in and out of.

This year's charity partner is Hospice of the Chesapeake, and RunFest serves as their signature Charles County event. The Waldorf fire department runs medical support on course, so it is a well covered race if you are on the fence about registering.

Whether you run the 10K or just show up hungry, this is the anchor of the whole week.

🔗 Register, or just come for the food

A quiet holiday Monday, then the county remembers it has things to do.

Monday, September 7 | All day 📍 Countywide

🔗 Closure details

Every Charles County Government office and all six library branches are closed for the holiday. Plan your errands around it, because Tuesday is when normal hours come back. Treat it as a permission slip to do nothing.

Tuesday, September 8 | 6:35 PM 📍 Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf 💵 See link

🔗 Tickets and schedule

The Crabs open their final home stand of 2026 against York. Bring a jacket, because September evenings at the stadium turn on you around the sixth inning.

Wednesday, September 9 | 6:35 PM 📍 Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf 💵 See link

🔗 Tickets and schedule

Game two of the closing series. Midweek games are the easy ones for parking and short lines, so this is your low effort night out.

Thursday, September 10 | 6:35 PM 📍 Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf 💵 See link

🔗 Tickets and schedule

This is the last Blue Crabs home game of the season, full stop. They finish on the road at Long Island, so if you have been meaning to get out to the stadium all summer, Thursday is the closing window until spring.

Saturday, September 12 | 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 Grace's Event Center, Waldorf 💵 $44

🔗 Get tickets

Twenty years is a real milestone for any local congregation. W.O.R.D. Ministries is marking it with an afternoon of worship, food, and fellowship, and neighbors are welcome whether or not you have ever set foot in the building.

Saturday, September 12 | 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM 📍 Waldorf Jaycees Community Center, Waldorf 💵 $87

🔗 Event details

The Southern Maryland alumni chapter's annual dinner dance and awards program, and it funds scholarships. Dress up, eat well, and support students. You do not need Morgan ties to appreciate a good local banquet.

Sunday, September 13 | 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM 📍 Blue Crabs Stadium, Waldorf 💵 Free to look, $25 to register a car

🔗 Event details

Chrome, engines, and a stadium parking lot full of people who want to tell you about their transmission. Free if you are just walking through, $25 if you want to show your own ride. Third year running and it keeps growing.

Saturday, September 12 | 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM 📍 Neibauer Dental Care, 124 Rosewick Road, La Plata, MD 20646 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

Cleanings, fillings, and extractions at no cost, running a full twelve hours on Saturday. Dental work is exactly the thing people put off when money is tight, so this one matters. Appointments are required and spots are limited, so call 301-934-4357 now instead of showing up Saturday morning and hoping.

Saturday, September 12 | 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM 📍 4415 Crain Highway, White Plains, MD 20695 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

Food, transportation, housing, mental and physical health services, and job opportunities, all in one room for three hours. VCMICC pulls these providers together so you are not chasing six different offices for answers. Worth a stop whether you need something right now or just want to know what exists in the county. If you would rather help than attend, email [email protected] to volunteer.

Go-go on Saturday, dollar wings on Monday. The range is the point.

Monday, September 7 | 10:30 AM to 10:00 PM 📍 3059 Waldorf Market Pl., Waldorf 💵 $1 per wing

🔗 Event details

Korean fried wings for a dollar each, every Monday and Tuesday. If Labor Day cooking is not happening at your house, this solves it cheaply and runs all the way to close.

Saturday, September 12 | 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM 📍 Martini's in White Plains 💵 $17

🔗 Get tickets

Rebirth Band with the Hailgaters crew, food, and a room that stays loud until one in the morning. Doors at 7. This one is squarely for the grown folks, and it does not pretend otherwise.

Saturday, September 12 | 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM 📍 Shark Bar and Seafood House, Waldorf 💵 $28

🔗 Get tickets

Junkyard Band headlining in Waldorf is not a small thing, and Red Carpet Affair Band is on the bill too. If you have any love for go-go, this is the biggest local night on the calendar this week. Virgos, this is your excuse.

Paint something, upcycle something, or lie down and let singing bowls handle it.

Tuesday, September 8 | 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM 📍 CCPL Potomac Branch, Indian Head 💵 Free

🔗 Join the waitlist

Phones down, paintbrush up. This one is already full, but the waitlist moves, and the series runs regularly enough that it is worth getting on the library's radar now.

Wednesday, September 9 | 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM 📍 CCPL Potomac Branch, Indian Head 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

A guided look at Cezanne's still lifes, then you paint your own version of the apples that made him famous. No art background required, just curiosity and an afternoon.

Thursday, September 10 | 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 CCPL P.D. Brown Memorial Branch, Waldorf 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

Bring whatever you are working on and sit with people who get it. Total beginners are welcome, staff will teach you, but bring your own hook or needles and a skein of yarn to start.

Thursday, September 10 | 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 CCPL Potomac Branch, Indian Head 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

Take a plain shirt and make it yours. Supplies are provided, you just bring the ideas.

