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April 10, 2021

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

  • Home
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    • The Chestertown Spy
    • Contact Us
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Food and Garden Food Friday Spy Top Story

Food Friday: Improving Our Outlook

April 9, 2021 by Jean Sanders Leave a Comment

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Mr. Sanders and I took advantage of the long Easter weekend to get out of town for a couple of nights. It was a combination of birthday celebrations, the end of winter, and we were buoyed by the hope that the constant COVID fears are receding. Thus we enjoyed a road trip to Brevard, NC, where we stayed at a charming inn, keeping ourselves socially distanced from the hosts and the one other couple staying there.

The inn was an elegant 1920s stone house, surrounded by sloping lawns and towering trees. The house had a slate roof, slender Corinthian columns supporting the curved portico roof, a generous sun porch extended to the left side of the house, and an ancient dog wooffled at us as we entered. There were high ceilings and many, many ticking clocks. The dining room was home to a grandfather’s clock, a mantel clock, and a boisterous cuckoo clock. We gathered that we should be prompt for our 8:30 breakfasts, otherwise it would be noted.

Normally, here at home, except for Sundays when we cook elaborately and exhaustively, breakfast is a do-it-yourself meal. Most days Mr. Sanders brews coffee, has an egg, some sausage, and perhaps yogurt and blueberries. I, being contrary and moody, pour a Diet Coke and gnaw on a piece of Wasa toast. We sit silent, reading the news on our respective computers. At the inn we felt compelled to be outgoing and personable, before caffeine. We even showered and wore presentable clothing. We left our computers in the room, and promptly, at 8:30 AM, we walked into the dining room and gamely placed the cloth napkins in our laps.

Across an attractive table, laid with silverware, a variety of glassware and coffee cups, with a vase of fresh pink carnations, under a mullioned window we amiably commented on birds and flowers and the possible varieties of the bare branches of the shrubbery in the garden. We craned our necks, hoping for another glimpse of the fabled, though elusive, white squirrels of Brevard.

Our host brought coffee, cream, and a cup of ice for my Diet Coke. Then some fresh squeezed juices. At respectable intervals, more courses were served to us. Our hosts believed in a three-course breakfast, which, of course, included dessert! So I can’t just blame the Easter jelly beans I inhaled during the course of our out-of-town adventure for my little bit of weight gain. I was just being polite.

The first day’s breakfast was a fresh fruit cup with a sparkling cider dressing, individual vegetable and Italian sausage frittatas, toasted bread from a local bakery, gleaming orange slices and tiny ramekins of hot, buttered grits. And for dessert, there were freshly baked fruit scones. The second day called for more juice, a warm fruit compote, topped with fresh whipped cream and yogurt, apple walnut pancakes, vegetarian link sausages and wee tiny oranges, and individual apple hand pies for dessert. It is a wonder we ever needed to eat again, and yet, lunch never came soon enough.

It has been some time since we last stayed in an inn, and never in one which took such pleasure in feeding us. The food was tasty, the plates were artfully arranged, the presentation was charming. I guess after thirteen months of lockdown it felt nice to be pampered, and doted upon. And perhaps it is time to embellish our breakfast routine.

Our lockdown breakfast tropes are boring, but they needn’t be permanent. How inconvenient can it be to cut up fruit at night to have in the morning? When was the last time I thought about buying a kiwi? That vegetarian sausage was very nice – I didn’t realize it was vegetarian until after the fact. Shocking! I had never thought to chop up walnuts and apples and put them into pancake batter! In fact, I manage to congratulate myself if there is enough maple syrup in the house for a pancake breakfast. It’s time to splash out and actually read the many cookbooks on our shelves.

I’ll get my second shot on Saturday, which means soon, still wearing our masks, we can wander a little more freely. I probably won’t get another respite at an inn for long while, but I can use some of the lessons learned there to make life a little more enjoyable at home. It’s spring, after all. I’m going to cut some daffodils for the table.

