Get your sea legs back! The tall ships are returning for Downrigging Festival—anchored to the bright, rhythm of bluegrass music.

Now in its 24th year, the festival began in 2001, when the Pride of Baltimore II joined the newly launched Sultana for a celebratory sail. “Everyone had such a good time that we did it again,” recalls Drew McMullen, Presiient of the Sultana Education Foundation. “Then we invited other boats, and then more boats—and eventually we had as many as we could.”

Over time, the celebration grew beyond the docks. “We wanted to make it bigger,” McMullen says. “That’s when we found Rousby and added a bluegrass festival. Now it’s the world’s only tall ships and bluegrass event.”

This year’s fleet brings back several longtime favorites—Pride of Baltimore II, Lady Maryland, Sigsbee, and AJ Meerwald—along with the Godspeed from Jamestown, visiting Chestertown for only the second time. “There just aren’t that many of these boats around,” McMullen says. “We work hard to bring the best, and they’re all nonprofits doing education work, just like us.”

The musical half of the festival began as an experiment. “Drew wanted to add music as a way to generate income,” says Rousby Quesenberry, Downrigging’s longtime music director. “At first, I laughed. I’ve been in this business long enough to know bluegrass isn’t exactly a cash cow.”

But what started modestly has grown into one of the strongest regional bluegrass gatherings on the East Coast. “We’re not just playing to tall-ship people anymore,” Quesenberry says. “We’ve converted some of them, and now we have our own audience.”

Each year, Quesenberry attends the International Bluegrass Music Association conference to scout new acts. “They have a gig fair—it’s like speed dating for bands,” he says. “This year, 18 groups pitched to play at Downrigging.”

The 2025 lineup features one of the festival’s best rosters yet. Friday night highlights Mid-Atlantic performers, including local favorites The High & Wides, who got their start in Chestertown. Saturday brings bands from Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Nashville, headlined by six-time Bass Player of the Year Missy Raines and her band, Allegheny, along with Danny Paisley, a multiple-time Male Vocalist of the Year. Sunday’s free Community Day features gospel, local favorites, and the Navy’s Country Current band—“They’ve played every Downrigging we’ve ever had,” Quesenberry notes.

Beyond the music and sails, McMullen says the weekend carries another. message. “Most of what Sultana does happens out of the public eye—we work with about 13,000 students a year on the Bay and in the field. Downrigging is our way to celebrate that work and share it with the wider community.” The event now supports roughly 15% of Sultana’s educational programs.

Next year’s festival will have special resonance: the 30th anniversary of the Sultana Foundation and the 25th anniversary of the ship’s launch. “We’re already thinking about how to tell that story through the 2026 event,” McMullin says.

And while the ticketed sails and concerts draw crowds, the weekend also offers plenty for free—dockside ship tours, lectures, art exhibits, fireworks, and cultural programs presented by local partners such as Sumner Hall, the Kent Cultural Alliance, the Bookplate, and the C.V. Starr Center.

For full schedules and ticket information, visit downrigging.org.

The video is approximately eight minutes in length.

Mayoral candidate Mark Mumford says his campaign for Chestertown’s highest office is driven by one core belief: public service.

“It’s not about me,” Mumford says. “No one runs for mayor or council for their own benefit. They do it out of a sense of commitment and dedication to public service.”

The theme of service runs through every part of his message. “I want to build consensus,” he adds. “I can’t do the job alone. We need to unify as a town and as citizens of Chestertown. What I won’t tolerate is people shouting down others who are volunteering to help their community. I want civility. I want people to step up and give a couple of hours here and there. That’s how we make Chestertown the best town in Maryland.”

When asked about the town’s most pressing challenges, Mumford points first to infrastructure—roads, underground utilities, and water systems. “Our drinking water and lagoon system are vital,” he says. “They’re expensive to maintain, but we’ve managed to keep Chestertown’s sewer rates among the lowest in the state—around $90 a quarter. The Bay Restoration Fund and state programs help us replace aging septic systems, often at little or no cost to homeowners, depending on income. It’s a system that works when everyone participates.”

