Who in the World We Are
Seven years ago, on Earth Day 1993, New Bay Times was born in a little town where two creeks slide into Herring Bay and hence to the great Chesapeake Bay. Between Vol. I No. 1 of that fortnightly upstart and Vol. VIII No. 16 of Bay Weekly, dozens of people have put their faith and hope and hard work into bringing you 332 issues of the news you want to read.
Everybody who’s put their hand to that job has learned as much about themselves as about the news. Many are living dreams that began here. Others are chasing different dreams, while new doers and dreamers have come to take their place. Six of today’s regulars — including the three founders — have been here through all those volumes.
Here, in a world where change rules, is who we are on Earth Day 2000.
Editorial Advisor Bill Lambrecht, 49, had a dream.
He dreamed of spending days as well as nights in Chesapeake Country, where he’d landed with delight in 1985 after 35 years amid the fertile black soil of Illinois. All the Washington correspondent in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch bureau had to do was figure out a way to make a living here. He imagined guiding kayak tours or selling flowered Haitian pottery. But after two decades of newspapering, journalism was the only business he knew. What’s more, his wife, Sandra Martin, and stepson, Alex Knoll, had a yen for newspapering. And his dog, Max, needed a job.
Thus, way back in 1993, New Bay Times was born. “If we build it,” said Bill, “they will come.”
Bill was right. Readers and writers will come to an independent, wry, irreverent and sweetly written newspaper. So will advertisers, once you prove you’ll help them make money.
He just wasn’t right about how easy it would be. Bay Weekly hasn’t made him rich — just satisfied. “Watching my family build Bay Weekly into a positive force in Chesapeake Country has been the most rewarding experience of my life,” says Bill.
Instead of retiring to Chesapeake Country to write his novel, he’s kept commuting to D.C., covering political campaigns every four years and, in between, winning seven national journalism awards in nine years for his investigations into how humankind is challenging Mother Nature.
Worse, he’s had to moonlight at Bay Weekly.
Until this month, Bill hasn’t gotten a bit of his dream. Now he’s spending Chesapeake Spring at home, writing not a novel but a book under contract for St. Martin’s Press on how genetic engineering is transforming our daily bread and the global politics of food.
Editor Sandra Martin, 56, the mother of this family newspaper, marshals the news and views that fill these pages each week. That’s not easy considering that working with a pack of writers is akin to herding cats.
Without deep corporate pockets and slick inserts from chain stores, Bay Weekly is very much a teaching newspaper where writers get their start. It would be hard to find a better place to learn.
Martin is a first-rate teacher. At St. Louis University, she came under the spell of Jesuit intellectuals like Father Walter J. Ong, a disciple of Marshall McLuhan. Sandra’s training is literature and after earning her master’s, she went on to teach writing at colleges and universities, keeping at it for three decades. She was a poet, too, and co-founder of Brainchild, a women’s poetry collective that recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Along the way, Sandra developed a yen for weekly newspapers, beginning at Illinois Times, where she published her first story, about a street-corner hustler at Christmas time. In 1978 she and photographer-friend Sue Eslinger teamed up to travel the backroads of Illinois, filing rich, inventive stories that became minor classics. Their first project, “Women Who Kill in Self-Defense,” chronicled the acquittal of a battered wife. Eslinger died of breast cancer in 1996; her photo sits on Martin’s desk at Bay Weekly.
Sandra has been a Marylander for 15 years and the editorial boss of Bay Weekly since giving birth to its forerunner, New Bay Times, seven years ago. (She also gave birth to Bay Weekly‘s general manager J. Alex Knoll some years before that.)
General Manager J. Alex Knoll, 34, still has a paper route.
The eldest son of Bay Weekly’s founding family, Alex reigns over the paper as the man who takes care of the business behind the scenes. But Alex is no suit. His talents carry over into every aspect of the paper including layout, production, the occasional story and an almost seven-year run of his Sky Facts column. (A streak, he notes, that has never missed a week — not even for his honeymoon.) And, come Thursdays, you can find him lugging bundles of papers along one delivery route or another.