Lots of fruits are coming to the farmers’ markets now. This is a yummy, adaptable warm fruit compote recipe:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/mixed-berry-compote-103677

And don’t forget the creamy whipped cream and yogurt topping: https://food52.com/recipes/36877-yogurt-whipped-cream

As the weather warms up: https://food52.com/recipes/30137-berries-with-rose

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.”
― A.A. Milne

In case you are curious, here’s where we stayed. Tell Abe and Pam we say, “Hi!” : https://thebromfieldinn.com

Filed Under: Food Friday, Spy Top Story

Emily is 22 Years Old and has Graduated 

April 7, 2021 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

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While it is true that the Spy attempts to cover regional news with an unbiased perspective, that it very hard to do when discussing Emily’s Produce in Dorchester County. This gem of a food store is one of the most successful, valued-driven local businesses on the Mid-Shore, and we make no attempt in covering up our admiration for its owners and what Emily’s has brought to the greater Cambridge community for 22 years.

Starting as a simple farmstand in 1999 by Kelly and Paul Jackson to supplement their salaries as a Maryland Highway Patrol officer and sixth-generation farmer to establish a college fund for their then newly born daughter, Emily, the store and Emily have graduated to a new level.

For Emily, the daughter, she has now graduated from college with a degree in agriculture and is now enjoying an internship at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

And for Emily’s, the produce store, it will be 22 years of transitioning from that simple farmstand into a robust role model for entrepreneurship and community investment. Over those two decades, Kelly and Paul have slowly grown into a full-service stop for those seeking the best of local meat, produce, dairy, and now Maryland wine and beer.

With a staff of twenty-five, this tight-knit family of devoted employees plays host to countless local customers but also a stream of visitors who venture off Route 50 on their way to the coast to stock up on the “good stuff” before hitting the beach.The Spy sat down with Kelly the other day to check in on both of her “Emilys” as the Jackson family starts their 22nd season with both child and store.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about Emily’s please go here.

Filed Under: Spy Highlights, Spy Top Story

WC’s Headwater to the Bay with Kate Livie and Ben Ford

April 5, 2021 by James Dissette Leave a Comment

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Already renowned for its fall course “Chesapeake Semester,” an interdisciplinary study of the Chesapeake Bay region, Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society (CES) is offering another unique summer course, “Headwater to Bay,” a journey geared to inspire artistic interpretation.

Chesapeake historian, writer, and CES instructor Kate Livie will co-direct the summer program with husband and Program Manager of “Chesapeake Semester” Ben Ford. Together they will introduce a group of students to the Bay region as they “hike, paddle, cycle, camp to meet the Chesapeake’s people and landscapes, up close and personal”— and interpret their experience through various art forms.

Since 2012, Ford directs the College’s CES academic course “Chesapeake Semester” a 16-credit initiative that spends one-third of the semester in the field meeting with farmers, artists, poets, and watermen along with a comparative study that includes an 11-day trip to Guatemala and Belize where they study similar environmental conditions in different parts of the world. 

“I like to say that we’re using the Chesapeake as a case study to understand more deeply that the issues that are facing any coastal community worldwide,” he says.

Livie, author of the acclaimed book Chesapeake Oysters: The Bay’s Foundation and Future, notes that the success of the Fall program inspired a different approach to learn about the Bay history and culture but through the lens of a creative.

“The fall program has been so successful, the College is really interested in how we can maximize the summer months to provide more experiential programs across disciplines within the College…so Ben and I saw an opportunity to have a summer spin-off that capitalizes on the way the Chesapeake has been a source of inspiration for artists, photographers, and writers for generations,” Livie says.

With the hope of attracting students and non-students interested in the arts, the four-week program will explore the Bay from the Susquehanna to the coastal bays where the Chesapeake meets the ocean and experience and interpret it from the vantage point of working artists using their skillset, may it be sketching, photography, videography, or creative environmental writing.

“Headwater to Bay” is a partnership between the Center for Environment and Society and the College’s newest major, “Communications and Media Studies Department.”

To find out more about “Headwater to Bay,” contact Ben Ford at bford2@washcoll.edu and to register, go here 

The Spy, for one, would be signing up tomorrow for this creative and learning adventure.

This video is approximately eight minutes in length.

