Feeding Empty Little Tummies (FELT)

Solomons Cares.  That's the bottom line really, you can see this in the support by the local business community for the local ministry to feed hungry children.  On Friday evening The Lotus Kitchen hosted an event designed to raise funds for HeartFELT.  Friday evening is a big night for most restaurants and Lotus is no different.  Even knowing that, The LotusKitchen hosted a cook-off between two pastors and a 'guest.' 

  

Getting set up in the porch area

The first customer!

a couple of the entrys

  

It's fairly well known that the Lotus has Mac-N-Cheese during the winter.  This came up during a discussion at Solomons United Methodist Church, where the two pastors thought their own mac-and-cheese was actually pretty darn good too.  Senior Pastor Meredith Wilkins-Arnold and Associate Pastor Matthew Tate felt they each had the best.  The idea of a cooking throw-down was born, and there's no better reason to have a contest than to support a charity.  Pastor Meredith is on the Solomons Business Association and her contest gained the attention of The Lotus Kitchen.  The idea grew even further with the participation of Stony's Kingfishers Restaurant in the cook-off. 

One of the 'voting' jars

For $10 anyone could buy a sample of each of the three entries and decide which was best.  There were no names on the samples, so each diner could decide without prejudice on which was their favorite.  The samples were distinctive.  It seemed the youngest in the crowd were drawn to the more plain and mild entrant.  One entry had pieces of a turkey Kielbasa and you either loved it or...  not.  The last Mac-N-Cheese sample had some Ritz crackers on the top and created a definitive style.

Lots of fun, even waiting in line

Once you sampled the varieties you could "vote" for your favorite with your dollars by putting your money in a jar in front of each variety.  Each variety had fans, but in the end the amount of money indicated that the Ritz recipe brought by Pastor Meredith beat out Pastor Matthew who came in a solid second with his Kielbasa style. 

I believe this is Eric

The recipes and the outcomes are just part of the story though.  The event was fun for all.  The restaurant was packed.  I'm sure this was in no small part due to the duo that was playing as well.  Their band doesn't yet have a name, but Eric and Bob brought joy to a large number of folks inside the large room inside.  Their combination of folk and older rock had the audience singing along.  They were a joy.

 In the end the mac-n-cheese was very nearly all gone and over $970 was raised through the generosity of the patrons.  This will go a long way to feed the approximately 65 children that HeartFELT benefits. If food is purchased from a grocery store it takes about $11 to fill a backpack.  HeartFELT can purchase food through the organization End Hunger in Calvert County for the cost of shipping.  This means it's possible in some instances to buy a case of canned food for $2.70! You can see how beneficial the donations are!  You can also guess it take a fair amount of money to feed 65 kids every weekend! With that in mind, can it get any better than businesses and community coming together to support those in need?  Nope, and just another reason to love Solomons.

Bob

 


 HeartFELT relies on volunteers at Solomons UMC to obtain, pack and deliver the food to the community.  Stay tuned for a story on them in the future.

More photos and short notes below:

A great hungry crowd came

The Champ!  Pastor Meredith

 There was a nice sized crowd listening to the music.  The room was totally packed.


Three women (Mom, daughter and friend) were in the room listening at a high-top table.  You could see them from the porch by looking through one of the windows.  Once the little one saw me she pointed at me.  Had to take some shots, and a couple turned out alright below:

Pastor Matthew

He likes it, he really likes it

The votes were overflowing!

Nearly everything was gone!

Appreciation Days

I mentioned the parade in my previous post, but not much about the reason behind it.  The Calvert Marine Museum hosts an annual Patuxent River Appreciation Days (PRAD)  event.  The event brings attention primarily to the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay to highlight the need for continued restoration and clean up of the waterway. 

 
 
 Children are stars of this gathering.  It's all family-friendly and child-friendly.  Who do you want to convince to clean up the environment.. everyone.  How do you get nearly everyone excited about it.. get the kids excited.



 The museum opens their doors, without the usual admission fee, for all to wander and enjoy the premises.  The museum itself is amazing for its modest size.  The hands-on exhibits keep the youngest engaged, while the history of the area has something for all ages.  Inside there are fossils from the nearby Calvert Cliffs and the kids can touch and explore many of them.  The exhibit includes a River Otter that swims and frolics in its enclosure.. which everyone enjoys.  I just wish we saw them in the wild.  That's the point of part of the museum though.  It brings awareness to the state of the bay and the need to clean up our environment.


