Dave Wheelan — Page 2

A Mid-Shore Place in Transition: A Chat with Dennis De Shields on Bellevue and its Future

May 31, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

Perhaps the only way that most visitors to Talbot County might remember the town of Bellevue is because it is one of two destinations using the famed Oxford-Bellevue ferry. For eight months out of the year, locals and tourists gather across from the Robert Morris Inn to take the brief crossing over the Tred Avon River to the tiny hamlet several times a day to take in some of the most iconic images of the Mid-Shore’s waterscapes and boat traffic. And while most passengers quickly jump back into their cars and drive off to St. Michaels, they do notice, at least for a few moments, that Bellevue has a real sense of place.

For Dr. Dennis De Shields, Bellevue is more than a brief encounter. It is the ancestral home of his father’s family. While Dr. De Shields, a self-described “army brat,” followed his father’s career as a high-ranking colonel, it always seemed to him that Bellevue was his family’s real home. With the free run of the town during long summer breaks and enjoying the almost endless extent of family relations and friendships, Dennis bonded with the town, its people, and culture as his own.

The proof is that devotion can be seen when De Shields, and his wife Mary, also a physician, decided to move their young family to Bellevue over a decade ago to provide their children with a real sense of place rather than the cold indifference of American suburbia. And since that time, Dennis has not only taken a leadership role in the community, he and his father have devoted countless volunteer hours preparing for a special African-American museum to be built in the heart of the town using his grandmother’s collection of artifacts, art, and images to tell the story of this remarkable place.

When the Spy published Dr. De Shields’ opinion piece expressing his concerns about a future housing development, we thought it would be a good time to chat with him about the special meaning and history of Bellevue, and its importance for the Black community of the Mid-Shore. In our interview from last week at the Water’s Edge Museum, where the artist Ruth Starr Rose’s painting of one of his ancestors playing the guitar in the background, Dennis talks about his unique history with the town and also his concerns and suggestions regarding plans for 14 new luxury homes to be built soon.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. In Part Two, which will be published on June 2, the Spy chats with architect Philip Logan about how sub-divisions can be designed to build on a town’s culture and community.

Spy Report: Digging to Find Caroline County

May 30, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

It must be confessed upfront that the Spy only knew about an archaeological dig taking place in Caroline County this Memorial Day weekend because a cousin had emailed this writer from North Carolina that she was on her way to Denton to participate.

It seems like most archaeological fieldwork is well below the radar regarding public awareness. Highly dependent on volunteer labor from people who, like my cousin, are willing to drop everything and travel almost anywhere to look through piles of dirt for three days straight, these crucial historical research projects only succeed through grass-roots networks like the Archeological Society of Maryland, who sponsored the weekend program, who get the word out.

And in the case of the current project in Caroline County, a joint project of Washington College and the Maryland Historical Trust, that unique call to action was a remarkable success. Some fifty volunteers and their families gathered off of Smith Landing Road to help find the original structure of a place called Barwick’s Ordinary.

Beyond the rich archaeological findings that go along with this field session, such as pottery and coins, the aspirational goal is to conclusively document that Barwick’s was not only a popular tavern in the 18th Century but the first government seat for Caroline County. And that’s the reason that the Caroline County Historical Society asked for help to determine the authenticity of the site.

Nothing happens overnight in archaeology, but dig director, Julie Markin, an associate professor of Anthropology at Washington College, is very encouraged so far. With foundational evidence suggesting a building as large as 30 feet by 17 feet, along with samples of dishware and nails from that era, Markin is cautiously optimistic that she and her devoted volunteers may have found the true beginnings of Caroline.

The Spy ran over on Saturday morning to catch up with Julie, her hardworking students, and a large crew of men, women, and children, all of whom were having such great fun playing in the dirt.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about Washington College please go here. For the Caroline Historical Society please go here. For the Archeological Society of Maryland please go here. For the Maryland Historical Trust please go here.

Celebrating Women & Girls Fund’s Two Decades of Action: CASA of Caroline

May 25, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

The year 2022 marks a special anniversary for the Mid-Shore’s Women & Girls Fund. For two decades, the WGF, under the watchful eye of its funder, Alice Ryan, and its diligent board members, have invested in some of the region’s most deserving charities to support and empower women and girls.

Over the next twelve months, the Spy will highlight some of the many organizations that the Women & Girls Fund has helped. Strategically using their limited resources to target programs typically overlooked by traditional philanthropists or government grants, the WGF board has found innovative ways to leverage their modest contributions for the most impact.

