Summer Events at SU Continue Through August

SALISBURY, MD---Classes may be over for most Salisbury University students, but events continue at SU and its affiliated organizations throughout the summer.

Music fills the halls of Holloway Hall from Thursday-Sunday, June 15-18, as the Barbershop Harmony Society Mid-Atlantic District hosts its annual Harmony College East barbershop quartet convention. The event attracts some 200 quartets throughout the country. For more information visit www.harmonize.com/mad.

The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art at SU offers several events in June, as well, as part of its Maritime Heritage Lecture Series. Newell E. Quinton speaks Monday, June 19, on the preservation efforts taking place in his hometown of San Domingo, near Sharptown, MD. Founded by former Hatian Slaves around 1820, the town once was a thriving African-American watermen’s village, though time has taken its toll on the area. Newell and other community members formed the John Quinton Foundation/Restoration Project to help preserve the local heritage through education and restoration of the San Domingo Rosenwald rural school.

Eleventh-generation Crisfield, MD, waterman Wayne “Hon” Lawson speaks on his heritage Monday, June 26. Calling himself “The Last Waterman,” the final member of his family to pick up the profession, he learned the trade from his father, grandfather and the old-timers at his local corner store. Now on a mission to teach younger generations about that disappearing way of life, he is a master storyteller, serving as a Maryland representative at the 2004 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall.

Both lectures begin at noon at the museum’s pavilion overlooking Schumaker Pond. Cost is $5 for museum members, $10 for non-members. A vendor will be on hand to offer lunch (not included with admission), or visitors may bring their own. For more information call Dan Parsons at 410-742-4988, ext. 119, e-mail cdparsons@salisbury.edu or visit the Ward Museum Web site at www.wardmuseum.org.

Some 140 students from throughout the state perform and exhibit their works during the culmination of the 2006 Maryland Summer Center for the Arts 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, July 22, at Salisbury University.

Orchestra and musical theatre students studying during the Summer Center perform in Holloway Hall Auditorium. During that time, visual arts students from the center also exhibit their works in the University Gallery of Fulton Hall. The community is invited.

Sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Education and directed by SU Communication and Theatre Arts faculty Robert Smith, the Maryland Summer Center for the Arts at SU offers talented middle and high school students across the state an opportunity to study music/orchestra, visual art, traditional photography, musical theatre, television production and acting in a two-week residential summer program, July 9-22.

The Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at SU also preserves local history this summer with its display “Whistling Down Delmarva’s Tracks: Eastern Shore Railroad Memorabilia.”

The display features a collection of railroad station photographs, maps and artifacts from towns throughout Delmarva, including Delmar (Maryland and Delaware), Clayton, Millsboro, Seaford, Felton, Laurel, Harrington, Selbyville, Georgetown, Pittsville, Easton, Hurlock, Federalsburg, East New Market, Rockawalkin, Snow Hill, Pocomoke City, Newark, Parksley and Marion Station. Model trains also are on display.

Running through Saturday, September 30, the display is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-543-6312 or visit the Nabb Research Center Web site at http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu.

In August, the Jack Purnell-Chris Thomas Memorial Tennis Tournament brings tennis enthusiasts throughout the country to SU to compete for $30,000 in prize money. The annual event raises funds for Coastal Hospice and memorializes its namesakes, both tennis players and cancer victims from the Salisbury area.

Born in 1929, Purnell was an avid baseball player and went on to become the youngest general manager for a farm team of the Cincinnati Reds before working in the public relations office of the National Baseball League. He returned to Salisbury and worked for many years at his family’s business, Kuhn’s Jewelers. He was a community advocate and a founding board member of Coastal Hospice prior to his death in 2002.

Thomas grew up in southern New Jersey and Salisbury. A natural athlete, he was a graduate of SU, where he was a member of the men’s tennis team. He left the East Coast in 1980 to work as a tennis pro in Hawaii and Guam. He returned to the area in 1981 to fight a year-long battle with cancer. He died in 1982 at age 27.

This year’s Purnell-Thomas Memorial Tournament is Tuesday-Sunday, August 15-20. For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.