Lower shore receives Heritage Area funding

BERLIN, Md. – Maryland Governor Wes Moore announcing 91 matching grants totaling more than $4.6 million for nonprofits and organizations.

They’re all part of the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority.

The Beach to Bay Heritage Area received $286,700 in grant funding to five local organizations on the lower shore.

“Our mission is to promote, preserve and protect the cultural and natural and historic assets here on the lower shore,” said Lisa Challenger, Executive Director of the Beach to Bay Heritage Area.

The funds are key to supporting heritage-related, place-based projects across Maryland.

The projects are said to promote economic growth through tourism and community enhancement.

“There’s not a lot of programs that help support this type of work that we do and also us being on the Eastern Shore, I feel like we get less attention and there’s just less knowledge about the sort of projects that we try to promote,” said Andre Nieto Jaime, Program Specialist with Beach to Bay Heritage Area.

Funding is coming to the City of Salisbury for the Maryland Folklife tent, the Crisfield Chamber of Commerce for enhancements to the Hard Crab Derby, The Henry Hotel Foundation, The Museum of Eastern Shore Culture at Salisbury University and Beach to Bay Heritage Area.

“My favorite out of all of them, because my focus was in African American history, is the Henry Hotel and that’s the oldest if not the only standing black hotel that dates back to 1895, but it didn’t start operating as a black hotel until the 1920s,” said Jaime.

The funding will also help Beach to Bay Heritage Area write mini grants for other smaller organizations.

“We’re really the only organization down here that is really preserving and telling our stories and our heritage and we’ve been able to do a lot of really rewarding projects,” said Challenger.

To learn more about the local heritage area, you can visit BeachesBaysWaterWays.org.