Two Johns a-Teaching
CBMM Vice President of Advancement John Miller and Facilities Manager John Ford leave their Eagle House offices each week for 90-minute sojourns in the land of academe.

With their unique, tag-team approach to teaching, they have led classes at the Museum’s Academy for Lifelong Learning (ALL) for the last five years that range from a study of Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s sweeping novel One Hundred Years of Solitude to one-act plays to Literature of the Chesapeake Bay.
Miller, a former college professor, and Ford, who had no previous teaching experience, found they share a love of literature and volunteered to teach at ALL, an adult-education program sponsored by CBMM.

Miller says he and Ford started teaching together after Ford mentioned that Moby Dick was read every year at Mystic Seaport and suggested that it should be done in St. Michaels.

“I said, ‘I’ll do it if you do it. Why don’t we co-teach.’”

The two pick a topic they think will be fun to teach and then set up a class. “One of us writes the syllabus. We usually meet the day of class and get a sense of what we want to do in case we come into class for an hour and a half and nobody says anything, but that has never happened,” Miller says.

“What is particularly fun about it is we do not coordinate exactly what we are going to do,” Miller says. “So John might be outraged by what I might say and vice versa.”
The classes have proved very popular with classes ranging from 20 to 25 for the six-week session. The largest class ever, 35, signed up to read and discuss One Hundred Years of Solitude. This winter, the duo is leading a class on the short stories of William Faulkner.

Ford says the partnership has developed a “following with the usual cast of characters showing up. They tell us they wouldn’t care if we did the phone book.”
“With the whole ALL concept, you have almost exclusively senior citizens who bring all these various life experiences and perspectives to the class,” he says. “You end up seeing whatever piece of literature we are talking about from so many different angles.”

The Academy provides a diverse range of courses, including classes in ecology, literature, history, and gardening, as well as field trips. Click here to find a course list.

To register, make course suggestions, or to get more detailed information about upcoming activities, contact the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, 410-745-2916 ext. 111. The annual membership fee is $25 for a single membership and $40 for a couple membership. Membership in ALL is required for course participation. Museum membership does not apply.

Safety Training Pays Off
The CBMM marina crew helped rescue three boaters who fell from their vessels in separate incidents during the summer, says Visitor Services Manager Paul Stearns.

Visitor Services Assistant Melissa Faulkner rescued two of the boaters. The first accident occurred when a boater slipped on the swim platform of his boat tied up at the Museum’s A-Dock and could not get out of the water.

“Melissa jumped down on the swim platform and pulled him out,” Stearns says.
In the second case, a woman fell into the water while Melissa was helping her dock. She grabbed the woman’s hand and guided her to a ladder.

When another woman fell from her boat at the dock, Security Officer Rick Thalmann and Visitor Services Assistant Rachel Roman helped her get to a ladder.
Stearns says it is unusual to have water rescues.

“Last year, we didn’t have any, zero.”

He says that the staff is trained in how to handle safety issues each year. “Marina Management 101 is what we call it,” he says.

In a letter to Melissa, the woman she helped wrote:

“I thank you with all my heart for your help. You have all of the qualities of a level-headed, kind, intelligent, and courageous person. St. Michaels is lucky to have you as an employee.”

New Boat Yard Apprentice
Cliff Mumford hasjoined the Boat Yard crew as an apprentice. Boat Yard Manager Rich Scofield say that Mumford, of Milford, Delaware, comes with woodworking and some boatbuilding experience. “He is a sponge; he learns everything he can,” Scofield says. “He wants to make a living working on boats.”

He said the CBMM apprenticeship is for a year and the Museum can extend it for a second year at its discretion.

Helen Van Fleet, George Merrill Honored
CBMM Operations Assistant Helen Van Fleet and volunteer and ALL instructor George Merrill were honored in September by the Talbot County Commission on Aging for their contributions to the community. They were presented with certificates at the second annual “Senior Celebration of Life” luncheon sponsored by Londonderry Retirement Community in Easton.

Lighthouse Draws a Crowd
Spending a night in the Hooper Strait Lighthouse has become one of the Education Department’s most popular programs, especially with the Brownie and Girl Scout crowd, says CBMM’s Director of Education Robert Forloney.