On the topic of housing, Mumford pushes back against misconceptions about affordability. “‘Affordable’ doesn’t mean cheap or Section 8,” he says. “It means a young family that lands a job here can buy a home.” Rising prices and limited supply, he adds, have made that nearly impossible for many. One idea he’s exploring is long-term land leasing, modeled after Washington College’s 99-year leases that once made homeownership feasible. “If you remove the cost of the land, you make the mortgage attainable,” he explains. “We can use public land more creatively.”

Economic development, he says, is another top priority. “Every town in America is chasing new businesses, but we can’t offer the incentives that big cities can. What we can do is support the employers who’ve stayed.” Mumford points to Dixon Valve as an example of local commitment. “When Dixon built their new facility, they chose to stay because Chestertown helped them succeed from the start. They provide good jobs, solid benefits, and training that lets people advance. Washington College, the hospital, Gillespie & Son—these are anchors. We just need the workforce to fill the jobs.”

He also highlights emerging partnerships that address social and housing needs, including Kent Attainable Housing’s duplex projects on Prospect Street, the Kent Shelter Alliance, and local collaborations to create transitional housing with job training. “That’s what community looks like,” he says. “People finding ways to lift one another up.”

If elected, Mumford says his top priority will be professionalism and collaboration. “Chestertown is an incorporated business, and it should be run like one—with courtesy, transparency, and customer service,” he says. “We’re not always going to agree, but we can sit down, talk things through, and find common ground.”

Background and Experience

After attending local schools, Mark Mumford continued his education at the University of Delaware and Chesapeake College, taking courses in accounting and business. During his senior year of high school, he began working part-time at People’s Bank of Kent County, where he later completed a leadership diploma through the Institute of Financial Education. His 14-year banking career included nine years with People’s Bank and five with Second National Bank.

Encouraged by friends who recognized his dedication to public service, Mumford ran for and was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court for Kent County—a role that began what he calls a lifetime of community service.

A lifelong member of the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company, Mumford joined immediately after graduating high school in 1976 and recently celebrated 49 years of service. He served 24 years on the board of directors, including a term as president, and remains an active member today.

Beyond the fire company, Mumford’s civic involvement spans decades of leadership across local organizations. He served as president of both the Kent County Chamber of Commerce and the Chestertown Tea Party Festival Committee (the latter for 12 of his 20 years on the board). He was founder and Drum Major of the Kent County Community Marching Band, established in 1992 for the county’s 350th anniversary, and later co-founded the Delmarva United Marching Band (DUMB).

His record of service also includes leadership roles with the Chestertown Rotary Club, the Kent County Jaycees, Sacred Heart Catholic Church’s Christian Youth Organization, the American Cancer Society, Kent Youth, Inc., and the Chestertown Lions Club—where he has been active for the past 15 years, particularly in the eyeglass and vision programs central to the Lions’ mission. A member of the Chestertown Elks for roughly 30 years, he also served as Esquire of the lodge.

This video is approximately thirteen minutes in length.

A 1975 graduate of Washington College, Bryan Matthews knows nearly every corner of his alma mater. Over more than 25 years he has served in athletics, admissions, student affairs, and now in the president’s office, he is guiding the institution through some challenging times.

When Matthews stepped into the interim presidency in mid-August, Washington College was in what he calls “a financially challenging situation, to put it mildly.” Since then, he and his cabinet have carried forward former President Sosulski’s  steps to bring the budget back into balance. “Positions were cut, expenses reduced, and a zero-based budgeting process was installed,” he said. “We’re now in a manageable position. It doesn’t mean everything’s great—but it’s stable.”

Enrollment trends have also turned slightly upward. The incoming freshman class exceeded budget projections and improved net tuition revenue, providing what Matthews described as “a modest but meaningful boost.” The college still faces a small shortfall this year, but the focus now, he said, is on increasing revenue through enrollment growth and retention. “That’s where my history as a coach and recruiter serves me well,” he said. “I like it, I understand it, and I see it as our best opportunity for sustainable growth.”

