Heart and Soul

Sussex County is:

Agriculture and small towns, coastal resort and natural areas deeply and seamlessly connected by history, place and people.

An ever-changing landscape of working agriculture with the sights, sounds and smells of a thriving industry back-dropped by big sky and forest.

Small towns with rich history, architecture, character and characters, places and events that make community.

Quaint “beach” (not “shore”) communities where you can be as busy as you want or as quiet as you’d like and the architecture still speaks to the roots of church camps and family gatherings.

A community caught in time between the deep, rich roots of a hardscrabble economy and local families to a destination for many who recognize opportunity.

Cypress Swamp and Atlantic Ocean, rivers, ponds and Inland Bays, salt-marsh, pine and oak forest, abundant wildlife and seasons that change.

A community of sincere, down to earth, resourceful, “take care of each other” people of different cultures, come heres, brung heres and born heres.

What element is most important to you?

1. Agriculture

2. Small towns

3. Beach community

4. History/ local culture

5. Special places (natural areas)

6. Down to earth, diverse people

What element are we most at risk of losing?

1. Agriculture

2. Small towns

3. Beach community

4. History/ local culture

5. Special places (natural areas)

6. Down to earth, diverse people

How should we use Heart & Soul of Sussex County?

1. Economic development (industry selection/ attraction)

2. Tourism (eco, heritage, low-impact, others)

3. Land use

4. Annual Heart & Soul check-up

5. Small town revitalization

6. Other: _______________________________________

Rachel Pearson

Please send completed surveys to:

Dr. Bill McGowan

Carvel Research and Education Center

Georgetown, DE 19947

billmcg@udel.edu

(302) 856-2585 Ext. 592

Hello again! If you’ve made it to update #4 from the 3 others written below then congratulations! If this is the first one you are reading it will give you a little taste of our project. As we continue to take Heart & Soul of Sussex County to more groups and gatherings, we receive a variety of feedback and more of your voices are heard. Its latest showing was for the Rotary Club of Lewes, Delaware at the local Irish Eyes Restaurant in Lewes. The meeting was held on Monday evening, November 10, 2008. Since this was not a large conference but an informal town gathering, the Audience Response Systems (ARS) were not used. Instead we created a questionnaire to follow the Heart & Soul movie presentation.

Our overarching theme remains the same, but our 6 defining statements have been slightly revised. We wanted to see how well the audience thought that these descriptions capture the essence of Sussex County. There were 18 participants in the room, and in this smaller setting we also asked the group to write comments on their questionnaire. Each of the 6 statements was to be marked as: strongly agree, agree, not sure, disagree, or strongly disagree. Based on these results we can further edit Heart & Soul and determine where we go with it from here.

The main heading is still “Agriculture and small towns, coastal resort and natural areas deeply and seamlessly connected by history, place and people.” We had 14 people strongly agree with this and the remaining 4 people agree. In the comments area for each we asked simply “What would you change?” For every single statement the same person wrote “more photos.” We need the good people of Sussex County to please send more photos to this site! Other replies for this one were “add shopping & lots of small businesses; change nothing.”

Now for our first defining statement “An ever-changing landscape of working agriculture with the sights, sounds and smells of a thriving industry back-dropped by big sky and forest.” There were 6 who strongly agreed, 8 who agreed, and 4 who were not sure. People said this “needs a stronger ‘development’ component; I didn’t think thriving industry is true; sometimes the smells are too much (chicken industry); but we are losing that.”

Everyone in the room liked “Small towns with rich history, architecture, character and characters, places and events that make community.” Ten folks strongly agreed and 8 agreed. Comments were to change “nothing; architecture not so rich; rural architecture.” Next was the description “Quaint ‘beach’ (not ‘shore’) communities where you can be as busy as you want or as quiet as you’d like and the architecture still speaks to the roots of church camps and family gatherings.” We had 10 strongly agree, 5 agree, and 3 who were not sure. Replies were “no mention of the fishing industry, river pilots; don’t get that; lots of new architecture/ buildings; what’s wrong with ‘shore’?” Well we do live in Delaware not New Jersey. Take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry over and then you can call it the shore. On this side it’s the beach!

