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St. Mary's County Recreation and Parks honors volunteers for museums, summer stock and youth sports
Summary
The Recreation and Parks Citizens Advisory Board recognized museum docents, summer stock theater volunteers and nearly 300 youth-sports coaches and helpers, citing roughly 9,000 volunteer hours and program-specific contributions across museums, theater and youth soccer and basketball.
St. Mary's County Recreation and Parks recognized dozens of volunteers for museum programs, summer stock theater and youth sports during a citizens advisory board meeting.
Ray Bivens, director for Recreation and Parks, opened the recognition portion of the meeting, saying, "It's great to see so many folks in the crowd." Bivens told board members the department will hold two volunteer recognition events annually and that volunteers donated close to 9,000 hours a year to department programs.
The museum division, led by Karen Stone, oversees the St. Clement's Island Museum, the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum and Historic Park, the Drayton African American Schoolhouse, the Old Jail Museum and the Leonardtown Visitor Center. Kenneth Burke, site manager at Piney Point, and Christina Barber of St. Clement's Island joined Stone to present awards to long-serving volunteers. Kevin Detwiler was recognized for 10 years of weekend duty at the Potomac River Maritime Exhibit at Piney Point; Ellen Duke Wilson was honored for creating and running the St. Clements Island Museum Art Kids summer program and mentoring teen volunteers.
Sherry Nelson, recreation division manager, introduced summer stock and youth-sports volunteers. Chris Langel (gymnastics and leisure coordinator) and Zachary Zalovic (sports coordinator) were on hand while staff recognized Christina Alley and Julia Papendick for props and costume work in summer stock theater.
Nelson and Zalovic outlined participation figures cited at the meeting: the department's indoor youth soccer program had about 600 participants in the 2024–25 season with over 70 volunteer coaches; the youth basketball program had nearly 1,100 youth participants in 2024–25 with almost 200 volunteer coaches contributing more than 4,000 hours. The recreation staff read multiple family comments praising volunteer coaches and named award recipients: Kevin Meyer received a newly created "first-year coach" award and Dustin Robinson received the George Stewart coaches award.
Board chair Veronica Johnson and members approved the April minutes at the start of the meeting. The board moved and seconded the motion to adjourn at the end of the session; the motion carried.
The meeting organizers thanked families and other supporters of volunteers and noted additional volunteers who could not attend were also acknowledged.
