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Yes, Human Trafficking is on the Shore: A Chat with For All Seasons’ Katharine Petzold

January 14, 2020 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

It’s typically hard for most Eastern Shore residents to know that human trafficking is alive and growing in their backyard. Beyond the false narrative that this inhumane treatment of adults and children is an urban phenomenon in the United States, the fact remains that these crimes are tough to see even if they are taking place in broad daylight.

Some of these victims are hidden behind locked doors in brothels and factories. But in other cases, they are interacting with community members on a daily basis. In the labor market, it can be found agricultural work, particularly with seasonal fisheries and crab processing as well as construction, nail salons, hospitality industries, and domestic work. With the sex trade, it is showing up locally on online, secret brothels, and “massage parlors” as well as truck stops, private homes, or on the street.

That is one of the many challenges that For All Seasons, the Mid-Shore’s behavioral health center, face as they increase their work to identify and rescue victims in the region. And part of that work is ensuring that members of the health and education professional community understand the signs of human trafficking in a variety of different environments.

Leading this effort for For All Seasons is their anti-human trafficking coordinator, Katharine Petzold. In her interview with the Spy from last week, Katharine talks about her growing awareness of the global problem when she toured Southeast Asia as a professional singer and songwriter, which led her to change careers thirteen years ago.

This video is approximately minutes five minutes in length. For more information about For All Seasons and their anti-human trafficking please go here

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Easton’s Challenge with Retail’s Empty Little Boxes: A Chat with Discover Easton’s Ross Benincasa

January 3, 2020 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

There are a few reasons why Easton residents experience certain anxiety when they see vacant storefronts in and around the historic district. The first is sentimental. These abandoned shops, which fall into the 3,000 to 10,000 square feet range, such as Ben Franklin, the News Center, Earth Origins Market, and Safeway were greatly beloved by their customers. The simple sight of these now deserted sites causes an understandable sadness with those missing products or former employees.

The second is more particular. No one likes to see empty storefronts since it seems to send a message about a town’s vitality, or lack thereof. And while it may be true that almost every town in America is also facing a dramatically changing retail world, when it’s your town, one is inclined to take it very personally.

That is one of the reasons that the Spy recently spoke to the Town of Easton’s Ross Benincasa. Beyond directly managing the town’s significant “Discover Easton” campaign of events and marketing, Ross routinely plays a critical role in the town’s economic development strategies, including daily contact with commercial real estate brokers and future store owners.

In his Spy chat, Ross talks about Easton’s “little box” challenge that could ease some minds worried about a retail Armageddon in the near future. Beyond citing that Easton’s vacancy rate is not of line with historical patterns, Ross highlights a new level of innovation with commercial real estate that finds new uses for these old favorite places. He also takes about the relationship between retail and the lack of housing for younger residents who are increasingly making up the largest percentage of consumers in the country.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length.

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The Eastern Shore is for the Birds: A Chat with Talbot Bird Club’s Bettye Maki

December 30, 2019 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

As 2019 is coming to an end on Tuesday evening, there are still quite a number of people reviewing their resolution lists for 2020. While weight loss is most likely the frontrunner, more and more folks are adding recreational hobbies to these goals, ranging from learning to paint to mastering a foreign language. And an increasing number of them are writing down their desire to take up birdwatching.

The facts seem to bear this out as you look at the ever-growing population of birders, with almost 41 million admitting they have observed wild birds around their homes. Adding to this is the extraordinary related businesses that support those participating, which last year came in at $41 billion in product sales and services.

But as Bettye Maki, president of the Talbot Bird Club, notes in her Spy interview from a few weeks ago, this surge is just one indication of how addictively fun it can be for people of all ages. Now retired on the Eastern Shore after a career in medical technology, Bettye finally has found the time and the unique environment of the Eastern Shore to develop this newly found passion herself.

Maki also makes it clear that a love of birds goes beyond the lens of binoculars; three billion birds have been lost in North America since 1970.

