Mid-Shore Life

Spring won’t officially arrive until next weekend, but downtown Cambridge is going to get a jump on the season’s eagerly awaited arrival this Second Saturday, March 13, with stores staying open late to preview new seasonal merchandise and deliver fabulous deals on a wide range of fashion, accessories, home goods, and more.

And that’s not all: Four downtown art galleries will be hosting opening receptions for new shows, and two downtown restaurants will be presenting music shows in the later hours of the evening.

“It’s always fun this time of year, to see shopkeepers changing out their windows and unloading boxes full of the great new finds they made on their various buying trips,” said Jim Duffy, executive director of Cambridge Main Street. “These individual shopkeepers make every last decision about their inventory, and that’s what makes shopping in downtowns like ours so much more fun and interesting than with the chains. Every store reflects a highly individual vision you can’t find anywhere else.”

The shops will be open all day on March 13; Second Saturday festivities get under way at 5 pm, with stores generally staying open until at least 8 pm and some until 9 pm. Many stores will be offering snacks and refreshments to shoppers as well.

2 Boomer Babes to Speak at St. Michaels Library

On Monday, April 5th at noon, in the St. Michaels branch of the Talbot County Free Library, Barbara Kline and Kathy Bernard, hosts of the radio show 2 Boomer Babes, will talk about some of their favorite on-air subjects, including coping with aging parents, romance in mid-life, health, and finance. Their radio program airs on WCEI, 96.7 FM, each Monday evening from 7 to 8 pm. The 2 Boomer Babes’ presentation represents the April offering in the Friends of the Library’s Brown Bag Lunch series. Patrons are invited to bring their lunch and enjoy coffee and sweets provided by the library. All library programs are free and open to the public. Patrons do not need to pre-register for this program. For more information, call the library at 410-745-5877, or visit www.tcfl.org.

The TK Sporting Clays Tournament will be held at the Hopkins Game Farm in Kennedyville, Maryland on Saturday, March 27th. The management team at the Hopkins Game Farm is extremely excited to be hosting the tournament again this year. The facility will be open all week for you to brush up on your skills in preparation for the 1:00pm “shotgun” start. Registration will begin at 12:00pm. If you have any further questions, please contact the Hopkins Game Farm at (410) 348-5287.

Following the tournament, everyone is welcome to participate in the post-event party to be held at O’Conner’s in Chestertown, Maryland. Beer and wings will be provided free of charge to all tournament participants. A $10 donation is required at the door of O’Conner’s for individuals that do not participate in the shoot. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. For more information, please contact the Tim Kern Memorial Scholarship Fund at (410) 778-4060 or by e-mail at chestertown3@gmail.com.

Each entry into the tournament requires a fee of $35.00 with all proceeds benefiting the Tim Kern Memorial Scholarship Fund. The entry-fee includes a 50-target sporting clay round and the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful spring day on the Eastern Shore. This fee does not include shells or the commemorative event t-shirts (available for $20); however, shells may be purchased in the clubhouse for $8-$10 per box. Trophies will be given out for the top male and female shooters.

Building African-American Minds and Freedom Rowers Team Together to Teach

African-American Boys to Swim

40 Boys Gain Confidence and Technique While Learning How to Swim

Easton, Maryland – February 24, 2010 – Recently, middle and high school-aged team members from Freedom Rowers and Freedom Rowers adult volunteers began working with 40 elementary school-aged boys that are participants in the Building African-American Minds (BAAM) program to teach them how to swim.

Freedom Rowers, an Easton-based youth rowing team for sixth through twelfth graders that was established in 2004, requires all team members to pass a swim test prior to joining the team as rowing is an on-water sport. Since starting the program, Diana Lobien, founder and head coach of Freedom Rowers, noticed that no African-American male middle school and high-school youth were joining the team. Lobien remarks, “Upon further research I learned that one of the main reasons why African-American students were not signing up for the team was because of the swim test requirement. Speaking in very general terms, swimming is not as prevalent a recreational sport in the African-American culture in our area and therefore a number of African-American children have not yet learned how to swim. One of our goals for Freedom Rowers is to support a culturally diverse team that closely matches the demographics of our area. We set out to open the doors even wider to ensure that African-American children in our community could participate in this high aerobic, team-oriented, on-water sport that is a huge gateway for scholarships for higher education.”

ESLC announces recipients of Eastern Shore 2010 Awards

Honors given at annual planning conference

Wye Mills, Maryland – February 26, 2010 – Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC), a private, nonprofit land conservation organization dedicated to the preservation of farmland and habitat on the Eastern Shore, today announced the recipients of this year’s Eastern Shore 2010 Achievement Awards. The 2010 Eastern Shore 2010 Achievement Awards, inspired by the regional land use planning agreement that set the highest expectations for the care of the Eastern Shore landscape, distinguish outstanding leadership in the field of land use planning on the Eastern Shore. The purpose of these awards is to honor the projects, people and places that best define growth befitting the Eastern Shore.

