In September 2003, Hurricane Isabelle hit our area, inundating it with a 7-foot storm surgeand taking away 200 feet of my family’s seafood buying dock. Although my family was no longer buying seafood here, my husband Jerry Cox and I were operating a Ecology/Nature Cruise business in a neighboring town. In order to afford to rebuild the dock, we were going to have to operate our business from this property, which is located on a small island on the Chesapeake Bay. I am a Marine Biologist working on the Chesapeake Bay Program for 10 years, and Jerry retired from the State of Maryland as a research vessel Captain. My dream was to have a place to attract the general public and to foster a stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay through hands-on learning. With that in mind we rebuilt the dock with the idea of opening the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center. 2005 was our first year of operation; we established one educational program about the life of the blue crab and we had visits from Girl Scouts and various day camp groups. One of the day camp groups that visited came from the local elementary school, and the lady that was running the camp was really upset that we had to charge a fee for the program. At that point I decided we needed to be a non profit so that we could get contributions and grants and people that couldn’t afford our programs wouldn’t have to pay. I applied for 501(c) 3 status and received the approval in the spring of 2007. This year we have 2 education programs in place and are currently working on a third. In 2006 PWEC had 750 visitors, and so far in 2007 we have had 1000 visitors. We hope to find support to do more advertising and find more ways to partner with other similar organizations to increase our visitors and the students that participate in our programs, with the goal of helping to save the Chesapeake Bay. Kelley Cox | 
