Middletown Life Summer 2020 Edition

Summer 2020

Middletown Life

Magazine

Reaching the

Summit – Page 42

Inside The steel beam of remembrance In the spotlight: Middletown Area Chamber of Commerce Plans for a new park start to take shape Complimentary Copy

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Middletown Life Summer 2020

Middletown Life Table of Contents 8 Special projects by some of our high school Seniors

18 Middletown Area

Chamber of Commerce

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‘I came here to be healed’

28

A sweet success

36

New restaurants in the area

42

Photo essay: Reaching the Summit

48

Plans for a new park

54

The steel beam of remembrance

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36

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Middletown Life Summer 2020 Letter from the Editor:

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The stories in this issue of Middletown Life were almost fully completed and ready to go to print in mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic hit and changed our plans—and probably yours, too.

So we’re very pleased to be able to present these stories to you now, about four months later than originally planned, but still early enough in the year that we can also bring you a second issue of Middletown Life in 2020.

We hope you find the stories in this issue on the upbeat side. There are a lot of positive things happening in the community.

This issue features a story about how plans are taking shape for a new park.

We also look at how the Middletown Area Chamber of Commerce has grown significantly in the last few years by offering a diverse set of services to member businesses.

This issue also includes the story of how Krista Scudlark built her business, Backyard Jams and Jellies, into a favorite of customers throughout Delaware.

None of the students in Katie Wright’s seventh-grade social studies class at the Louis Redding Middle School were alive on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001—a day that changed the world. With the help of a national foundation, a piece of that fateful morning made its way to Middletown, and became an artifact meant to educate and reflect upon.

We also take a look at some of the most interesting projects that high school seniors worked on this year. The quality of the projects is truly impressive. Appoquinimink High School senior Emily Dina organized and ran a district theater camp for young children in July of 2019. Appoquinimink High School senior Grace Valleley got a head start on her college plans to study agriculture by working with sheep, while her classmate Aubrey Shearer created a 24-hour running event to raise awareness about suicide by teens and veterans. A few students from Kelly Palaisa’s forensics class at Appoquinimink High School mixed forensics and fairy tales for their senior projects that were on display at Cedar Lane Elementary’s STEM Night.

This issue also features a look at two of the newer restaurants in the Middletown area.

Summit Aviation is the subject of the photo essay.

We hope you enjoy these stories and, as always, we welcome your comments and suggestions for future stories. We’re already hard at work planning the next issue of Middletown Life, which will arrive in the fall of 2020.

Sincerely, Randy Lieberman, Publisher randyl@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553 Steve Hoffman, Editor editor@chestercounty.com, 610-869-5553, Ext. 13

Cover photo: Jim Coarse Cover Design: Tricia Hoadley www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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|Around Middletown|

By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer Here are some of this year’s most interesting senior projects required by the Appoquinimink School District. They challenge high school seniors “to demonstrate not only what they know, but what they can do” and “exhibit their skills in problem formation and research, written and oral communication and synthesis and application of knowledge.”

A look at som interesting se local students Nurturing young performers

Courtesy of Murecia Brister

Emily Dina tells campers’ parents about the songs they would be sharing that day.

Below: Camper performs “Everybody Wants to be a Cat” from Disney’s “The Aristocats.”

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Appoquinimink High School senior Emily Dina organized and ran a district theater camp in July of 2019 for young children. The camp builds on her own experience – she started acting when she was in third grade – and supports her intended career in theater education.

In 2018 Emily volunteered in a similar camp, also run out of the high school, and Ray Gravuer, who coordinates Summer Enrichment Camps, suggested that she develop a senior project from it. “It taught me a lot,” she said, “about how much time you need to devote to planning, how patient you need to be, how to be a role model and how to thoroughly communicate my ideas to campers of all ages.”

The campers, as young as first graders, learned music and movement for three songs each week in camp, which ran from 8:30 to 11 a.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, culminating in a performance. The camp drew between 12 and 20 campers each week, some new and some repeating for her three themes: Kids Stars (musicals starring kids), Musicals Through the Decades and Disney Musicals.

A majority of the campers auditioned for the high school’s production of “Oliver,” a musical strengthened by increasing the number of singing and dancing urchins. Emily played Widow Corney in the show, which was produced in March, and, as president of the local chapter of the International Thespian Society, she also used the show’s themes to increase awareness about social ills like poverty.

ome of the most senior projects that nts completed this year On improving lambing Appoquinimink High School senior Grace Valleley got a head start on her college plans to study agriculture by working with sheep. Her thesis: If all the sheep on a farm gave birth at the same time, “it would reduce stress on workers, shorten the lambing process and ensure more accurate care.” Her work: “I was paid in experience.” Her results: “Perfect.”

Stephen Cook of Cool-Rock Stock on Frazer Road taught Grace, who lives in Middletown, all about lambing, and last fall they used implants and feed additives to sync the Cooks’ ewes’ estrus cycles.

The births this spring were closer together, with more multiple births, than last year, she said, adding that she’s not sure if that’s a side effect of the regimen. Grace also paid it forward by teaching Appoquinimink sophomores Haley Drysdale and Sydney Spence about lambing while they helped her in the overnights they devoted to welcoming the newborns into the world.

In 2019, six ewes had eight lambs. This year 21 ewes are mothering the 15 healthy lambs who have survived. Lambing last year spanned from January to February, and this year it has spanned from January to March. Grace hopes her work helps build up Delaware’s market for lamb meat.

Courtesy of Grace Valleley

Grace Valleley, who worked on syncing ewes’ estrus cycles, is shown with Maisy.

Below: This photo was taken a few minutes after Gouge gave birth to her three lambs.

Continued on Page 10 www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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Senior Projects Continued from Page 9

Marathons for suicide awareness Appoquinimink High School senior Aubrey Shearer created a 24-hour running event to raise awareness about suicide by teens and veterans. She was inspired by a friend who committed suicide and friends who are veterans. “Running is a way to help with my mental health, something to focus on, an outlet,” she said, adding that it’s “the one thing I have in common” with the rest of her family.

The event debuted in 2018, with about 100 people collectively running about 700 miles.

Her senior project followed in 2019, with double the number of participants, running about 1,200 miles. Both years raised about $5,000 for the Mental Health Association Continued on Page 12

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Courtesy of Andy Shearer

Aubrey Shearer and her father on the Appoquinimink High track, during a 24-hour endurance event to promote awareness about suicides by teens and veterans.

Below: Nearly 200 different people ran at least one mile, and 21 people ran all 24 miles.

www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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Senior Projects Continued from Page 10

in Delaware’s teenage suicide programs and Rebuilding Warriors’ suicide programs.

In 2019, 21 people – including Aubrey and her father, Andrew – ran 24 hours in all, hyped up by the importance of the event and ancillary activities, plus doughnuts and coffee. Aubrey said that she and a few friends stayed up as long as they could and then dozed in a tent for breaks in the predawn hours.

Aubrey, who runs cross country and track, plans to major in psychology and visual communication at the University of Delaware, where she also plans to be part of the running club.

Continued on Page 14

Courtesy of Andy Shearer

Surrounding the tote board from left are Andy Shearer (Aubrey’s father), Benjamin Shearer (her brother), Roberta Fishgold (Mental Health Association in Delaware), Aubrey Shearer, Adrienne Shearer (her mother) and association member Jennifer Smolowitz.

