On Thursday, April 11, John Valliant, president of the Grayce B. Kerr Fund, presented a check for $150,000 to the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center in Tilghman. The gift advances the Center’s $1.5 million capital campaign for its Oyster House Project.
We’re involved because it is an innovative community-based project,” said John Valliant, President of the Kerr Fund, “and we think our involvement and our support can help Phillips Wharf broaden its base of support.” In addition, “It speaks, not only to the environmental side, but also to the cultural side. It’s about both Tilghman’s treasured heritage and its sustainable future
Accepting the check was Kelley Cox, founder and executive director of PWEC. “This generous gift moves us toward our goal of buying the oyster house property beside the Tilghman bridge and transforming it into a new campus,” Cox said.
The project will preserve a traditional working waterfront at this historic location and allow PWEC to expand its educational programs in to new areas, including aquaculture training and conservation landscaping.
“We like this project,” Valliant said, “because it combines environmental learning with heritage preservation and economic growth. That’s a great combination for the future.”
Phillips Wharf, presently based farther east on Knapps Narrows, operates a variety of educational programs for children and adults, keeps and displays live Chesapeake Bay marine animals, runs an annual oyster nurturing project and sponsors an ongoing effort to plant trees on Tilghman and in the Bay Hundred. Its popular Fishmobile is a rolling aquarium that takes live animals to schools and special events all over Maryland.
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