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February 5, 2023

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

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The Importance of Access: The Academy Art Museum Eliminates Admissions Fee

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It seems like a relatively minor policy decision for the Academy Art Museum to drop its three-dollar admissions charge, but it’s actually a big deal.

While the common-sense approach of asking a visitor’s fee to enjoy the Museum was reasonable, what needed to be calculated was the significant turn-off it turned out to be for first-time goers. While the revenue from this fee was modest, the asking for money to come into the Museum spoke volumes about the sometimes hidden barriers to building inclusion and diversity. With free admissions, the AAM could immediately reach an entirely new audience for the relatively small loss of revenue.

This change is yet another example of how the Academy was making good on its strategic goal to broaden its audience from all walks of life.

The Spy sat down with AAM Board Chair Nanny Trippe and Director Sarah Jesse to understand more clearly how meaningful this policy change has been for the Mid-Shore community.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum please go here.

Discovering Discover Easton’s Plans for 2023: A Chat with Director Holly DeKarske

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As Easton slowly crawls its way back to the world of “normal”l after the Covid pandemic, the town is finally getting its mojo back after more than two years of hibernation. And one sign of this comeback is the robust agenda that Discover Easton (a.k.a. Easton Economic Development Corporation) has set out for 2023.

With the “Discover Easton” trademark now legally owned by the city, the EEDC is doubling down on several initiatives to bring tourists and residents back downtown. With a full year of special events (almost one every month), Discover Easton has embraced the successful use of weekend programming to bring families to eat, shop, and have some fun. But it doesn’t stop there.
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In the Spy’s first interview with EEDC’s executive director, Holly DeKarske, it turns out that there are several other priorities on this list, including the branding of the now booming new Hill community, with its growing list of restaurants and shops along Dover and Aurora Streets. Holly also describes some challenges of limited commercial property easily converted to restaurants and the importance of continuing beautification throughout town.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about Discover Easton please go here. For more information about Easton Economic Development Corporation please go here.

 

Talbot Arts Check in: A Chat with Director Joan Levy and Board President Amy Steward

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Talbot Arts, aka the Talbot County Arts Council, has had some real challenges since it officially rebranded itself a few years ago. Shortly after the unveiling of “Talbot Arts”, the public arts agency was seriously disrupted, like its art grantees, with the arrival and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more that two years,  art, whether it be formed, created, or taught, took a back seat as a international health crisis forced the hibernation of artists, musicians, writers, dancers and art students.

Things have clearly improved since those dark days.  Those sleeping arts organizations did finally reawaken with full schedules of performances, classes, and commissions over the last year. And Talbot Arts has gone back to being a central funder and important resource for those initial programs, including its impactful scholarships for students.

A few weeks ago, the Spy asked Talbot Arts’s director Joan Levy, and newly-elected Board Chair and friend Amy Steward to stop by the Spy studio to talk about their plans for 2023, including public art, the distribution of a one-time arts grant to Talbot County from the State of Maryland’s Arts Relief Fund, and  begins with scholarship funding, which Amy notes had a profound impact on her own children.

This video is approximately minutes in length. For more information about Talbot Arts please go here.

Update: The Maryland State Arts Council noted in the interview has extended the deadline for submitting grants to their public art planning and public art implementation grants to April 14.  For more information please go here.

Ask Irma: A Personal Journey to Fitness

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Most of the time, the Spy’s “Ask Irma” column seeks out the unique wisdom of Irma Toce about life after retirement but this time around, we turned the tables around and asked Irma to describe her recent personal journey for her own physical fitness. The CEO of Londonderry on the Tred Avon had typically counted on her lifetime walking habits to keep her body in shape, but having reached a certain age, Irma recently concluded that she had to do so much more to stay fit.

In our Spy chat this month, Irma talks about this lifestyle change and the remarkable benefits it brings with a little more effort and commitment.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about Londonderry on the Tred Avon please go here. 

Celebrating Women & Girls Fund’s Two Decades of Action: Talbot Community Connections

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For many private foundations, making grants to a conduit organization which then re-grants those funds to other organizations is not a popular option. Most of these institutions have dedicated staff or volunteer leaders to identify grantees. And so it was interesting to note when reviewing the current awards made by the Women & Girls Fund over the last year that the Talbot Community Connections (TCC) was on the list. By design, they were established to specifically support the Talbot County Children Advocacy Center to help victims of sexual abuse.

But it should be no surprise that the Women & Girls Fund, given their mission, would be one of the TCC’s earliest donors. By supporting this special division of the Talbot County Department of Social Services, the WGF knows that their grants go to critical therapeutic resources for these victims such as self-defense classes, equine therapy, music therapy, art therapy, and trauma-informed yoga that the County cannot fund itself.

In the Spy’s ongoing series celebrating 20 years of grantmaking by the Women & Girls Fund, we talked with Jennifer Wright , co-president of Talbot Community Connections and WGF president Karen Kaludis about this important partnership.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. This video is approximately 6 minutes in length. For information about Talbot Community Connections please go here.  For the Women & Girls Fund please go here.