“A community caught in time between the deep, rich roots of a hardscrabble economy and local families to a destination for many who recognize opportunity.” This received 6 strongly agree, 8 agree, 3 not sure, and even 1 disagree. Comments included “need to recognize we’ve shifted gears; lots of fishing- golf is big here too; resort & retirement community growing; what was, what is, what will be.”

Our second to last defining statement was “Cypress Swamp and Atlantic Ocean, rivers, ponds and Inland Bays, salt-marsh, pine and oak forest, abundant wildlife and seasons that change.” There were 11 in the group who strongly agreed, 5 who agreed, and 2 who were not sure. They commented “but many don’t take the time to learn these places; mention Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge; more of fishing, hunting- tie into many quality eating/ restaurants.”

Finally we closed with “A community of sincere, down to earth, resourceful, ‘take care of each other’ people of different cultures, come heres, brung heres and born heres.” With this statement we had 6 strongly agree, 9 agree, 2 not sure, and 1 more disagree. So what were the group’s final thoughts? They noted “Cape May-Lewes Ferry; Beebe Hospital expanding, building & development, art, increasing diversity, changing, the elderly; stand-offish with new residents to Sussex County; slow down new areas until infrastructure can catch up.”

That concluded the Rotary Club meeting in Lewes, Delaware. Heart & Soul continues to make appearances around Sussex County so stay tuned and please keep sending us your experiences!

Rachel Pearson

Sussex County is

Welcome back! It’s time for another update. This time it’s the Heart & Soul Audience Response System (ARS) feedback from our annual Cooperative Extension conference held at Dover Downs on Wednesday, October 8, 2008. Most but not everyone in attendance was a Sussex Countian, so please keep that in mind when assessing the results.

Since our last presentation of Heart & Soul of Sussex County we have made some suggested revisions. We added people pictures, changed text, and moved the music around a little bit. A few of you are adamantly against bluegrass and the banjos, but since you don’t make up the majority, and we like it and we’re the ones listening to it dozens of times, it’s staying in the movie! So to a few of you, our apologies. Once the enjoyable presentation concluded it was time for the tough thinking to begin.

Our first slide asked “How did you get to Sussex County/Delaware?” Of the group, 34% were born here, 54% were brought here (for work), and 11% came here, liked it, and stayed. Most are fairly new to the area or quite the opposite, living here for 30+ years. Residents of 0-10 years made up 37%, 10-20 years was 12%, 20-30 years was 17%, and locals of 30+ years made up 35%. Did we capture the Heart & Soul of Sussex County for this group? Almost 80% agreed that indeed we did. “Not bad” replied 8%, “needs some work” from 13%, and 2% felt that it was “far from it.”

Then we asked the really hard question: “How old are you?” The overwhelming majority of this room at 63% was 40-60 years old. The 20-30 year old young ones made up 8%, 30-40 year olds made up 18%, and the 60+ year olds held their own at 10%. After that we instructed the group to do some table work. Ask yourselves “Did we capture the Heart & Soul of Sussex County? What did we miss? What would you change?” It was no surprise that after these lovely people were given time to find fault with our work, that opinions found a way of changing for the worse. The almost 80% that initially agreed dropped down to 50%. “Not bad” received 16%, “needs some work” from 25%, and now 9% felt that we were “far from it.”

We wanted to see how participants aligned with our revised statements describing Sussex County. These consist of 7 slides with the ranking system of strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. The first is the overarching statement that Sussex County is “Agriculture and small towns, coastal resort and maritime deeply and seamlessly connected by history, place and people.” In the group 75% either agreed or strongly agreed with this. There were 5% that disagreed. We had 18-21% of people as neutral for 6 of 7 slides, right up until the very last one! Only 2 of 7 slides had anyone strongly disagree; this was not one of them.

Sussex County is “Small towns with rich history, architecture, character and characters, places and events that make community.” We had 78% in agreement on this. Next was “An ever-changing landscape of working agriculture, planting, growing, harvesting. Poultry houses and horse pastures, a patchwork quilt from the air, sights, sounds and smells of a thriving industry back-dropped by a big sky and forest.” There were 71% who agreed overall and 9% who disagreed.

