In Search of a Festival

St. Mary's Chamber Ambassador Ann Lewis of Old Line Bank greeted members, dressed the part of Rosie the Riveter.

St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event drew members to the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum last Wednesday for a Forties-themed evening on the Potomac.

Teaming with the county museums’ foundation, BB&T Wildewood Branch co-sponsored the regular networking event. The bank contributed to the theme with sponge on (and off) sailor motif tattoos to match the music reminiscent of World War II while lighthouse volunteers offered tours of the keeper’s quarters.

While BB&T Wildewood spotlighted their Bay District branch, the lighthouse foundation used the event to market test the theme.

Piney Point was an active Navy outpost during World War II, home to the testing range of the Alexandria torpedo factory in Virginia from 1940 until 1954.  A series of property purchases  included Lexington Park businessmen William Chapman, Jack Daugherty and Jack Rue and in 1967 was purchased by current owners, the Seafarer’s International Union.

The fund-raising arm of the Piney Point Lighthouse solicited reactions to the 1940s music — provided by Elite Beatz — candidly searching for a musical venue as popular as the successful annual jazz festival that supports the county’s other historic museum, St. Clement’s Island Museum.

Quality Street of Leonardtown catered, and Chamber members tapped feet to the rhythms of Elite Beatz, but the heat prevented overt  jitterbugging on the grounds.

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