We start our series with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Caroline County. Dedicated to supporting and promoting court-appointed volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children to find a safe home for them to thrive, CASA of Caroline has played a key role in doing just that.

The Spy recently sat down with Amy Horne, the director of outreach at CASA of Caroline, who also happens to be the daughter of the late Talbot County Circuit Court Judge William Horne, who founded CASA in Talbot County, to talk about the program and the special challenges women and their children have in America’s court system.

We also chatted briefly with Women & Girls Fund board member Martha Kendall, who has been a strong supporter of the organization, on how careful the WGF is in selecting its grantees and why CASA of Caroline was such a worthy recipient.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about the Women & Girls Fund please go here. For information about CASA of Caroline County please go here.

Introducing WHCP’s Judy Diaz and a Chat on the Future of Radio on the Mid-Shore

May 18, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

From the day WHCP started to broadcast more than five years ago from downtown Cambridge, it was destined to be a one-of-a-kind community radio station. Founded by former NPR executive Mike Starling after a lifetime career in radio, it was his vision to use the power of radio to engage, entertain, and educate a community differently from commercial stations.

WHCP’s success was almost instantaneous. Volunteer DJs and technicians came by the dozens to lend their talent and passion to the new undertaking to create an audience of over 2,000 residents from its modest broadcast signal of 150 watts.

But when Mike decided to retire from the day-to-day management of the station last year, there were immediate concerns that it would be impossible to find a suitable replacement for the founder. But that’s when Judy Diaz emerged out of nowhere to be Mike’s successor.

With almost thirty years of marketing and audience development experience with such highly regarded institutions as PBS-Kids, Politico, and Northwest Airlines, Judy found her way to Cambridge through her love of sailing. Eager to find a second home for herself and her husband, Kevin Diaz, whose high profile day job was being political editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, they settled on Cambridge as the perfect weekend getaway from high-pressure Washington, D.C.

What Judy didn’t expect was having both of them fall in love with Cambridge. They gave up those big-time jobs and moved to Dorchester County permanently almost two years ago. It was the perfect place for her husband Kevin to start writing a long-deferred nonfiction book. And for Judy, it was a remarkable opportunity to enter the world of community radio.

In her Spy interview, Judy talks about this transition, her love of the grassroots radio format, and WHCPs plans to expand its signal and its audience with recent FCC approval to broadcast at the 10,000 watts level soon, which will not only cover all of Dorchester County, but Talbot County, and down the road other parts of the Mid-Shore.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about WHCP please go here.

Spy Long-Form Sundays: A Chat with Legal Scholar Tom Metzloff Regarding Roe v. Wade

May 15, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

It seems like everyone and their brother (or sister) has an opinion about the recent leak of an United States Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting that Roe v. Wade would be overturned soon. And in the case of the Spy’s publisher, it is my brother-in-law who certainly has had his own thoughts on the matter. But unlike many, if not most, in-laws, Tom Metzloff actually does know what he’s talking about.

A former Supreme Court law clerk under Byron “Whizzer” White, a classmate at Harvard Law with now Chief Justice John Roberts, and a professor at Duke University School of Law since 1985, Tom has been a student of the Court his entire professional career. And over the years, I have always enjoyed the moments during family gatherings when he was willing to forgo his more typical commentaries on his historically long-suffering Buffalo Bills and talk about his day job.

One of those times was many years ago when Tom was the first to alert me that Roe v. Wade was considered to be severely, and potentially fatally, flawed by many legal scholars, entirely independent of whether they were pro-life or pro-abortion. While the majority of the Court had been successful so far in protecting the decision, Tom contended that a day might come when the constitutional protections of Roe v. Wade would face a serious challenge.

As everyone now knows, that day arrived a few weeks ago in the form of the leaked opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating that a majority of the Court would indeed vote to overrule the 1973 decision.

Rather than wait for another holiday gathering to talk about this stunning development, Tom agreed to sit down with me for the Spy newspapers using our long-form interview format to talk about the case, his related experience working at the Supreme Court, the now-famous leak, and the future of Roe v. Wade and the Court itself.

This video is approximately 15 minutes in length.

Chesapeake College Gets a Second Wind after the COVID years: A Chat with President Cliff Coppersmith

May 10, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

The last time the Spy had a check-in with Chesapeake College president Cliff Coppersmith in the spring of 2021, there were far too many unknowns for the CEO of one of the best community colleges in the state as he faced year two of the great COVID pandemic.