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Senior Projects Continued from Page 12

Fairy tales and forensics A few students from Kelly Palaisa’s forensics class at Appoquinimink High School mixed forensics and fairy tales for their senior projects at Cedar Lane Elementary’s STEM Night in February. “I also love that they are all young women promoting STEM,” she said. “It adds something to their projects.”

Emily Nhan expanded the Cinderella story: Not just her accoutrements are missing after the ball, but so was Cinderella. She set up a scavenger hunt, and the 60-plus participants also examined hair under a microscope: blonde from Cinderella, dyed from her stepsister and gray from her grandmother. The solution – which 90 percent of the pupils figured out from assessing about 10 pieces of evidence – was that the fairy godmother did it, “as a spell that went haywire,” she said. “Some parents were so intrigued that they wanted to solve the case on their own. They did even better.”

Jillian Wyatt set up three stations – footprints, strands of hair and fingerprints on bowls of porridge – for pupils to figure out who ransacked the Three Bears’ house. The suspects were the Giant, the Big Bad Wolf, the Wicked Witch, Captain Hook and Goldilocks. “They were all characters that the kids would know,” she said, and the detectives “knew right away” who the guilty party was.

The evidence all pointed at Goldilocks, said Jillian, who plans to major in nursing and minor in forensics in college.

Continued on Page 16

Courtesy of Appoquinimink School District

Appoquinimink senior Emily Nhan envisioned Cinderella disappearing along with her carriage. Investigating the case are Cedar Lane students Thomas Carpenter and Emma Carpenter.

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Senior Projects Continued from Page 14

In Kayla Ferguson’s setup, Little Red Riding Hood used knowledge that she had acquired in forensics class to collect evidence in the case of her missing grandmother, with the suspects being the Cat, the Rabbit and the Wolf. The evidence included three types of animal hair (plus her own as Grandma), three types of bite marks (her own, costume-store vampire teeth and friend Alexis Druss), footprints and a note in Morse code (which spelled out “I took Grandma.

Sincerely, the Wolf”). Kayla hopes to work in forensic psychology. “It combines two of my favorite things.”

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Above: Appoquinimink senior Jillian Wyatt, shown with Cedar Lane’s Aubrey Lloyd, had participants study suspects’ hair under a microscope.

Right: Appoquinimink senior Kayla Ferguson, shown with Cedar Lane’s Brooke Eley, riffed on the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

Middletown Life | Summer 2020 | www.middletownlifemagazine.com

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|Around Middletown|

Executive director encourages fun and humor to keep things loose

Middletown Area serving M.O.T. are

By Drewe Phinny Contributing Writer

F

rom 165 member businesses in 2011 to a current count of 630 member businesses.

That’s some pretty solid growth.

It’s even more impressive when you consider that similar groups are struggling to keep pace. Middletown Area Chamber of Commerce (MACC) Executive Director Roxane Ferguson attributes the growth to several factors, the most

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important of which is a community-wide spirit of participation and a drive for excellence which is unique for a population that falls between 25,000 and 30,000 residents.

“We are very blessed,” Ferguson said. “It’s a culture. The key to our success is that we all work together. We work with all three towns, the merchants, and the school district.

We all support each other.”

She added, “M.O.T is a great place to live, work and raise your kids. The schools are great, very eclectic. Appoquinimink is a Governor’s Blue Ribbon School

ea Chamber of Commerce area in a big way All photos courtesy The ribbon-cutting at new MACC space in 2018.

District. We don’t try to be anyone else. We have our own unique, visionary kind of chamber. With most businesses, we’re all wearing multiple hats.”

The MACC was founded 48 years ago by a local resident, Will Kirkwood, and the Rotary Club. “He and his wife, Charlotte ran the chamber out of their house,” Ferguson explained. “Nine years ago, I became their first full-time staff member. I came on to help Peggy Ryan and she transitioned into more of an office manager role because of the growth.”

Ferguson’s experience ranges from banking to adjunct professor to real estate. Her volunteer work includes serving as board member for the M.O.T. Jean Birch Senior Center and the M.O.T. Rotary Club. She also serves as an Honorary Commander for Dover Air Force Base. Somehow, she manages to make time to host a radio show at WDEL 101.7 FM in Wilmington.

Until recently, the chamber was a two-person office, with Ferguson and office manager Lisa Henson. Sandy Gauding Continued on Page 20 www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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MACC Continued from Page 19

is the latest addition and she serves as office assistant.

“And, of course, we couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers and our board members,” Ferguson said.

The MACC is a 501 © (6) membership-based nonprofit. Plus, they run a 501 © (3) charity non-profit for the educational foundation. “So we serve two boards of directors, the chamber and the foundation,” Ferguson explained.

Along with the more conventional goals of economic development, and supporting

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The Middletown Area Chamber of Commerce team…office assistant Sandy Gauding, executive director Roxane Ferguson, and office manager Lisa Henson.

Mike Tresco from the Appoquinimink School District, Kevin Hensley, the State Representative, Roxane Ferguson the MACC executive director, Srini Lokula, of Ram Tech Systems, Rich Mazzio of Dover Federal Credit Union, Nick Ryan of All Therapy, and Sital Soni,of ELM Strategies.

members with different benefits, Ferguson shared that the MACC’s secret ingredient is “putting a different spin on everything we do from a fun element. So our hashtag is fun chamber.”

She explained, “The website video will show you all the fun things we’ve done over the past seven or eight years. For instance, the state corn hole championship draws a huge crowd…

We have M.O.T. Night at the Blue Rocks that welcomes anywhere between 3,000 and 7,000 people and we celebrate our community that night. So we’ll have the Little League out on the field. Last year, Appoquinimink High School Boys Baseball won the state championship so they were recognized. We give our big Happy Gilmore Golf check to our scholarship award

Middletown Life | Summer 2020 | www.middletownlifemagazine.com

MOT Night at the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

The Spring Expo in Townsend.

winners on the field too.”

Mixers are a common benefit for chambers of commerce, and, MACC has its own “fun” approach to that tradition.

The location is chosen through a Halloween lottery party.

“We’ll have 100 businesses come out and everybody is dressed in costumes,” she explained. “They drop their business cards into a cauldron and we randomly choose the host for next year’s mixer that way. And it’s not uncommon to find two or three businesses partnering for a fun mixer. We [had] two groups partnering for a Mardi Gras

party followed by a Leap Year mixer. We partner with the Delaware Small Business Chamber for the Mini Putt-Putt Golf Tournament, the Luau at the Chesapeake Inn in June, the Fall Expo at the Executive Banquet Center in November and the fall outdoor mixer at Schaefer’s Canal House in September. It’s all great fun with the networking we do.”

The foundation raises money for scholarships and entrepreneurships. Over the past decade, MACC has awarded approximately $55,000 to graduating seniors, and last year, Continued on Page 22

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MACC Continued from Page 21

the organization awarded the first entrepreneurial grant of $500.

One of the many services that the chamber offers is called the “incubator space,” a place that offers co-working space made available to small businesses.

“It’s a private work space for folks who can’t afford to go out to their own brick and mortar right away because of expenses,” Ferguson explained. “They can use boardrooms, workshops, seminars, copier room, and the mail room. If they travel a lot, they can have meetings here and come in as much as they need to. They have 24-hour access.”

