Vol. 37, No. 1 Spring 2012 Coming of Age Capital Campaign: The Final Stretch By Sherrod Sturrock, Deputy Director n October, the CMMS Board of Directors launched the public phase of our Coming of Age capital campaign with a goal of raising $500,000 for the renovation of the exhibits Ibuilding. The response — starting with the board members and radiating out through staff, volunteers, members, friends, and the business community — has been impressive. To date we have achieved over $650,000 in pledges and donations. In January, the board raised the goal to $750,000, recognizing that more money would have to be raised to meet the projected construction budget. The campaign ends June 30 — in just three short months — and our ability to move forward with the project hinges on the success of our collective effort. In February, G.W.W.O. Architects delivered the final construction documents and began the permit application process. Everyone who has seen the final design is energized by the creative solutions they have presented. Let me take you on an imaginary walk through the newly renovated exhibition building … As you enter the realigned front doors, you experience a warm, bright and inviting space. You are greeted by the admissions clerk and volunteer at the new admission/information desk. Behind them is a rear projection screen showing the day’s schedule, upcoming events, and images from the exhibits. As you show the clerk your membership card, you overhear the volunteer stationed at the information section direct a first-time visitor to the new twenty-seat orientation theatre on the other side of the screen. Turning away, you approach the expanded Museum Store, reaching out into the lobby and inviting you in to view the latest items. Everything is well lit, beautifully displayed in new casework, with plenty of room to maneuver and see all the unique merchandise. From the store, you wander into the Secrets of the Mermaid’s Purse exhibit where a new, elliptical tank allows the graceful swimmers to move in large, lazy patterns. You notice how easily the small children can see over the redesigned sides, along with their grandfather who is in a wheelchair. You are pleased to see that the Coming of Age Capital Campaign: skate nursery is still part of the exhibit, showing the baby skates in their “purses.” The Final Stretch ................Page 1 Farewell Salute to Ken Kaumeyer ...Page 3 Across the lobby where the auditorium has been transformed into Marianne Spotlight on New Summer and John Harms Hall a group of eighty school children from Northern Virginia Camps for Middle Schoolers .......Page 4 are being given an orientation and split into groups before starting their fieldtrip. Bugeye Ball … The Bugeye Club ...Page 5 Scanning the calendar of events, you note that a lecture and dinner is scheduled Membership & Development ......Page 6 for that evening featuring an eminent scholar from the Smithsonian, there is a Refurbishing the Cliff Exhibit members’ book talk and luncheon scheduled on Saturday, a birthday overnight in the Paleo Hall ................Page 7 Saturday evening, and a musical performance the following week. Cove Point Lighthouse Progress ....Page 8 Update on Education Programs ....Page 8 The children follow the museum educators out of Harms Hall, and separating Al Lavish Honored for Years into groups, they head out into the museum. You follow the two groups that go of Volunteer Service .............Page 8 up the steps into the new Benning Learning Center. One group enters the science Welcome Volunteer — the lab, set up with work stations around the walls, microscopes, deep sinks, and Museum’s Newest Addition .......Page 9 tanks housing all manner of sea life. Here they will conduct experiments on Why Purple Martins? .............Page 9 water quality using samples taken from Back Creek. The other group goes into Volunteer Spotlight ..............Page 10 the classroom where they will do a hands-on program identifying sharks teeth, Thanks for the Donations to Help Support Our Troops .........Page 10 Continued on page 2 2 Coming of Age Capital Campaign: The Final Stretch (Continued from page 1) graphing what they find, and suggesting what these findings mean. Across the hall in the Wieck Technology Lab, a distance learning program is in progress with a 4th grade class in Colorado, learning about Captain John Smith’s exploration of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608. You follow the newly constructed hallway, lined with student artworks inspired by their visit to the museum, and walk down to the permanent exhibit hall. Here a large, suspended scrim invites you to enter and explore the world of the Chesapeake through three different, but interconnected themes, graphically showing