A duty not far removed from his beginnings in the business.
Alex first set his hand to journalism at 12 as a paperboy in Springfield, Ill. Even then he had entrepreneurial aspirations. Though managing a family paper wasn’t exactly what young Alex had in mind, he would eventually answer the family calling. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s in rhetoric and a master’s in journalism. The young entrepreneur sold sno-cones from a three-wheeled Cushman truckster to support himself in graduate school.
In 1992, Alex joined the family in Chesapeake Country, where he went native, working as the mate on a two-person crabbing boat. “I couldn’t think of any better initiation to the history, lore and culture of the Chesapeake,” he said. After interning with The Nation magazine in D.C, he was swept up in the conspiracy to create New Bay Times.
Alex now lives with his wife, Lisa Edler, in downtown Annapolis and subsists on a rich diet of barbecue. His most recent exploits have proclaimed Alex Bay Weekly’s own ironman. He captained our bottom-rung but mightily spirited beach volleyball team, and for the past two years he’s stared down hypothermia in the Polar Plunge off Sandy Point.
For Columnist Bill Burton, 73, the printed word is the best word because it’s always there. Burton would know.
In his long career, Bill’s turned his hand to political and news reporting, radio and television, books and outdoors journals.
The New England native broke into journalism with the Plainfield News at Goddard College in Vermont, where he published his first article, a special edition on a fire that destroyed the town’s biggest business. He also carried the paper to the printer and sold it on the street for five cents a copy.
Burton has since written for papers including the Anchorage Times. He left his love just once, for sales managing, which he hated.
He moved to Bay Country and the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1956, retiring as outdoor editor in 1992. Weeks later, he offered his services to the brand-new New Bay Times, where he’s appeared since our fifth issue — delighting readers and raising our stature.
Burton has fished with two presidents, taken journalism students under his wing, met celebrated figures like Robert Frost and even backpacked the Appalachian Trail in a wind-chill of 96 below.
At home, the proud father of six and grandfather of 10 lives in Riviera Beach with wife Lois and famous cat Freida Lawrence.
He also writes for The Capital and Maryland Gazette and the monthly Fishing and Hunting Journal. He edits the annual Maryland Deer Hunting Guide and Fishing in Maryland.
Burton is fueled by his satisfaction in provoking readers to think about issues, sometimes by way of shock, sometimes by irreverence.
For those who wish he’d go away, Burton says, “They’re not getting their wishes. I’ve been writing for 54 years, and I’m not about to stop.”
Contributing Writer Audrey Scharmen chronicles daily miracles and backyard wonders often unremarked in the rush of modern life. She waits for her stories, and when they come, fluttering like a butterfly, she scribbles them down before they disappear. Her spare but lyrical prose garnered top honors two years running in the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association editorial competition for columns. Both winners were on granddaughters.
Audrey, 73, of Lusby, came to Bay Country in 1969 when husband Merrill retired from the Air Force. In May 1993, she picked up a copy of the then New Bay Times.
“I saw the great writing, and said to myself, ‘This is my kind of paper,’” Audrey says. When she saw New Bay Times’ ad looking for writers, Audrey called Martin and soon signed on.
During her years as a military wife, Audrey had written military newsletters and even hosted a radio show in Roswell, N.M. In Chesapeake Country, she wrote for the Calvert Independent and other outdoors magazines, including the now defunct Chesapeake Bay Magazine. This mother of four and grandmother of 10 has the distinction of being the only woman writer in a war anthology presented to Queen Elizabeth.
Columnist Chris Dollar, 34, first wrote for Bay Weekly back in 1993 after he “pestered editor Sandra Martin until she published a fly-fishing article I’d written.” Soon Chris proposed writing his Chesapeake Outdoors column. The folks at Bay Weekly agreed, and he’s been a winning part of the team ever since. Literally: Chris has earned two second prizes for sports column in the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association annual editorial competition.
Growing up right on the water in Annapolis, Chris developed a great love of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. So it was a natural fit when he later worked for Chesapeake Bay Foundation as a field environmental educator and captain. He’s now managing editor of Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Save the Bay newsletter and coordinates other publications and communication projects.
