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April 10, 2021

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

Spy Highlights Spy Top Story

Emily is 22 Years Old and has Graduated 

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While it is true that the Spy attempts to cover regional news with an unbiased perspective, that it very hard to do when discussing Emily’s Produce in Dorchester County. This gem of a food store is one of the most successful, valued-driven local businesses on the Mid-Shore, and we make no attempt in covering up our admiration for its owners and what Emily’s has brought to the greater Cambridge community for 22 years.

Starting as a simple farmstand in 1999 by Kelly and Paul Jackson to supplement their salaries as a Maryland Highway Patrol officer and sixth-generation farmer to establish a college fund for their then newly born daughter, Emily, the store and Emily have graduated to a new level.

For Emily, the daughter, she has now graduated from college with a degree in agriculture and is now enjoying an internship at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

And for Emily’s, the produce store, it will be 22 years of transitioning from that simple farmstand into a robust role model for entrepreneurship and community investment. Over those two decades, Kelly and Paul have slowly grown into a full-service stop for those seeking the best of local meat, produce, dairy, and now Maryland wine and beer.

With a staff of twenty-five, this tight-knit family of devoted employees plays host to countless local customers but also a stream of visitors who venture off Route 50 on their way to the coast to stock up on the “good stuff” before hitting the beach.The Spy sat down with Kelly the other day to check in on both of her “Emilys” as the Jackson family starts their 22nd season with both child and store.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about Emily’s please go here.

A Spy Chat on Tina Jones’s Second Life

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The last time the Spy interviewed Tina Jones, she spoke to us about her volunteer work as president of the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce and its long-term strategic plans. Tina was a natural leader of that group after a career serving as CFO for some of the region’s largest organizations, including the Delmarva Foundation (Now Qlarant), Sotera Defense Solutions, and more recently, Chesapeake College. 

It was a good interview. With Tina’s help, the Chamber is adjusting to the “new economy” market forces, but the real dramatic change since 2018 is with Tina herself. 

At the time of our Spy chat, Tina was actually named Tim. A native of Wittman, a graduate of local public schools, and now a highly regarded business leader, Tim had never doubted where he wanted to live or raise his family. With a devoted wife and two adult children, there was little indication that behind this foundation of normalcy was someone suffering daily from the psychological challenges of living with the wrong gender identity. 

But, like many people of a certain age, Tim nevertheless found ways to navigate that world for decades with the painful awareness that his remaining years would mean keeping this lie alive as well. 

That all changed dramatically when it was discovered that Tim had a brain tumor in 2019. While it was a relief that it turned out to be benign, this close encounter with death was all that was needed for Tim to decide there and then to start the transition process in what would be a second, more honest life as Tina. 

In her Spy interview, Tina talks about this remarkable journey and its impact on her loved ones, the Mid-Shore community, and the future of transgender people living, working and loving on the Eastern Shore.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. 

Rural Futurist Headlines 2021 Talbot County Business Appreciation Summit

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Dr. Connie Reimers-Hild, certified futurist and owner of Wild Innovation Consulting, will be the featured speaker at the Talbot County Department of Economic Development and Tourism’s Virtual Business Appreciation Summit, which will be presented via Zoom on April 30 at 8:30 a.m.

Reimers-Hild will focus on the bright future and tremendous economic opportunities available for those who live in rural America. She will also set the stage for the announcement of the Talbot County Community Impact Awards honoring businesses, non-profit organizations, projects, and individuals who have made a significant impact on Talbot County in the past year.

“The unique strengths of a place like Talbot County provide a strong foundation for a future characterized by innovation, growth, prosperity, and well-being,” says Reimers-Hild. “We create our future in the present moment, and I look forward to connecting with leaders in Talbot County who are committed to pursuing their desired futures.”

Reimers-Hild has been on a mission to help leaders and organizations create greater prosperity for themselves and their teams. Her career path has combined a 25-year career at the University of Nebraska with 20 years of entrepreneurship and family life.