 

Filed Under: Spy Highlights, Spy Top Story

Snapshots of Daily Life: Intolerance by George Merrill

April 4, 2021 by George R. Merrill Leave a Comment

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In seventeenth century England, Clergy and nobility, the high rollers of that day, played hard ball with each other and with most everyone else. Religion and politics weren’t only matters of one’s preferences or personal beliefs; they were a form of blood sport. You could lose your head for not playing by the house rules, that is, for not being politically or theologically correct. Excessive political and religious zeal frequently turned lethal.

I like the idea that even in the past, when intolerance and vindictiveness prevailed, somebody with a conscience was speaking out at considerable cost to themselves.

This climate of intolerance in England grated on Anglican Bishop, Jeremy Taylor and in mid-sixteen hundred Taylor preached a sermon to address prejudice. Its title, “Against Bitterness of Zeal,” caught my eye. He wrote, “Any Zeal is proper for Religion but the Zeal of the Sword and Zeal of Anger.”

Here’s the sermon:

“When Abraham sat at his Tent Door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old Man, stooping and leaning on his Staff, weary with Age and Travel coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age, He received him kindly, washed his Feet, provided Supper, caused him to sit down; but observing the Old man Eat and prayed not nor begged a blessing on his Meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of Heaven. The old Man told him that he worshipped the Fire, and acknowledged no other God. At which answer, Abraham grew so zealously angry that he thrust the old Man out of his Tent, and exposed him to all the Evils of the Night and an unregulated Condition. And when the old Man was gone, God called to Abraham and asked him where the Stranger was? He replied, I thrust him away because he did not worship thee.”

God answered him, ‘I have suffered him these hundred Years, although he dishonored me: and coulds’t not thou endure him one Night?”

Taylor was no stranger to the civil and religious conflicts raging in the England of his day. He apparently irritated some nobleman or offended clergy as he was imprisoned three times. Fortunately, he managed to keep his head.

Today, there’s an antagonistic religious/political atmosphere here in the states. This is why Bishop Taylor’s sermon struck me as it did; a kind of ‘déjà vu in retrospect, a discouraging one at that.

Intolerant people act hatefully, zealously, particularly in groups. Is such behavior driven by some natural law? Do men (typically men) necessarily turn cruel when they convene in groups to collectively regulate their needs? I have read accounts of atrocities committed by men in groups; there’s a theory that holds how it’s unlikely they’d behave that way as individuals.

In an old Life magazine, I read an article about a lynched black man. In an accompanying photograph, we see the man naked, dead, hanging by the neck from a tree limb, He had been castrated. An assembly of white men, and some children appear to be milling around the body, festively chatting as we might see people attending a community barbeque. I know from other accounts how church going Christians would likely be among such gatherings. These Christians would profess to love Jesus but would have no scruples brutalizing this man. They held an opinion that became a conviction: that the man hanging from the tree was not “their kind.” He was less than human, someone to be rid of.

In Bishop Taylor’s parable, Abraham was religious, ready, as his faith taught him, to provide hospitality to the stranger. When Abraham learned the old man was not a worshiper of his God, the old man was dehumanized in Abraham’s eyes. Abraham suddenly turned cruel, became punitive, putting the old man out into the night. What was he thinking?

In this tale, Abraham held a contemptuous opinion about people who didn’t worship his God. Fire worshipers, in his opinion, were inhuman. When Abraham discovered the old man’s religious preferences, all bets were off; Abraham treated the old man inhumanely. Dehumanizing those you dislike, is an ancient vice. The old man was undeserving of the normal courtesies of Abraham’s faith.

Our minds and bodies host all kinds of conditions. They live in the body or the soul but remain inert and do no harm. Circumstances, like being fearful or threatened, or affectionate and caring can activate the latent conditions to appear. I believe the habits of the human heart work in similar ways.

I have experienced two habits of my own heart that have influenced my life; the habit to love and to care, and the habit to hate and destroy. I have seen the way kindness activates the activates loving and caring. I have also experienced the fear that mobilizes violence. This is an ugly condition.

Years ago, a bat found a way into my house. He awakened me but I don’t know how, since bats on the wing are silent. However, I saw him. He scared me.

