The public is invited to a waterfront dinner and a presentation about the St. Michaels Community Center’s renovations and programs at the Miles River Yacht Club in St. Michaels, Maryland on Thursday, January 11 beginning at 6:00 p.m.

The MRYC’s Sail Committee sponsors the speaker series, with January 11 speakers including St. Michaels Community Center Board Chair Langley Shook, Executive Director Patrick Rofe, and renovation project architect Mark McInturff, FAIA.

The panelists will provide updates as they discuss and take questions from the audience about SMCC’s current building renovations and what the future holds for community food distribution, a new culinary and hospitality workforce development program, education, technology, and more.

The ticket price for the event is $30 per person, which includes dinner and a cash bar. Reservations are required by Monday, January 8 by calling the MRYC at 410-745-9511, extension 6.

The renovations on SMCC’s building at 103 Railroad Avenue are expected to be completed in early 2024 and will provide state-of-the-art spaces for more children and adult programs, including a new culinary and hospitality workforce training program. The renovated Community Center will also provide several classrooms and a large common area for community gatherings, complete with audio-visual technology for presentations and screenings.

The renovations also will house a modern, well-equipped commercial kitchen, where SMCC will train people for jobs in restaurants and hotels, and from which the Center can continue to serve and deliver prepared meals as well as tens of thousands of bags of groceries to those in need.

“We’re grateful to the Miles River Yacht Club and its Sailing Committee for opening this event to the public,” said Rofe. “It will be a great evening out with a delicious dinner, and an informative talk about how we will serve our neighbors from the Oak Creek Bridge in Royal Oak all the way down to Tilghman Island through expanded programs and our renovated building.”

Rofe says the Community Center serves the community at large with programs and activities for all ages, and that its food distribution services help provide for the area’s low-income workers, homebound and other senior citizens, those facing disabilities, and families in emergencies.

Donations to the St. Michaels Community Center’s annual fund and proceeds from its Treasure Cove Thrift Shop, located on Railroad Ave. in St. Michaels, help provide essential human services, programs, and community events for people in St. Michaels and from throughout Maryland’s Bay Hundred area, with more at www.stmichaelscc.org. More about SMCC’s building renovations and new programming is at www.stmichaelscc.org/future.

Sewall Cox of St. Michaels, Maryland has joined the St. Michaels Community Center as a part-time bookkeeper. 

In this new role, Cox is responsible for the day-to-day financial transactions of SMCC and the nonprofit’s Treasure Cove Thrift Shop. Her duties include documenting financial transaction details and monitoring the transactions, preparing and filing financial documents, processing accounts payable and accounts receivable, processing payroll and tracking payroll data, and assisting with tax payments and returns.

Cox is a Talbot County native, who spent her childhood sailing on the Tred Avon River and later as crew on the Chesapeake Bay sailing log canoe Island Blossom. She moved away to Annapolis, and then Colorado to be in the mountains for 10 years before returning to the Eastern Shore in 2019. 

“I am very excited to work with good people doing amazing things for the community that I call home,” says Cox, who recalls visiting her late mother Julie Cox, when her office with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum was at SMCC’s building on Railroad Avenue, now under renovation. 

“It’s a serendipitous move,” she says, “I can’t wait until we get into the renovated building this winter.” 

Cox had served in the restaurant industry for nearly 25 years. After the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to change gears and started working as a contractor in the financial department of a New England-based company, handling accounts receivable and collections. Now, she works with other local businesses in St. Michaels along with SMCC. 

“Sewall is a great addition to the St. Michaels Community Center’s team,” said SMCC Executive Director Patrick Rofe. “Her bookkeeping and local knowledge will help us further our mission of helping our neighbors in need while preparing our organization for growth in the number of people we will serve in our renovated building.”

Rofe says the addition of Cox on the team also enables SMCC Operations Manager Stephanie Pritchard to focus more on operations, which will be especially important as SMCC relocates its Community Café and Pantry and children and adult programs to its renovated spaces in early 2024. 

SMCC’s current renovations will provide state-of-the-art spaces for more children and adult programs including a new culinary and hospitality workforce training program. The renovated Community Center will provide several classrooms and a large common area for community gatherings, complete with audio-visual technology for presentations and screenings. 