More than 300 visitors this year, most of them Brownie and Girl Scout groups, brought their sleeping bags to the Museum and slept on the historic lighthouse’s hardwood floors.

“We have four weekends booked for fall ’08 already,” he says.

The scouting groups have merit badges that focus on lighthouses.

“Many of the groups come here to help the girls earn their badges,” he says.
Overnight participants receive an introduction to Chesapeake Bay lighthouses, a guided tour of the lighthouse, and a chance to perform some of the duties of a traditional lighthouse keeper. In addition to the educational activities and overnight accommodations, they receive two days’ admission to the Museum and a souvenir patch.

For more information on the Lighthouse Overnight Program, contact Youth Programs Coordinator Rachel Dolhanczyk at rdolhanczyk@cbmm.org, or call 410-745-2916 ext. 103, click here.

Community Outreach
More than 30 members of the Union United Methodist Church in St. Michaels attended a special open house at the Museum in September as part of an expanded program to create new partnerships.

The men, women, and children explored the Museum on special docent-guided tours, went aboard the Lady Maryland and Sigsbee, two of the traditional Bay vessels maintained by the Living Classrooms Foundation, and participated in a variety of children’s activities.

The visit grew out of a similar event when CBMM opened its doors to the church congregation during the Annual Homecoming Celebration at the end of August. This past winter, the church hosted a monthly Docent Meeting when the Museum auditorium was not available. Rosella Camper and Marla Baines, who serve on the CBMM Community Advisory Committee and are active in the church, discussed the video they created documenting African-American history in the area. The video was included in the recent “Waters of Despair, Waters of Hope” exhibit.

As the Education Department at CBMM moves to offer new educational programs, it is also working with community groups and organizations such as Union Church. CBMM looks forward to strengthening its ties with local communities in new and exciting ways.

“Chesapeake Icons” Exhibit Opens
Blue crabs, oysters, skipjacks, lighthouses, and waterfowl. These images have become symbols of the Chesapeake Bay. How these Chesapeake icons have evolved and ways they have been portrayed is the theme of a new exhibition at the Museum. “Chesapeake Icons” opened on October 6 on the second floor of the Museum’s Steamboat Building.

Used by artists, writers, and salesmen of all types, these five representations of the Bay make up much of CBMM’s collection. This exhibition showcases a number of iconic artifacts—from oyster cans and seafood marketing materials to fine art and models of skipjacks.

For more information about the “Chesapeake Icons” exhibition, please contact the Museum at 410-745-2916, or click here.

Annual Fund 2007-2008
“I’ve had a long-term interest in the Museum even before my wife and I moved to the Shore in 2005. For me the Museum is a unique place in many ways. But I have always been especially attracted by its commitment to the preservation of the Bay’s historic working watercraft, in particular its dedication to preserving and passing on wooden boatbuilding skills. These skills are an important part of the Bay’s maritime heritage, and I’m delighted my contributions of the Annual Fund help underwrite this unique aspect of CBMM’s program.”
— Tom Seip
Easton, Maryland

“I love the water and I love the Chesapeake Bay. Boating and fishing have always been an enjoyable part of my life so it was natural for me to be attracted to CBMM and to become a member. I believe that annual giving from members is essential to maintaining and advancing the Museum’s programs and assuring that they are sustained at the very highest level. My Annual Fund gift is an investment I enjoy making every year.”
— Dagmar Gipe
Royal Oak, Maryland

Fall marks the beginning of our Annual Fund drive. Our goal is to raise $500,000 by the end of the fiscal year on April 30, 2008. The Annual Fund helps support all aspects of the Museum’s operations including exhibits, festivals, vessel restoration, and education programs for adults and children. Your contribution will also help to make our 18-acre campus a model of sustainability and a center of environmental responsibility. It will permit everyone who cares about the Chesapeake to learn more about its cultural and environmental history and sustain our efforts to preserve the Bay. To make a contribution please go to our website, www.cbmm.org, and click on “Members & Supporters” or contact John H. Miller, Vice President of Advancement at jmiller@cbmm.org or telephone 410-745-2916, ext 129.

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