Matthews is quick to emphasize that faculty programs were protected during the cuts. “No faculty were let go, and no academic programs were dropped,” he said. Most of the expense reductions came from staff attrition and voluntary retirements. “This is the first semester that people are flying the airplane with a smaller crew,” he added. “There’s strain, but there’s also remarkable determination.”

Returning to the College after a decade away, Matthews has been struck by how teaching and learning have evolved. “Ten years ago, classroom technology was clunky. Now it’s seamless—it drives the conversation instead of interrupting it,” he said. “Our faculty have really embraced experiential learning, no matter the discipline.” He shared the story of a junior chemistry major who spent last summer doing graduate-level research at Montana State University. “That’s the level of preparation happening here,” he said proudly.

Matthews’s listening tour during his first eight weeks brought him face-to-face with every academic and staff department. What he found, he said, was a community that had weathered hard years but remained resilient. “Crisis brings people together. We may not agree on everything, but we’re aligned—we want to succeed and thrive.”

He sees that same interdependence extending beyond the campus. “What would Washington College be without a successful Chestertown, and what is Chestertown without a thriving college?” he asked.

His sense of rootedness is personal for him. After earning his B.A. in political science and M.A. in psychology from Washington College, Matthews served as captain of the lacrosse team before taking his first campus job as lacrosse coach and assistant director of admissions. He went on to coach and teach at the U.S. Naval Academy for 12 years before returning to Washington Collge to hold multiple leadership roles—director of athletics, assistant to the president for special projects, associate vice president of administrative services, and interim vice president and dean of students. During that time, he completed his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership & Innovation from Wilmington University.

Off campus, Matthews’s commitment to Kent County has been just as steady. He has served as vice president of KRM Development Corporation, director of community and government relations for the Dixon Group, president of the Kent County Chamber of Commerce, and a board member for both the Mid-Shore Community Foundation and Kent County Character Counts.

Looking ahead, Matthews is energized by new initiatives such as the Warehime School of Business, made possible by a $15 million gift from alumna Beth Wareheim. The new building will stand at the campus entrance, symbolizing renewal. “It’s transformational,” he said. “Not just for business majors, but for students across disciplines.”

Still, he is pragmatic. “Washington College is a mission-oriented business, not a passion project,” he said. “We need to pay our bills, pay our people, and support our academic mission. Right now, the ship is stable—and that’s a good place to start.”

 

This video is approximately sixteen minutes in length.

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When John Lewis arrived at The Gunston School sixteen years ago, he wasn’t yet the seasoned Head of School he is today; he was a young educator drawn to what he calls “the ecosystem of school,” a living, breathing network of teachers, students, and ideas that thrive when curiosity and purpose align.

Lewis grew up in Montgomery County and attended a large public high school before heading to Georgetown University, where baseball first brought him to campus. But academics quickly took hold. “I became more of an academic than an athlete,” he says. His work as a resident assistant awakened a deeper interest in education, which led to his first teaching post at Culver Academies in Indiana.

From there, Lewis’s path wound through international schools in Quito, Ecuador, and Singapore, experiences that deepened his understanding of cultural and educational diversity. He went on to earn master’s degrees from both Harvard and Columbia before returning to the U.S. to take on leadership roles in New Jersey schools. When a headhunter called about “a little school in Maryland looking for a young leader,” he followed his instincts east—and never looked back.

Sixteen years later, Gunston’s wooded waterfront campus just outside Centreville reflects Lewis’s philosophy of education as both intellectual rigor and ethical grounding. “We’re a community of choice,” he explains. “Families come because they believe in our values—academic excellence, personal attention, and environmental stewardship.”

While he trained as an English teacher, Lewis now teaches AP Government, a course he calls perfectly suited to today’s ever-changing political landscape. “There’s never a day without a major headline to discuss,” he says. The class keeps him close to students and grounded in the daily pulse of learning.

Lewis emphasizes that Gunston’s strength lies in its intimacy: a culture where no student can truly get lost, where teachers and students share respect for each other. “High school kids are a lot of fun,” he says. “Watching ninth graders arrive uncertain and leave as confident young adults; that’s the best part of this job.”