In almost every part of Cliff’s portfolio, there were more questions than answers about the college’s future as the school saw a dramatic decline in students, unprecedented budget challenges, confusion on how much state funding his institution was to receive, or whether or not Chesapeake could access COVID recovery funding from the federal government.

Like every other school in the country, COVID has created enough havoc for Chesapeake College’s students, faculty, and staff over the last two years that even its president couldn’t responsibility guess what its future held at the time.

Fast-forward to 2022, and Dr. Coppersmith has almost become a new man. Since our last conversation, the state has come through for its community colleges with an unprecedented 15.1% increase in operational support. And, yes, fed money for COVID recovery did arrive with the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), and just as importantly, the five counties of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot all agreed to a 3% increase in annual support.

Cliff also notes that during those uncertain months, his board of trustees and staff double-downed on private fundraising and government grant-seeking to create new revenue sources to help with the college’s bottom line with outstanding early results.

But the thing that puts a smile on President Coppersmith is that students are coming back to the classroom. In fact, the school should be able to report soon that enrollment will almost reach its pre-pandemic level.

Last week, the Spy sat down with Cliff Coppersmith at his office in Wye Mills to hear more.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length. For more information about Chesapeake College please go here.

Election 2022 Profiles: Johnny Mautz for Maryland State Senate

April 25, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

The Spy continues its informal series on profiling candidates running for office in 2022. Over the next eight months, we will be offering long-form interviews with those running for Maryland’s Governor, MD Congressional District 1, and several local elections in Dorchester, Kent, and Talbot Counties.

As per our educational, nonpartisan mission concerning all public affairs on the Mid-Shore, we believe these in-depth conversations offer a unique alternative to the traditional three-minute sound bite or quick quote. We will be talking to each candidate about their background, qualifications, and policy priorities as well as how they differentiate themselves from others running for the same office and the previous Hogan administration.

We continue with Johnny Mautz who is running for the Maryland State Senate (37). Mautz is the current General Assembly Delegate for District 37B.

This video is approximately 15 minutes in length. For more information about Johnny Mautz please go here.

The Challenges of Film Festivals and Other Things: A Chat with CFF’s Nancy Tabor

April 23, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

As the executive director of the Chesapeake Film Festival for the last three years, Nancy Tabor has faced two remarkable challenges during that time.

The first, of course, was the health of the Chesapeake Film Festival during a raging health pandemic. For many arts organizations, including film festival, it was a life or death matter. With in-person film screenings out of the question, which resulted in a severe decline in revenue, the CFF, like its peers, has had to reinvent itself to stay alive.

For the CFF, that meant going with a virtual festival on the web, partnering with other organizations for other non-traditional programming, and seeking more creative ways to attract grant funding.

With a certain degree of satisfaction in her voice, Nancy reports in our Spy chat with her the other day that all that hard work has paid off splendidly for the CFF.

In fact, she reports that the finances of the nonprofit have never been better while philanthropy has soared. And in her mind, the organization has never been in a stronger position as it finalizes plans for its in-person festival starting September 30. She highlights some of the key moments of this year’s program and other unique ways that the CFF is fulfilling its mission.

The second challenge for Nancy remains an agonizing one that has not yet been resolved. For some time now, she has been aware that her own life is at risk if she is not successful in finding a kidney donor soon. Suffering from a lifetime of kidney problems since having an adverse reaction to prescribed medication, Nancy must now be her best advocate to spread the word about her circumstances. She talks candidly about her condition and the need for specific donor requirements.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about the Chesapeake Film Festival please go here.

To volunteer for being a living kidney donor, please call Johns Hopkins at 410-614-9345 and reference Nancy’s birthdate of December 11, 1961 for additional information. She can also be reached by email at nancy.tabor@goeaston.net.

Horn Point Lab’s Plan to Capture Carbon and Rebuild Reefs: A Chat with Dr. Elizabeth North

April 20, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

You would think that with the billions of dollars available for climate change research, finding grant support to find a scalable solution to protect or replace dying coral reefs would be a cinch. And yet, in reality, this kind of project is not that different from any other project needing venture capital investment. Those seeking highly competitive funds must demonstrate to government agencies, tasked with saving taxpayer money, that there is a high probability of success with the project’s final goal.

That’s a tough thing to document and many of these extraordinarily creative and innovative studies are inevitably considered too “high risk” for federal or state grants. Which, in turn, has led many scientists to turn to private philanthropy to close this critical gap in funding.