the story that the exhibits will tell as you move through the galleries. And now you move into the gallery space and delve into the ancient world of the Miocene. It’s a very tantalizing prospect and one that is long overdue. The exhibition building was completed in 1989, and other than normal maintenance and the installation and updating of exhibits, nothing has been done to the building in Tri-County Community Bank officials Diane Hicks and Don Parsons (at right) the intervening twenty-three years. Since we began keeping presented a check for the campaign to director Doug Alves Jr. and deputy records in 1991, our annual visitation has grown over 91% director Sherrod Sturrock (at left). to over 75,000 people in 2011. Educational programming CMM photo by Robert Hurry has also expanded greatly since those early years, and last year we served over 22,000 people with a rich selection of educational programs for all ages. As we have said before, we are not “building so they will come” — they are here, and we need to respond. A tough economic climate is always a challenging environment for launching a capital campaign for new construction. But because we are working within our existing footprint, and maximizing use of existing space to enhance and expand our ability to Quarterly Newsletter of the serve the public, we believe that this is a conservative and reasonable approach that will Calvert Marine Museum (A Division of Calvert County Government) yield a high return on investment for Calvert County. and the Please help push us over the finish line: talk us up to your friends and family; “like” Calvert Marine Museum Society, Inc. us on Facebook and invite your friends to do the same; encourage others to support the (ISSN 0887-651X) effort; and make a donation to help us close the $100,000 gap before June 30. Just visit C. Douglass Alves Jr., Director our website, http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/donate/donation-capitol.php. And CALVERT MARINE MUSEUM Sherrod Sturrock, Deputy Director most important of all, keep coming and sharing your time and your ideas; keep bringing Paul L. Berry, Editor your family and friends … because that’s what we’re here for. Thank you. Other contributor to this issue: Table of Gifts Achieved Vanessa Gill Sherry Reid Goal: $750,000 Goal: Lisa Howard Table of Gifts Achieved $750,000 The bugeye was the traditional sailing craft of the Bay, and was built in all its glory at Solomons, the Gifts Needed Gifts Achieved “Bugeye Capital of the World.” Membership dues are used to fund special museum projects, programs, and printing of this newsletter. Address comments and membership applications to: Number of Amount of Total Cumulative Number of Amount of Total Cumulative Gifts Gift Total Gifts Gift Total Calvert Marine Museum Society, Inc. P.O. Box 97 Solomons, MD 20688-0097 2 $100,000 $200,000 $200,000 2 $100,000 $250,000 $250,000 410-320-2042 2 $50,000 $100,000 $300,000 2 $50,000+ $100,000 $350,000 FAX 410-326-6691 TDD 410-535-6355 Museum Store: 410-326-2750 6 $25,000 $150,000 $450,000 2 $20,000+ $46,569 $396,569 www.calvertmarinemuseum.com 11 $10,000 $110,000 $560,000 13 $10,000+ $142,000 $538,569 Layout by Stuller Designs 20 $5,000 $100,000 $660,000 5 $5,000+ $26,678 $565,247 40 $1,000 $40,000 $700,000 27 $1,000+ $43,250 $608,497 Many <$1,000 $50,000 $750,000 146 <$1,000 $16,750 $625,247 2/29/12 SPRING 2012 3 FAREWELL SALUTE TO KEN KAUMEYER By Sherrod Sturrock If you’ve spotted a skinny guy with a tattered baseball cap and applying a chainsaw to the tanks to make sure that they would a large grizzled mustache walking around the grounds, or cycling not be installed. That ended that discussion and the correct tanks in Solomons, or heading out to the bay in a boat, you’ve seen went in. It’s a radical story, and it illustrates the lengths to which Kenny Kaumeyer — our erstwhile curator for estuarine biology. Ken would go to do the job the way he thinks it should be done. Ken is retiring after almost twenty- The Estuarium opened in 1992 four years with the museum. Ken is the with only Ken and one aquarist on first and only curator in that area, having staff. As the Estuarium developed, been hired when the exhibit was under Ken encountered many challenges construction. He was involved in every — some coming from “up the road” facet of the exhibit’s development and as we euphemistically refer to Prince knows every valve, tank, and pump Frederick. As a county museum, our intimately. As Ken putters off into purchases go through the normal the sunset, we pause to celebrate the government purchase order process. contributions he has made to the Calvert Ken related that when he sent in a Marine Museum during his long and purchase order for 100 pair of No storied career with us.