Incubator spaces have helped small businesses in the area.

Ferguson explained, “The first space was donated by the town of Middletown, where the Historical Society is now.

Almost five years ago, we moved to Cass Street, where the YMCA is now.” Within 18 months, they outgrew that building and went from 3,000 square feet to their current space of 4,300 square feet.

The success rate for MACC clients is impressive, as Ferguson explains: ‘We’ve had forty-one businesses over the past five years that each have their own phenomenal stories. Eighty percent of them are minority, women or

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The Fall Luncheon at Middletown Memorial Hall.

veteran-owned, and 30 percent have been certified by the Office of Supplier Diversity in the State of Delaware. What that means is that they’re eligible to put in for state bids under certain thresholds. They’re all at different levels of business ownership.”

Success stories include: First State Staffing Solutions, Learning Tree Academy, Khan Consulting, Webb Insight, SaladWorks, Real Life Community Church, Ram Tech Systems and many more.

As business has expanded from local to global, participation has grown in places that might seem impossible in Continued on Page 24

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MACC Continued from Page 22

the past. “If you look at our chamber map, we embody the entire United States. You can do business anywhere now. We actually have businesses headquartered in San Diego.” Other states [where business is being done] include Vermont, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

People can do business from anywhere in the country.”

Despite all the growth, there is still no end of the progress in sight.

Ferguson supplied some surprising numbers she learned from the School District Superintendent, Matt Burrows: “Ten years ago, we had 18,000 residents. We’re now at thirty-six thousand. In ten more years, we’ll be at 86.000 people by 2030.”

As population increases, so does the need for all kinds of housing.

“We have a lot of senior communities; most of them are associated with golf courses,” Ferguson explained. “We just had St. Anne’s open up with a golf course on the west side of town. And now we have upscale apartment complexes opening. There’s The Reserve at Southridge, a Capano management property. It’s beautiful, behind Kohls.

And directly across the street, they’re building another one,

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The Reserve at Westown.”

An important part of MACC support is based on two groups that provide a variety of functions that are imperative to achieving goals.

“We have a great board of directors and a great ambassador (volunteer) program,” Ferguson explained. “We have 18 board members on our chamber board and seven board members on the foundation board. And then we have 17 ambassadors. We empower our ambassadors to learn how to emcee an event and they work with the business owners. That also increases their personal growth. In fact, some of them say they never envisioned themselves speaking in public.”

This kind of individual development is a natural match for another MACC program which is the Standing Ovation Toastmasters.

Ferguson summed up the MACC philosophy: “We’re more than just a business organization because part of our mission is to foster community spirit and that’s why we do a lot of community events. We have fun, which is a win-win for us and the people we serve.”

Middletown Area Chamber of Commerce 1050 Industrial Drive, Suite 110 Middletown, Delaware 19700 302-378-7545 info@maccde.com

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|Middletown People|

‘I came here to be he For Reverend Dr. Patrick Bowman “Bo” Gordy-Stith, the two years he and his wife Vicki spent at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Odessa served as a sanctuary of healing that tended to their wounded lives and gave them the strength to move on

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.”

Proverbs 3:27

W

hen Dr. Patrick Bowman “Bo” Gordy-Stith arrived with his wife Vicki to become the new pastor at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Odessa in July of 2018, he was carrying the unbearable weight of grief that took form in the face of a severely broken human being who saw his life now on the ground, tattered and torn into small pieces.

That’s when the miracle began to happen.

For the next two years, the parish and its people – from their deeds and actions and through their faith and commitment -- helped slowly repair some of what Gordy-Stith and Vicky had lost when their adopted son Elijah was killed one month before, just days before his 21st birthday.

The healing of Bo Gordon-Stith began on the Sunday of his first sermon. Somehow, word had circulated that he was an avid cowboy hat wearer, and when he arrived at the church, he looked out at the friendly faces he and Vicki would get to know well and saw that many had donned cowboy hats.

Immediately, he saw that the St. Paul’s was a church of road trips, selfless engagement, a spirit of community and global awareness -- a call to action that his predecessor Rev. Karin Tunnell had created that extended well beyond the borders of Odessa, Middletown and Townsend.

He saw St. Paul’s join with other MOT community organizations at “Rise Against Hunger” events, that assembled meals to benefit developing countries. He saw the church’s youth mission cultivate and grow food at Clairvaux Farm in Earleville. He witnessed church volunteers stuff school bags for back-to-school give-aways. He dug his hands deep into the soil at the church’s Covenant Garden, where fresh 26

Middletown Life | Summer 2020 | www.middletownlifemagazine.com

vegetables grew and later distributed to the Neighborhood House. He mentored young people two mornings a week at Silverlake Elementary School.

This, he knew: That this was a congregation whose mission statement “Reaching Up, Reaching In, Reaching Out” had manifested itself in the form of a directional signal turn that would take Bo Gordy-Stith and Vicki on a two-year journey that would help them survive each day on the backs of the church itself. What he did not yet know was that for Gordy-Stith, becoming the pastor at St. Paul’s had become more than an extension of his calling. From the time he entered the profession of faith 25 years before, he was a selfprofessed storyteller whose messages wove the resilience of every day life into the fabric of Jesus Christ, and here he was, in Odessa, sharing his grieving like a story slowly unfolding.

“I began to realize that there was a whole lot more to me than that of a bereaved parent,” he said. “Part of the healing was that there was room for grieving and also room for lots of other things.

“I realized that my grieving had to happen in the church, in the midst of everything else. This is where the rubber was going to meet the road, to see if all the things we talk about and believe in were in fact true.” * * * * On a rainy weekday morning in March – just a week before a global pandemic changed the course of human life, perhaps forever – Bo Gordy-Stith sat in his office at St. Paul’s. He is the proud owner of a generous smile, the analytical mind of an engineer and the insatiable curiosity of a poet. Behind him rested a long line of photographs that serve as celebrations and chapter markers of a life spent in the company of his passion. There were pictures of him beside Vicki at the United States Naval Academy, on sabbatical trips and photos of Vicki – also a pastor -- embraced by friends and parishioners.

There were also photographs of his children Joy and Eli and Elijah.

healed’ Photo by Richard L. Gaw

Reverend Dr. Patrick Bowman “Bo” Gordy-Stith served as the pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Odessa from July 2018 to July 2020.

Elijah Riley Gordy-Stith was born on July 28, 1997, and was the product of a broken home and often beaten by his father, who later served time in prison. When was 11 yeas old, the Gordy-Stiths officially adopted him.

“At the adoption hearing, the judge asked Elijah, ‘Do you want to be their son?’” Gordy-Stith recalled. “He said ‘Yes.’ The judge then turned to Vicki and me and asked, ‘Do you want to be Elijah’s parents? We said ‘Yes.’” Now the father of an adopted child, Gordy-Stith knew that Elijah’s journey would not only be his son’s, but his as well. While there were challenging times in their relationship, father and son had slowly come to an understanding of each other. They made a habit of embracing each other when they met and when they parted, they embraced again.

“Out of that grace, a new relationship formed,” GordyStith said.