And that’s what Elizabeth North, an associate professor at Horn Point Laboratory, realized she had to do as she contemplated a five-year project that could lead to a transformational way to protect or replace some of the world’s most endangered coof reefs with high technology replacements.

Working with some of the best and brightest people in biology, physical chemistry, structural design, and business plan modeling, Dr. North developed a game plan that held the promise of using these units to not only limit carbon’s impact on climate change but remove it.

That’s where institutions like the private Bailey Wildlife Foundation come into play. While this research-oriented grantmaker is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the Foundation’s board members and son of the founder of the fund, Bill Bailey, has called Talbot County his home for the last twenty years. And during that time, he has come to know and respect Horn Point Laboratory and its unique role in ecological studies.

Starting with a small grant in 2015, Bill became acquainted with Professor North’s work and a few years ago became a successful advocate to help fund her Coral Defense project to capture carbon and rebuild coral reefs.

Working with colleagues at Horn Point and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) sister labs in Baltimore and Solomons and Salisbury University and the Maryland Institute College of Art, North’s research project has now hit a critical stage as the teams determine what final technology will be used to develop its prototype.

The Spy drove down to Dorchester County to meet with Professor North to understand the project and how this experiment, if successful, could dramatically change the course of climate change for our planet.

This video is approximately eight minutes in length. For more information about Horn Point Laboratory please go here.

The Bookplate’s Authors & Oysters: Peter & Evan Osnos Come to Chestertown May 7

April 19, 2022 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

The Bookplate is proud to announce the next chapter in the continuation of their partnership with The Retriever Bar and their “Authors & Oysters” series. The back room of the popular bookshop on Cross Street has been expanded to include a larger selection of titles, making it necessary to look elsewhere for an event space. The Retriever provides an ideal atmosphere for an event series; patrons are able to enjoy the pub’s offerings while listening to the guest speaker in a relaxed atmosphere. Jack Russell was featured in the most recent Authors and Oysters event on March 23rd with his book, Fox World: 500 Miles of Walks and Talks with an Old Fox.

On Saturday, May 7th at 2pm, all are invited to The Retriever to meet father and son Peter and Evan Osnos. Peter will be discussing his book, An Especially Good View; Watching History Happen. In more than five decades as a reporter, editor and publisher, Peter has had an especially good view of momentous events and relationships with some of the most influential personalities of our time. As a young journalist for I.F. Stone’s Weekly, one of the leading publications of the turbulent 1960s and in 18 years at The Washington Post, he covered the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, the Soviet Union at the height of Kremlin power, Washington D.C. as National Editor, “Swinging London” in the 60s and Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980s. Peter’s other works include George Soros; A Life In Full.

Evan Osnos will be discussing his most recent book; Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury. A dramatic, prescient examination of seismic changes in American politics and culture, Wildland is the story of a crucible, a period bounded by two shocks to America’s psyche, two assaults on the country’s sense of itself: the attacks of September 11 in 2001 and the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Following the lives of everyday Americans in three cities and across two decades, Osnos illuminates the country in a startling light, revealing how we lost the moral confidence to see ourselves as larger than the sum of our parts. Evan’s other works include Joe Biden; The Life, The Run and What Matters Now, and Age of Ambition; Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, the latter of which was the winner of the National Book Award in 2014.

Their books have been met with positive reviews. Kirkus Reviews writes; “It’s clear the book was a labor of love… Much of the memoir’s charm comes from Osnos’ candor and energy, and he concludes with a deeply personal retrospective of thought, grateful reflection, and pictorial extras that both seasoned and aspiring journalists will appreciate. The meticulously detailed, inspiring journey of an American news reporter and publisher.”

Former President Jimmy Carter dedicated his book, Always a Reckoning; “To Peter Osnos: Our publisher, editor, referee, and friend.” Former Federal Reserve Chair, Paul Volcker wrote in his own memoir; “To Peter Osnos: It’s all your fault.”

Of Wildland, chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker Jane Mayer writes; “Evan Osnos’s Wildland is a reportorial tour de force describing the kaleidoscopic changes that threaten to cause America to come apart at the seams. He deftly connects the dots between the hedge-fund billionaires of Greenwich, Connecticut; the opioid-soaked towns of Appalachia; and the gun-heavy gangs of Chicago. By turning his trained eye as a former foreign correspondent on his own country, Osnos paints an indelible picture that is heart-rending, appalling, and hard to put down.”

For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or contact@thebookplate.net. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. Save the date for the next Authors & Oysters event with Kate Albus on May 11th. The Retriever is located at 337 ½ High Street, in Chestertown, Maryland.

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