Friday, September 11 | 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM 📍 Bensville Park, Waldorf 💵 Free

🔗 Reserve your spot

The mobile library rolls into Bensville Park with fabric paints and stamps. Bring shirts, skirts, pants, or dresses you are tired of and give them a second life outdoors on a Friday evening. Only a handful of spots left.

Sunday, September 13 | 1:30 PM 📍 The Green Coterie, 3438 Rockefeller Court, Waldorf 💵 $30

🔗 Reserve your spot

This is a newly added September date, so it was not on the original schedule. You get guided into relaxation and then held in crystal singing bowls for about an hour. Good for skeptics and first timers, and a solid reset before Monday.

Sunday, September 13 | 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM 📍 Waldorf 💵 $61

🔗 Get tickets

Fit & Curvy Studio is closing out summer with an intimate women's retreat built around Aqua Beat Boxing, which is exactly as fun as it sounds. Movement, rest, and a room full of women who showed up for the same reason.

Sunday, September 13 | 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM 📍 Paint N Sip, 11110 Mall Circle, Waldorf 💵 $33

🔗 Get tickets

Build a handbag from scratch with your pick of styles and patches. Paint N Sip says this has been their most popular thing lately, and the format works whether you bring friends or bring your kid.

Story times, magnets, a treasure hunt, and free ice time for girls.

Tuesday, September 8 | 9:30 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM 📍 CCPL Potomac Branch, Indian Head 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

Tuesday is Potomac's story time morning. Cuddle Time is twenty minutes built for babies and caregivers, and Morning Story Time runs twice after it for the bigger crowd. Pick whichever slot survives the nap schedule.

Tuesday, September 8 | 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM 📍 CCPL Potomac Branch, Indian Head 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

Push, pull, and figure out why. Hands on magnet experiments for kids, and the kind of thing that produces questions at dinner later.

Tuesday, September 8 | 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM 📍 CCPL La Plata Branch 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

A lower key hour built for kids who do better without the noise and crowding of a standard program. Space to play, connect, and not be managed.

Tuesday, September 8 | 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 CCPL P.D. Brown Memorial Branch, Waldorf 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

School supplies, but make them personal. Tweens decoupage their own notebooks and materials are covered.

Wednesday, September 9 | 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM 📍 CCPL Waldorf West Branch 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

A treasure hunt that runs on a smartphone. Teens learn how geocaching actually works and then go find things, which beats another afternoon indoors.

Thursday, September 10 | 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM 📍 CCPL Waldorf West Branch 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

Not a movie watching club. Teens actually develop story ideas, write scripts, shoot scenes, and edit their own films. If you have a kid who lives in their camera roll, point them here.

Friday, September 11 | 6:00 PM 📍 Charles County Rec & Parks 💵 See link

🔗 Event details

Lights up a little, sound down a little, and nobody side eyes you for moving around. Rec and Parks does these well, and they fill a real gap for families who need them.

Saturday, September 12 | 12:50 PM 📍 Capital Clubhouse, 3033 Waldorf Market Pl., Waldorf 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

Fourth year of this one. The Southern Maryland Sabres partner with the Washington Capitals to put girls on the ice with gear and instruction provided, at no cost. You genuinely just show up. Hard to beat that.

Saturday, September 12 | 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM 📍 My Gym of Waldorf, 1148 Smallwood Dr. 💵 $60

🔗 Get tickets

A drop off evening for girls ages 7 to 10, run with No Crumbs Cakeshop. They decorate a unicorn cake, you get three hours, everybody goes home with dessert. Fair trade.

Sunday, September 13 | 11:00 AM 📍 Charles County Rec & Parks 💵 See link

🔗 Event details

Games and activities built for families, on a Sunday morning, from Rec and Parks. Easy answer if the kids wake up with energy you did not sign up for.

Ten things at your library this week, including a Pulitzer winner and two Medicare sessions.

Tuesday, September 8 | 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 CCPL Waldorf West Branch 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

The first session in a series, and it starts with where AI already lives in the apps teens use daily. Useful for parents too, honestly.

Tuesday, September 8 | 6:30 PM 📍 Charles County Public Library 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

An actual SSA representative walking through how disability benefits work, who qualifies, and how to apply. Free, and considerably clearer than the website.

Tuesday, September 8 | 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM 📍 Virtual 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

CCPL landed the 2026 Pulitzer winner for fiction, and you can watch from your couch. Kraus is talking about The Sixth Nik, his new deep space novel. This is the kind of thing people pay for elsewhere.

Wednesday, September 9 | 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM 📍 CCPL La Plata Branch 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

Eight rounds, real prizes, and patterns beyond the basic line. Register everyone in your group who needs a card, and move fast, because there were only two seats left when we checked.

Wednesday, September 9 | 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM 📍 CCPL P.D. Brown Memorial Branch, Waldorf 💵 Free

🔗 Event details

An hour to put faces to the people behind the desk and find out what the branch can actually do for you. Most of us use maybe a tenth of what the library offers.

