Art Nathan
Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating, Annapolis

Avid sailor Art Nathan has long known how to read tide tables and nautical charts. Now he’s learned how to read smiles.

For the past three years, Nathan (on right) has been a volunteer skipper with Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB). This Annapolis-based organization, founded in 1991 by Donald Bache (on left), takes physically and/or developmentally challenged individuals sailing. He first heard about the program from a friend while volunteering at the Anne Arundel Medical Center, where he works once a week in the emergency surgical unit.

He recalls a recent summer day with a boat full of his special passengers: “There was a child who came out with me who was [unresponsive]. But the instant he sat in the boat, he smiled. As we got underway, he raised up his arms, like he was flying. He stayed that way throughout the entire trip. He really seemed to enjoy it. When we got back to the dock, he resumed his regular expression.”

A retired New York City policeman, Nathan dedicates two days a week to CRAB in season (April to October). His sailing trips leave out of Sandy Point State Park Marina, where CRAB’s fleet of Freedom 20s are docked. He and other volunteers get up to as many as eight children boarded, securely seated, and buckled into lifejackets- Nathan steers the handicap-accessible boat out into the Bay for the hour-plus jaunts, which sometimes take them under the Bay Bridge or to the Sandy Point Lighthouse. “For the kids, it seems almost therapeutic,” he says. “They’re just enraptured. When I turn the motor off, and it’s quiet, it’s an enveloping experience. There’s no dry land counterpart to it.”

Though Nathan has no prior experience working with handicapped children, it hasn’t been as intimidating as he anticipated. But he admits that there are some heart-wrenching moments. “It’s hard to explain,” he says. “There’s no kid holding your hand telling you that you’re wonderful. Most can’t communicate easily. But it’s a good feeling to know that these kids are entering a world where they’ve never been before.” CRAB, 410-626-0273 or http://www.crab-sailing.org.

Alice Bower
Founder/President, Women & Girls’ Fund of the Mid-Shore, Easton, Md.

The books in Alice Bower’s office are telling: Princess Andrew of Greece, Grand Dames, Joan of Arc. The message that they all share: Girls rule.

Bower is the founder and president of the Women & Girls’ Fund of the Mid-Shore, an organization that oversees an endowment begun in May 2002. Since its inception, it has awarded more than $60,000 in grants for eleven women and girls’ charities throughout Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Kent, Caroline, and Dorchester counties.

What sets Bower apart from other nonprofit executives is that the forty-nine-year-old mother of three does not take a salary for her thirty-hour work week; she works strictly as a volunteer. She also pays out-of-pocket for the organization’s office space and her two part-time employees, and the majority of the fund’s literature. “I feel it’s one other way I can give back to build something for the future,” she says. “The whole purpose is to work with women to create a legacy, rather than make a livelihood for myself.”

To date, the fund’s grant recipients include the Mid-Shore Council on Family Violence in Denton, New Beginnings Youth Center (a mentoring, tutoring, and after-school program for at-risk youth in Dorchester County), and a parenting skills program open to young mothers with children under four throughout the Shore.

“When I was in college,” she explains, “I knew so many talented, women who weren’t being steered into opportunities to become more productive members of society. I want to touch the life of women and make them realize their value.” Women & Girls’ Fund of the Mid-Shore, 11 Washington St., Suite E, Easton, Md. 410-770-8347 or http://www.womenandgirlsfund.org.

Sara Jane Davidson
Court appointed special advocate, Denton, Md.

Don’t let Sara Jane Davidson’s exterior fool you. On the outside, she’s a composed woman of few words. But give her some time to warm up, and you’ll see the scrappiness that has made her a successful teacher, student counselor, field hockey coach, and, for the past eight years, a protector of troubled teenagers.

Dickinson is a veteran Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children living in Talbot County, who, because of abuse or abandonment, are in need of assistance from social services. In extreme cases, they’ve been removed from their families and placed in a foster or group home and need an advocate - and a friend.

Because of the deficit of group homes on the Eastern Shore, it’s not unusual for brothers and sisters to be placed in separate facilities. Often the hardest part of her job is attempting to reunite the siblings-and ultimately deciding if it’s safe for them to return home to their parents.

Davidson, who is also on the board of trustees for the newly formed Caroline County CASA, establishes herself as a constant in these children’s lives by attending their school functions, taking them to lunch, and driving them to medical appointments. Such major changes in lifestyle take a turbulent toll on these teens’ lives, and their trust is not easily earned. “It takes a long time to develop a friendship with these kids,” says the avid golfer and grandmother, who has worked with six kids since she began volunteering in 1997. (The first case spanned the better part of six years.) “I worked with one girl who I was sure that I wasn’t making any strides with. She wouldn’t talk to me for about six to nine months. That was when she was thirteen. Now she’s twenty, and she still calls me regularly to check in. You know you’ve really done something when they reach out and call you.

“I think as a CASA, I’ve learned more about human beings than people realize,” she says. “There are so many different situations that these kids face, and it’s amazing to see how they deal with them. The hardest part is not getting too emotionally involved. I can’t let my heart try to make the decisions that logic needs to.” For this Ohio native, the youngest of eight siblings, giving back is a way of life. “Philanthropy ran in my family,” she explains. “My father told us, ‘If you have something to share, someone will enjoy it, but you’ll enjoy it more.’ ”

CASA of Talbot County, 410-822-2866 or http://www.casaoftalbot.org. CASA of Caroline County, 410-479-8301 or http://www.carolinecasa.org.

Cindy Smith
President, Humane Society of Dorchester County, Cambridge, Md.

Cindy Smith still remembers the first dog she walked on her first day as a volunteer at the Humane Society of Dorchester County (HSDC). It was three years ago, and his name was Tee Tee, a six-month-old yellow chow mix. A week later, she returned to the shelter, and he was gone. “I asked the kennel attendant if Tee Tee had been adopted,” says Smith. “He told me he had been euthanized. His five days at the shelter were up, although there was room for him. I was so upset and thought, ‘That’s not very humane.’ ”

Smith, who had volunteered previously at a no-kill shelter in California, instantly vowed to change this system that could so readily discard its animals.

She lobbied the HSDC board to allow her to create a volunteer program and traveled to the shelter every day to clean kennels, walk dogs, and process adoption applications. Within the year, Smith was voted onto the board. “I’m very shy,” says Smith, a semi-retired CPA. “But animals have always brought me joy and comfort and allow me to feel calm and content.”

Smith, who was voted president of the HSDC in October 2003, hired a shelter director and established a spay/neuter clinic through $15,000 in grants and donations. She also eliminated the “five-day” rule. Dogs and cats are now kept as long as possible, and a no-kill cat sanctuary, which will house thirty to forty cats, is currently being built. The implementation of an aggressive adoption program has been in effect for two years, and adoption rates have increased from 27 percent a year to 47 percent.

“My goal is to make Dorchester a no-kill county, not just the shelter,” she says. “But we can’t do this by ourselves. We must make spaying and neutering a requirement and breeders licenses a prerequisite.”

“We’ve made great strides,” adds Smith, who says that locals once wrinkled their noses when they heard the words “Humane Society.” “The community’s attitude toward the shelter has changed greatly. Now I can walk down the street and hold my head high, knowing I am the president of the Humane Society of Dorchester County.” HSDC, 410-228-3090 or http://www.dorchesterhumane.org.