The renovations also will house a modern, well-equipped commercial kitchen, where SMCC will train people for jobs in restaurants and hotels, and from which the Center can continue to serve and deliver prepared meals as well as tens of thousands of bags of groceries to those in need.

“Our work serves people in need from the Oak Creek Bridge down to Tilghman Island, with more than 2,200 meals provided each week,” said Rofe. “Sewall’s help in bookkeeping will help strengthen our organization and ability to meet the needs of our neighbors.”Rofe says the Community Center serves the community at large with programs and activities for all ages, and that its food distribution services help provide for the area’s working poor, homebound and other senior citizens, those facing disabilities, and families in emergencies.

Donations to the St. Michaels Community Center’s annual fund and proceeds from its Treasure Cove Thrift Shop, located on Railroad Ave. in St. Michaels, help provide essential human services, programs, and community events for people in St. Michaels and from throughout Maryland’s Bay Hundred area, with more at www.stmichaelscc.org. More about SMCC’s building renovations and new programming is at www.stmichaelscc.org/future. 

Anthony “Tony” Smith stands in front of the St. Michaels Community Center’s Railroad Ave.

Anthony Smith of Tilghman, Maryland has been named Community Engagement Coordinator at the St. Michaels Community Center.

In this new role, Smith is responsible for fostering meaningful relationships between the Community Center and its stakeholders, including residents, donors, volunteers, and local businesses, and ensuring the services provided are relevant and effective in helping to improve the lives of those in the Bay Hundred and St. Michaels areas.

“I’m very much looking forward to fortifying the connections between SMCC and the community in this role,” says Smith. “Serving as a liaison, I will be actively listening to the needs and concerns of community members to help align the center’s programs and initiatives with our community needs.”

The St. Michaels Community Center’s programs for children and adults have been recently put on pause due to the complete renovations now underway of its building at 103 Railroad Avenue, with a focus on outreach events until the renovations are completed in early 2024.

Smith recently retired as St. Michaels Police Chief after more than 40 years serving in law enforcement and has served two terms on the St. Michaels Community Center’s Board of Directors. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan State University and his Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs in College Park.

“Tony is a great asset to our community and has always been connected with the Community Center through our work with the S.M.Y.L.E program and more,” said SMCC Executive Director Patrick Rofe. “He will keep the pulse on our community’s evolving needs to ensure our work has the most impact on people’s lives.”

SMCC’s current renovations will provide state-of-the-art spaces for more children and adult programs, including a new culinary and hospitality workforce training program. The renovated Community Center will include several classrooms and a large common area for community gatherings, complete with audio-visual technology for presentations and screenings.

The renovations also include a modern, well-equipped commercial kitchen, where SMCC will train people for jobs in restaurants and hotels, and from which the Center can continue to serve and deliver prepared meals and tens of thousands of bags of groceries to those in need.

“Our Community Café and Food Pantry are core to our mission, and we want to strengthen our relationships with the people we serve, in addition to those in our community at large,” said Rofe. “Tony is a known and respected leader and is already helping us achieve more outreach during his part-time work with us.”

Rofe says initiatives that Smith is working on include partnering with S.M.Y.L.E. and the Perkins Family YMCA on a CPR and babysitting training program for middle schoolers. He says Smith has been instrumental in SMCC also joining forces with Union United Methodist Church to introduce a pumpkin painting contest and bring back the pie-making contest for the Fall into St. Michaels festival.

Donations to the St. Michaels Community Center’s annual fund and proceeds from its Treasure Cove Thrift Shop, located on Railroad Ave. in St. Michaels, help provide essential human services, programs, and community events for people in St. Michaels and from throughout Maryland’s Bay Hundred area, with more at www.stmichaelscc.org. More about SMCC’s building renovations and new programming is at www.stmichaelscc.org/future.

Chesapeake Landing Restaurant at 23713 Tilghman Island Road in St. Michaels, Maryland is donating 10% of lunch and dinner sales on Thursday, October 19 to support the St. Michaels Community Center’s capital campaign to renovate its aged building on Railroad Avenue. The campaign has raised more than $4 Million to date and it’s in the final stage heading to a ribbon cutting at the building in March.

