Humans of Kent County: John Queen

John Queen

Co-founder and Co- leader of the Bayside Hoyas

“For me, it’s just seeing the kids get an award for something positive.  Growing up I never got rewarded for something positive.   So to see those kids get an award for something positive, to feel like somebody cares… that’s all we care about.  Whatever we can do to help them achieve whatever goal they want to do in their life, we’re here for them.  We’re going to help them.  Any hurdles or barriers down the road, we’re going to have a support team that will help them through it.  We want them to be the best person they can be.”

“What we’re doing is building leaders one person at a time.  Leadership skills are the one thing that can navigate through a lot of negativity because at the end of the day if you believe in yourself, if you believe in your family, if you believe in your support circle, it doesn’t matter what any one else thinks about you.  You take three leaders and put them in a room, something great is going to happen, and they see that.  So we’re building leaders.  They teach the fifth graders, they teach the middle school kids.  They say, “Hey that’s not what we do.  That’s following.  We don’t follow; we lead.”

Interviewed by Lani Seikaly and photographed by Jeff Weber

Editor Note: The Chestertown Spy and RiverArts have partnered in 2016 to share the art organization’s community arts project “Humans of Kent County,” designed to celebrate the wonderful, unique folks who live and work in Kent County. Citizens are invited to interview and photograph from young to old from all corners of the county and to submit a photograph and brief story to be part of the project. It will be posted on the Spy each week and each quarter the most interesting photos and stories will be enlarged and produced for an exhibition at the RiverArts gallery in Chestertown.