I knew that bats follow air currents and if I opened a downstairs window, he’d eventually find his way out. But I was too afraid to wait; I became possessed to get rid of him immediately. I grabbed a squash racket and waited for him to fly over the bed again. As he did, I swung hitting him square. The bat hit the wall with a thud and fell to the floor. I went over to see him. He lay on his back, his wing broken and twisted. He bled.

I looked at him –– this was the first time I’d seen a bat close up. –– and I saw how beautiful a creature he was. He had the fine features and the innocent face of a mouse only dark haired. He body was tiny with two tiny black eyes that glistened and still showed life. I looked carefully at his face and I was overwhelmed with sadness and regret. My behavior was mindless and particularly unnecessary and to this day I would swear, while he was dying, that his eyes were looking right into mine and asking me, why?

That’s when I met some of the bitterness of my own zeal inspired by fear and how destructive it can become.

Columnist George Merrill is an Episcopal Church priest and pastoral psychotherapist. A writer and photographer, he’s authored two books on spirituality: Reflections: Psychological and Spiritual Images of the Heart and The Bay of the Mother of God: A Yankee Discovers the Chesapeake Bay. He is a native New Yorker, previously directing counseling services in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Baltimore. George’s essays, some award winning, have appeared in regional magazines and are broadcast twice monthly on Delmarva Public Radio.

Filed Under: George, Spy Top Story, Top Story

Food Friday: Rites of Spring

April 2, 2021 by Jean Sanders Leave a Comment

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Food Friday is on the road this weekend, heading to a socially distant weekend get-away in Asheville. Mr. Friday is fully vaccinated, and I have had one shot, but we are stocking up on masks and hand sanitizer to enjoy a road trip and a change of scene. I feel your cabin fever, and am looking forward to the Fourth of July! Please indulge me and enjoy our making our favorite Easter dessert. Play nicely at your Easter egg hunts, and let the little ones find all the eggs. You can sip on a Bloody Mary or two.

At Easter I like to haul out my dear friend’s lemon cheesecake recipe, and reminisce, ruefully, about the year I decorated one using nasturtiums plucked fresh from the nascent garden, which unfortunately sheltered a couple of frisky spiders. Easter was late that year and tensions were already high at the table, because a guest had taken it upon herself to bring her version of dessert – a 1950s (or perhaps it was a British World War II lesson in ersatz ingredients recipe) involving saltines, sugar-free lime Jell-O, and a tub of Lite Cool Whip. The children were divided on which was more terrifying: ingesting spiders, or so many petro chemicals?

I am also loath to remember the year we hosted an Easter egg hunt, when it was so hot that the chocolate bunnies melted, the many children squabbled, and the adults couldn’t drink enough Bloody Marys. The celery and asparagus were limp, the ham was hot, and the sugar in all those Peeps brought out the criminal potential in even the most decorous of little girls. There was no Martha Stewart solution to that pickle.

Since our children did not like hard-boiled eggs, I am happy to say that we were never a family that hid real eggs for them to discover. Because then we would have been the family whose dog discovered toxic nuclear waste hidden behind a bookcase or deep down in the sofa a few weeks later. We mostly stuck to jelly beans and the odd Sacajawea gold dollar in our plastic Easter eggs. It was a truly a treat when I stepped on a pink plastic egg shell in the front garden later that year, when I was hanging Christmas lights on the bushes. There weren’t any jelly beans left, thank goodness, but there was a nice sugar-crusty gold dollar nestled inside it. Good things come to those who wait.

We won’t be hiding any eggs (real or man-made) this year, much to Luke the wonder dog’s disappointment. He’ll be at the spa, anyway. Instead we will have a nice decorous brunch outdoors, with Mumm Napa Brut Rosé and maybe a couple of slices of lemon cheesecake, sans the spiders, sans the lime Jell-O and Cool Whip. And we will feel sadly bereft because there will be no jelly beans, no melting chocolate, and no children.