On the night of June 12, 2018, Bo and Vicki were on a sabbatical when they learned that Elijah had been shot and killed in the Pike Creek section of Wilmington. They drove back to Delaware and buried their son after a June 16 memorial service at Skyline United Methodist Church in Pike Creek, where Bo and Vicki served as co-pastors from 1997 to 2011.

Prior to leaving for Odessa, Bo and Vicki returned to their sabbatical. For Bo, it would become a spiritual journey that would last for the next several weeks.

“In the emotional and spiritual shock of his death, I realized that part of this journey will be about finding my way back to hope,” he said. “Not only had the bullet killed Elijah, but in some ways, I felt like it had also killed the hopes and dreams we had for him.

“With any number of powerful and crippling moments, many of them are never fixed,” he said. “The death of our

son wasn’t fixed. We loved Elijah, but it wasn’t enough in the end to help spare his life.”

On July 22, 2018, five weeks after he buried his son, Gordy-Stith officially became the new pastor at St. Paul’s.

Gordy-Stith was, on that March morning – like he has been his whole life -- a passenger on a train that has embarked on an endless journey, and in many ways, the metaphor was an accurate one. Vicki had accepted a position to become the new head pastor at the Epworth United Methodist Church in Rehoboth in January and had already left Odessa. Bo was preparing to leave St. Paul’s and join her in early July as assistant pastor.

The arithmetic is easy. Gordy-Stith had spent, almost to the day, two years at St. Paul’s. For some, it is the time equivalent of a single flap of a butterfly’s wing, but for Bo Gordy-Stith, the two years that he and Vicki spent at St. Paul’s became a rebirth that saw them become witness to a miracle – the reassurance that their grief would not be entered into alone. The congregation that had once greeted Bo with cowboy hats had reached down and picked up the broken parts of his life, right beside him.

“The community knows the heart of the leader who is here for a season,” he said. “I respect the fact that the Methodist Church shuffles us from parish to parish, because it helps remind us that we are not the true leaders of the church.

“There is something about gathering back within the walls of being resurrected that reminds us that the truth of love is bigger than anything,” he said. “The last word I want to tell the people of St. Paul’s is that while I was only here two years, I came here to be healed.

“I want to tell them, ‘Thank you.’”

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com. www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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|Middletown Business|

A sweet succ

Photos by John Chambless

Krista Scudlark prepares another batch of jam for sale through her company, Backyard Jams and Jellies.

Above: Backyard Jams and Jellies are sold throughout southern Delaware, including the Something Old, Something New shop in Middletown.

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ccess

Backyard Jams and Jellies turns local ingredients into much-loved products

By John Chambless Contributing Writer

A

bout 25 years ago, Krista Scudlark was faced with an overflowing garden in her backyard. Her solution – an initial foray into making jam – has taken over her life, making Backyard Jams and Jellies a favorite of customers throughout Delaware.

With a display at the Something Old, Something New shop in Middletown, the small company offers dozens of kinds of jams, jellies, mustards, chutneys and preserves across the region, all made one large pot at a time, on a stove, by hand.

In late February, Scudlark was busily stirring three pots on a commercial stove she rents from a friend in Lewes. The sweet, seductive smell of jam in the making filled the tidy kitchen.

Continued on Page 30

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Backyard Jams and Jellies Continued from Page 29

“My grandmother made beach plum jelly and strawberry preserves,” Scudlark said. “I don’t remember my mother ever making jelly.”

So she didn’t have any experience in jam when she started making her first batches, after growing up near Baltimore and then working in several positions with the University of Delaware’s College of Marine Studies.

The garden behind Scudlark’s home in Milton is still the source of what goes into the jars, but with ever-increasing demand, she now gets much of her fruit from Fifer Orchards in southern Delaware.

“When I started out, everything was from my backyard,” she said.

Without any business knowledge early on, Scudlark worked with the Small Business Development Center through the University of Delaware to find out how to trademark the company name and keep track of all the details of her growing business. About 15 years ago, Backyard Jams and Jellies outgrew her home kitchen, and facing strict rules regarding food production for sales, Scudlark rented a series of commercial kitchens before finding the tucked-away Lewes location about five years ago. It’s nothing fancy, but it has everything she needs.

One of the things customers have come to love about the company is the range of flavors – there are 33 varieties of pepper jellies alone – and the fact that everything is made in small batches, about 24 small jars at a time.

Last year, she turned out an estimated 2,000 cases – that’s 24,000 jars.

“I’m always producing. There’s not even a slowdown in January and February anymore,” Scudlark said, crediting her small group of paid part-time helpers, about four or five in the summer and three in the winter. She laughingly refers to them as her “jelly slaves.”

“I’m at my limit right now,” she said of the workload, which offers no downtime. “In the winter, I make and make and make, and it piles up in my hallway and my basement. I sell throughout the year. I have it in stores and I ship and I have one winter farmer’s market. The summer is just ridiculous. People buy them as souvenirs to take home, and they love it. My phone number is on the label, and they call me to ship more. Fall is the time people buy for holiday gifts.”

Scudlark delivers the products to stores herself, one load at a time, in her van. That includes four or five trips each year to the Mandarin Hotel in Washington, D.C., which uses Backyard products in the restaurant, and for in-room service. “About five years ago, one of their chefs came to the Rehoboth Farmers Market and bought some 30

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of my jam and really liked it,” Scudlark said. “I was so flattered that I said OK, and now I have to keep delivering about 120 quart jars every time.”

The hallmark of the brand is its strong local connection. The most popular seller – Beach Plum Jelly – is made with the tiny fruits that grow in southern Delaware. This year’s crop was a bust, however, leaving Scudlark with just over a dozen small jars of the sales leader. When they’re gone, they’re gone.

She buys “huge amounts of fruit” from Fifer, located outside Dover, and what she can’t turn into jam immediately is frozen for later use.

Scudlark is constantly thinking of new combinations of flavors, and some have come from customer requests.

Basically, if she has the ingredients, she can make it – Mango Pineapple, Persimmon, Chokeberry, along with the usual strawberry and blueberry blends.

“There’s a new one, Passion Fire Pepper Jam, which is peaches, apricots and passion fruit juice, along with the peppers,” Scudlark said. “Most of the pepper jellies are a blend of jalapenos and chiles – more like warm, but not excruciating.”

The hottest is the aptly named Screamin’ Ghost. “It’s definitely got a kick, but I can enjoy it,” she said. “They’re all very flavorful – they aren’t just hot.”

Del Tech in Georgetown has begun growing peppers for Backyard Jams and Jellies for the past two years as well, Continued on Page 32

Some of the those who assist Scudlark during the year.

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Backyard Jams and Jellies Continued from Page 31

Backyard Jams and Jellies represented Delaware last July in a product showcase at the White House.

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bringing students into the business process.

Along the way, Scudlark has offered some rare varieties, such as Dandelion Jelly. “It’s very labor intensive,” she said.

“You have to pick each dandelion apart, very carefully. One woman liked it, though, and bought everything I had.”

She admitted that Cranberry Mustard might have been a mistake. “I did not care for it at all,” she said, “and I haven’t made it since.”

The company’s second best seller is Drunken Monkey Jam, which used Dogfish Head rum in the recipe, along with bananas, sugar and vanilla. Scudlark’s daughter works for Dogfish, and the family’s home is about two blocks away from the Dogfish headquarters. “I wanted to make some boozy jams, and I guess it’s been about a year ago, we started with Mango Tango. Then we made the Drunken Monkey. It’s delicious. Everybody loves it,” she said.