As both educator and parent, and now that his own daughter is now a Gunston student, Lewis experiences the school from both sides. “It’s wonderful to see her challenged and supported by the same teachers I work with,” he says.

Throughout his role as Head of School, Lewis holds close to his mantra : “The question ‘Where do I want to go?’ really begins with ‘Who am I?’ When students understand themselves, they make better choices—for college and for life.”

For those who have never visited the 75-acre campus along the Corsica River, Lewis encourages them to stop by.  For more about The Gunston School, go here.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length.

The Garfield Center for the Arts is bringing new life to The Elephant Man, Bernard Pomerance’s powerful drama about Joseph Merrick, a man with severe deformities who was long exploited as a sideshow attraction before finding dignity and recognition in Victorian society. First staged in 1977, the play went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play and became an international success for its stark theatrical device: Merrick is portrayed without prosthetics, relying on the actor’s physicality and the audience’s imagination to confront their own assumptions about beauty, cruelty, and compassion. Its revival at the Garfield underscores both the timelessness of the play’s themes and the theater’s commitment to presenting work that challenges as well as entertains.

The Spy recently caught up with the play’s director, E.T. “Talley” Wilford, and actor Ben VanNest, who plays Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.

“The Elephant Man” opens this Friday and runs Friday and Saturday nights at 8 PM, and Sundays at 2 PM, until October 19th. For tickets, visit www.garfieldcenter.org anytime, or call 410-810-2060 on Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays from 10 AM to 3 PM.

This video is approximately five minutes in length.

SNAP-Ed, the federally funded program that for decades has provided nutrition education and obesity prevention to low-income families, will end on October 1, 2025. Its elimination wipes out initiatives across the country, a devastating loss to the nation’s public health infrastructure.

In Maryland, the impact is immediate and severe. The University of Maryland Extension will lose nearly $6.3 million in federal funding, cutting off services to some 424,000 residents at 700 partner sites from Head Start programs to food pantries and farmers markets. At least 70 educators and staff will lose their jobs, and with them, programs that brought fresh produce into classrooms, encouraged children to “eat a rainbow,” and offered families practical tools for healthier living. For many communities already stretched thin, the absence of SNAP-Ed represents not just a budget cut, but the loss of one of the few steady supports for healthier lives

Against this backdrop of vanishing resources, local educator Eric Fitch has seen firsthand what SNAP-Ed means to children and families in Kent County. In our conversation, he shares how the program has shaped classrooms, encouraged healthier choices, and why its loss will be felt so deeply here at home.

For years, Kent County children have looked forward to Eric’s visits to their classrooms. Known for showing up in fruit-themed shirts — “When you come in dressed like a watermelon, you’re not intimidating anymore,” he laughs,  Fitch has built trust by making nutrition more engaging than reading a set of instructions.  “My approach was a little different,” he explained. “I like to approach it for the fun first, get them to trust me, like me, and then I’m going to teach you.”

Eric is a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) instructor, part of a federally funded program that teaches children and families about healthy eating, exercise, and mental well-being. “Basically, what we are doing is trying to teach those who may not have the education through home or through school how to live a healthy life,” he said. Lessons have ranged from brain breaks to after-school cooking competitions, where kids learned to make salsa and smoothies.

But this work is coming to an end. When the federal “One Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law, future SNAP-Ed funding was eliminated. Fitch explained, “They couldn’t take away the money that has already been given out, but they could say no more will be given out. So we all have to end at the same time.”

The program’s impact has gone beyond classrooms. Eric has worked with farmers markets to expand SNAP benefits and partnered with local food pantries to create recipe tastings from donated staples. “We’d see what they had a lot of, maybe fish and rice, and then we’d cook it up. If people liked it, we’d give them the recipe and the ingredients to take home.”

The need, he says, is undeniable. “From when I was a personal trainer, I lost touch with how much need was present in the county. This job opened my eyes, and now I can’t leave it. I just can’t do it without trying.”