Wednesday, September 9 | 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 Virtual 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

Open Enrollment is the one window to review your health and drug coverage for next year. This session covers what to actually check before it opens.

Thursday, September 10 | 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 Virtual 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

Parts A, B, C, and D in plain language, and how the pieces fit together. Helpful whether you are enrolling yourself or trying to help a parent make sense of it.

Saturday, September 12 | 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM 📍 CCPL La Plata Branch 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

A Grandparents Day storytelling session built to help older adults record the family stories that otherwise disappear. Register one person per family or group. This is a quietly great idea.

Saturday, September 12 | 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM 📍 CCPL Waldorf West Branch 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

The UMD Extension Master Gardeners of Charles County on how to put a garden to bed properly. Bay Wise techniques, protecting your soil and pollinators now so spring is not a fight. The gardening year really does start in fall.

Saturday, September 12 | 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 📍 Virtual 💵 Free

🔗 Register here

Two hours of homebrew D&D with a story built for the table, run from your own living room. Seats are limited and they go.

Five meetings in three days, and two of them you can watch in pajamas.

Tuesday, September 8 | 6:00 PM 📍 Charles County Government, La Plata, and virtual 💵 Free

🔗 Meeting details

Zoning appeals and variance requests. The hybrid format means you can follow along without driving to La Plata on a weeknight.

Wednesday, September 9 | 2:00 PM 📍 Charles County Government, La Plata 💵 Free

🔗 Meeting details

This is the committee that reviews police misconduct investigations and decides on charges. It is one of the more consequential public meetings on the county calendar and almost nobody attends.

Wednesday, September 9 | 6:00 PM 📍 Virtual 💵 Free

🔗 Meeting details

Decisions affecting the county's historic sites and structures. Fully virtual this month, so sitting in costs you nothing but the hour.

Wednesday, September 9 | 6:00 PM 📍 Charles County Government, La Plata 💵 Free

🔗 Meeting details

Cases on properties flagged as public nuisances. If you have been tracking a problem property on your street, this is where it gets handled.

Thursday, September 10 | 10:00 AM 📍 Charles County Government, La Plata 💵 Free

🔗 Meeting details

License applications, transfers, and violations for businesses across the county. If a new restaurant or bar is coming to your area, this meeting usually knows first.

How to Watch: Can't make it in person? Charles County Government TV (CCGTV) streams most public meetings live and archives them afterward. Check charlescountymd.gov for the viewing schedule.

Two farmers markets, a food truck lot, and 75 vendors under one roof.

Saturday, September 12 | 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM 📍 Downtown La Plata 💵 Free to attend

🔗 Market details

Vendors from across Southern Maryland with produce, meats, and local goods. September is peak season for basically everything, so this is the good stretch. Runs Saturdays through November 28.

Saturday, September 12 | 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM 📍 3003 Festival Way, Waldorf 💵 Free to attend

🔗 Market details

Local growers and makers every Saturday from May through November. Easy add on if you are already headed toward Festival Way for anything else.

Saturday, September 12 | 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM 📍 Bryans Road 💵 Free to attend

🔗 Market details

Canopy Group's weekly food truck gathering. Roll through, eat something good, and skip cooking entirely on a Saturday evening.

Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13 | 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM 📍 The Shops at Waldorf Center, 3000 Festival Way 💵 Free to attend

🔗 Event details

An average of 75 local vendors indoors, every single weekend. No ticket needed to shop, food trucks welcome, and no pets except service animals. Air conditioning is undefeated in September.

Sunday, September 13 | 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM 📍 Bryans Road Supply / Ace Hardware, 3060 Livingston Rd. 💵 Free to attend

🔗 Market details

Sunday morning produce, meats, farm goods, cottage foods, and local crafts. Runs every Sunday through October 25, so there is still a good run left on it.

⚾ Thursday is the last Blue Crabs home game of the season. No do overs on this one.
🏃‍♀️ RunFest is Saturday, and the Taste of Southern Maryland food village afterward is free even if you never run a step.
🏒 Girls skate free Saturday at Capital Clubhouse. Gear and coaching included, no experience needed.
🎤 Junkyard Band at Shark Bar Saturday night. Go-go in Waldorf does not happen every week.
📚 The Daniel Kraus author talk is Tuesday and it is virtual and free. A Pulitzer winner, from your couch.
🎮 Morning Bingo had two seats left when we checked Wednesday's list. Register now or skip it.
🚿 The Administrative Charging Committee meets Wednesday at 2. Police accountability, in public, barely attended.
🌽 Two farmers markets this weekend, La Plata Saturday morning and Bryans Road Sunday morning.

Got a favorite spot that deserves more love? A new restaurant, boutique, artist, or service that your neighbors should know about?

You can nominate one for a future issue → Here

Before you go,

If you make it out to RunFest, hit reply and tell me whether the Taste of Southern Maryland lived up to it. I want to know what was worth the line. And if you catch Junkyard Band Saturday night, I want to hear about that too.

Got something happening next week that should be in here? Send it my way. The best stuff in this newsletter usually comes from you.

From one local to another

— Candace