Each jar sold has a circle of patterned cloth on the lid, a trademark that came about largely by chance. “It’s just to make it pretty,” Scudlark said. “When you make the jam or jelly, it cools for a day. Then when it’s sealed, you can take the outer lid off and put the fabric on. My husband Continued on Page 35

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Backyard Jams and Jellies Continued from Page 32

suggested it one summer day when I was elbow-deep in jelly, and I just gave him a look. But it’s become popular.

We use a holiday patterned cloth at Christmas, and people love it. We are getting fabric printed with blueberries and cranberries from a company in Maine. It makes the jars noticeable, and makes them better gifts.”

One thing that Scudlark has learned from her decades of jam making is that commercial varieties – the stuff in packets on diner tables, for instance – do not measure up. “My daughter had a sleepover one time and the mom served a commercial brand for breakfast,” Scudlark said.

“She came home and said, ‘Mom, it was just awful!’ I guess she had never had store-bought jam before.”

As the face of the company seen frequently at farm markets in the spring and summer, Scudlark has made friendships with buyers, and maintains contact through her Facebook presence and through online sales, sending a bit of Delaware nationwide.

“I still enjoy this,” Scudlark said, beaming as she stirred a new pot of jam. “There are times in August when I say, ‘What am I thinking?’, but for the most part, I do still enjoy it.”

While she has help with cutting the fruit and putting it into containers, Scudlark is still the cook who oversees – and stirs -- each jar of her product.

Asked to name her favorite flavor, she picked Peach Raspberry Jam, but added, “I’m not so much of a jelly eater. I’m more of a scrambled egg with Backyard Tomato Chutney kind of girl.”

For more information, visit www.backyardjamsandjellies.com.

To contact John Chambless, email johnchambless@ yahoo.com.

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Beach plums are the basis of a top-selling variety of Backyard jam, but last year’s crop was a failure.

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|Middletown Dining|

New restaurants attract attentio La Banca honors history and Crooked Hammock reflects a more relaxed state-of-mind

By Drewe Phinny Staff Writer

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wo of the latest additions to a growing dining landscape in Middletown both aim to please patrons with good food and unique ambience. La Banca (the bank) has transformed the old Delaware Trust building into a sleek, classy, two-level restaurant that features Italian fare with a twist and an extensive selection of wines.

The Crooked Hammock Brewery personifies what it calls the “Hammock state of mind,” an invitation to “hang out, get some comfort food, have a few beers with friends, play some cornhole, just relax.”

La Banca opened on Nov. 1, 2019. The building had been vacant for 14 years, after the bank closed in 2001. Then, in 2015, restoration commenced. Over the past few years, a massive internal renovation was done by Rick Clark and Clark Construction, with additional oversight from Adam Cofield, business manager of RM Hospitality Group.

Although the entire interior was gutted and rebuilt, original bank artifacts are on display as an homage to Delaware Trust, which was built in 1918. “Some of the things we’ve accumulated have been provided by former customers,” Cofield explained. “Postcards, safe deposit box keys, envelopes... We’ve had several people who worked in the bank come in for dinner and we’ll show them what we’ve restored or renovated and it becomes a point of nostalgia for them. It’s a place where memories were created, but it’s good to be renovated and lively again.”

There’s a quiet, sophisticated look to La Banca; although Cofield is quick to squelch 36

All photos courtesy Moon Loop Photography

Above: La Banca (the bank) has transformed the old Delaware Trust building into a sleek, classy, two-level restaurant.

Right: The staircase leading up to the second floor combines the traditional and the modern looks of La Banca’s interior.

any suggestion of stuffiness. “It’s not the place where you need to wear a jacket and tie and all that. It’s more about what you’re comfortable in.”

Not surprisingly, pasta is the biggest seller at La Banca. “We have seven different pastas right now, including capellini and tagliatelle. We do a dish that utilizes the capellini with two different variations; one’s a squid ink with clams and shrimp and oysters. We also have gnocchi, which is a hand-rolled pasta. It’s basically a little dumpling style. Then we have raviolis, which is a filled pasta. We have lobster ravioli, where we create a lobster mousse. We have a multitude of different things from land and sea...Right now, Maryland rockfish is on the menu and salmon, shrimp and mussels as appetizers.Regardless of your likes or dislikes, there is something on the menu you will enjoy.”

Middletown Life | Summer 2020 | www.middletownlifemagazine.com

ntion with different approaches There’s a unique connection that Waffle House is a great place to unites restaurant workers, and go at 1:30 in the morning because for Cofield, it’s one of the things you’ll probably see a bunch of that endears him to the business. people from the industry. So it’s “Despite the difficulties and the extremely rewarding and it’s not for challenges, it has to be one of the everyone, but for those folks it is.” most rewarding industries to work Cofield’s mission at La Banca is to in. Because you work with people... share that family warmth with the long hours on nights and weekends customers as they enjoy the deliand holidays. You spend more time cious food. with those folks sometimes than Brent Chellew is the Executive your own family. It becomes a true Chef at La Banca. Chellew, originalfamily environment. They become The menu at La Banca features Italian fare with a twist. ly from New Castle, was educated family. At Metro (Metro Pub and in Philadelphia. Most recently, he Grill, also managed by RM Hospitality Group), we close worked at Domaine Hudson in Wilmington from 2014 to at midnight Fridays and Saturdays, so you get out of there 2017 under Dwain Kalup, who was a James Beard semiabout 1:00 or 1:30...you may not be tired and you’re usual- finalist, Best Chef Mid-Atlantic Competition, 2017.

Continued on Page 38 ly going out to have a meal with the people you work with.

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New Restaurants Continued from Page 37

Both Chellew and Kalup traveled to Arizona in 2018, where Chellew accepted the position of Sous Chef at The Fat Ox, under Chefs Rochelle Daniel and Matt Carter. In late 2019, he returned to Delaware and became Chef de Cuisine at La Banca. Soon after that, he was promoted to Executive Chef.

Cofield believes in treating workers well. “A restaurant’s number one asset is the people who work there. You have to take care of the people who work for you in order to take care of the people who patronize your business.”

According to Cofield, future plans include a hotel and possibly a deli. “We’re looking at opening an Italian style deli downtown,” he said, explaining that the offerings would be complementary to what has been established at La Banca with a great selection of cheeses and cured meats, olive oils and olives, balsamic vinegar, antipastas and breads along with raviolis and pastas.

“We haven’t finalized it yet but we’re in the process of working it out,” Cofield said.

La Banca 1 West Main Street Middletown, Delaware 19709 302-464-3005 labancamiddletown.com

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The backyard section of the Crooked Hammock gives people a chance to relax outside or engage in recreational games such as cornhole and horseshoes.

As you drive up to Crooked Hammock Brewery, one thing that comes to mind is the beach. Sand outside, horseshoe pits, comfortable outdoor furniture, shuffleboard, even bocce ball courts. It definitely has a recreational feel to it. The website describes it as “a backyard inspired brewpub and beer garden with a laid- back atmosphere, easy drinkin’ brews and a food menu inspired by your favorite family BBQ.” Of course, there is plenty of indoor activity too. That’s where the food is, along with conversation and comfort food.