To continue the mission, Fitch is creating a new program: MANGO — Mentoring Agricultural Nutrition and Garden Outreach. Unlike SNAP-Ed, which was housed under the University of Maryland Extension, MANGO will operate under an umbrella nonprofit to deliver school and community-based nutrition education. “Youth is my number one priority,” he said. “They have a lot of years left. The more years of habits, the harder it is to change.”

Fitch also offered a plea: “We need volunteers in Kent County. Every time I go to a food pantry, volunteers are getting older and older. We need more young people to step up.”

To be in touch with Eric, his email is [email protected]

This video is approximately nine minutes in length.

 

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Kent County Superintendent of Schools Dr.  Mary Boswell -McComas is inviting the community to take part in what she describes as a “defining moment” for education in Kent County,  the unveiling of the design for the new Kent County Middle School.

On Monday, September 8, during the Kent County Board of Education meeting, architects will present the official design for the middle school replacement project. “We are very excited for the entire community to have an opportunity to see this design, given that we have not built a new school building in over 50 years in Kent County,” Dr. McComas said.

For those unable to attend Monday’s meeting, a second, larger presentation will be held on Thursday, September 11, at 6:00 p.m. at the current Kent County Middle School. At that session, the architects will present renderings and plans for the entire community.

Dr. McComas underscored the significance of the project:

“The fact that we have not built a new building in half a century tells us that it’s time. Our current facility is well beyond its lifespan. A new building sends a resounding message that we as a community in Kent County care about our children, and we are ready to invest and revitalize.”

The superintendent noted that the project is on schedule to break ground by the end of February, pending weather and funding alignment. She added that new facilities can boost enrollment, as families are drawn to communities that demonstrate their commitment to modern, state-of-the-art schools.

Dr. McComas is also calling on residents to show their support. Letters of support can be sent to [email protected] or submitted through the school system’s website. She will also be out in the community in the coming weeks — at Wharton’s recreation field this Saturday and at the Chestertown Farmers Market on upcoming Saturdays — to answer questions and hand out information.

“Schools are about roots in a community,”  Dr. McComas said. “When new school buildings come into existence, everyone is renewed. There is a natural optimism about who we are and where we’re going.”

The Spy recently spoke with Dr. McComas and urges readers to attend the Septemberr 11 presentation.

This video is approximately five minutes in length.

 

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In Part 2 of our interview, Dr. McComas addressed concerns about combining middle and high school students in the same building. While some Maryland schools are designed for that model, with separate wings and facilities, Kent County parents remain uneasy about 12-year-olds sharing space with older teens, especially given today’s social media climate.

She also praised county commissioners for exploring every funding option for the new middle school, noting recent proposals to secure additional resources. In September, architects will present finalized designs to the Board of Education, the community, and the commissioners. The plan includes housing grades 5–8, freeing space in elementary schools to expand Kent County’s already leading early childhood programs, including universal pre-K for four-year-olds and new programs for three-year-olds.

Dr. McComas also discussed repurposing the Worton building, potentially relocating the Board of Education there to save the county money and provide space for other agencies, such as the Board of Elections.

On academic performance, she acknowledged the need for improvement but highlighted progress, especially among the first post-pandemic cohort. Third graders last year showed a 21% gain in reading and 12% in math over two years, aided by the adoption of the Orton-Gillingham literacy method and a revised math curriculum. She urged the community to view achievement data in context, noting upcoming changes to state math standards and testing.

McComas rejects claims that investing in a small middle school isn’t worthwhile, stressing that the project will serve thousands of students over the next 50 years. The current 70-year-old building is beyond repair, plagued by failing infrastructure, including a collapsing sewer system. Delaying construction would only increase costs, with the state unwilling to cover inflation.

“I think I it’s important for people to understand we’re not investing this money for just the number of students we have today, given that we don’t build schools every five years. We haven’t built a school in over 50 years,  so, we’re talking about investing money. If we have 450 students in that middle school times 50 years, that is 22,000 students. This is who we’re building this school for. We’re building this school not for the students we have today, but for the students we will have in five years, 17 years, 30 years from now.”