It’s funny what deadlines do to me. For the 30-odd years I was in the newspaper business, life revolved around deadlines. Here at the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) in Cape May, I thought the “deadline” mentality would take a little more of a back seat, but it just isn’t so. In creating the ads and calendars of our “This Week in Cape May” publication, I am completely caught up in the web of deadlines.
From both past and present experience, I know that working with deadlines has a sometimes unsettling acceleration effect on my life. Here it is early July, and I’m already focused on what’s happening in August. The good news in working with deadlines is that you’re always getting a taste of what’s to come. And, speaking of “taste” and “what’s to come” leads naturally to one of our favorite events here on the grounds of the Emlen Physick Estate.
This will be our third annual Craft Beer & Crab Festival on Saturday, Aug. 9, and it’s something that’s been in the works since Aug. 11 of last year, the day after our second annual event. Each year, we learn something new; we add some things and take away others and we get satisfaction from the things that went right and work to fix the things that didn’t. Our first year, we ran woefully short of crabs. Who knew that many people liked picking and eating crabs so much? So, the second year we more than doubled our order, but still ran out toward the end of the event. This year, we aim to have enough crabs to feed everyone and send some home as take-out, as well.
This is just one facet of the many details to presenting an event like this that really puts us through our paces. We’re an organization that just naturally wants to please people and everything we do, from house tours to trolley rides to special events like this and everything in between, is developed with the goal of making sure whoever comes – whether they’re from six hours away or six minutes up the road – has a memorable visit.
One of many things that keep me ticking at MAC is the wonderful bunch of people I work with. Through the good times or the tight budgets, I’ve never seen one of our guides, trolley drivers, administrative staff or maintenance guys lose sight of that goal of customer satisfaction.
Which is a good thing when it comes to the Craft Beer & Crab Festival, because this is an all hands on deck event for MAC. We do have some great support, too, from former MAC President Diane Hutchinson and her son, Graydon, of Gold Coast Productions. This event was their brainchild two years ago, and their enthusiasm hasn’t waned. Both of them, along with other friends and relatives they put to work that day, will be working side by side with us.
So, what can you expect? Lots of fun, in a nutshell. Live music from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with lots of food until 6 p.m., in addition to those crabs. Entertainment for kids and those of you, like me, who never intend to grow up. Best of all, in these days of dwindling grant support, the proceeds benefit our educational outreach programs, which served more than 18,000 area schoolchildren last year alone, through on-site and classroom visits, all free of charge. We want to ensure that future generations of residents appreciate their heritage and the treasures we have right here in our own backyards, and events like this help us do that.
That’s enough to get me feeling wonderfully crabby.
— Barraclough is director of publications & website at MAC
