Educational Event

The Annapolis Maritime Museum recently hosted the "Oyster Kids," a group of 63 fifth graders from Hillsmere Elementary School, for a holiday party at the museum's McNasby Oyster Company building. The group is sponsored by the Eastport Yacht Club Foundation.

"The ‘Oyster Kids’ are learning about oyster restoration," said EYC Foundation chair Mary Ellen Hoagland. "The program at the museum was just delightful. Everyone had a wonderful time and learned some fascinating things about our maritime heritage as well."

The children watched a video on the building of the 1812-era Baltimore clipper Lynx, part of the museum’s current exhibit on shipbuilder and maritime artist Melbourne Smith; had a guided tour of the museum’s other exhibits on the boatyards of Annapolis, the African-American community of Eastport, and the Richwood Toy Company’s Holiday Doll House led by Peg Wallace, museum founder and chairman emeritus; and got a demonstration on oyster tonging by the museum’s new board chairman, Buck Buchanan.

Then they all gathered in McNasby’s Great Room for a program of Chesapeake Bay folk tales and sing-alongs by Eastern Shore poet/singer/songwriter Janie Meneely and enjoyed a pizza lunch provided by the Foundation.

"This is the first time we’ve entertained this many kids all at once, and it was a great success," Buchanan explained, "We want to have students from every elementary school in the county to come for a visit in 2003."