That sobering fact has made Bettye and the Talbot Bird Club begin working with their parent organization, Maryland Ornithological Society, to help with critical research to slow down this dramatic rate of loss.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Talbot Bird Club please go here.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Chestertown Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here.

Spy Chat: Seeking Brotherhood in Honor of Fred and Lesley Israel

December 23, 2019 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

The word and meaning of “brotherhood” could be considered a possible victim in a worldwide culture war these days. Connected to such terrorist organizations as the Muslim Brotherhood or the historical corruption of Jimmy Hoffa’s International Brotherhood of Teamsters, it is hard to remember that the term historically is linked to divine love for humankind.

That was one of the primary reasons that the leaders of Temple B’nai Israel in Easton wanted to rescue its true meaning as a way to honor the Eastern Shore’s Fred and Lesley Israel and their lifelong commitment to seeking brotherhood among the great faiths of the world.

To accomplish this goal, B’nai Israel hosted a forum a few weeks ago on the subject. This interreligious gathering, organized by Temple board member Barry Koh, Rabbi Peter Hyman, and Washington College professor Joseph Prud’ homme, was a timely reminder during this holiday season of how significant progress has been made in uniting the world’s religions through the spiritual lens of brotherhood.

The Spy sat down two weeks ago with all three leaders to understand more of the meaning and power that comes with brotherhood and how it may be a key element in bringing a conflicted world together.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about Temple B’nai Israel please go here.

Spy Chat: In Search of Family and the Art of François Joseph Kinsoen

December 18, 2019 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

Imagine that for your entire childhood, family celebrations took place in your grandparents’ dining room including a self-portrait of an ancestor who benevolently watched over the festivities from the wall. While family lore confirmed that the subject was a successful artist in the early 1800s, hardly any other information is known about his existence, the extent of his artwork, or where he stood in relation to the hundreds of other artists that populated France during the 19th Century.

The natural frustration of having so little information about François Joseph Kinsoen was a recurring theme for Posey Boicourt as she grew up studying in art history and later as a writer on that subject. But when her Aunt Rozzie reached out to her to investigate the sale of her great uncle’s work a number of years ago, it set into motion a decades long search of his life, and with the stunning revelation of a remarkable legacy of a gifted and highly regarded portraitist in Napoleon’s Court.

Now, after countless research trips to France and in this country, Boicourt has brilliantly documented Kinsoen’s work with the publication of Blue Tulip: The Artistic Adventure with Painter François Joseph Kinsoen and his Niece Adele published by Story Arts Media.

The Talbot County writer sat down with the Spy a few weeks ago to talk about the project and what she found in this remarkable quest to recover family history and art history at the same time.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. Blue Tulip is available for purchase at the Trippe Gallery in Easton, Md.

Maryland 2.0: Trappe has Found an Angel in Tom Mitchell

December 10, 2019 by Dave Wheelan 1 Comment

Angel investors come in every shape and size but rarely do they come in the form of Tom Mitchell and Trappe, Maryland.

This small rural community some ten miles south of Easton off of Route 50 has a current population of 1,000 people, give or take. While it has had moments of prosperity, including the introduction of Mitchum’s fine dining restaurant (now closed) a few years ago, it finds itself most of the time getting lost as beachgoers drive by heading for Cambridge and Salisbury.

But for Tom Mitchell, Trappe has never been about the best possible return on investment. For him, it comes from a particular love of the community but also a unique devotion to his wife, Maria.

For the last ten years, Maria has battled Alzheimer’s Disease while Tom continued his successful career as an entrepreneur in several industries. Maria, who is 100% Greek, was always counted on to be the heart and soul of the Mitchell home, and Tom was eager to find a way to keep his wife’s passion for great food and natural warmth alive as she battles this cruel illness.