Marketing Coordinator Patrick Galloway, is a perfect spokesperson for this indoor-outdoor venue. He engenders an honest enthusiasm for “the Hammock state of mind.”

Galloway, 24, explained how the concept starts at the top and works its way through the entire organization. “This is one of the most laid-back, awesome companies I’ve ever worked for,” Galloway said. “From their corporate level, the whole idea is to give people a home away from home where they can go get some comfort food, burgers, nachos, fries, wings, have a few beers, hang out with friends, play some cornhole, just relax [and] find an escape.”

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New Restaurants Continued from Page 39

There are lots of other game choices outside, along with a fire pit.

“Our corporate motto is, ‘Enjoy the Ride,’ Galloway explained, “And everything we do stems from that.”

This laid-back (you’ll hear that phrase a lot) atmosphere is reflected in the beverage approach. “As far as The blue hammock is a decal on the our beers, everything mash tank. It is also the Crooked Hammock logo. we have is meant to be easy-drinking so you can hang out with your friends instead of drinking to get drunk.

We very much go for that food-drink experience across the board,” Galloway said.

The Crooked Hammock brand was actually developed before the first Hammock opened its doors in Lewes in 2015.

Galloway pointed out that the owner Rich Garrahan, developed the idea for The Crooked Hammock brand.

“He worked a corporate marketing job and he ended moving to lower Delaware,” Galloway explained. “He kind of just slowed down his whole life. He actually had a hammock in his backyard that he always used to lay in and that was where the idea came from. Our backyard comes from this initial idea. He wanted a place for people to do that.

We opened on Nov. 13, 2019, and we’re doing really well, but we’re continuing to prepare for the shininess to wear off so we’re very active in marketing.”

Galloway mentioned several of the brews on the Crooked Hammock list. “We have one called the ‘Shoobie.’ I’ve since learned that a Shoobie is a traveler who carries his or her lunch in a shoe box. A lot of our focus is around those kinds of mindsets... free-spirited ideals. We’re working on our year-round recipes now. One of them will be called “Four-Tires.” It’s the concept of a road-tripping beer, one you can drink on the road (not while driving, obviously) but one you can drink while on a road trip, or camping, etc. It’s in testing phase now and is on tap under the name Road Trippin.”

During the summer, Galloway said they will try to drive traffic into the yard area, prior to getting into the restaurant, because you can get food service as well as beer out there.

“We really try and push people to the backyard because it’s kind of our waiting area and they can get a table if they choose.”

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The beer taps set the pace for the unique flavor that flows throughout the entire building and business.

He also wanted to make it clear that The Crooked Hammock is 100 percent family-friendly (kids are welcome) and dog-friendly.

“We’re having a “Beers for Barks” promotion. In January, February and March, we give twenty- five cents of every pint to Brandywine Valley SPCA. So it’s usually about $7,000 to $8,000 at the end of the three-month period. And we do adoption events where we’ll fill this room with puppies and people come out and we try to get some dogs adopted.”

Galloway stressed that they work with many local businesses, focusing on supporting the communities. “In fact, my position was very much developed just for outreach in the community so we can go out and partner with area businesses,” he said.

Crooked Hammock Brewery 316 Auto Park Drive Middletown, Delaware 19709 302-601-7837

The Crooked Hammock seats 294 and can host 1000 people inside and out. www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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|Middletown Life Photo Essay| For the past 60 years, Summit Aviation has been a leader in aircraft maintenance and integration services - an assembly line of proficiency that continues to bring flying machines from around the world to Middletown

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Rea the

eaching e Summit Photos by Jim Coarse

Text by Richard L. Gaw When Richard “Kip” DuPont began Summit Aviation in 1960, he set out to establish the 550-acre private airport as one of the world’s most respected maintenance centers for aircraft in the United States.

It was a goal that came true, because for the past six decades, the arrival of an aircraft hovering in the sky above Middletown signifies that upon landing at Summit Aviation, it will be welcomed by a talented crew of technicians, receive some of best aviation repair and maintenance in the world, and then fly off again, back into the world.

Continued on Page 44

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Summit Aviation Continued from Page 43

As both a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) and Fixed Base Operator (FBO) facility, Summit Aviation is equipped to welcome hundreds of aircraft every year that fly in for everything from routine maintenance and repair to avionics upgrades, mission system integration, modifications, painting, flight testing/training support and logistics support, as well as aircraft sales and leasing.

Summit Aviation’s customer base is as broad as the variety of aircraft that land on its runway throughout the year: U.S. and foreign military units, U.S. government, corporate and private businesses and general aviation.

On any given day, Summit Aviation’s team of technicians and mechanics will repair aircraft as wide-ranging as a corporate plane to a military H-47 Chinook helicopter to an airborne law enforcement aircraft.

Continued on Page 46

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Summit Aviation Continued from Page 44

Partnering with the company’s assembly and manufacturing sites in Kentucky and North Carolina, Summit Aviation in Middletown has maintained the core values that DuPont dreamed of 60 years ago – to provide the aviation industry with superior service at a reasonable cost, while never losing sight of quality workmanship, aircraft by aircraft – that fly over the Middletown skies and into the hands of some of the most qualified aviation technicians in the world.

To learn more about Summit Aviation, visit www.summitaviation.com.

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|Middletown recreation|

Community Y input sought for planning of Southern Park

The task force report recommended starting Southern Park with this 25-acre site north of Marl Pit Road.

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By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer

our input is being sought to plan the features of New Castle County’s 249th park. Southern Park will be created on county-owned land north of Middletown, at 1275 Shallcross Lake Road, on the east side of the road, a half-mile north of Marl Pit Road and just south of the Drawyers Creek subdivision.

The county has scheduled two more public meetings to present continuing refinements to the master plan, hopefully arriving by this fall at a final concept, a county spokesman said.

“We have a blank … palette,” said Kendall Summer, the county’s parks manager. “We can make it whatever we want it to be, and we hope to engage the public to shape that or design our picture.”

“Parks are the soul of communities,” said David Carter, a county councilman who also served on the county parks task force that recommended the site. Parks “really can bring so many people together in a common area, to rub elbows, to get to know each other, to begin to build trust and community capital.”

“The county is home to some fantastic parks – 248 of them,” said County Executive Matt Meyer. “And they’re really vital assets for our community, for recreation, for relaxation, for enjoying nature, of course for health and also something we don’t talk about a lot: for home values. When you have a park in your neighborhood, it increases your home value, and if you don’t have a park in your neighborhood, it certainly makes a lot fewer people want to live there.

So it’s really important as we develop out and build out this part of the county we do so with open space, farmland preservation and parks in mind.”

Meyer said that 30,000 people live

All images courtesy

Planned and existing development in southern New Castle County is various forms of red on this map, prepared for the task force. Preservation areas are in green.

within five miles of the site and area population is projected to grow by another 20,000 residents in coming years.

Southern Park will initially cover 40 to 50 acres of farmland. “However, the master plan will look at all 100 acres, as well as potential trail and pathway connections to surrounding county-owned lands, for future consideration,” said county spokesman Brian Cunningham.

Southern Park is considered a district park, like Talley Day Park and Brandywine Springs Park, he said, as contrasted to the larger and more intensely used regional parks, like Glasgow Park.

