Easton Village Charitable Fund Grant supports Environmental Center

The Phillips Wharf Environmental Center, a nonprofit that provides hands-on environmental education through its traveling marine science program, is this year’s recipient of a $6,000 grant from the Easton Village Charitable Fund.

The center, located right across the river in Easton Point Park, engages children and adults about the importance of environmental sustainability through its “Fishmobile,” an aquarium on wheels equipped with hands-on activities, educational displays, and 13 tanks featuring live animals native to the Chesapeake Bay.

The bright blue-and-green “Fishmobile” bus is a regular visitor to schools, community centers and area events from spring through late fall. In 2024, there were 23 Fishmobile programs across 32 days, including several multi-day festivals and fairs such as the Waterfowl Festival, the Talbot County Fair, and the Wicomico County Fair. Each year the bus serves approximately 10,000 guests, giving them an up close view of live Chesapeake Bay animals and their habitats.

Since moving to Easton in 2022, the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center has hoped to bring back its adult education program, in addition to offering school field trips and the Fishmobile. “Thanks to funding from the Easton Village Charitable Fund, we’ll be able to bring a new sustainability workshop series to life,” says Dr. Kristen Lycett, Executive Director of Phillips Wharf. “Adult education is something that we’ve always planned to bring back into our offerings after our COVID related shut down but we’ve been limited in what we can do because our organization is much smaller these days. This funding will provide us with the resources to develop brand new material on relevant topics, make these new workshops hands-on and engaging, all with the goal of helping people make informed decisions that support a healthy Chesapeake Bay. We’re currently planning for topics to include sustainable seafood, native and invasive species, pollinator gardens, and Chesapeake Bay oysters.”

The Easton Village Charitable Fund was founded in 2006 by the developer of the Easton Village community, Elm Street Development, as a way to give back to Talbot County. It was seeded through a small closing cost fee on first-time home sales in the community.

In 2021, the developer passed the responsibility for distributing grants from the fund to the Easton Village HOA Board of Directors, which established the Charitable Fund Committee to administer the program. The fund is managed by the Mid-Shore Community Foundation.

Each year the Charitable Fund Committee selects an area of importance in Talbot County that it believes is deserving of funding. A request for proposals is sent to all pertinent Talbot County nonprofits through the Mid-Shore Foundation. Easton Village residents serve as grant readers and decide which program to fund.

Past recipients of the grant have included the Talbot Interfaith Shelter to support mental health among the homeless; Building African American Minds (BAAM) to address the needs of vulnerable young people; and the St. Michael’s Community Center to help reduce the number of Talbot County residents who routinely don’t get enough to eat.