The highest achievement bestowed on organizations and individuals by the Kent Coun-ty Chamber of Commerce in recognition of their outstanding contributions through service, advocacy, and leadership.
The Kent County Chamber of Commerce was honored to present one Business, one Organization, and one Individual with Community Excellence Awards at its Annual Meeting on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at the Chester River Yacht and Country Club. Mod-ern Stone Age Kitchen was awarded the Business of the Year, Open Doors Partners in Education was awarded the Organization of the Year, and Richard Keaveney received Individual of the Year.
“Kent County is fortunate to have many wonderful businesses, organizations and indi-viduals support the community and our economic growth,” said Sarah King, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce. “This year’s awardees have demonstrated their dedication, commitment, and service to Kent County and beyond. We thank them for their hard work and offer our sincere thanks!”
For Modern Stone Age Kitchen, this year’s Business of the Year, it all started in 2020 when Bill and Christina Schindler’s 16 year old daughter started Rise By Brianna, bak-ing sourdough out of their home wood fired oven. Rise has now evolved into the Mod-ern Stone Age Kitchen. At the Modern Stone Age Kitchen, located in Chestertown, Mar-yland, they transform familiar foods such as bread, pizza, cheese, tacos, soups, sand-wiches and even cookies into their healthiest versions by using ancestral and traditional approaches to maximize the safety, nutritional value, and flavor of everything they pro-duce. All of their food is made 100% from scratch in-house. They ferment all of their grains using a wild, long fermented sourdough process; nixtamalize their maize; soak all nuts, seeds and legumes; butcher and cook using a nose-to-tail approach; make their own fermented dairy products including cheese, yogurt, and fermented butter, and rely upon solely on unrefined sweeteners and animal based fats for cooking to optimize the safety and nutritional value of their foods.
In their nomination by a neighboring local business owner, Modern Stone Age Kitchen is described as “A ‘foodery’ that is a unique blend of a traditional restaurant, cafe, bak-ery, grocery store, and community supported kitchen, providing a unique food destina-tion that brings “Foodies” & more to visit Kent County from all over the world and ‘Eat Like a Human.’ They celebrate local ingredients, nose to tail use of meat products, arti-sanal sourdough products, sustainable packaging & some of the best Pizza in the Mid-Atlantic! The Schindler family continues to provide the community with ever evolving products to make MSAK a food and education destination truly unique to our community!”
Open Doors Partners in Education, this year’s Organization of the Year, is a 501c3 non-profit organization which provides literacy support to students in Kent County and the surrounding community. The organization was founded by Ashley Singer and Julie Rice Blyman in fall of 2020 as a direct response to the learning loss seen with the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the organization provided free and low cost Orton-Gillingham approach reading instruction to 55 students. Orton-Gillingham is a multi-sensory, explicit and sequential approach to reading intervention that is widely regarded as the gold standard by educational psychologists. While the initial mission was to help students in first and second grade, a time when intervention can be most efficient and successful, as word spread through the county, students of all ages, pre-k through 9th grade were found on their roster. Open Doors Partners in Education strives to increase the literacy rate of struggling readers by providing tutoring, offering educational en-richment opportunities, and increasing community awareness of learning differences in Kent County and its surrounding communities.
In their nomination by a local parent, Open Doors is recognized for “having made litera-cy a priority in Kent County by allowing public school children to be tutored, for free weekly, so that students that have fallen behind or need a boost after COVID can get the help they need. Making room to provide literacy tutoring for adults as well expands their incredible impact. Open Doors is providing an invaluable service to our community, with passion, commitment and empathy.”
Individual of the Year, Richard Keaveney, the previous President of the Board and cur-rent Executive Director of the Kent County Animal Care Shelter, has been a tireless ad-vocate for humane, no-kill animal care. Richard guided the design process, fundraising and construction of the new, expanded and improved animal care facility in Worton and has led fundraising efforts to build the new center, raising over $5 Million to-date. The construction of this facility required nearly five years of planning, designing, building and supervising the construction of the 10,00 square foot facility. Richard’s presence on a daily basis ensured building efforts were going as planned. Richard has served on the board of Main Street Chestertown and chaired its Economic Growth Committee helping to craft a mid-term and long-term strategy for economic growth. He and his spouse, in an attempt to encourage more businesses to open on High Street opened “Poor Richards.” Over time, ownership was passed on to talented retailers who gave our town “She She” and the current “Walnut & Wool” store. Richard has also welcomed many new residents to our community as a prominent real estate agent with Cross Street Realtors, in Chestertown.
Richard was nominated by three different individuals for his work in and impact on our community. In their nomination, each separately commented on his character, work eth-ic, and community involvement, saying, “Richard is a devoted and tireless champion for the humane care and treatment of all animals.” Also, that, “He has worked tirelessly to get the new Animal Care Shelter project to fruition.” And, “Richard has been active throughout the community and always willing to help with a worthwhile cause.”
The Kent County Chamber of Commerce extends its congratulations and gratitude to this year’s Community Excellence Award winners.
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~ Kent County Chamber of Commerce
With more than 300 member businesses, nonprofits, and individuals, the Chamber is Kent County’s premier business-to-business facilitator. Through our many unique pro-grams, events, and advocacy, we provide a platform for leaders from the private, public, and non-profit sectors to engage with each other to grow their respective organizations for the ultimate benefit of Kent County and its residents.
Photos courtesy Steve Atkinson, ShoreToBeFun Photography