On June 15, 2019, the certified heritage area for Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties, Stories of the Chesapeake will its 2019 Heritage Hero Awards at its 6th Annual Heritage Heroes Celebration – Sunset on the Choptank. Heritage Heroes are those individuals, organizations, or projects that advance the heritage area’s goals to preserve, promote, and interpret the natural, cultural, historic, and archaeological resources that define this special place.
The 2019 Heritage Heroes are the Frederick Douglass 200th Anniversary Committee, Phil and Vicki Liske of Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farms, Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin, and Leslie Prince Raimond. The Frederick Douglass 200th Anniversary Committee convened over 35 community organizations and churches to plan for a yearlong schedule of events to celebrate and honor the 200th birthday of Frederick Douglass and to highlight for our community and especially young people, his legacy, values and inspirational messages that is still resilient today..
Ten years ago, Phil was one of the first farmers who agreed to be a part of Tourism’s group tours and a heritage area travel site. Phil and Vicki were instrumental in building Caroline County Agritourism and hold a large event every fall that is free to the public. This event has grown steadily and is now one of the main attractions for visitors to Caroline County.
Long-time director of the Kent County Arts Council has been instrumental in incorporating heritage into the arts. Under her leadership, the Arts Council stepped in to help save Sumner Hall, one of the 2 remains Grand Army Republic Halls in the United States. She and her late husband Vince saved and restored several historic houses. Ms. Raimond has been an integral part of almost every arts project in Kent County for the past 30 years. She has instilled a love of the arts and heritage in countless children and adults alike.
Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin is currently the Queen Anne’s County historian and founder of the Mary Edwardine Bourke Emory Foundation that is u taking the restoration of Bloomfield as the home of the Maryland Women’s Museum. Mary Margaret has been instrumental in numerous historic interpretation and presentations on Queen Anne’s County history including the War of 1812, the Centreville Walking Tour, and Queen Ann’s History Day.
We are honored and excited to present this year’s keynote speaker, journalist, and radio documentarian Michael Buckley. For the past 20 years, Buckley has hosted a weekly radio program that airs Sunday mornings on 103.1 WRNR-FM Annapolis (www.wrnr.com). His show includes an eclectic mix of music and a widely acclaimed oral history interview series, “Voices of the Chesapeake Bay”. For this series, Buckley has crisscrossed the six-state, 64,000 sq. mile Chesapeake Bay watershed, interviewing over 500 of its residents: farmers, Native Americans, watermen, writers, politicians, and many others.
In addition to sampling local foods and libations, guests can participate in a silent auction to raise money for Heritage Area grants, workshops, and marketing.