Then we stated that we are “Quaint ‘beach’ (not ‘shore’) communities where the architecture still speaks to the roots of church camps and family gatherings. Where you can be as busy as you want or as quiet as you’d like, fine dining, rich music countered with the quiet of a house in the ‘pines.’” Here we only had 59% agree, with a tie for neutral and disagree at 18% each, and this was one of the two slides where people strongly disagreed, at 4%. Another statement they did not like was “A community caught in time between the deep, rich roots of a hardscrabble economy and local families to a destination for many who recognize the value in such a lifestyle.” With this 61% agreed, 21% were neutral, and 19% disagreed. “A community of sincere, down to earth, resourceful ‘take care of our own’ people of different cultures, ‘old timers’ and newcomers” was slightly better with 65% in agreement and only 12% who disagreed. However, this was the second of two slides where people strongly disagreed, at 2%.

Now for our final and most on target description, according to the ARS. Our county is “Cypress Swamp and Atlantic Ocean, rivers, ponds and Inland Bays, marsh, pine and oak forest, horseshoe crabs, deer, fox, seagulls and shore birds and seasons that change.” The record average of 20% neutral was broken. Here only 6% were neutral, and 6% also disagreed. With this statement 88% agreed and strongly agreed! We are on our way to capturing the Heart & Soul of Sussex County.

The final 3 slides asked slightly different questions. Now that we were thinking about what defines this county and what it means to us, “What would you be least willing to lose?” First was agriculture, then special places, resort community, small towns, down to earth diverse people, history, and maritime community. “Are we at risk of losing any elements? If so, what are the top 3 elements we need to watch?” First again was agriculture, then again special places, followed by small towns, maritime community, history, down to earth diverse people, and resort community. In conclusion, “How should we use Heart & Soul of Sussex County?” Responses ranked as follows: economic development (industry selection/attraction), small town revitalization, land use, tourism (eco, heritage, low-impact, others), annual Heart & Soul check-up, and “other.”

Thank you for checking back. Another update is on the way! Please continue to spread the word, and send your words, on Heart & Soul.

Rachel Pearson

It’s time for an update on Heart & Soul! Thank you to everyone involved in this effort. We developed a video using your pictures and voices. In the video we summarized your voices into the following six statements under the heading of Sussex County is

“Agriculture and small towns, coastal resort and natural areas deeply and seamlessly connected by history, place and people.”

An ever-changing landscape of working agriculture, planting, growing, harvesting. Poultry houses and horse pastures, a    patchwork quilt from the air, sights, sounds and smells of a thriving industry back-dropped by a big sky and forest.

Small towns with rich history, architecture, character and characters, places and events that make community.

Quaint “beach” (not “shore”) communities where the architecture still speaks to the roots of church camps and family gatherings. Where you can be as busy as you want or as quiet as you’d like, fine dining and rich music countered with the quiet of a house in the “pines.”

A community caught in time between the deep, rich roots of a hardscrabble economy and local families to a destination for many who recognize the value in such a lifestyle.

Cypress Swamp and Atlantic Ocean, rivers, ponds and Inland Bays, marsh, pine and oak forest, horseshoe crabs, deer, fox, seagulls and shore birds and seasons that change.

A community of sincere, down to earth, resourceful, “take care of your own” people of different cultures, “old timers” and newcomers.

We held a town hall meeting at the Carvel Research and Education Center in Georgetown, Delaware to have a conversation about the Heart & Soul of Sussex County project on Wednesday, June 25, 2008. We played our video that lasted approximately 10 minutes, complete with pictures, text, and music. Following the presentation, Audience Response Systems (ARS) were used to receive feedback from the estimated 70 participants. The results from lifetime locals, residents and newcomers were intriguing.

When we first posed the question, “Did we capture the Heart & Soul of Sussex County?” 85% of the room replied that we did. Of the participants, 32% were born here, 34% were brought here (for work), and 34% came here, liked it and stayed. This was a very even distribution. Then we asked how long they have lived in Sussex County. 30% of the group has been here for 0-10 years, 22% for 10-20 years, 12% for 20-30 years, and 36% for 30+ years. The majority are definitely loyal Sussex Countians.