Says Chris, “Everyone at Bay Weekly has a real concern and love for the region, which is what we need to restore the Bay.”
Production Manager Betsy Kehne, 31, changed her life for Bay Weekly. She made our acquaintance in ’93 in Martin’s editing class at University of Maryland University College. Betsy, a GenXer looking for a future, hadn’t found a way to use her art degree (UMD ’91), and wanted to try writing. After two classes with Martin, Betsy made her first visits to Chesapeake Country, chronicling her experiences with wry wit and illustrating them with wrier drawings.
Soon Betsy was commuting from her secretarial job in Bethesda to moonlight twice weekly on those tough production nights that tested everybody’s mettle in our early days. Next, she’d flex-timed her job. But to be at National Institutes of Health by 7am, she’d have to leave her home in Silver Spring at 5am — and often not leave Deale until 11pm.
When General Manager Knoll offered her a regular job designing ads, she was too exhausted to refuse. In a package deal, she joined the paper and moved to Fairhaven, where she found not only the bliss of the Bay but also her husband.
Betsy hales from Hagerstown and is the youngest of nine brothers and sisters, all of whom read Bay Weekly. Caroline of Quebec, has contributed stories and Don is a regular. Betsy’s husband, Mark Behuncik, this year linked us to the World Wide Web.
Contributing Writer Don Kehne, 39, followed younger sister Betsy to editor Sandra Martin’s UMD-University College class, the Art of Narration. His long story on hog butchering became Don’s premier Bay Weekly article. Don is now a vegetarian.
Nearly five years later, Don continues at the paper during his off-time from parenting his 18-year-old daughter, Chelsea, and his full-time job and classes at University of Maryland. His thirst for knowledge keeps him returning — despite the fact that he finds writing as painful as having teeth pulled.
To date, his most cherished and difficult subject was all about bugs — though his favorite beat is archaeology.
Contributing Editor Mary Louise Faunce, 55, — known to friends and Bay Weekly readers as M.L. — is as keen as the dachshunds she dotes on to the scent of a place. As well as a mid-life vocation, Bay Weekly has been M.L.’s place to share what she’s sniffed out.
In scores of Bay Weekly stories since 1995, M.L. has explored her hometown, Washington, D.C., and her adopted Chesapeake Country. She even manages to weave in Alaska, which she crisscrossed by sled dog rides, single-engine plane, marine highway and occasionally auto over her many years attending to constituents’ needs as a staffer for U.S. representatives.
You already know a lot about M.L: from her ancestry to childhood visits to the beaches of Chesapeake Country to her 35-year career on Capital Hill. Each of those life stages brings to mind a favorite story. “Stepping Out on Your Own Roots Journey” (Feb. 24 this year) traced her family history. Childhood memories vitalized her story on old beach town carousels. Our nation’s capital and its landmarks in time and space are the subject of many a reflection.
Of course we’ve all read about the everyday pleasures of bird and tree and time she’s discovered in Chesapeake Country since moving to Churchton in the mid-’90s. In recent years, we’ve learned about her kayaking summers on Lake Damariscotta in Maine and her new career as legislative aide to Del. Dick D’Amato in the Maryland State House. M.L. is also a member of the Deale-Shady Side Small Area Planning Committee.
She’s a tireless sniffer, so we expect to learn more.
At 50-something, Contributing Editor Carol Glover professes she’s the oldest intern in the history of newspapers, thanks to Bay Weekly. An avid reader of the paper, in 1995 she saw an advertisement seeking intern writers. So she applied. Soon she was expanding her horizons, meeting new people and covering local theater.
The former teacher and business owner attributes her “second-time-around” career success to the wonderful atmosphere, professionalism, guidance and knowledge she gained through working with friend and mentor Martin.
Carol was born in the Bronx in New York City. She and husband Ray have two children and two grandchildren and live on the tranquil Patuxent River in Calvert County.
Her new full-time job, which includes grant writing, limits her time, but she continues to write local theater reviews.