New Castle County south of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal has a mix of green space, according to a map in the parks task force’s final report. The largest chunks are federal, state and municipal parks and conservation areas.

The county runs several small neighborhood parks and one regional park, Wiggins Mill, south of Middletown. Wiggins Mill covers 190 acres, with most of it leased for farming.

The task force made 15 recommendations, with Southern Park the first. The fourth, Meyer said, was consolidating park maintenance and planning, a move made just before the park was announced.

Its recommendations to improve parks below the canal include adding fields for the MOT Little League and Delaware Union Soccer, agricultural pavilions and parking at Wiggins Mill; continuing work with Middletown on a sports complex; and working with the developers of Whitehall and the Scott Run Business Park to create parks.

Other recommendations include passive recreation near Port Penn, upgrades to Back Creek Park on Churchtown Road and discussions with residents of Bayberry.

In early feedback through six public meetings and 600

Most of New Castle County’s county parks are north of the canal, this map prepared for the task force shows by displaying them in dark green.

The light green areas are federal, state and municipal parkland.

Parkland, conservation areas and development activity are plotted in this map prepared for the task force.

Continued on Page 50 www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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Southern Park Continued from Page 49

comments from residents, “by far, biking and hiking trails are high,” said parks task force chair Ed O’Donnell, a county land use department retiree.

Also popular: playgrounds, athletic fields, open space, natural features and picnic areas, he said.

In announcing the site selection, Meyer said he didn’t “dictate” what it will include, but he said “I have been shopping for a pickleball racquet.”

“The most resounding call was for pickleball. Seriously.

We heard it in every meeting,” said Middletown councilman Aaron Blythe, who represented the town on the task force.

“People like Glasgow Park,

Southern Park could be expanded in stages, the report concludes.

with its sledding hill and farmers market and are looking to replicate that here,” he said, adding that playground swings and athletics fields are also popular suggestions. One fan of athletic fields – specifically for baseball – is Blythe’s son Chase, an 11-year-old

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player in the MOT Little League and Delaware Diamond Kings travel team.

The Survey Monkey survey, conducted by master plan consultant Simone Collins Landscape Architecture, had three key questions about what Southern Park might include, with some repetition.

It asked about seven activities and facilities: walking/ hiking, biking, birdwatching, dog walking, athletic fields for organized sports, community gardening and entertainment areas, such as an amphitheater.

It asked about 24 amenities: open lawn play areas, pickleball courts, a cricket pitch, soccer fields, baseball fields, softball fields, tot lots, a nature-based playground, walking or jogging trailers, fitness stations, recreational biking trails, a bike pump track, trail connections to regional parks and destinations, disc golf course, a dog park, an outdoor classroom, Wi-Fi access, a community garden area, an amphitheater, restrooms, pavilions, picnic tables and picnic groves, outdoor grills and an inclusive playground.

And it asked about nine ecologically driven features: environmental interpretation (for example, wetlands, watersheds, plants, nature studying and birdwatching), birdwatching blinds and stations, rainwater cisterns, passive or active solar systems for buildings, composting toilets, gray water processing for buildings, wind trees and small windmills, eco-restoration plantings (such as wildflower meadows and invasive species removal) and demonstration areas for best practices in stormwater management (such as a rain garden, vegetated swale and porous paving).

All three questions invited survey participants to suggest Continued on Page 52

MIDDLETOWN’S PARKS The Middletown area may be underserved by county parks, but Middletown itself runs multiple parks and recreational areas.

The biggest is Charles E. Price Memorial Park, which covers 100 acres on Levels Road. It features walking trails, nine pavilions, an eight-acre catch and release fishing pond, eight acres for a dog park, playgrounds and open fields for playing pick-up games of any kind.

Silver Lake Park, on East Cochran Street, features a pool run by the Middletown YMCA, skateboarding, basketball and tennis courts, a track, pavilions, ball fields and soccer fields.

Doc Levinson Park, on Doc Levinson Drive, has basketball courts, a tennis court, skateboarding, a pavilion, a playground and walking trails. The Middletown Nature Area covers 65 acres of South Broad Street, with a walking trail. Middletown Village Park on Fields Way has soccer fields. www.middletownlifemagazine.com | Summer 2020 | Middletown Life

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Southern Park Continued from Page 51

other qualities that interest them.

Plans for the park include natural features and buffers to help improve water quality of a wellhead on one corner, a water farm used to treat wastewater and a tributary of Appoquinimink Creek. “Maybe do some reforestation,” Sommers said.

Meyer and State Sen. Stephanie Hansen, a Middletown resident, want only native species to be used for landscaping.

“Building a substantial new park with recreational amenities for the growing MOT area is a really big deal,” she said.

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County officials have repeated their desire to be fiscally prudent to create the park.

The process continues with finishing and approving a master plan. After that, various county units and state agencies need to give their approvals, which Cunningham said could take at least a year, perhaps more. “Planning, designing and building a park with active recreational programming is akin to building a major subdivision or development,” he said.

“Many of the same complexities are afoot, and all the same design and construction standards are required to be met. After all agency approvals are obtained, construction on some or all of the desired components of the park will begin. This may be a phased approach, depending on budgets.”

In choosing the site for the new park, Meyer said county officials looked at multiple tracts, including land left over from Delaware Department of Transportation U.S. 301 project and privately owned parcels. “Some of them we may have future announcements on,” he said.

“This is a very exciting time for southern New Castle County,” said County Council

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Simone Collins Landscape Architecture presented three concepts for Southern Park at a March meeting. The concepts differ widely in designs and amenities.

member Bill Bell, whose district includes the site. “For many years this area has been underserved by county services. This new park also builds on the new county library being constructed in Middletown and the upgraded county paramedic station that is being put out to bid.”

Those facilities are two miles away.

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|Middletown Education|

The steel beam of remembrance

All photos by Richard L. Gaw

A piece of steel from the North Tower is now on loan from the Freedom Flag Foundation to the school.

None of the students in Katie Wright’s seventh-grade social studies class at the Louis Redding Middle School were alive on the morning that changed the world 18 years ago.

With the help of a national foundation, a piece of that fateful morning made its way to Middletown, and became an artifact meant to educate and reflect upon

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

A

s the early morning sun often does in lower Manhattan, it illuminates the sprouting buildings that arch halfway to the sky and turns them practically into glow sticks.

As the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 began to come into view, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center shone like a tremendous tuning fork, and the crystal blue sky offered the promise of a spectacular late summer day in New York City, the kind of day that is earmarked on a yearly calendar or jotted into a notebook for memory.

At 8:45 a.m., a massive steel beam about thirty feet long was fastened between the 92nd and 95th floors of the North Tower. It formed a very small part of a colossal intricacy of steel that had provided the building with strength and structure since it first opened in 1971. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11, a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda members, deliberately crashed into the North Tower between floors 93 and 99 at 466 miles per hour, killing all 92 passengers aboard, and an unknown

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number who were working in the building at the time. (At 9:02 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower between floors 77 and 85, killing all 65 aboard the plane. The building collapsed at 9:59 a.m.)

In the North Tower, the beam throttled loose upon impact, and at 10:28 a.m., as word of the attacks ricocheted across the globe, it joined every single piece of steel and every girder that had held the North Tower standing, and crashed to the ground.