 

 The other 'learning' occurs with volunteers from environmental organizations, such as Sierra Club, University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, U of MD Extension Service and others.  One of the cool exhibits was a large tub with Atlantic Sturgeon in it!  They were fairly big, maybe 10 to 12 inches?  I learned that DNR is trying to bring them back to the Patuxent River, though it's proving tougher than originally thought.

 
 

Continuing in the tradition of FUN, small wooden boats can be put together by even very young kids with a little help from an older guide.  The noises coming from a big tent full of people hamering and putting little boats together is interesting.  Clack, clack, bing, clack..ding, clack,  bing clack. I wish I had recorded it. It was awesome!  The fun continued in the creek as well.  Kids in a pedal boat and canoes darted around, sometimes mildly colliding for more fun.. not intended as best I could tell.  The Drum Point Screw Pile Light House was open as well.  It's a great reminder of what it took to keep the vessels safe on the bay.

Sue Ellen Garner

If all that were not enough, there is more.  The early fall is the perfect time to encourage the arts.  An area is set up where local artists display their wares.  Sculptures, paintings and photography are all on display in little tents for the crowd to admire and hopefully purchase.  Sue Ellen Garner's photography stopped me in my tracks.  Her landscape and nature photography is just fantastic.  Many of her photographs are of the same subjects that I hold dear like Heron, Eagles and of course the iconic T.J. Bridge.  Like most artists, Sue Ellen isn't much for having her own photograph taken, but I snuck this one in.  I hope you take a minute and check out her site Sue Ellen Garner Photography.

Everett (above) was fascinated with the oyster shells laying around.  He had been sitting nicely and picking them up, but then decided it was time to stand.  As you notice, Erin (mom) was ready with a little stability assistance.  The big brother was up in the Light House with Granddad, so picture taking is necessary! Hope they came out well!

Short excursions by boat were available as well.

Gee Freeman

An artist was painting a scene out of Halloween and it was all in shades of black and white.  Our conversation revealed that she doesn't usually paint outdoors, but was trying to make use of the amount of black acrylic she had on hand.  The kids that wandered around were interested and helped her decide on what to put in the painting.  One thing leads to another, and I found that most of her work is done in a 'scratch' style.  If I understand it correctly, this is where a dark ink is spread on top of a while clay, then the artist uses an exacto blade to create while lines.  Eventually this reveals the image the artist pictures.  In Gee's case most of her works are portraits of pets.  She's very fond of animals and quickly talked about the rescue that her daughter runs. I didn't understand the scope of this particular rescue until I went to their website: www.petswithdisabilities.org.  This organization is extreme, they rescue those pets many folks pass by.  They have dogs with spinal cord injuries that cannot use their hind limbs, and have specially made wheel chairs for them.  Wonderful! They have an event next Saturday in Prince Frederick... you should check them out!

"Scratch Painting"

  

Speaking of rescues, the Greyhound rescue had several dogs with them in a small pen.  I'm pretty sure this was Greyt Expectations Greyhound Rescue out of Lusby.  Again, this is a fabulous organization looking for homes of some truly wonderful dogs.  Another dog caught my attention nearby, he is a Goldendoodle.  This guy is called Sloop and he's a great boat dog.  On top of just being a laid back friendly guy, he's also hypo-allergenic.  The Goldendoodle breed is a hybrid of Golden Retriever and Poodle.  Sloop's great grandparents of a Golden and Poodle started his lineage. I was told by owner, Alli (sp?),  that the breed comes in similar sizes to the Poodle - standard and miniature, etc. 

 

These guys were so friendly.

 PRAD of course has food vendors on the property.  Some typical fair kind of food like burgers,  popcorn, funnel cakes and the like are available.  The unusual though included oysters.  You can enjoy all of this while listening to the live bands playing on two different stages.   The Southern Maryland Jazz Orchestra was playing the main stage when I was there. On the other side of the property vendors from local wineries and farms sold their products.

So now that you know about this great event, you really should check it out for yourself next year.  I'll be waiting for you.

Cheers,

Brian