Prize-Winning Contributor Aloysia Hamalainen’s love of writing goes back to her high school days when she served an internship at the Washington Bureau of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
An army brat born and raised in D.C., ‘Pietch’ (her more pronounceable maiden name) majored briefly in journalism at George Washington University until a knack for engineering led her into technology. Now she is the prime nurturer of computers for the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau, where she has doubled as office manager for two decades.
Pietch, 46, balances a busy career with parenting three children — and three horses. She has a special interest in nature and gardening, as well. Reflecting on the connections among such diverse subjects for New Bay Times in 1997 won her a second place award in the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association Awards Competition.
Web Mistress Brianne Warner, 21, made her Bay Weekly debut in 1997 as a summer intern, a position she won with persistence and web skills. No rookie, she’d already served as on-line editor of her high school paper and covered the swimming beat for the Calvert Independent.
This Bay Weekly whiz kid wrote stories, laid out pages and took pictures before moving up to Kid’s Page editor in 1998.
Like Bay Weekly owner and managing editor Sandra Martin, Brianne plans ultimately to run her own paper. If that means doing everything at once while sleeping little, she’s off to a good start. Along with her Bay Weekly web chores, Brianne is editor of the University of Maryland daily The Diamondback while carrying a full load of courses. She’s also a partner in a web design business, Web Wave.
Brianne, a lifelong Calvert Countian, grew up in Huntingtown with two younger sisters and a baby brother. As yet, she says, “none of them are gung-ho about going into newspapers.”
Junior Reporters Ariel and Emelia Brumbaugh, 13 and 9, and Sarah and Mary Brewer, 12 and 10, all of Fairhaven, never get stalled by writer’s block. For them, writing’s as natural as playing. Ariel is our regular, having contributed all kinds of stories in three years with the paper. Emelia contributes fantasy and science fiction, while the Brewers tend toward science, like their mother, who’s also a staffer.
If you’re one of our readers who gets Bay Weekly delivered to your mailbox, consider it a ‘howdy’ from Volunteer Janie White. A friendly word and personal touch are just her style. Early on Thursday mornings, as the route carriers load their cars and trucks with bundles to drop off in Bay area shops, restaurants and building foyers, Janie is already in the office, sorting her own stacks to prepare for the weekly subscription mailing.
Born in North Carolina, Janie spent most of her 75 years in Washington, D.C., where she worked in area hospital emergency rooms. In her typical low-key style, she downplays the drama of such a work environment, only saying, “I miss it.” Meanwhile Janie raised five children, putting several of them through college. Her family now includes 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Every summer the whole gang comes together on Janie and husband Arthur’s big front porch in Churchton.
Janie volunteers all over the area, mainly at Charlotte Hall, a veterans’ retirement home, where she visits patients, provides them with clothing and other supplies and gives a hand with parties, among other services. Three years ago, finding herself with some volunteer energy yet to spare, Janie approached Bay Weekly and became the paper’s first volunteer.
Back in 1998, Writer-Editor Kim Cammarata traded in one set of tools for another. After 11 years as a dental hygienist, she became a writer. She, too, made her way to Bay Weekly by way of Martin’s teaching at University of Maryland University College.
Kim hadn’t written a thing since 11 years before at community college in Cumberland. A personal essay on how her beloved dog Schmoe coped with aging earned her praise and an invitation to intern at the paper.
With support from her attorney husband Mike and much encouragement from Sandra, Kim stayed on at Bay Weekly after the internship ended. The assignments she enjoys most have a strong human
interest.
As well as writing and research, Kim is training as an editor. Kim hopes to blend her love of editing with her love of animals.
A full-time student, Kim juggles both writing for grades with writing for readers. At age 33, Kim and Mike, now married 10 years, enjoy their home in Silver Spring and their German Shepherd Maddie, who was the subject of a Bay Weekly story.
Calendar Editor and Contributing Writer Mark Burns, 23, was pushed by family friend and contributing editor Carol Glover into Bay Weekly editor Martin’s office in March of 1998. He expected to find out a little about journalism. He left that day with an internship position and the first stepping stone to a new career.