Now we approach the age factor of the group. Only 1% is 10-20 years old, 7% is 20-30 years old, 7% is 30-40 years old, 40% is 40-60 years old, and the remaining 40+% is 60+ years old. After this feedback we took a break for table work, to thoroughly discuss and answer the following questions at each table: “Did we capture the Heart & Soul of Sussex County? What did we miss? And what would you change?”

Directly after the presentation 85% of the audience was in agreement that we captured the Heart & Soul of Sussex County. However, after the table discussions many people changed their minds. That support level dropped to 57% with a number of them now in agreement that our representation “needs some work.”

More than half of the room concurs with the idea that Sussex County is “Agriculture and small towns, coastal resort and natural areas deeply and seamlessly connected by history, place and people.” Our strongest statement with almost 80% in agreement is that Sussex County is “Small towns with rich history, architecture, character and characters, places and events that make community.”

We drew mixed reviews on “An ever-changing landscape of working agriculture, planting, growing, harvesting. Poultry houses and horse pastures, a patchwork quilt from the air, sights, sounds and smells of a thriving industry back-dropped by a big sky and forest.” We had 34% agree and 34% disagree, 26% were neutral and the remainder either strongly agreed or strongly disagreed. It was a similar situation for the statement, “A community caught in time between the deep, rich roots of a hardscrabble economy and local families to a destination for many who recognize the value in such a lifestyle.” This time we had 31% agree and 31% disagree, 24% were neutral and again the remainder either strongly agreed or strongly disagreed.

Participants were perplexed by the summary “Quaint ‘beach’ (not ‘shore’) communities where the architecture still speaks to the roots of church camps and family gatherings. Where you can be as busy as you want or as quiet as you’d like, fine dining and rich music countered with the quiet of a house in the ‘pines.’” Results were across the spectrum for this one. Another confusing one seemed to be “A community of sincere, down to earth, resourceful, ‘take care of your own’ people of different cultures, ‘old timers’ and newcomers.” Almost 60% were on board for this one, but the other 40% disagreed or were neutral.

A description that well over half the room supported was “Sussex County is Cypress Swamp and Atlantic Ocean, rivers, ponds and Inland Bays, marsh, pine and oak forest, horseshoe crabs, deer, fox, seagulls and shore birds and seasons that change.” Now we wanted to see what people valued the most of the following list, and this is how they ranked in order of most to least important: small towns, special places, agriculture, down to earth diverse people, history, resort community, and maritime community. Then, in what order did they feel these things faced a threat of being lost? It went as follows, in order of most threat of losing to least threat of losing: agriculture, special places, small towns, history, down to earth diverse people, maritime community, and resort community.

For our final and perhaps most important slide we posed the question, “How will you use Heart & Soul of Sussex County?” The responses from the best way on down were land use, economic development (industry selection/attraction), small town revitalization, tourism (eco, heritage, low-impact, others), annual Heart & Soul check-up, and finally “other.”

Thank you for reading our update. We are working to improve our presentation, and already have more results from meetings and conferences to report. Check back for those opinions and further additions to and editions of Heart & Soul. Look for a final version in the near future.

Rachel Pearson

The greatest place in the universe.  I was born here and continue to feel that living here is like being on vacation every day.  What fun place to raise my children.  Grotto Pizza paid my son’s way through the University of Delaware.  So many happy memories, picnics at Trap Pond, swimming at Trussum Pond and the beach!  Always the beach, the sound of the waves, the sight and smell of the surf.  I hope to live here forever!!!  Laura S. Brittingham

Farm land and open spaces. Eastern Sussex is developing rapidly, perhaps too rapidly.  We need to preserve farmland and open spaces.  This will help preserve a lifestyle that has always included hunting, fishing, gardening, etc.  We do not want to get to the point where we do not know our neighbor.  We are attracting many new residents - attracted by our low taxes and our beaches and lifestyle.

Taking your time - time for the beach, time to slow down to stop and smell the roses where nice friendly people live!  It would be awful here without the beach!  Amy Clark, Lewes.

Visiting

Preservation

Forge in Lewes to watch a blacksmith work

Is less like a country and more like a club.  I carry my membership card proudly-

and strive to make myself useful to my fellow members.

A place where living amounts to dying a slow death.

Happy and beautiful and peaceful!

