Serving Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the Delmarva Peninsula
Knowing there are challenges looming with regards to education funding, GSC has formed a special Blue-Ribbon panel to take a comprehensive look forward. While fully recognizing that funding for education is a political decision, i.e. the funding is a budgetary process at the Board of Education, County Executive, and County Council levels, the goal of this panel is to take a serious, non-partisan look at the education funding needs, not only in the short-term, but in the long-term – and make recommendations for the public and the elected officials to consider. Education is the number one economic development engine in any community/county. Doing all we can as a community to take a proactive look into the challenges, and making recommendations to meet those challenges, is paramount.
The Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) serves to inspire and empower women in the greater Salisbury area to flourish through assembly and partnership, facilitating advancement of members as professional leaders in their life, work, and community. GSC was instrumental in the creation of WLC in 2021.
The GSC Water and Sewer Task Force has been working and meeting regularly since 2022. Wicomico County has approximately 18,000 septic systems. The Wicomico County Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan includes a map of “Sewer Problem Areas” which are areas with known failures and further potential for septic system failures. The GSC Task Force has been led by two GSC members with extensive experience in the water/sewer arena: Matt Drew initially, and Rob Duma currently. Also included on the task force are representatives from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Salisbury University, Tri-County Council for the Lower Eastern Shore, Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, Center for Watershed Protection, and local engineers and GSC members who are interested in this significant challenge. The efforts of the task force have been widely respected and helped the Wicomico County government to create a Wicomico Sanitary Commission, and resulted in funding from Wicomico County to begin the long challenge ahead to address our water/sewer needs.
This community-based mental and behavioral health initiative began in 2023. GSC has helped facilitate a collaborative effort with key community partners to address the Lower Shore mental and behavioral health challenges. This initiative, led by Dr. Samantha Scott, is known as Healthy Minds for Shore. Its partners include GSC, Salisbury University, Wor-Wic Community College, private mental health providers; TidalHealth, Chesapeake Health Care, Wicomico County Public Schools, the Richard A. Henson Foundation, the Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, the Philip and Barbara Long Family Foundation, and the Wicomico Health Department. More on the work effort and successes of this collaboration can be found here: www.healthymindsforshore.org
The Salisbury/Wicomico housing market has challenges across the board. To address those challenges, GSC has assembled a Housing Task Force, chaired by GSC member (and past GSC Chair) Bill McCain, of W. R. McCain & Associates. The task force began its work in January 2024. The goal: to provide a plan to address housing development challenges such as the lack of new neighborhoods, the condition of current housing inventory, high rents, and a shortage of affordable housing in the Salisbury/Wicomico County area. The task force is made up of realtors, affordable housing experts, builders/developers, local business owners, and others who understand that the Salisbury/Wicomico housing market is underperforming.
GSC 2030 is an attempt by the GSC to do what it does best: take a critical look at the community to evaluate its opportunities and its challenges, and present potential solutions that can point our community forward. GSC 2030 endeavors to identify what lies ahead, and to identify potential solutions that can best position this community to thrive and prosper in 2030 – and beyond.
Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore is an organization that GSC brought to Delmarva in the 1980’s. The Perdue Henson Junior Achievement Center, which opened in the Fall of 2023 in Salisbury, is a culmination of the tremendous work of JAES over the years. This new interactive/immersive facility will be visited by 10,000 students each year, from 8 school districts on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and one from Virginia’s Eastern Shore, to learn more about financial literacy. GSC is proud of its role in helping to secure lead philanthropic and state support for this $7.5 million facility.
The Opportunity Project is a collaborative GSC initiative with many of our area’s most significant businesses and organizations: Salisbury University, Wor-Wic Community College, City of Salisbury, Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, TidalHealth, Perdue Farms, Wicomico County Public Schools, and the Wicomico County Education Foundation. The goal is to bring new executive level hires from these significant local employers together two times a year. It’s meant as a way to share with those executives and their new employers all of the opportunities that this area offers.
TCL is an immersive leadership series, launched by GSC in April 2017, that is held every two years in partnership with Salisbury University. The goal of TCL is to engage future Salisbury area leaders in learning about the industries, institutions, and entities that are the backbone of our community. Every month for 8 consecutive months, TCL participants take field trips to learn more about these community and regional assets. At the conclusion of each monthly visit, exceptional leadership speakers share insights with the TCL cohort.
GSC is playing a strong regional role in advancing the Offshore Wind industry, working closely with the two entities who are bringing Offshore Wind energy to Maryland: Orsted and US Wind. We believe our region can be a key player in the Operations and Maintenance supply chain that will be needed over the next 20 years as Offshore Wind comes to the area. Orsted and US Wind will bring the largest wind turbines in the world off the coast of Ocean City in the next five years.