Since then, Mark’s learned the ins and outs of newspaper editing and writing, cleverly tackling subjects like a WWII Liberty Ship and the birth of his niece. He’s also learned the seriousness of deadlines and how therapeutic a good office dog can be.
Mark is a rural Calvert County native and the youngest of three children. He recently left his parents’ Chesapeake Country home in pursuit of education. He’s a junior at University of Maryland, College Park, where he wrote a regular witty column for the campus newspaper, The Diamondback.
Russ Pellicot, 17, is living proof of the range of experiences that Bay Weekly offers its staff. This South River High senior signed on in summer 1998 to distribute papers. Soon Russ found himself selling classified ads as well as to answer phones on a busy day at Bay Weekly’s office.
The following summer, Knoll invited him back. Russ distributed, wrote some articles, helped with the calendar of events, took photos and organized files.
He likes working for Bay Weekly: “The people are friendly. It’s a rewarding experience that gave me confidence.”
This industrious young man, who enters University of Maryland’s engineering program this fall, tinkers with his 1966 Ford Fairlane and hangs out with friends when he’s not busy attending school, lifeguarding, working at Bay Weekly, working for a caterer or, most recently, playing Easter Bunny at Annapolis Mall.
Bay Weekly caught the eye of Illustrator and Cartoonist Jim Hunt soon after he moved to our area from Charlotte, N.C. Jim had previously illustrated for Creative Loafing, Charlotte’s news, arts, and entertainment weekly, and he was looking to do the same for a local newspaper with a similar style.
Bay Weekly was just right.
In the summer of 1998, Jim’s first illustration was featured on the cover. His artwork continues to season our pages with whimsy.
A native Bostonian, Jim is a lifelong artist. He studied at Massachusetts College of Art in his hometown “just because I liked to draw.”
Jim, 38, lives in Annapolis with his actor-director wife, Fuller, and two daughters. He loves his job: “I draw cartoons: it’s fun and easy and doesn’t feel like work.”
Contributing Writer Darcey Dodd, 26, is a protégé of revered Bay Weekly columnist Bill Burton. Darcey studied pre-law at Anne Arundel Community College, where Burton’s journalism class stoked her interest in writing. He introduced her to Bay Weekly, and in the past 19 months she’s written stories ranging from holistic health to cardio-kickboxing — with lots of animal stories (including the Cammaratas’ adoption of Maddie) in between. Though Darcey’s in the business for enlightenment, interesting people and career opportunities, her talents are often exploited for proofreading.
Darcey lives in Bowie on the Western frontier of the paper’s range. Originally from Laurel, she’s from a family that loves Chesapeake watersports — though she admits she isn’t an expert angler. Another class with Burton could cure that.
Horse thieves! Far fetched, but it is true. Bay Weekly’s Account Executive Kathy Flaherty is a descendant of Irish horse thieves, or so the story goes.
Flaherty, 33, has only stolen one thing in her life, the heart of her husband Kevin Litkowski. The couple lives in Eastport, after spending some time as ski bums in the mile-high city.
Before Denver, California and Vermont were also the Flaherty’s homes. A love of travel keeps Kathy on the move.
Kathy searched for Chesapeake Country employment, carrying her natural resource management degree from the University of Vermont. Our newspaper caught her eye.
Picking up Bay Weekly at a restaurant one afternoon, Kathy spied an ad for a sales representative. She loved the paper, loved the staff and began a new adventure.
Kathy lists her current passions as navigating cyberspace, killing (not intentionally) houseplants and being an aunt to nephew Finn and niece Sage.
Two years ago, Writer-Distributor Tricia Acton, 44, decided that she wanted to be a part of one of her favorite publications.
With the help of her two sons, Brian, 15, and Lewis, 12, she began delivering Bay Weekly.
Working around newsprint is nothing new to Tricia. She’s freelanced for 15 years, publishing articles in Organic Gardening and The Maryland Gardener, along with features in Bay Weekly.
A garden writer for Journal Newspapers for over three years, Tricia also wrote for the Smithsonian Institute’s in-house publications.
Tricia grew up in Rockville as one of seven brothers and sisters. Eighteen years ago, she married her husband Joseph, who travels a little farther than Tricia does, to his job in Washington, D.C.