Choptank Health Reinvents the School Nurse’s Office

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For generations, going to the nurse’s office at the local elementary school was a simple concept. It was where children received their daily medications or complained of stomach aches. And if the child had severe conditions, their parents were asked to take them home or the family doctor.

But thanks to partnerships with Choptank Community Health System, those school health offices are increasingly becoming urgent care centers similar to those found in local shopping centers on the Mid-Shore. Staffed by licensed, advanced practice clinicians, these nurse’s offices have started to function like a typical doctor’s office, with medical providers assessing and diagnosing illness, writing prescriptions, performing lab tests—including strep and COVID—and performing physicals, including for school sports.

The Spy was so intrigued that we ventured out to White Marsh Elementary School in Trappe to learn more from Choptank’s CEO, Sara Rich, health provider Kim Fitzgerald NP, her assistant Jennifer Insley, and White Marsh’s principal, Kim Seidel, to learn more.

 

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about Choptank’s school-based programs please go here.

A Profile in Patience: A Chat with Benedictine’s Shirley Blackston

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Working at Benedictine in a rural part of Caroline County takes a remarkable amount of patience. With a mission to provide services for children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities as well as autism, the staff at the Ridgely need to find job satisfaction with the smallest, incremental steps their residents take in mastering simple life skills. That can include the everyday tasks of personal hygiene or going to a public restaurant with the capacity to enjoy meals in noisy, confusing environments with appropriate behavior.

But when those moments happen, Benedictine’s residential program manager Shirley Blackston is the first to admit that tears sometimes follow for her and her team. And that is one of the primary reasons Shirley, a pastor with her husband at a local church when not working at Benedictine, stays in one of the most demanding jobs on the Eastern Shore. There is little doubt that her gift of patience is God-given.

Charged with the supervision of the residents from when they are dismissed from school at 3:30 pm to when they go back at 8:30 am the next day, Shirley coordinates the student recreational activities, their sleeping accommodations, and field trips into town for shopping excursions and a break from campus dining. But she also is a 24/7 advocate for her wards, finding any opportunity to explain to friends and strangers alike how special her students are and how they interact with them.

Last month, the Spy asked Shirley to stop by the Spy studio to tell us more about her work.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about Benedictine and their programs please go here.

A New Chapter for Talbot Mentors and Rev. Jumanne Bradford

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Over time an organization is so well respected that when there is a change in leadership, a disproportionately large number of people are interested in who the new chief executive will be.

Over 25 years, Talbot Mentors have grown in terms of the number of young people they serve. It has also added new programs to fulfill the organization’s mission to mitigate barriers to Talbot County students’ success through the power of healthy mentoring relationships. That was the case when Talbot Mentors started their search for a new executive director earlier this year.

A few months ago, Talbot Mentors selected Rev. Jumanne Bradford as its new director. He was kind enough to stop by the Spy studio last month to discuss this new role as it completes its five-year strategic plan, expands its group mentoring program, and fully develops its program for aspirating college students named Mid-Shore Scholars. Rev. Bradford also talks about the need for more mentors.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information or to become a Talbot Mentors mentor please go here.

Polaris Village’s New Project on Port Street: A Chat with Derick Daly

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It remains challenging for the Spy to keep up with the work of Derick Daly. The chair and president of Polaris Village Ministries, along with his wife Dina, have not only given birth to one of the most successful after-school programs in the state with their development of BAAM (Building African American Minds) over the last 17 years, the couple, along with their extended family, have found ingenious ways to use both for-profit and nonprofit structures to improve neighborhood housing, create a new academic center Polaris Village Academy, secure funding for a community gymnasium, among other remarkable achievements during that time.

Their latest project is restoring the former Mount Pisgah Church on Port Street and transforming it into a unique children’s daycare center on the second floor and a full-sized commercial kitchen and dining space on the first floor to offer free or low-cost meals for up to 130 people. The mission is to provide a pipeline of those kids to enroll in Polaris Village Academy programs when they reach the right age. It also provides a safe, handsome dining facility (headed by a real chef committed to high-quality food) for the entire community.

The Spy sat down with Derick last month to hear more.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Polaris Village Ministries and their projects please go here.

 

 

Making Wellness a Business Priority with Easton Utilities Julie Andrew & Hearthstone’s Dan Greaves

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One way to know that the COVID crisis is coming to an end is that the number of businesses investing in employee wellness programs is on the rise.  With a workforce coming back to their desks after sometimes two years of working at home (just next to the family refrigerator), companies are helping their staff in getting back into shape with partnerships with local health center.

As a case in point, Easton Utilities has been a local leader in this regard. For almost a decade, the local energy provider for Talbot County has made this a serious priority, and a few years ago designated Julie Andrew as the internal point person for their company wellness program. She works with a 12 member team to oversee this work.

One of EU’s partners has been Hearthstone Health + Fitness.  We asked Dan Greaves who directs the health center’s corporate program and Julie to come by the Spy studio last week to hear more.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the Hearthstone Health + Fitness corporate programs please go here.