In her final administrative position as the executive director (Interim) and chief futurist with the Rural Futures Institute (RFI) at the University of Nebraska, Reimers-Hild worked with leaders from a broad range of companies including Microsoft and Google, as well as numerous communities, universities, and small businesses to reimagine the future of rural people and places. She also developed methods to measure the exponential impact of rural areas to demonstrate their value in a global society.  Reimers-Hild predicted the Rise of Rural in 2015, a trend now being fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now in its 12th  year, the Business Appreciation Summit has become a much-anticipated event for Talbot County’s business community. In 2019, five community impact awards were presented to businesses and community projects. Winners included Frederick Douglass 200 Committee, Out of the Fire Restaurant, RAUCH inc., Talbot Mentors, and Wylder Hotel. Kelley Phillips Cox of Phillips Wharf Environmental Center was awarded the Community Impact Award for an individual. The 2020 event was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We look forward to this event all year,” says Cassandra Vanhooser, director of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism. “It’s powerful and uplifting when Talbot County’s business leaders come together to acknowledge the people and projects that have made a difference in the community.”

The Talbot County Department of Economic Development and Tourism hosts the Business Appreciation Summit together with the Talbot County Economic Development Commission. This virtual event will be offered free of charge, though registration is required.

For more information and to register, visit talbotworks.org/business-appreciation-summit/ or call 410-770-8000.

 

 

Profiles in Spirituality: Reinviting the Church with Trinity’s Rev. Gregory Powell

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When one thinks of a church making radical changes in the role it plays in people’s lives, it’s pretty rare that it has the name “cathedral” attached to their name. Normally for a denomination, or even laypeople, the name “cathedral” is associated with the institutional core of those faiths; a venue where the most sacred services are held and, more often than not, where the administrative offices are for those dioceses.

So when the Spy was tipped off the other day that Trinity Cathedral Easton, the home of the Disease of Easton, was in the process of rewriting the rules of worship and fellowship at one of Mid-Shore’s most historic churches, we reached out to The Very Rev. Gregory Powell, to understand more about his congregation’s plans to comprehensively change its concept of what a Sunday service looks like and more importantly, feels that experience.

A native of the deep South, Rev. Powell would not have been considered a “game-changer” when he came out of divinity school nor in his first decade of church leadership. In fact, after moving to Pocomoke City to serve as St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, he would be the first to call his ministry in those days evangelical.

But as Greg became more exposed to some of the more progressive leaders of the Episcopal Church, including the work of Bishop John Shelby Spong, his own spiritual journey, and his ideas on what a church needs to be in the 21st Century, started to take a new direction. And that included speaking out against racism and other serious social issues facing his community.

In his interview with the Spy, Rev. Powell talks about this transition and how he envisions Trinity in the next few years as he and his church become a safe and accessible place of worship for all.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information about Trinity Cathedral Easton please go here.

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The Talbot Boys Controversy in 2021 with NAACP’s Richard Potter

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For anyone thinking that the Talbot County Council vote last year to maintain the Talbot Boys Confederate monument on the county’s courthouse green would settle that issue once and for all, the last few months would show how wrong that perception would be.

Since that controversial decision was made, the County has seen the formation of organizations dedicated to either preserving it (Preserve Talbot History) or demanding it be moved to another location (Move Talbot’s Confederate Monument)

And as a result, the region has seen the appearance of lawn signs, numerous letters to editor articles, and ongoing social media debates about the Eastern Shore’s Civil War history and the interpretation of motives by those who fought in this tragic chapter in American history.

One person who has witnessed this ongoing controversy from the beginning has been Richard Potter. As president of the local chapter of NAACP, it was Richard and his colleagues who made the original request in 2015 that the Talbot Boys statue be removed and relocated to a more appropriate space.

Six years after the NAACP first met with the Talbot County Council, Richard has endured a number of setbacks, including the council’s votes in both 2016 and 2020 to maintain the monument’s status quo. Nonetheless, with the conviction that history and cultural change is on his side, Potter and his board members are doubling down on their opposition to the Talbot Boys location.

In fact, as the Spy discovered in our most recent conversation with Richard last week, there is a growing feeling of impatience with county leaders who continue to support the only Confederate memorial on public property in the entire state of Maryland. And this includes the NAACP’s opposition to a proposed “Unity” monument proposed by Talbot County Council member Laura Price, which Potter notes with irony, was never discussed with his organization to demonstrate a united consensus with all parties involved.