With what little spare time she has, Tricia teaches Adult Basic Education at South River High School.
Artist Gary Pendleton, 45, brings nature into Bay Weekly’s pages with his illustrations of birds, trees and flowers. Sometimes civilization, too, with his architectural drawings including Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.
In his 30s, Gary “got serious” about his life-long love of drawing, teaching himself by observing nature and the works of other artists with a “hungry eye.”
In between, he’s had a “varied” career, beginning with a degree in TV and radio (UMD ’78). He also sells life and health insurance to senior citizens.
Gary’s wife, Karyn Molines, is a Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary’s naturalist and also contributes, keeping us informed and accurate about facts of nature. They live in North Beach, which they chose for its small town character. In 1998, he was elected to the town council.
“I like to be served,” says Restaurant Reviewer Lisa Edler, 37.
Her alter ego, Gabby Crabcakes, joined Bay Weekly in serving Chesapeake Country with restaurant reviews in January 1999.
“There was something missing from Bay Weekly and I stepped up to the plate,” says Gabby.
Volunteering to review local restaurants is a far cry from Edler’s daily profession, branch manager of Star Med, a staffing division for local healthcare centers. She’s married to General Manager Knoll.
Edler has traveled the country and seen many things — as a stockbroker in New York, a mental health therapist in Philadelphia and now as a part-time food critic.
Regarding the latter, Crabcakes has one thing to say.
“Good food comes in lots of different forms. I’d rather eat a really good burger than a filet mignon.”
Movie Reviewer Jonathan Parker began life in Lincoln, Ill., which is famous as the reputed home of competitive watermelon-seed spitting, certain home of national rail splitting championships and former New Yorker editor William Maxwell. Which may explain his recent trip to Armagh, Ireland, to attend the road-bowling nationals.
Parker, 31, now lives in Washington, D.C., supporting himself with work in Democratic politics and applying his University of Illinois film studies at Bay Weekly. His passions are Fellini, Hitchcock and Sunday matinees.
Jill-of-All-Trades Mary Catherine Ball, 23, began her Bay Weekly journey at Pirates Cove Restaurant in March 1999. In between the lunch and dinner rush, Mary Catherine set aside her favorite V.C. Andrew’s novel to read Bay Weekly, where she stumbled on an ad seeking interns. Mary Catherine pounced.
Soon she was in full writing tilt. Wit earned Miss Ball-of-energy an editorial headline award. Writing, however, was not enough. Mary Catherine has also taken on the paper’s classifieds, as well as ad design, kids’ page and reviews of music and restaurants — the latter as Chatty Chowder. This gung-ho attitude secured her position at Bay Weekly — and the nickname McBad.
An only child, McBad is pursuing her journalism degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, and lives with her mother, Mary Ellen Naumann, and great-grandmother Mary Carvilla McQueeney. She graduated from Southern High School, where she won the school’s drama award.
Contributing Writer Chris Heagy, 25, had always thought about being a writer but never pursued it. When bartending (his career by default) grew tiresome, Chris called Martin hoping that Bay Weekly would “give me a chance to write.”
They did, and in early 1999 Chris’ first story was published. Sports — including such unlikely ones as pigeon racing — and restaurants are his favorite subjects. Editor Martin praises his writing for giving voice to the emotion that drives action.
Chris graduated from Mount St. Mary’s College in 1996 with a degree in history. A single man, Chris is known as Bay Weekly’s most eligible bachelor since his Valentine’s Day 2000 story detailing his search for the perfect sweetheart.
When he’s not writing — or, on Thursdays, distributing — for Bay Weekly, Chris waits tables in Eastport at Carrol’s Creek and dreams of someday writing for magazines like Esquire and GQ.
Writer-Distributor Lori Sikorski, 36, joined the Bay Weekly team last summer after she tired of driving from her home of seven years in Solomons to Prince Frederick every week to pick up the latest paper. A regular reader, Lori happily agreed to distribute on the new Solomons route.
