Not Just for Kids
What Was Happening 10 Years Ago?
In honor of Bay Weekly’s 10th birthday, look back to what kids of Chesapeake Country were thinking about a decade ago. Here are excerpts from the very first issue of Bay Weekly, back when the newspaper was named New Bay Times.
Kids in the News
Stan Mikulewicz, 17, of Great Mills High School, won Maryland’s first ever Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest. Stan’s Best-of-Show entry was selected from among 579 designs.
Maryland has junior and senior duck stamp design contests, modeled as the Federal Duck Stamp program, which has preserved more than five million acres of waterfowl habitat in 69 years. Since 1934, Duck Stamps have contributed $675 million to purchase wetlands for our National Wildlife Refuge System.
Chesapeake Changes
10 years ago, then-junior reporter Tami O’Neil visited the National Geographic Explorers Hall at 17th and M, NW Washington, D.C.to see an exhibit on the Chesapeake Bay.
On March 26, 1993, I left my neighborhood in Shady Side and visited the National Geographic Museum to see a special exhibit called Chesapeake Bay. Now I’m glad I did. it made me do some thinking.
There’s so much I didn’t know about the water I’ve always lived by. Did you know that so much of our water life was disappearing? The grasses, marshes and even the crabs and oysters have gotten fewer. Every time someone flushes bleach down their toilet or dumps oil into the woods, or litters, it washes into our Bay. When I first found this out, it really scared me. It is doing so much harm. Can you imagine the summer without crabs to eat or water too polluted to swim in it?
A lot of people earn a living on the water. If everything keeps going like this, a lot of them will lose their jobs. Not just crabmen but others, too, like the people who pick the crabmeat, will even lose their jobs if there are no crabs to pick.
Mom always tells me things like “be nice” and “take care of your things” and “don’t leave things a mess.”
Well, after my trip to D.C., I saw that sometimes grown-ups don’t always practice what they preach. Because they sure have made a mess of the Bay by not taking care of it.
When I left the museum that day I felt sad, even though I was happy to know these things that hurt the Bay. Now I can try to help fix it. We were recycling before we got those yellow buckets. I know that is not enough. So I made Mom promise not to put bleach in the toilet again. Now she’s going to use baking soda and white vinegar. It does the same thing.
Book Notes
Trouble at Marsh Harbor
by Susan Sharp
A Puffin Book, 1991 (originally published as Watermen’s Boy, by Bradbury Press, 1990)
For ages 8-12
Eleven-year-old Ben Warren sneaks out of his bedroom at night in search of criminal polluters. Ben is the hero of Susan Sharp’s Trouble at Marsh Harbor, a story that poses important ecological questions in a mystery young readers are sure to enjoy. Readers of this environmentally alert novel join Ben in some life-threatening detective work to find out who is destroying the Chesapeake Bay.
Ben wants to be a waterman like his father, Duke. but Duke doesn’t have room for an 11-year-old boy on his boat. Business has been so bad this crabbing season that Duke wouldn’t have any work for Ben — even if he were older.
Times are hard for all the watermen in marsh Harbor. Crabs are fewer and fewer, and no one can figure out why. Except graduate student David Waterman, who thinks pollution is killing Bay crabs. With him, Ben tries to find out from where all this pollution is coming — or from whom.
Chances are many environmental mysteries like Ben’s are waiting for someone clever enough to solve them. Who knows? It could be you.
This Week's Kids Stuff
Friday, April 25
Hello Moon, Bedtime Storyhour
Listen to storytellers and meet illustrators. Let imagination run wild at night. Eat goodies and get your face painted. 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, Harbour Center, Solomon’s Island Rd., Annapolis. free: 410/573-1115.
Art Splash
Kids ages 5 & 6 can try their hands at collage, tie-dying, printing and sculpting. 1:30-2:30pm @ Chesapeake Children’s Museum, Silopanna Rd., Annapolis. $5 w/member discount: 410/990-1993.
Saturday, April 26
Sneak a Peek at Peepers
Hike, look and listen for spring peepers, wood frogs and other amphibians with a Jug Bay naturalist. 7-9pm @ Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, Wrighton Rd., Lothian. $1.50; rsvp: 410/741-9330 • www.jugbay.org.
Owl Prowl
Look and listen in the world of owls and other nocturnal creatures. Guided walk. 7:30-9pm @ Patuxent Research Refuge Visitor Center, Powder Mill Rd. off Baltimore-Washington Pkwy and Rt. 197. rsvp: 301/497-5887.
Sunday, April 27
Something to Smile About
Learn how to take care of your teeth at dental health workshop. For ages 4-7. Kids receive giveaways. 2-3pm @ Chesapeake Children’s Museum, Silopanna Rd., Annapolis. free w/museum admission: 410/990-1993.
