News Release

Annapolis Maritime Museum / 723 Second St / Annapolis, MD 21403
Contact: Jeff Holland / 410-295-0104

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 24, 2012

Bank of America volunteers help Museum kids become better stewards of the Chesapeake Bay

More than a dozen employees from Bank of America branches all over Anne Arundel County recently volunteered to help staff from the Annapolis Maritime Museum teach eighth graders from Wiley H. Bates Middle School.

<< Bank of America volunteers Ashley Duval and Tamekia Jones (in red shirts) help Bates Middle School students used STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts to build model buoys as part of NOAA’s “Build-a-Buoy” program.

The hands-on, interactive program called “Bay Stewards” brought all 210 eighth-grade student from Bates Middle to the Museum. Bank of America volunteers led the students through NOAA’s “Build-a-Buoy” class, where they used STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts to build model buoys as a way to learn about NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS). They also conducted water quality tests, which taught them first-hand about the real time water quality data of the CBIBS. Other volunteers helped students understand concepts of storm water management by testing how water runs off or is absorbed by sod, sand and pavement.

Joinette Smallwood (center) and Maria Heimer (in red shirt) help students understand how storm water run-off impacts the health of the bay. >>

After a boat trip aboard the Watermark tour boat, Catherine Marie, the students toured the Museum’s “Oysters on the Half Shell Exhibit” and participated in the dissection of an oyster. Then they met Capt. John VanAlstine, a waterman from Shady Side who shared with them his experiences working on the Bay.

<< Bates eighth-graders got their first water-side view of their community from the top deck of the Watermark tour boat, Catherine Marie.

The Bay Stewards program is part of the Museum’s “MUDDY FEET” (“Maritime Unbounded Damp & Dirty Yucky Fun Environmental Education & Training”) initiative, which will serve 2,000 students in and around Annapolis this school year. The program is funded by grants from the Bank of America Foundation, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Carol M. Jacobsohn Foundation, the City of Annapolis, the Annapolis Rotary Club, the Annapolis Yacht Club Foundation, museum members, fund-raisers like the Boat Yard Beach Bash and the Annapolis Oyster Roast and partnerships with Watermark Cruises and the Annapolis Bus Company. For more information, see www.amaritime.org.

Bank of America volunteers Mike Smith, Will Purdom, Justin Ridgway, Jose Matos (front row) with Bates Middle School students.

 

<< Bank of America volunteers Maria Heimer, Tamekia Jones, Ashley Duval, Joinette Smallwood, Krista Wallach at the museum docks.

 

 

 

 

<< Bates students aboard the Catherine Marie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students inspected baby oysters, or “spat” growing in cages under the museum docks. >>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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