Raised in Ohio, Lori moved to New Mexico after marrying Paul in 1982. There she earned a journalism degree and worked as a news writer and on-air personality for radio and television. She has also served as managing editor and writer for several publications.
So when Lori approached Knoll and Martin about writing for Bay Weekly, they welcomed her talents with wide-open arms.
Lori loves working for Bay Weekly; she feels fortunate to work with Martin, “a master of her craft” and an excellent teacher and mentor. Lori also gets to stay involved in her profession while raising her three children, whom she calls “my greatest accomplishments.”
Editorial Assistant Christy Grimes, 43, joined Bay Weekly last September as an intern. She sold herself to Editor Martin by noting her shoe size to prove she could follow in the footsteps of our best interns. After too many years of “bureaucratic jobs that aren’t even worth describing,” the Maryland native turned her heels on the world she once thought was the only option and began learning the newspaper trade.
Today this part-time student at Anne Arundel Community College is adding editing and design to writing in her journalism bag. “What the paper gives me is an opportunity to do the thing I think I’m best at,” Grimes says. “It gives me the confidence that I can do it, that I can go the distance with it.”
She proves her moxie weekly, with stories ranging from classic cars to trash to daffodils.
From the coal mines of West Virginia to Calvert County to Bay Weekly, Contributor Connie Darago’s journey is powered by love. Her family has a treasure trove of poems, Connie’s way of expressing her love on birthdays, anniversaries and life’s events.
As her 50th birthday rolled around, she decided to take a giant step toward realizing her dream. Taking the initiative, she sent her Friends of Calvert Cliffs newsletter to local editors. Sandra Martin responded, took Connie under her wing and encouraged her writing.
Connie’s first story, a November 1999 Thanksgiving lead, launched her as a New Bay Times regular. She has a bunch more stories to tell, especially personal reflections of family, farm life and the world around her.
Delivery Driver Barbie Eversfield Shields, 46, manages the Bowie-Crofton route. “I like the job because of all the friendly people that I’ve met,” says Barbie, who’s worked in county and state politics for almost two decades. A third-generation Fairhavener and beach lover, Barbie’s surrounded by family, animals and 88 acres of Chesapeake Country she intends to keep open spaces.
Kids’ Page Intern and Calvert County Distributor Sharon Brewer, 43, joined Bay Weekly with the millennium to turn a page in her life.
“After six years home-schooling my daughters, I wanted a new direction,” says Sharon.
Newspapering was just that: Totally different and creative.
For her zoology degree (UC-Davis ’81), the California native had emphasized math and science. Then she’d worked in a biochemistry lab. But she’d always liked writing and had kept a journal. And she had lots of experience working with kids. She’d given many hours to both Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary and Fairhaven School and has been a board member for both.
Now in planning, writing and assembling Not Just for Kids, she’s learning to use where she’s been to go new places.
Sharon lives in Fairhaven, with husband Mike and daughters Sarah, 12, and Mary, 10, all of whom contribute to Bay Weekly.
Distributor Joseph Kelly came to Bay Weekly newspaper because he can’t sit still. Not only does the 22-year-old help in the massive effort of delivering the paper each week, he works as a carpenter, boat mechanic and, in the summer, as a crabber.
Kelly has traveled the country since age 16, living in Colorado and Vermont and more recently burning up the highway following the band Phish. The lure of “the water, crabbing, the history of my family and growing up in Fairhaven” drew him back.
As a lover of the road, Kelly was a natural as a driver for Bay Weekly, and he maintains one of the two Annapolis routes.
Kelly loves playing guitar, and hopes to someday make money at it, perhaps winding up in Bay Weekly’s Music Notes listings.
Advertising Account Executive Kitty O’Dowd, 42, began reading Bay Weekly to learn more about Chesapeake Country as soon as she moved here 18 months ago from San Diego with her military husband, Thomas, and three-year-old son, Kyle.
Kitty joined Bay Weekly after responding to an ad for an energetic advertising sales rep with a winning personality.
This is the first time that Kitty, after living up and down the West coast all her life, has been near the Atlantic Ocean. Her three siblings still live on the opposite c
Copyright 2000
Bay Weekly
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