Chris’s Cheesecake Deluxe

Serves 12
Crust:
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Filling:
2 1/2 pounds cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400° F
Crust: combine flour, sugar and lemon rind. Cut in butter until crumbly. Add yolk and vanilla. Mix. Pat 1/3 of the dough over the bottom of a 9″ spring form pan, with the sides removed. Bake for 6 minutes or until golden. Cool. Butter the sides of the pan and attach to the bottom. Pat remaining dough around the sides to 2″ high.
Increase the oven temp to 475° F. Beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy. Add vanilla and lemon rind. Combine the sugar, flour and salt. Gradually blend into the cream cheese. Beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time, and then the cream. Beat well. Pour into the pan. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Reduce oven heat to 200° F. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until set. Turn off the heat. Allow the cake to remain in the oven with the door ajar for 30 minutes. Cool the cake on a rack, and then pop into the fridge to chill. This is the best Easter dessert ever.

Perfect Bloody Marys:
http://food52.com/recipes/8103_horseradish_vodka_bloody_mary

Remedial hard boiled eggs:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/04/how-to-make-perfect-hard-boiled-eggs

More than you thought you wanted to know about eggs:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jacques-pepin-eggs-are-on-the-outs-again-to-me-theyll-always-be-perfect/2019/03/22/8d2334e0-4cc1-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html?utm_term=.a6dd368aa915

https://inspiralized.com/potato-and-leek-frittata/

“Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg before it is broken.”
― M.F.K. Fisher

Filed Under: Food Friday, Spy Top Story

Profiles in Spirituality: Reinviting the Church with Trinity’s Rev. Gregory Powell

April 1, 2021 by Dave Wheelan 1 Comment

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When one thinks of a church making radical changes in the role it plays in people’s lives, it’s pretty rare that it has the name “cathedral” attached to their name. Normally for a denomination, or even laypeople, the name “cathedral” is associated with the institutional core of those faiths; a venue where the most sacred services are held and, more often than not, where the administrative offices are for those dioceses.

So when the Spy was tipped off the other day that Trinity Cathedral Easton, the home of the Disease of Easton, was in the process of rewriting the rules of worship and fellowship at one of Mid-Shore’s most historic churches, we reached out to The Very Rev. Gregory Powell, to understand more about his congregation’s plans to comprehensively change its concept of what a Sunday service looks like and more importantly, feels that experience.

A native of the deep South, Rev. Powell would not have been considered a “game-changer” when he came out of divinity school nor in his first decade of church leadership. In fact, after moving to Pocomoke City to serve as St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, he would be the first to call his ministry in those days evangelical.

But as Greg became more exposed to some of the more progressive leaders of the Episcopal Church, including the work of Bishop John Shelby Spong, his own spiritual journey, and his ideas on what a church needs to be in the 21st Century, started to take a new direction. And that included speaking out against racism and other serious social issues facing his community.

In his interview with the Spy, Rev. Powell talks about this transition and how he envisions Trinity in the next few years as he and his church become a safe and accessible place of worship for all.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information about Trinity Cathedral Easton please go here.

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Filed Under: Spy Highlights, Spy Top Story

The Return of Buying Local in Chestertown with DCA’s Andy Goddard

April 1, 2021 by James Dissette Leave a Comment

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Newly elected Downtown Chestertown Association President Andy Goddard didn’t even have time to create the 2020 town event schedule before the world came to a screeching halt last March.

A year later, she says things look a little brighter despite the ongoing pandemic.

Although the 2021 Tea Party Festival is suspended for a second time, plans for late October’s Downrigging are still being considered, al fresco dining will begin, and other venues like Saturday Market and retail show an uptick in local and tourist shopping. Goddard is also hopeful that ever-popular Chestertown First Fridays will begin in May.

“I’m happy to find out that most businesses weathered the storm better than I expected. Kudos to Kay McIntosh and Mainstreet for setting up the gift card program,” she says.

A Washington College alumna, Goddard has long been part of the Chestertown business scene. For 21 years, she ran the eponymous “Andy’s” bar, an Eastern Shore—if not East Coast—landmark. After the pub’s closure in 2009, she went on to Event Coordinator and Treasurer with DCA. She managed many of the town’s annual events, including Taste of the Town, Crazy Days, Independents’ Day, Home for the Holiday festivities, Santa Claus, and the Holiday Parade.

