Events and News
Saving
the Buy Boat Annie D
August 20, 2010
Echo
Hill Outdoor School in Kent County, Maryland, is proud to announce that it has
received two major grants to rehabilitate their teaching vessel, the Buy Boat
Annie D. The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and the National Trust for Historic
Preservation through the Bartus Trew Providence Preservation Fund will provide
partial funding for this historic boat to receive a new shaft log, horn timber,
cabin, and pilothouse. Matching funds for the project will be provided by Echo
Hill Outdoor School. When the work is completed during the fall, the Annie D.
will look much as it did when it was built in 1957 but it will be able to remain
in use for education and historic tourism for at least the next 25 years.
In
the heyday of the oyster industry, hundreds of buy boats were used to “buy”
oysters off the sailing skipjacks. In addition to transporting oysters, they
regularly hauled lumber and produce across the bay in the summer months. The
buy boat Annie D. was built in Deltaville, VA in 1957, and was acquired by Echo
Hill Outdoor School in 1984. The boat is now a familiar sight in the Chester
River every spring and summer as children from around the region embark for
5-day trips to fish, crab, swim, explore, and meet local watermen, artists,
musicians, and farmers.
Thanks
to the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and the Bartus Trew Providence Preservation
Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Buy Boat Annie D.
will continue to be a significant historic and cultural resource for children
as they explore the bay with Echo Hill Outdoor School.
For more information about Echo Hill Outdoor School and its historic
boats, visit www.ehos.org and click on Historic Boats.
3rd Annual Dragonfly
Camp
August 9, 2010
The third annual Dragonfly Heart Camp took place last week at
Echo Hill Outdoor School. Thirty campers with pulmonary hypertension who’ve
had heart and/or lung transplants joined a team of doctors, nurses, and counselors
from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for a week of bonding,
team-building, and outdoor exploration facilitated by the Outdoor School teachers.
This year’s group was the largest yet for a Dragonfly Heart Camp.
Read
complete article on The Chestertown Spy.
Twilight article
March 6, 2010
March is here. A co-worker told me he spotted an osprey the other day. A few
optimistic buds have emerged. Spring isn’t quite here yet, but these signs
tell us that warmer days will be here soon.
Read
complete article on The Chestertown Spy.
Archived Articles
Walter and Dolly Harris article (PDF)
Kent County Students article (PDF) - October 12, 2009
Community Paddle a Success article (PDF) - September 21, 2009, by: John Mann
Echo Hill Outdoor School (PDF) - Chesapeake Times, March 2009
Echo Hill Outdoor School aims to connect its students with nature - Middletown Transcript, January 15, 2009
Learning Life's Lessons In The Great Outdoors
(PDF) - Washington College Magazine, Fall 1992