And so, without any experience in the restaurant business, other than his natural appetite and fondness for tasty libations, Tom embarked on a simple plan to turn the abandoned Mitchum’s back into a major center for fine dining. Using Maria’s favorite recipes, and his skill of making sound real estate deals, Mitchell found himself the owner of Momma Maria’s Bistro last April.

But, like all good stories, it didn’t just end with a tremendous new restaurant. As Tom started to invest in downtown Trappe, he saw an exceptional opportunity for even more investment. Quickly he took over the former bank building across the street to start Coffee Trappe, and has since purchased with at least five other commercial properties all within a stone’s throw away from Mamma Maria’s front door.

In short order, a restaurant project has now grown into a town project. Tom saw this as a way to keep Trappe’s small-town feel at a time when the population should grow significantly with the addition of the Lakeside community (which will eventually have five unique neighborhoods ) on the other side of Route 50.

The Spy has plans to cover the unique success story of Momma Maria’s as a new and hugely popular fine dining establishment under the management of chef Michael Quattrucci early next year but took our opportunity to talk to Tom about how one person, with passion and emotional investment, can truly save a little town.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Momma Maria’s please go here.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Talbot Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here.

Spy Chat: Small Colleges and Historic Restorations with Davy McCall

December 2, 2019 by Dave Wheelan 3 Comments

As noted in the Spy’s obituary today, Professor Davy McCall passed away this weekend at the age of 97. The former U.S. State Department and USAID international expert for both Asia and the Middle East first arrived in Kent County in 1968, where he eventually joined the Washington College faculty and later became chair of the economics department.

At the urging of mutual friends, I was able to finally sit down with Davy at Heron Point on November 1 for a free-range conversation about his life and career. It is an extraordinary story of a gifted intellectual from the prosperous suburb of Shaker Heights in Cleveland, through Kenyon College, a Ph.D. from Harvard, and decades of finding himself in the center of foreign affairs in both China and later Syria.

In our interview, Davy talks fondly of his time at Washington College, his passion for historical restoration, and his love of Chestertown.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length

The Science of Listening to Explosive Kids (and Adults)with Dr. Stuart Ablon

November 18, 2019 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

It is extraordinary that by the time a child reaches the age of three, they have the capacity to listen and fully engage in conflict resolution. That is just one of the many facts that Massachusetts General Hospital’s “Think Kids” director Stuart Ablon shared with the Spy last week prior to his lecture hosted by For All Seasons at the Temple Israel in Easton.

Dr. Albon, who is also the Stemberg Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is someone to listen to about this. His research is showing significant evidence that through pro-active listening and other simple (but not easy) tools, one can dramatically reduce or even eliminate bad behavior in even the most difficult of cases.

And while Think:Kids does indeed focus on challenging children, Dr. Albon’s team is finding amble documentation that these tools can be applied to almost every age.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length. For more information about Think:Kids please go here and for For All Seasons please go here.

Spy Chat: Kay MacIntosh on Chestertown’s Arts District, Main Street, and Economic Vitality

November 11, 2019 by Dave Wheelan 2 Comments

For better or worse, the term “economic development” is an exceptionally expansive expression. From promoting farmers’ markets to nanotechnology firms, almost every conceivable constituency in a town will have its own interpretation of its meaning.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that except for those brave souls who have those words in their job descriptions. Inevitably, residents and officeholders like to hold these folks accountable for every aspect related to a town’s future prosperity regardless of someone’s actual scope of work.

One of these courageous ones who are navigating community expectations is Chestertown’s Kay MacIntosh. Hired three years ago to help manage the rollout of the town’s new arts and entertainment district, Kay also has been tasked with re-establishing its Main Street program and coordinating the over $300,000 in grants raised by her office through various state programs to improve downtown.

The Spy sat down with Kay recently to understand more about her work, the projects that are the front-burner now, and her thoughts on the state of Chestertown’s economic development as we come to the end of 2019.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about Main Street and Chestertown’s Arts and Entertainment district, please go here.

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