Upholding its central tenet, “Buy Local – Think Chestertown First,” the Downtown Chestertown Association, as a “non-profit member-based association, is committed to providing current and prospective businesses with marketing opportunities in traditional formats as well as through social media platforms.”

But as we have experienced this last year, traditions are no longer the norm, and businesses have had to be adaptive and agile to stay afloat. Throughout this, Goddard has been exploring new ways to promote Chestertown businesses and get the word out to weekend travelers that Chestertown continues to be a favorite Eastern Shore destination.

The Spy caught up with Andy last week and talked about this last year and how the town is working to keep the doors open during the ongoing pandemic.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length.

 

Filed Under: Spy Top Story

The Talbot Boys Controversy in 2021 with NAACP’s Richard Potter

March 30, 2021 by Dave Wheelan 1 Comment

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For anyone thinking that the Talbot County Council vote last year to maintain the Talbot Boys Confederate monument on the county’s courthouse green would settle that issue once and for all, the last few months would show how wrong that perception would be.

Since that controversial decision was made, the County has seen the formation of organizations dedicated to either preserving it (Preserve Talbot History) or demanding it be moved to another location (Move Talbot’s Confederate Monument)

And as a result, the region has seen the appearance of lawn signs, numerous letters to editor articles, and ongoing social media debates about the Eastern Shore’s Civil War history and the interpretation of motives by those who fought in this tragic chapter in American history.

One person who has witnessed this ongoing controversy from the beginning has been Richard Potter. As president of the local chapter of NAACP, it was Richard and his colleagues who made the original request in 2015 that the Talbot Boys statue be removed and relocated to a more appropriate space.

Six years after the NAACP first met with the Talbot County Council, Richard has endured a number of setbacks, including the council’s votes in both 2016 and 2020 to maintain the monument’s status quo. Nonetheless, with the conviction that history and cultural change is on his side, Potter and his board members are doubling down on their opposition to the Talbot Boys location.

In fact, as the Spy discovered in our most recent conversation with Richard last week, there is a growing feeling of impatience with county leaders who continue to support the only Confederate memorial on public property in the entire state of Maryland. And this includes the NAACP’s opposition to a proposed “Unity” monument proposed by Talbot County Council member Laura Price, which Potter notes with irony, was never discussed with his organization to demonstrate a united consensus with all parties involved.

We caught up with Richard last week at the Spy studio for his appraisal of where things stand now and how he is concerned that a lack of action by Talbot County leaders might escalate the debate to a point where the county’s reputation is permanently damaged.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. 

Filed Under: Archives, Spy Highlights, Spy Top Story

Chestertown Commerce: Returning to a New Normal With Thad Bench

March 30, 2021 by James Dissette 3 Comments

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As mass vaccination centers propel the nation’s rising immunization rate, businesses large and small are calculating a year’s worth of damage and trying to define the contours of a “new normal.”

There is encouraging news. The government stimulus spurring last month’s 8% rise in retail sales along with a new report that jobless claims have fallen to a pandemic low are spurring optimism in a reemerging business climate with many companies predicting a return to pre-Covid profitability by the end of 2021.

This is tempered, however, by the thousands, if not millions, of small businesses that have closed forever in the immense shadow of half a million deaths.

The Spy reached out to Benchworks CEO Thad Bench to talk about managing his business during Covid and what the “new normal” might look like going forward.

Benchworks is a comprehensive marketing services agency founded in 1991 and headquartered in Chestertown with offices in Philadelphia and Boston. Throughout the decades the marketing and branding company has been recognized with countless awards for its leadership qualities and innovative production accomplishments.

Still, the CEO has not lost sight of his beloved Kent County and the need for business strategies beyond the setbacks of the pandemic.

“I think that quality retail establishments and restaurants are clearly important to the vibrancy of Chestertown. The more we have, the better in that we can become more of a culinary/shopping destination,” Bench said.

He adds that he sees a real opportunity to scale commercial activity and employment in Kent county is to attract knowledge workers and organizations that employ them. Data centers, software companies, etc., are no longer geofenced.

