LETTER
Like Early Settlers, School Supporters Are ‘Moved to Protest’

November 14, 2012

DEAR EDITOR:

Tomorrow, Piece of Eden opens at the Palace Theatre. We have a rich, talented cast, Clelia Shepherd’s direction has been first rate, and the musical score will be performed wonderfully by William Neil.

This show is also a wonderful way to learn about the history of the Eastern Shore, and the early settlers who made this land between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay their home.

The play is written by Cape Charles’ own Jean Collins, and it highlights just how the Eastern Shore changed the world, from having the earliest court records, staging the first play in the new world (Ye Bear and Ye Cub), being the first settlers to challenge corrupt practices of government, to being the first county to declare an act of British Parliament, the Stamp Act, unconstitutional.

Jean Collins had a unique perspective on the entire history of the Eastern Shore, yet she also still has ties to us today.

In 1921, the students of Cape Charles, especially the basketball team, petitioned the Town to build a gymnasium. At that time, the team had nowhere to play.

That call went unanswered for almost 35 years, until the principal at the time, Jean Collins (the only female principle of the school)  finally stepped up and secured funding to convert the auditorium into a “gymtorium” (because it was still used as an auditorium as well).

It seems fitting that some of Jean Collins’ former students are now part of and are working with Old School Cape Charles to keep the school and the gymtorium public, and part of the Town.

CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE

In Mayor Sullivan’s disingenuous lament posted in this month’s Cape Charles Gazette, she states that she is “saddened” and “disappointed” by the legal challenges filed against the Town.

Despite her hand-wringing, she has to understand that if we are such a tight-knit community as she states, why didn’t she call me on the phone, or stop me in the street, or just come by my house when they began meeting with Echelon?  She must have known how much that school meant to us, given how tight-knit the community is.

Why did she keep it a secret from folks even when they were chatting in her store, or when she was at their house eating oysters prior to the Historical Society Oyster Roast?

Yes, we of OSCC were also saddened and disappointed; yet, the Mayor should not fret as the lawsuits are not a personal attack against her in any way, and are just a formal redress of citizen grievances as is our right as established by the Virginia General Assembly.

However, as Jean Collins so aptly stated in her play, I “admonish” Mayor Sullivan “not to mistake the solemnity” of these challenges. The ideals that we at Old School Cape Charles are fighting for are the “ideals of our forefathers, and they are deep seated within us.”

The fight against the corrupt practices of government by those early settlers brought to life in Piece of Eden such as Tom Savage, William Kendell, Thomas Johnson, and Stephen Charlton, John and Nathanial Savage, as well as Littleton Eyre, have been so engrained in us, the children of Virginia, that “we should be moved to protest” the actions of the Town is “not only natural, it is even justifiable.”

Jean Collins fought to bring that gymnasium to the children, and future generations of this Town. We haven’t forgotten, and we will never stop fighting for the school and the real Town that she loved.

Many people have moved here from other places, thinking their wealth and social status gives them the right to run roughshod over the names, the proud names of proud families that settled this land. You are mistaken. They are too close to the elemental things to ever roll over and give it you without a fight.

As Jean Collins said, “So it must have been for those whose names we bear. Surely, you have heard their voices singing in the pines. And you will listen because this is your story, and this land is your Piece of Eden,” yet “No plot of earth can remain a paradise for long if all its inhabitants do not share the same vision of its future.”

No, Ms. Collins, we have not forgotten about you.

WAYNE CREED
President, Old School Cape Charles

Letters to the Editor are welcome on any subject relevant to Cape Charles, and a diversity of opinions is encouraged.  Letters should be original and never submitted elsewhere. Email submissions to [email protected].