October 19 is the restaurant’s popular Lobster Nite, with donations made to SMCC when patrons mention the fundraiser at their table, or while making reservations.

The Community Center’s total building renovation will expand community food distribution and education services, including a modern commercial kitchen for a new Culinary Arts & Hospitality Workforce Development Program, and after-school programs for children.

The new facility will include basic amenities lacking in the original World War II-era structure that was built to be a crude lumber warehouse. Included is a second-floor clerestory for offices, operating windows, proper insulation, a functional HVAC system, handicap accessibility, and more.

The renovated Center also will include well-equipped classrooms and meeting spaces for children, summer camps, and adult education, along with a Technology Center to provide online classes offered by Chesapeake College and a home for a retail entrepreneurship training program. The flexible space will have a large atrium for lectures, performances, movies, and community gatherings.

“We’re grateful for Chesapeake Landing’s support of our mission,” said SMCC Executive Director Patrick Rofe. “Proceeds from this fundraiser will help complete the building renovations to support our new culinary arts workforce training program that someday may prepare well-trained employees to work at Chesapeake Landing and other local restaurants.”

SMCC anticipates doubling the number of people served after programming in the new building is operational. “SMCC’s priority commitment is to the needs of the region’s population who lack the resources to lift themselves from poverty,” said Rofe. “We will continue our long-time commitment to the food insecure and will add to that workforce development programming to enable individuals to transition to self-sufficiency.”

The St. Michaels Community Center’s mission is to serve, empower, and connect the community with year-round programs and activities for children, families, and adults. Donations to SMCC and proceeds from its Treasure Cove Thrift Shop on Railroad Ave. in St. Michaels help the nonprofit provide year-round programs, services, and community events for residents of St. Michaels and the Bay Hundred area.

Architectural renderings of the St. Michaels Community Center’s renovated building and planned capital improvements, including information about how to support the campaign, can be found at www.stmichaelscc.org/future.  

St. Michaels Community Center Executive Director Patrick Rofe stands at the front entrance of SMCC’s building now under major renovations.

With a grant of $500,000 from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the largest it has ever received from a private foundation, the St. Michaels Community Center (SMCC) is poised to finish the total renovation of its aged building and provide enhanced services to the most vulnerable in the Bay Hundred area of Talbot County and throughout the Mid-Shore.

“This grant is truly a difference maker for us,” SMCC Executive Director Patrick Rofe noted. “We are grateful to the Weinberg Foundation for its generosity,” he continued, “and for its commitment to our shared goal of meeting the essential needs of every member of the community, especially the neediest and most vulnerable among us. Adequate nutrition, a safe environment in which to learn and play, access to training, and appropriate educational offerings are the basic building blocks of human dignity. This crucial grant will make a profound difference in SMCC’s ability to serve our community.

“We are just months away from moving back into our building,” said Rofe, adding that “with the support of the Weinberg Foundation and our other supporters we will then be able to provide not only our existing programs but expanded services as well.”

When SMCC reopens early next year the new facilities – well-equipped classrooms, a technology center, and a modern commercial kitchen – will allow for expanded programming in four broad categories:

· Community Food Distribution and Culinary/Hospitality Workforce Development. SMCC will expand food distribution from three to five days a week, and, in partnership with Chesapeake College, launch a new program to train much-needed culinary and hospitality workers. SMCC past Board member Chris Agharabi, CEO of Ava’s Hospitality Group with two restaurants in St. Michaels says, “St. Michaels is known for great food and hospitality, which means we depend on outstanding team members at all levels. I’m confident SMCC’s new programs will help talented people grow into promising careers that will help our town and industry thrive.”

· Education. In addition to core programs such as after-school and summer camps, SMCC will offer additional workforce development programs, programming for adults including book clubs, a speakers’ series, and continuing education courses as a satellite campus for Chesapeake College.

· Technology. A fully-equipped Technology Center with Wi-Fi will both support SMCC’s programs and let community members access academic courses, job search resources, and support for personal business.

· Arts & Culture/Community Fellowship. A new, large atrium will be a home for concerts, dances, films, and other events, bringing both adults and children into the renovated building.