I love Sussex County!  I hope many people come and never forget the wonderful things Sussex County has to share!  - M. Daisey, age 11

Great library staff - wonderful.

Friendly, beautiful fields - happy people.  Windy-sunny.

Brings a feeling of joy each time I come here!

Country lanes

Family farms

Small towns

Interesting people

The Learning Resource Center

The beaches that are free to enjoy. The natural parks to explore. The small town-extended family feeling. Things that are nature like horseshoe crabs.  Blueberry and peach picking. At risk: Recreational fishing at ponds. Water quality so poor we can’t enjoy that piece.  “From here’s, Brung here’s,  come here’s”.

 Produce markets

Locusts

Dipping a canoe

Sunset (unobstructed)

Back roads

Small coastal towns

Beaches

Corn/soybean fields

Chicken houses

Small rural lanes

Tourists

Slower pace

Salt marshes

Jeep

History

Family traditions

Church dinners

Roadside BBQs and produce markets

Locusts kicking up ruckus at twilight in August

Dip canoe paddle in Trussom Pond

Watching sunset on a dock in Woodland-Roosevelt Inlet

Biking any back road

Spacious, peaceful

The people

Chicken houses

Ocean

Self-reliance

Resilience

Reliable

Sense of community

Small Town

Ethic of care

The impossible to pigeonhole or define culture that all who come here come here for

The deliberate slowness of life here

The diversity of the land - ocean, bay, river, ponds, farmland,  swamp & forest

The juxtaposition of cultures

Appreciation of art & crafts

The diverse accents & language (special words; sayings)

From heres, brung heres, come heres

Family first

Our balance between beach resorts and farms. I feel we should work to preserve that balance.  Tourism is wonderful, but our farms are a necessity.  Not to mention the small town communities that surround our farms. -Tammy Hawley

 Farm land

Beautiful beaches

Extended families

 A wonderful place that I am proud to be a part of!

Beaches

Family

Friends

4-H is Awesome!!

 Slower lower Delaware we take life day at a time. Folks up north laugh at us - think we are stupid. We take their money and perpetuate the country bumpkin myth for their excitement.  Whenever a neighbor has a disaster, we descend on them like an army of ants, and help them out.  I’ve been on both sides*, giving and receiving.  *Lose a flock of chickens, accident, illness.  BEB

 Close

Home

 Friendly people to buy feed from at Bryan & Brittingham.

Home

The best Greenwood chicken - really good

Helps with the environment

A great place to live

Lima beans & dumplings, pretzel salad, families, black & white last names that are the same - the staying power of Sussex County families, slave quarters at Seaford’s Ross Mansion, open spaces, wet places w/ a heron, small towns w/ terrifically interesting old homes, abandoned, falling down buildings along country roads, dairy farms

Warm character, people are actively listening to concerns that matter to others; progressive opportunities to move forward are embraced by those who feel they can make a difference.

Beaches - clean fishing - crabbing, boardwalk, Apple Scrapple Fest, Grey hound festival, unique shops, Kings ice cream, Dollies, Grotto’s, Return Day celebration

When a woman is on the side of the road with a flat tire, within 10 minutes two people have stopped to offer to change the tire (true story!).  In light of recent hit and run in Philadelphia when bystanders did not even offer to help the man - just let him lie in the middle of the road.  It’s our genuine core for each other that makes Sussex County special, and knowing that it’s done out of a sense of want, to help rather than expecting something in return.

I would regret to lose:  when you drive thru our towns & you don’t hear horns honking & people waving to each other.  I don’t want to lose the personal familiarity that is unique from big city in personal fabric of day-to-day living.

There is a local personality in Sussex County 1- the connections to the winter/sea & maritime history.  Beach/Bay recreation with charms of all the outdoor opportunities.  The other major personality of Sussex is the long rich history of the agricultural community in making Delaware a vital part of the food resources of the Mid Atlantic region.

The people - diversity, the places -heritage, natural beauty, fauna & flora; the things - scrapple, beach plums, WWII watchtowers, drag racing

S-surprising history

U-unique cultures

S-shopping

S-sunny beaches

E-exciting events

X-X-tra special people!

More open space, ocean & bay, quiet (most of the time), weather-mild, low taxes, great location - between metro areas, diverse population