The St. Michaels Community Center has long been known as a critically needed gathering place for families in the Bay Hundred, but under Executive Director Amy Horne, the organization is expanding its reach in ways that reflect the changing realities of working families on the Mid-Shore. In a conversation with the Spy, Horne spoke candidly about the growing number of ALICE households (families that are employed but still struggling to make ends meet) and how the center is adapting its programs to fill those gaps.
From expanded summer camp hours for working parents to a new youth center designed directly from student input, Horne says the goal is simple: create a welcoming space that responds to what the community actually needs. The center’s new initiatives include podcasting and creativity studios for teens, homework and study areas, cooking classes, and increased food accessibility programs tied to its community garden and culinary efforts.
Horne also discussed the importance of collaboration, sustainability, and making the center accessible to everyone in the Bay Hundred region. With summer concerts, a growing thrift store operation, and new programming underway, she hopes more residents will simply walk through the doors and experience what the center has become — a social service hub designed to nourish and connect the entire community.
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One Response
Ms. Horne and the St. Michaels Community Center deserve so much credit for everything they do. Their work is important, compassionate, and badly needed.
None of this is shocking though. Talbot County spent decades excluding working people, and then acts surprised when huge numbers of local people need help. Read the county plans and codes. They are obsessed with blocking new opportunity, enforcing “character,” and preventing new business locations. Almost no land is zoned for commerce, light industry, workforce housing, or ordinary economic activity. Starting anything here means excessive lawyers, consultants, engineers, endless approvals, impact fees, subdivision rules, expensive architecture and landscaping rules, and site plans for every little thing. The system protects corporations and incumbent businesses while crushing workers, young families, and any competition from entrepreneurs.
Then officials act shocked that 33% of St. Michaels and 50% of Tilghman are ALICE. What did they think would happen? Child hunger, homelessness, lonely seniors, welfare and food stamps, drug addiction, and brutally long commutes are the predictable result of policies designed to suppress labor – and preserve a curated scenic fantasy for affluent retirees and waterfront interests.
Talbot County used to let ordinary people do and make things. People farmed, canned seafood, traded goods, built boats, did repairs and fabrication, ran skilled trades and small businesses, opened shops, rented out basic housing, and readily adapted to changing markets. Working families could actually participate in the local economy. Now the county treats productive land use like a threat while congratulating itself for being “pro-business.”
It’s fake economic development. Tourism and educational seminars are not enough to sustain working families. Talbot needs to let its villages grow and use its highways for labor, commerce, and light industries. Let working people build and open businesses again. That still preserves most farms and scenery. But let’s please stop forcing the entire county into dependence on Easton, tourism, and vacation rentals. A county that cannot support workers eventually cannot support anyone else either.