“St. Michaels Community Center plays a critical role in serving the Eastern Shore,” said Earl Millett, Managing Director at the Weinberg Foundation. “We are pleased to support its efforts to meet people where they are and expand services to provide the space and support the community needs.”

SMCC is close to completing its $4.5 million Capital Campaign. SMCC Board Chair Langley Shook notes that “At the outset of the campaign, we knew we would need to succeed on three levels – government support, private donations, and foundation grants. I am gratified that thanks to the hard work of our entire team and the generosity of our scores of supporters, we have done just that: We have received $1.75 million from the State of Maryland, the Federal government, and the town of St. Michaels; more than $1.5 million in donations from individuals; and $750,000in major foundation grants.

“I am moved and impressed, but not surprised, by the generous support of our donors. St. Michaels and the Bay Hundred area are special places,” Shook added. “We know how much the need for SMCC’s services has grown; now we will be able to provide what our community needs and deserves.”

From left: Qlarant Foundation Board Vice Chair Amanda Neal, St. Michaels Community Center Executive Director Patrick Rofe, and Qlarant CEO Dr. Ron Forsythe, Jr. with a check for $10,000 supporting SMCC’s Healthy Living program.

Helping neighbors in need throughout St. Michaels and surrounding communities just became less challenging for the St. Michaels Community Center through the financial support of several granting organizations and partners.

Supporting the St. Michaels Community Center’s food distribution services include recent grants from the Maryland Food Bank and the Easton Village Homeowners Association. Qlarant Foundation of Easton, Maryland provided its second grant to SMCC, this time in support of the Healthy Living Program. The Mid-Shore Community Foundation additionally provided a grant in support of the Community Center’s expanding programs.

“Hunger remains a reality for many of our neighbors,” says SMCC Executive Director Patrick Rofe. “So, this support from the Maryland Food Bank and Easton Village’s HOA will help to lift our neighbors in need from a place of despair to a place of hope.”

Rofe says SMCC’s Community Café & Pantry provides the equivalent of more than 2,200 nutritious meals to local individuals and families each week, with those served including many of the area’s aging and disabled, along with families in the workforce. The program receives limited support from St. Vincent de Paul of Easton and the Maryland Food Bank and is supplemented to meet the community’s needs through grants and private, tax-deductible donations.

Qlarant Foundation’s award supports SMCC’S Healthy Living Program—a series of evidence-based, health education self-management classes covering chronic disease, diabetes, tobacco cessation, and healthy cooking. These classes strengthen underserved populations and improve health resiliency and outcomes.

“The St. Michaels Community Center conducted surveys in 2020 and 2022 to understand more about our community’s needs,” says Rofe. “Our programs are evolving in response to this feedback and give us more opportunities to build community partnerships like that with the Talbot County Health Department and the Healthy Living Program.

“We are working together to help address the root causes of hunger and healthy living, for example,” Rofe said. “Everything we do is in response to the needs of our community.”

The Mid-Shore Community Foundation’s donation supports SMCC’s activities and programs for children and adults, which include upcoming community block parties, a fatherhood program, and two fall culinary classes with Chesapeake College. Children’s programs will recommence when SMCC’s building renovations are completed in 2024. Other MSCF funders to SMCC’s programs include the Ferree Donor-Advised Fund, The Arthur H. Kudner, Jr. Fund, The Katra Donor Advised Fund, and The Reynolds/Cristiano Fund.

During the year-long renovation, SMCC is operating temporarily from office space generously donated by Christ Church, St. Michaels, and leased space at 207 N. Talbot St. where the Community Café & Pantry are open three days a week.

The St. Michaels Community Center’s mission is to serve, empower, and connect the community with year-round programs and activities for children, families, and adults. Tax deductible donations to SMCC and sales proceeds from its Treasure Cove Thrift Shop across the street on Railroad Ave. help the nonprofit provide year-round programs, services, and community events for residents of St. Michaels and the Bay Hundred area.

Architectural renderings of the St. Michaels Community Center’s renovated building and planned capital improvements, including information about how to support the campaign, can be found at www.stmichaelscc.org/homestretch.