The awards are presented annually at ESLC’s annual planning conference. This year’s conference, entitled “About Town: A Gathering to Uplift and Invest in Our Eastern Shore Town gathered experts, opinion leaders and citizens to discuss strategies, success stories, models and tools for investing in and revitalizing our towns. Nationally recognized keynote speakers Jess Zimbabwe, Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute's Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use, Ken Snyder, CEO of Place Matters and Maryland Secretary of Planning Richard Hall joined various guest speakers and local leaders to provide attendees with interactive workshops focused on both process - engaging community in desirable growth, and product - sustainable, safe, walkable town design and planning.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is holding it's 10th Annual Eagle Festival to celebrate Blackwater NWR's 77th birthday and the 107th anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System on Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. The public is invited to participate in the many great activities planned for the day. All activities are free, and the entrance fee to the Wildlife Drive is also free for the day.

The day will begin with the 4th annual Wild Birds Unlimited bird walk at 8:00am with our experienced birder Terry Allen. Programs will include: a live peregrine falcon training demonstration with falconer Andrew Bullen and his peregrine falcon; a live bald eagle program with Mike Callahan from Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center; “The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly@ live birds-of-prey program with a MD Scales and Tales Naturalist; Masters of the Sky raptor program with Naturalist and Raptor Educator Liz Owens and her live birds; a lecture and discussion “Chesapeake Bay: Past, Present, and the Future” with author Ned Tillman; a nature photography workshop with photography instructor Bob Boner; Native American Flute Music with Native American Ron Warren; the George Fox Middle School Ukulele Ensemble; and three of our famous “Eagle Prowls” with Volunteer Zeeger de Wilde and refuge staff. The Eagle Prowls are free, but you must pick up a ticket on the day of the event before each scheduled prowl.

There will be plenty of activities for young people at the Eagle Festival. A blue bird nest box construction program will provide materials for youths to build their own box to take home. No preregistration is required. Other youth programs will include: an owl pellet investigation, endangered species puppet show, eagle finger puppet construction, an opportunity for kids to build their own “flapping eagle”, and make your own wildlife magnet program. All participants at the puppet show will receive a free “Albert the Delmarva Fox Squirrel” coloring book. Blackwater’s mascot ATom Eagle@ will be greeting all the kids and promoting getting your kids out in nature.

The Queen Anne’s County Free Library is partnering with Governor Martin O’Malley, the Maryland State Education Agency, the Division of Library Development and Services, and the Maryland Library Association to launch, “30 Minutes in 30 Days,” a program that will be implemented throughout March in celebration of Read Across Maryland, an expansion of Read Across America. 

The program challenges readers of all ages to read, or be read to, for thirty minutes every day from March 2-31, 2010.  This could include parents and caregivers reading to children, older children reading to younger children, and teachers or librarians reading to students.

To support the “30 Minutes in 30 Days Initiative,” the Queen Anne’s County Public Library features a program every day from March 2-31.

Kicking off the month is a visit from author and illustrator Laura Vaccaro Seeger at the Kent Island Library on Tuesday, March 2. The Caldecott-honoree will speak to 7 kindergarten classes.

Storytimes for pre-schools will be held on Wednesday mornings throughout March at 10:30 a.m. at the Centreville Library, 121 S. Commerce St. The series begins with a “Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss” event on March 3.

Tuesday, March 2 - 1:30 to 3:30 PM, Talbot Senior Center - AARP Talbot Chapter 1601 will honor their members who are 90 or more years old.  Vintage music for a sing-a-long will be provided by Free and Eazy.  Remember to bring donations for the Asbury Soup Kitchen project.  For information, call 410-822-7852. 

The Talbot Mentors Partners In Art reception, that was canceled due to the early February blizzard, has been rescheduled for Friday, March 5. Chesapeake Bay Heritage Gallery on Harrison Street will once again host the reception, which will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. in conjunction with Easton’s First Friday activities. The event will feature refreshments, an auction and raffle to benefit the mentoring organization.

Thirteen area artists worked with students and mentors through Talbot Mentors’ 2009 Partners In Art program, helping youngsters create their own artworks within each artist’s medium. Participating artists were Gwen Cameron-Davis, Katie Cassidy, Deborah Colborn, Cliff Fleenor, Myra Orme Frost, Jan Kirsh, Lin Layton, Susan Murphy, Peg Papa, Shirley Sallet, Nancy Thomas, Heidi Wetzel and Paul Winters.

Talbot Mentors Executive Director, Diana Trams, expressed her appreciation to the artists and to gallery-owner Bill Lippincott for hosting the event for the second year. “This collaboration with local artists has been a wonderful opportunity for the students in our program,” she said. “All of the artists have been very generous in donating their time and sharing their talents.”