We caught up with Richard last week at the Spy studio for his appraisal of where things stand now and how he is concerned that a lack of action by Talbot County leaders might escalate the debate to a point where the county’s reputation is permanently damaged.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. 

At the Academy: A New Approach to the Student Art Exhibition

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Like almost everything else the Academy Art Museum has been planning since the COVID pandemic hit, they have had to pivot and find new ways to carry on their mission while also keeping traditions alive.

One of those challenges recently was what to do about its annual student art exhibition, which fills the museum galleries with works from kindergarten age to the most sophisticated senior high school artists from the Mid-Shore. How could the AAM and regional schools move forward without the customary art on walls approach that had served so well in the past?

For Constance Del Nero, the Academy’s director of children’s education, and Mehves Lelic, its curator, it was a matter of looking at what other art museums were doing that gave them the inspiration for a unique model where high school students curated their own exhibition online using the museum’s permanent collection as inspiration for their art work, which would also be electronically displayed. Students came up with a theme, wrote their own wall text and artist statements and then created artworks of their own that meshed with their theme.

The result is “Twisted: The Peculiar Portrayal of People.” With the help of Andrea Schulte, art teacher at Kent Island High School, and AAM curatorial assistant Conner Dorbin, this exceptional pairing is now is display on the AAM website for all to see and enjoy.

The Spy spent some time with Constance, Andrea, and Conner to get a better sense of how this special project came together.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. To view the exhibition on line, please go here.

Zooming In on the Hollywood Idea with Liza Ledford

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Before Liza Ledford came back to the Eastern Shore to start a family, the current director of the Oxford Community Center could only have been considered a “player” in Hollywood in the 1990s.

With senior role positions with such prominent production companies as Amblin, Universal, and Sony, Liza was intimately involved in productions led by the likes of Steven Spielberg, and Kathleen Kennedy, on “Good Will Hunting,” “Jurassic Park” and “The Bridges of Madison County,” as part of her resume. And it certainly didn’t hurt to have brother, Chris Moore, be one of tinsel town’s top producers with credits like Academy Award winner “Manchester by the Sea.”

And through the magic of Zoom, Ledford is reconnecting with that Hollywood past in a remarkable special event designed to inform and motivate aspiring screenwriters living in Chestertown, Easton, or Cambridge on what it takes to go from an idea to streaming on Netflix. Entitled “The Journey of a Hollywood Idea,” this joint project of the Oxford Community Center and the Chesapeake Film Festival will bring into a Zoom chat her brother Chris and four other Hollywood executives about the unique path that these creative projects.

The Spy caught up with Liza recently to talk about this novel way of bringing some of the best in the movie biz to the Eastern Shore.

To purchase tickets to participate in The Journey of a Hollywood Idea please go here.

 

Speaking and Listening for the Eastern Shore’s Disabled with Dominique Sessa

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Not that long along, Dominique Sessa had set her sights on being a dancer. As a child, she loved to dance, and her dreams of finding a career in that field seemed quite natural given her ample supply of self-determination. But a freak accident when she was 13 years old changed her life forever, including her transition from ballet to being a leading advocate for the disabled in the State of Maryland by the time she had turned 25.

That childhood accident would turn out to be the earliest sign of a rare and progressive neuromuscular disorder that would eventually rob her of the use of her legs. While it was hard to detect at first, Dominique’s condition would eventually lead her to move to the Eastern Shore and the particular health care for her condition only available in Salisbury.

This life journey would be a profound challenge for anyone so young, but for anyone who knows Dominique Sessa, it comes as no surprise that she has not only been able to cope with her disability but almost instantly rise to be a lead advocate for those on the Eastern Shore, a region that has historically been without a voice in city government and more recently the state of Maryland.

Last year, Governor Larry Hogan appointed Dominique to be a member of the Maryland Commission on Disabilities. Not only is she one of the youngest members to serve, but she is also the only representative of the Eastern Shore.

