May 17th is Endangered Species Day. All week we will share facts about the Atlantic sturgeon. Visit the library to check out two new kids books about sturgeon and get a sticker made by a Talbot County Public School third-grader. The more people know about sturgeon, the more people will want to protect them.

Talbot County Parks and Recreation to Host Summer Sports Clinics in New Gym

Parks and Recreation will host several summer sports clinics designed to help young athletes work on their skills in the off-season.

“With the new gym space, we are excited to be able to offer summer sports clinics while keeping the ice rink open for ice skating, hockey lessons, and more,” said Emily Gilmer, Assistant Director at Talbot County Parks and Recreation.

This year, Parks and Recreation will offer pickleball, volleyball, basketball, and indoor soccer sessions. Each class will be held once a week for an hour for each age group. Each clinic costs $60 per participant and runs for 6 weeks.

Youth Pickleball Clinic with Coach Mace Davis (Monday evenings starting June 24^th)

Six-week clinic to learn the game that everyone is talking about! The clinic is for players of all skill levels and will focus on building skills, creating confidence, and having fun.

Volleyball Clinic with Coach Rebekah Byrnes (Tuesday evenings starting June 25^th)

Learn proper technique of volleyball fundamentals including serving, passing, setting, hitting, and rules of the game. Saints Peter and Paul Coach Rebekah Byrnes will be leading the clinic by conducting drills, fun games, and other activities to help participants improve hand-eye coordination, footwork, agility, and communication, with an emphasis on “FUN”damentals and teamwork.

Basketball Clinic with Coach Kentrell Ricketts (Wednesday evenings starting July 3^rd)

St. Michaels Middle-High School Coach Kentrell Ricketts will be leading the Summer Basketball Clinic for grades 1 through 8. The clinic is for both boys and girls of all skill levels who want to learn or expand their on-court skills. Fundamentals of shooting, dribbling, passing, offense, defense, and footwork will be emphasized, as well as proper conditioning for the sport of basketball.

Indoor Soccer Clinic with Coach Kayleigh Titz (Thursday evenings starting June 20^th)

The 6-week Indoor Summer Soccer Clinic is for all skill levels to help participants learn new skills and improve hand-foot coordination, agility, speed, and game play through drills, games, and other activities. Registration for summer camp, summer sports clinics, summer dance classes, summer ice skating, hockey clinics, and swim lessons are now open.

For more information, please contact Talbot County Parks and Recreation at 410-770-8050.

To register for programming, visit talbotcountymd.gov/prprograms.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

May 23 film screening explores the power of joining together

A screening of the documentary film ‘Join or Die’ will spark a community conversation about the need for more people of all ages to adopt the practice of being a ‘joiner’ in our local civic organizations, clubs, and volunteer corps.

The one-hour film screening is set for Thursday, May 23 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Easton branch of the Talbot County Free Library and will be followed by small group discussions about the film’s theme of civic engagement and its role in strengthening communities. Light refreshments will be served, with no reservations needed.

The free event is made possible through the partner support of the Talbot County Free Library, Chesapeake Film Festival, Needles Eye Academy, Tidewater Rotary, Dock Street Foundation, and the Talbot Family Network.

“We aim to inspire action by sharing the groundbreaking civic findings from this film and highlighting local groups embodying these ideals,” said Nancy Andrew, MSW, executive director of Talbot Family Network. “Our goal is to motivate participants to consider how these findings are impacting life in Talbot County.”

“Becoming a ‘joiner’—as it’s been coined—has many benefits for those participating,” said Andrew. “Our joining together impacts our mental, physical and societal health.

“And that has a bigger, compounding effect,” she says, “on the way we support and care for one another through formal and informal networks which in turn builds resilience and strength for our communities.”

Directed by Rebecca and Pete Davis, ‘Join or Die’ examines how the fate of America, and our small towns like those on Maryland’s Eastern Shore depend on people coming together to be actively involved in civic organizations and clubs. The film premiered in 2023 at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas, and is an official selection for numerous local, national, and international film festivals.

“As the unraveling of our social fabric has accelerated in the COVID era, the public is searching for fundamental explanations of our civic decline,” they said in their Directors’ Statement. “The film helps provide answers to questions like ‘Why can’t we see eye-to-eye with our neighbors?’”

The directors say Harvard professor and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam has made great advancements in clarifying our understanding of the roots of our civic unraveling and is a master at translating social science research into engaging stories.

“With ‘Join or Die’, we aim to introduce Putnam’s research on the importance of community to democracy and the decline in American community engagement over the past decades to millions more Americans,” said the directors. “And especially to young Americans who were not alive to experience Bowling Alone going viral decades ago.”

More about the film is at www.putnamdoc.com.