In 2017, Mid-Shore Community Foundation received a bequest of $3.4 million from the estate of John and Charlotte Fryling. The Frylings moved to Easton in 1993, drawn primarily by their love of sailing and enjoyed the area until John’s death in 2011 and Charlotte’s in 2016.
The late John and Charlotte Fryling
This year’s Fryling Fund grants, totaling $172,000, reflect the couple’s interest in the environment as well as the broader needs of the Mid-Shore community and its residents. Echo Hill Outdoor School, Pickering Creek Audubon Center, ShoreRivers, and Horn Point Laboratory received grants for environmental projects. Echo Hill will use the funds to offer interactive, virtual classes to reinforce classroom learning in environmental education and youth development. Classes include Bay Studies, Aqualogy, Swamp Ecology, Sensory Exploration of the Environment, Seeds and Weeds, Garbology, Survival and more. Pickering Creek’s Exploring and Restoring Habitat in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed program will be attended by all Caroline County high school freshmen and several teachers who will take on the roles of ornithologists, fisheries biologists, and restoration ecologists as part of the experience. The ShoreRivers grant will be used to produce virtual field tours of watershed restoration projects including a Miles River oyster sanctuary, the Chesapeake College stormwater conveyance stream, and a bioreactor on an agricultural field that will be made available to public schools throughout the Mid-Shore. The Horn Point Laboratory grant will be used for technology needed by the Maryland DNR Oyster Advisory Commission which supports Maryland’s Oyster Fishery Management Plan and to support Horn Point’s PhD program.
The Oxford community was a favorite destination of the Frylings, especially when they had friends or family visiting the area, so it is fitting that a $50,000 grant was made to the Oxford Community Center for their Setting the Stage for the Future project. Renovations will be made to improve the sound quality in the auditorium and transform the stage into a more accessible, safe, and enduring platform.
The Talbot Interfaith Shelter received $40,000 to expand services to a new facility dedicated to single individuals, allowing Easton’s Promise to be used as a families-only shelter. Talbot Interfaith Shelter’s S4 Program (Shelter, Stability, Support, Success) provides case management, educational opportunities, and long-term transitional housing to allow guests to make a gradual ascent into financial independence. A second case manager has been hired to work with the single guests at the new building.
Choptank Community Health System received a $25,000 grant for planned improvements in the air management systems at their various Mid-Shore facilities.
The Fryling Fund is a donor-advised fund at Mid-Shore Community Foundation. The Foundation is honored to carry out the legacy of a couple who made this community their home for so many years and whose generosity will continue to enhance the community so many also call home.
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