In her Spy interview, Dominique talks about the unique needs of the disabled in such a rural environment as the Shore. She also talks about the need for frank and honest conversations between the general public and a growing number of citizens who must navigate in a society that still finds it awkward to ask questions or actively listen to those with special needs.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Dominique Sessa  work please go to her website here.

Publisher Notes: The Spy Welcomes Dennis Forney and Washington College’s Cherry Tree

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When the Spy started to take shape in the spring of 2009, one of the first people I reached out to was Dennis Forney. We were not close, but as a member of Kent County’s large Forney clan, and as a brother of my local veterinarian, I knew that the founder and editor of the highly-regarded Cape Gazette in Lewes, DE would be moderately interested in the launch of the Chestertown Spy and offer some words on wisdom.

Dennis Forney (photo courtesy of the Cape Gazette)

Dennis was someone I was eager to chat with. In addition to the hard labor of pushing out a newspaper, he was also the Delmarva Quarterly publisher, a regional periodical devoted to good writing and excellent storytelling. Given the Spy’s own news mission, including being a portal for the arts, I thought there would be an immediate connection.

And there was. Dennis did give good advice, and we did exchange emails over the years, but I was nonetheless surprised the other day when he told me that he and his wife had decided to semi-retire to Talbot County. Even more delightful was his interest in sharing with Spy readers his stories related to the Eastern Shore.

For over 40 years, Dennis has authored his own column named “Barefootin’.” Starting in the Cape Gazette, and now in the Spy newspapers, Dennis has used his lifetime experiences on the Eastern Shore, beginning as a child growing up on the Chester River, to document the life and times of Delmarva watermen, farmers, hunters, boatbuilders, duck cravers, poets, and naturalists from all walks on life.  

The Spy is honored to have Dennis on the pages of the Spy starting today. 

I’m also excited to note another new partner for the Spy. Starting this Sunday, the Spy will collaborate with Washington College’s Literary House Press to share cutting-edge poetry and literature from both national authors and promising undergraduates appearing in the Press’ Cherry Tree publication.

Over the last few years, the Literary House Press has gained national recognition in identifying an entirely new generation of writers, many of whom are on track to become some of the country’s most distinguished poets and authors. A case in point would be Sandra Beasley and her poem, “Monticello Peaches,” which will be shared in both text and video format this Sunday. This powerful reflection on Thomas Jefferson is a perfect example of the Cherry Tree’s editors, James Hall and Roy Kesey, special skill in finding this exceptional talent.

I would be remiss not to end my notes without noting the Spy’s Spring fundraising campaign is still underway. Please consider making a modest contribution here so we can continue to offer this unique alternative of what a daily newspaper can be. 

Dave Wheelan
Publisher

 

Trailblazing with Lisa Harrington

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The last time the Spy talked to Lisa Harrington was when the Oxford Community Center had just opened an art exhibition of her father Norman’s WW II photography some years ago. While Norman had become highly regarded on the Mid-Shore as the thoughtful and groundbreaking editor of the Star-Democrat for decades, very few realized, until well after his death, the extraordinary images he took as the United States Army began occupying Germany in 1945. 

Perhaps as a result of this remarkable story, whatever Lisa might have said about her own professional life was not retained. And so when the OCC announced that Lisa Harrington would be part of the community center’s “Trailblazer” series of speakers this month, we had an instinctive impulse to talk to her again. 

And it was in this interview that the Spy learned how much Lisa has indeed been a trailblazer. After a false start in newspaper journalism after she earned her degree from Brown University, Lisa found herself as one of the very few women at the time in the male-dominated field of supply chain economics.  

More often than not, Lisa would attend trade conventions where she realized that she was the only woman in the room of the six hundred attendees. But in due time, Harrington would push past the obvious glass ceiling that existed to become a leading expert, author, professor, and sought out authority on all things related to delivery goods to markets, including working with the U.S. Agency for International Development these days COVID-19 vaccines. 

Given all she’s accomplished, it might be surprising to hear her reason that she reached this significant point in her career. 

This video is approximately four minutes in length. To join Lisa Harrington’s  Oxford Community Center presentation of March 25, please go here to sign up.