“The question is what can we can do to attract tech companies and provide them with quality employees. Recruiting talent from Philadelphia, Annapolis, and beyond is feasible given the lessons we have learned from the pandemic.”

Bench, a two-year member of Washington College’s Board of Visitors and Governors, says Washington College is considering sponsoring a technology incubator with a focus on environmentally focused businesses. This makes a lot of sense and plays to Chestertown’s unique geography and rural character.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length. 

 

Filed Under: Spy Highlights, Spy Top Story

Special Report: Family Violence and Protection on the Mid-Shore

March 29, 2021 by Val Cavalheri 1 Comment

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Meet ‘Sara.’ It’s not her real name, but this is what she described happened to her last spring. “He was leaning into me, red-faced with anger, yelling at the top of his lungs. I was petrified. It wasn’t the first time this happened, but something about that night felt different. I’ve never been so scared. So, I took just a few belongings, and I fled.” 

Her experience was not unusual, but her timing was. As stay-at-home orders went into effect throughout the United States in 2020, it left many domestic violence victims trapped with their abusers. It became the pandemic within the pandemic. But here’s what was puzzling to domestic violence experts: Although reports of abuse were increasing across the nation, calls to violence hotlines decreased as victims felt they could not safely connect with needed services (many of which were closed). 

Sara was aware of that. She had heard about Mid-Shore Council on Family Violence (MSCFV, but commonly referred to as Mid-Shore) in Easton from a friend. She didn’t even call but ran to them anyway, hoping they could protect her. Someone happened to be in the office that day, and they let her in.

Mid-Shore was precisely the place where victims, like Sara, could typically find refuge. Created in the 1980s, it serves the counties of Kent, Queen Anne’s, Caroline, Dorchester, and Talbot offering a 24-hour hotline, counseling, advocacy, and legal services. Of course, as it had for everyone, the pandemic presented new problems to the organization that they hadn’t experienced before. This included finding ways to get protective orders for their clients.

Once courts started to reopen in June 2020, the number of hotline calls and clients increased significantly. Most notably, Mid-Shore received the highest number of calls they had ever had in a single month since the program’s beginning. 

Mid-Shore’s Executive Director Jeanne Yeager

Mid-Shore’s Executive Director Jeanne Yeager is unphased. After 25 years on the job and being a survivor herself, she and her staff knew they would do whatever needed to be done—and more—to safeguard those who came to them.

“It’s a unique and successful model that we’re implementing,” says Yeager, “Probably the only one in the State where we see getting to safety as the beginning of the journey. We’ve evolved over time to move from not just aiding victims in crisis to now helping them with their journey all the way to self-sufficiency.”

Sara: “They assigned me a psychologist, who I met with, virtually, once a week. They assigned me a social worker to answer all questions and who accompanied me to my attorney. They helped me find an attorney, and they helped me with having the attorney fees reduced.”

A considerable part of the expansion that Mid-Shore has seen over its years as a service organization is its panel of attorneys. Since economic independence is a critical factor in violence prevention, their lawyers now assist not only in protective orders and divorces but also represent the victim in financial debt, bankruptcy, landlord/tenant matters, consumer issues, etc.

In Sara’s case, this help was invaluable. Sara is a successful freelance designer who, throughout her 20 years of marriage, never knew how much money she had. “Mid-Shore made me feel validated,” she said, “because there were names for all the things I had gone through. I didn’t know there were different types of abuse. I didn’t know that what I had gone through was verbal abuse. I didn’t know there was such a thing as financial abuse.”

As Sara realized, and many people are not aware, the absence of physical violence does not mean the abuser is any less dangerous, nor that the victim is any less trapped. Emotional and psychological abuse often is just as extreme as physical violence. According to the CDC, an estimated 10 million people, primarily women, are affected every year. (Although Yeager added that 5% of clients seen at Mid-Shore are male victims.)  

