Silver Spring Recreation and Aquatic Center to open late February

Silver Spring Recreation and Aquatic Center set to open late February

Plus: AstraZeneca leases another facility in MoCo; Wootton High School a cappella group wins top prize at national competition

The Silver Spring Recreation & Aquatic Center will open to the public at noon on Feb. 24. The nearly 120,000 square-foot facility boasts three swimming pools, a community center, a fitness center, a game room, an art room and a social hall with a kitchen.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. at 1319 Apple Ave. in downtown Silver Spring.

The Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame will also be located in the facility and features a sculpture of Dominique Dawes, a three-time Olympian from Silver Spring and member of the “Magnificent Seven.” Dawes runs a gymnastics and ninja academy in Rockville and Clarksburg. [Source of the Spring]

AstraZeneca makes $300 million investment in MoCo life sciences

British pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca, is doubling down on its investment in Montgomery County, leasing space in an 85,000 square-foot facility in Rockville – a $300 million investment. This is the second expansion from the company in the last two months after leasing a 198,000 Gaithersburg site in December.

At the Rockville facility, AstraZeneca plans to manufacture T-cell therapies for clinical trials in cancer and expects to create more than 150 new jobs.

“This new $300 million investment will accelerate our ambition to make next-generation cell therapy a reality, ensuring that we are ready to scale and meet the demands of patients,” Pam Cheng, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president of global operations and IT, and chief sustainability officer said in a statement. [Washington Business Journal]

Wootton High School a cappella group wins top prize at national competition

Over the weekend, the Acatonics, Thomas S. Wotton High School’s all-gender a cappella group won first place at the SingStrong high school competition in New York. Wootton seniors Ashley Chan and Shravan Kannepalli also received Best Soloist and Best Vocal Percussion honors, respectively.

SingStrong is an international a cappella festival held at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. The high school group also won first prize in its 2020 competition. [Montgomery Community Media]

Today’s weather:

Sunny with a low of 26 degrees and a high of 48 degrees.