GSC has held open forums called “A Conversation With..” for prominent individuals such as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot and our Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen. They were so widely received that our next “Conversation With” will be the Perdue Family as they celebrate their 100th anniversary. Look for details in 2020.
NASA Wallops Flight Facility is of key strategic importance for the Lower Shore of Maryland. Fully half of NASA’s 1800+ on-base employees live in Worcester, Wicomico or Somerset County. GSC has been deeply involved with Wallops for many years, and is a current member of the NASA Wallops Partners community-based alliance. GSC, in coordination with the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, was able to bring Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to NASA for his first visit as Governor, and to bring Maryland State Senate President Bill Ferguson for his first visit. GSC has helped strengthen ties between NASA and various community partners, including Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore and its annual JA Inspire event. Collaboration with NASA, and the allied government agencies that have operations on the base, is of critical importance. GSC also includes Rocket Labs, a private entity that is launching into space from NASA Wallops, as a strategic partner.
VFC empowers families with financial challenges to achieve economic and personal independence through car ownership and technical training.
A collaborative effort with the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, WCEF serves to create a strong funding foundation to bolster and support our public school system, as needed.
Facebook @wicomicoeducationfoundation
GSC has made looking at our community’s at-risk population an institutional priority since 2015. As part of GSC’s work in that area, and in coordination and conjunction with Salisbury Mayor Jake Day, YDAC was formed. YDAC has a membership of nearly 70 Salisbury area citizens, many of whom come from the local nonprofit organizations that are dedicated to helping serve our youth. YDAC was given the charge by Mayor Day to assist him and the city in coming up with options on much needed new community centers in the city. So far, an old abandoned home in one of Salisbury’s oldest neighborhoods has been purchased, and will be converted into a community center. Also, working closely with Wicomico County School Superintendent Dr. Donna Hanlin, and Mayor Day, YDAC has helped recommend a site for a second community center, which will also serve as home for the new CHOICES Academy, the alternative school for the Wicomico County Public School System. YDAC is led by Chair Samantha Scott and Co-Chair Jim Thomas.
GSC has put together a committee to study the Wicomico County Revenue Cap. GSC is working jointly with BEACON, Salisbury University’s Business Economic and Community Outreach Network, and its Director, Dr. Memo Diriker, on the study. GSC believes that the Revenue Cap, which became the law of the land in Wicomico County in 2000, as the result of a voter led referendum, is something that should be examined. Many Wicomico County residents are unaware of the existence of the Revenue Cap, and many others may be unaware of what the Revenue Cap actually is, and how it affects our County. The study will look to educate the citizens of Wicomico County on the Revenue Cap, as part of a comprehensive review. The findings of the study will be reported to the full GSC membership, and also to County leaders and stakeholders. Fall 2017 is the anticipated time frame for the completion of the study.
In 1982, JA was brought to the Eastern Shore by GSC. Over the last 20 years, Junior Achievement has gradually expanded its activities and broadened its scope, and now serves more than 7000 elementary, middle and high school students. It now operates as Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore, and its founding fathers include Richard Henson, Frank Perdue and GSC.
Facebook @JuniorAchievementEasternShore
Our local waterways are now, and have always been, critical to commerce on The Delmarva Peninsula. To ensure that waterborne commerce in the entire region would always have a chance to thrive and remain viable, GSC created the Delmarva Water Transport Committee. DWTC exists to not only maintain the dredging of navigable waterways, but also to improve aids to navigation and safety to vessels, crews, and the environment.
In the 1980’s, GSC formed a Housing Corporation, established to rehabilitate older homes for sale to low and moderate income families. That Corporation was the forerunner to SNHS. SNHS was created in 1994, with the vision of increasing homeownership in under-served and distressed communities. It’s a public/private model for success that has had an immense impact on Salisbury and its housing stock, playing an integral role in providing home ownership and home improvement opportunities.
Facebook @salisburyNHS
When the State of Maryland undertook a study, in the mid 1970’s, to determine if a local community college was needed on the Lower Shore, it was GSC that led the way. GSC’s strong advocacy and efforts to rally the community leaders and state officials behind the concept of a Lower Shore community college were key to the creation of, and sustainability of Wor-Wic Community College.
Facebook @worwic
Needing a tangible economic development effort that could successfully and aggressively recruit and attract a strong base of manufacturing to the Salisbury/Wicomico area, GSC successfully formed Salisbury Wicomico Economic Development (SWED) to do just that. SWED has played a critical role in the manufacturing and other job creation efforts that have long made Salisbury the dominant job base on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Facebook @salisburywicomicoeconomicdevelopment
GSC believed that a local Community Foundation was an essential ingredient to the community’s ability to create, grow, and sustain the kind of thriving philanthropic giving that’s key to the lifeblood of any area. So, GSC is proud to have led the way in forming The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.
Facebook @CFEasternShore