Nationwide, numerous programs support victims of domestic abuse. But there are some unique aspects to the counties that Mid-Shore covers. “We’ve become an expert and a leader in working, not just with domestic violence victims, but specifically rural domestic violence victims,” says Yeager. “Their challenges, their barriers are unique and different in some ways, from those experiencing abuse in urban settings. For example, we don’t have a transportation system. So, you can’t say ‘jump on the A-line to come to our office or go to court.’ Instead, we have a transportation person who picks them up to get them to court, to a shelter, or appointments. We have to help facilitate them accessing services rather than giving them a ‘here’s where you go’ kind of a referral.”

There is another quality exclusive to rural areas—familiarity. Yeager explains: “There’s a lot of great things about being socially connected, but when you’re a victim of abuse, those social networks can also be a barrier. For example, your abuser went to high school with the local sheriff. Or you don’t want to go into the courtroom because the cousin of the abuser is the Clerk of Court. Or your sister-in-law is employed at the hospital.” 

To provide confidentiality in situations such as these, Mid-Shore works with local community partners to provide special accommodations. These may include housing their clients in a different county, providing a private entrance to the courthouse, or even having their case heard at Court in another county.  

These are just some ways that the organization wants to make sure they’ve thought through all possibilities that would prevent a victim from seeking them out. They also make it easy to reach them. Besides a 24-hour hotline, Mid-Shore’s website has immediate online chat access to an advocate and information on how and where to get help.

“Mid-Shore is action-oriented,” says Yeager. “We’re providing housing, food, legal support, and you can also meet with our therapist (we have a bilingual therapist if needed). We’re helping you with the basic stuff that you’re going through because you can’t be successful if you don’t have a safe place to live for you and your family.” And that family may also include pets.  “70% of our clients have pets, and they won’t leave unless they can bring them as well. And so, we have a pet sheltering program. We’ve partnered with the Banfield Foundation and the American Kennel Club. We can place clients at hotels that are pet friendly.”

Washington College’s GIS (geographic information systems)

The partnerships Mid-Shore have been able to make within the community have also led to significant decisions and innovations. Working with Washington College’s GIS (geographic information systems), Mid-Shore took part in crime mapping to identify domestic violence incidents reported in each of the five counties. Their finding led them to open up an office in Dorchester County that has been extremely busy. 

The GIS technology has even gone further, creating a resource and housing dashboard. Says Yeager: “Our case managers, at a glance, can see what housing is available for, say, $600 a month, that’s pet friendly, that includes no security deposit, that has internet capabilities. You put that into a search engine, and it links right to the website. The whole notion of applying technology to victims services work has been amazing.”

Yeager admits the work she and her staff do is hard, but the rewards are immense, especially knowing they’re responsible for saving people’s lives. “It’s been an incredible personal and professional experience, not just for me, for the entire staff.  The people who work here come to this because of their love of others. Everybody is from the Shore; it’s a beautiful place to live, but we also get the realities.”

The reality is that, despite all of the resources available to them, a lot of victims return to their abusers.  “A victim leaves five to eight times before they actually leave, “says Yeager.  “If they leave, it doesn’t always mean they’re ready to go. Sometimes, they’re testing the waters; they’re seeing if they can trust us. We don’t see leaving as success; that’s not our gauge. It’s leaving and shifting from being a victim to being a survivor; that’s the success. And that’s the hard work. And that takes a long time.”

Looking back now, Sara remembers the fear. “I had the courage to go when my fear of staying was bigger than my fear of leaving.” But it wasn’t easy. “I had to be willing to give up everything–my home with a beautiful view of the water, my beautiful belongings, and all that stuff because when you get down to it, it’s just stuff. I have a whole different outlook on what the priorities are in my life.” 

Sara was granted a divorce at the beginning of this year. She’s still living on the Eastern Shore. She’s lost some friends and gained others but has learned a lot from her experience. “I understood that I was living with a mentally unstable person for a very long time,” she says. I didn’t recognize the signs and tried to hide them from the world.  I kept praying that I could fix him if I was nice enough, if I was kind enough, if I did enough. What I realized was that you can’t fix people. The people at Mid-Shore helped me in so many ways. Every woman knows a woman who will need this service, and they need to know it exists. As women, we need to protect each other, and I pray that I can do for someone what they did for me.”

If you need help call 1800-927-4673 or go to: https://mscfv.org/. There will always be someone there to speak to you.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

 

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