Founder Profile

Mel Wilkins
    Retired: Lockheed-Martin,Program Development and Management - information technology systems
    Project Director, Spa Creek Conservancy, Inc. (Founder)

    Education: BA Business Management, Advanced Certificate of Management

    Experience Summary: Five years volunteer environmental project leadership for The Arc of Anne Arundel County, Maryland Celebration 2000, and Chesapeake Children's Museum. Several volunteer leadership awards for the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. In the past five years Mr. Wilkins had raised over $200,000 in small grants and in kind donations for the Spa Creek watershed area projects. He has also been involved in other environmental programs in the watershed, including a national recognized and awarded MaryLandscapes (native plants) Sensory Garden for the developmentally and physically disabled. Mr. Wilkins' work was recognized in the Environmental Education Award 2001 from Coastal Living Magazine.
    Forty years of large and small project program management, from $25,000 to $70,000,000. Life long love of gardening, landscape design, and woodland and wildlife exploration. Many years of experience in working with Maryland native flowering perennials, wildflowers, wetlands, grasses, ferns, shrubs, and trees.
    Mel recently founded the non-profit Spa Creek Conservancy (SCC), Inc. and began project activities in January of 2004. The non-profit organization mission is to provide for the stewardship of the Spa Creek watershed. The watershed covers approximately 1300 acres and is completely enclosed in the City of Annapolis. Please check www.spacreek.org for detailed information about the mission and objectives.

    Recognition:
    -- Coastal Living Magazine, Jan-Feb, 2001 The Best of the Coast, Environmental Stewardship Award, The Arc MaryLandscapes Sensory Garden
    -- Mayor, City of Annapolis, 2002 Citizen Volunteer
    -- County Executive, Anne Arundel County, 2001 Volunteer Award
    -- GreenScape 2002 Award - Organization Award - CCM (Project Leader)
    -- The Capital Newspaper, Volunteer of the Month, 2002
    -- Mayor, City of Annapolis, First Annual, 2003 Green Star Award - Visionary Award
    -- GreenScape 2003 Award - Special Recognition - Individual
    -- My Annapolis Adventure: Passport to Discovery, Two selected sites: The Arc Sensory Garden and Chesapeake Children's Museum BayScapes and Rain Gardens
    -- Chesapeake Bay Trust, 2004 Ellen Fraites Wagner Award, $5,000 Prize, Chesapeake Bay Volunteer of the Year
    -- Gardener's Supply Company, National 2004 Gardener Crusader Award - Beautification

Ellen Fraites Wagner Award

    "The Ellen Fraites Wagner Award, named in honor of Governor Harry Hughes' staff member who encouraged the creation of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, recognizes a Maryland citizen for his or her exceptional contributions to the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers. Mr. Wilkins, the 2004 winner, was honored on March 13, and received both a bronze statue of a blue heron and a $5,000 award."
    "Mel Wilkins has given boundless time and energy to protecting the waters of Spa Creek, in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, through numerous restoration and education projects on the grounds of the Spa Creek Conservancy. Working closely with the Chesapeake Children's Museum, which is housed on the same grounds, Mr. Wilkins has recruited community groups of all ages to assist with restoring an eroding shoreline, creating BayScapes, Rain Gardens and storm water runoff control theme gardens with native plantings of trees, shrubs, and perennials."