The beam was buried under the rubble of what became the deadliest day on American soil since the Civil War, the single deadliest terrorist attack in human history, and the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, killing 2,977 people.

The beam was recovered and warehoused by the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, and in 2011, it became the property of the Freedom Flag Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed to support educational efforts of teaching future generations about the tragic events and many lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

How a small portion of the beam arrived at Louis Redding

Middle School in Middletown – and how it served to help seventh-grade social studies teacher Katie Wright introduce the 9/11 tragedy to her students this past fall – began with a connection, and ended as a lesson that was created by perspectives.

“Michelle Wall is one of our school board members, and she and her husband Jason are friends with John Riley, the Foundation’s director,” Wright said recently. “Michelle contacted me and said, ‘The Foundation is looking for a 7th-grade social school teacher to provide an historical backdrop to 9/11.’

“I told her, ‘Sure. Let’s do it.’” Wright became one of only a handful of teachers in America to obtain an artifact from the Freedom Flag Foundation, and the first teacher in Delaware to do so.

With the steel beam serving as a backdrop, Wright approached the four-day lesson not from the standpoint of an historical perspective, but from an emotional one. She called upon the school community to share their personal memories of the event, and several contributed recorded videos that provided the students with a compiled monologue of personal stories.

“I was fearful that if we dug into the motivations for these attacks, that the students would associate Islamic religions and Muslims with hate,” Wright said. “From the start, I knew that the point of these lessons was to reflect the

Katie Wright, a seventh-grade teacher at Louis Redding Middle School in Middletown, was selected this past fall as the first teacher in Delaware to work with the Freedom Flag Foundation to teach students about the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Pictured with Wright are two of her students – Darryl Turner and Peyton Brockell.

mission of the Freedom Flag Foundation, which is to try and celebrate those who were lost and those who have survived.

Continued on Page 57

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Remembrance Continued from Page 55

“I also wanted to bring out what we all witnessed was the best part of who people are.”

Wright shared her story, as well; early on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Wright was a high school junior in Seattle, who had arrived at the school for cheerleading practice at 5:45 a.m. Pacific Standard Time – a three-hour time difference.

“Someone said that the World Trade Center had just been hit, and we knew nothing about where that was at the time,” she said. Upon hearing of the news, Wright’s parents had tried to contact her brother Kasey at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., but would not be able to reach him for the next few days.

“Everything was delayed because of the time difference, and everything happened far before people in Seattle were even awake, so when they woke up, they woke up to this,” Wright said.

On Sept. 11, 2001, John Riley was sitting at his work desk near Richmond, Va. when he learned that a plane had attacked the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The last time he had seen his friend Doug Ketcham was at Riley’s wedding in April of 2001– Ketcham served as one of

Riley’s groomsmen. Riley knew that Ketcham had recently taken a job at Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices were located on the 102nd floor of the North Tower.

Eventually, Riley learned about the terrible fate of his friend, as well as one other fact: from the 102nd floor of the North Tower, Ketcham had made one final call from under his desk, as his floor filled with smoke. It was to his mother.

“He called his mother and told her that he loved her and that he had to go,” said Riley, an engineer in Midlothian, Va. “Doug’s passing left a big hole in my life and in the life of my friends.”

Riley’s desire to remember his friend and the victims of 9/11 – as well as to educate current and future generations of students about the events of 9/11 -- led him to join the Freedom Flag Foundation in 2008, and he is now its president.

At the center of his commitment, there is the powerful symbolism of a flag – the Freedom Flag.

“Fast forward 18 years, and my role in the Foundation remains in large part to my connection with Doug, but it has evolved into something much larger,” he said. “It has Continued on Page 58

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Remembrance Continued from Page 57

been to fulfill a desire to make the Freedom Flag the National Symbol of Remembrance for 9/11.”

With the passing of Va. Code, Section 1-510, the Freedom Flag is now flown annually at the Virginia State House and at hundreds of K-12 schools across the state.

There is little irony that Virginia is the only state in the nation who has adopted the Freedom Flag as the official Flag of Remembrance for 9/11; Arlington County is the home of the Pentagon, which was also attacked on Sept.

11, 2001.

In March 2014, the Foundation began a partnership with Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia to use the Freedom Flag as a teaching tool in 7th grade social studies classes. A special pilot project was created at Tuckahoe Middle School using a collection of 9/11 items (including a Freedom Flag and a small piece of WTC steel) stored in a mobile “travel trunk.”

The success of the pilot project resulted in its expansion to other middle schools in the district, and it is now taught in a dozen schools in Virginia, and three other schools in the nation, including Louis L. Redding Middle School.

“I sent Michelle Wall a text late August last year, and asked her, ‘Do you happen to know a dynamic teacher in your school district who would be able to teach students about 9/11 if we put a WTC Steel artifact and Freedom Flags in their hands?’” Riley said. “Michelle responded, ‘I know exactly the right person.’”

For Wright, teaching about Sept. 11 was the hardest lesson she has ever had to create, she said.

“Often times when I plan classes, it’s about history that I have no emotional connection to at all,” she said.

“Many times, the events that I teach the students about happened 200 years ago, whereas this was a day in my life. It was challenging for me to come up with something that could be meaningful to them and have an impact on them.

“These students were born in 2007, so they have never known a world without 9/11, but for those born years before, we can tell each other what we were doing at the exact moment we found out what was happening.”

The impact of Wright’s plans were immediate and lasting.

“I knew all about the planes crashing into the towers, and I thought that it was so awful that someone could do that,” said Peyton Brockell, a student in Wright’s class.

“I was surprised as to how that happened. I’m definitely interested in learning more about 9/11 because I liked the way we learned it.”

“The class allowed me to learn about the fact that there

Continued on Page 60

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Remembrance Continued from Page 58

were multiple planes set up to go to different destinations, and it was shocking to me that someone would go to such great lengths just to cause chaos and violence,” said student Darryl Turner. “As for the artifact, I was surprised that we were able to obtain an actual piece of the North Tower.”

The beam was showcased in a display case at the Louis Redding Middle School, where for the entire 2019-2020 academic year, hundreds of students walked by it, and read about its history, its placement in the North Tower and how it got to their school. For Turner, the introduction to the events of Sept.

11, 2001 also introduced him to what many still recall as the lone shining moment to a tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“I was inspired by how such a tragedy also brought people together to do something for the greater good, and come together for each other,” he said. “I also want to know if there is anything out there that could prevent something like this from ever happening again.”

To learn more about the Freedom Flag Foundation, visit www.freedomflagfoundation.org.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com

About the Freedom Flag On the evening of Sept. 20, 2001, Richard Melito sat in his restaurant in Richmond, Va. and sketched a symbol commemorating the events which occurred nine days earlier. His intention was to create a symbol for display on the wall within his establishment that would always remind his patrons of the tragedy and triumph of September 11, 2001.

Sixteen months later, the Freedom Flag became a part of Virginia history when it was designated the state’s official symbol of remembrance honoring the victims and heroes of 9/11 by then-govener Mark Warner. In 2018, the Freedom Flag was added to the Code of Virginia (§1-510) as the Commonwealth’s official Flag of Remembrance for September 11, 2001. It is believed to be the only state-codified symbol of remembrance for 9/11 in the United States.

We encourage local organizations, schools, civic and fraternal groups and churches to submit news releases.

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