Rehoboth Beach
CAMP Rehoboth kicks off search for new executive director
Strategic planning process underway
CAMP Rehoboth, the Rehoboth Beach LGBTQ community services center, was scheduled to officially announce on Monday, Oct. 17, that it is seeking bids from executive search firms to retain such a firm to help the group conduct a national search for a new executive director, according to Wesley Combs, president of the CAMP Rehoboth Board of Directors.
Combs told the Washington Blade the announcement seeking a search firm, known as an RFP or Request for Proposal to undertake the search process, comes about a month after CAMP Rehoboth retained nationally acclaimed strategic planning consultant Michela Perrone of Georgetown University to help the nonprofit group update its strategic plan for providing services and support for a diverse and growing LGBTQ community in Rehoboth and surrounding areas.
Perrone, a faculty member at Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership, has provided support for strategic planning and other services for many nonprofit organizations through her consulting firm MMP Associates, including for LGBTQ nonprofits.
The need for a new CAMP Rehoboth executive director surfaced this past May when then executive director David Mariner resigned to start a new Delaware LGBTQ advocacy group called Sussex Pride. The CAMP Rehoboth board a short time later named Lisa Evans, a longtime administrator at nonprofit organizations in Baltimore, as CAMP Rehoboth’s interim executive director.
Combs has said Evans was appointed to serve as the group’s acting manager in an “advisory role” as soon as the board learned of Mariner’s plans to leave the organization. After conducting a search for an interim director, the board selected Evans from a group of four finalist candidates as the best fit for that role, Combs said.
Now, according to Combs, CAMP Rehoboth is beginning the process for the first phase of its strategic plan development and its search for a new executive director. He said after considerable deliberation, the board decided it would be important to retain a strategic planning expert and begin the first phase of the strategic planning process at this time.
He said the board was hopeful that a national search firm can be retained within the next 30 days and the nationwide search for a new executive director would begin at that time.
The first phase of the strategic plan development, which began at the time Perrone was retained last month, includes data collection and community engagement, including community surveys and focus groups, Combs said.
He said the strategic planning process will then be put on hold until the new executive director is hired and takes office for a short time to become acclimated with CAMP Rehoboth’s operations. It is the board’s belief that the new executive director should take part in the second phase of the development of the updated strategic plan, Combs said.
“We’re not going to begin the work to determine what the priorities of CAMP will be until the new executive director has been hired,” said Combs. “So, it’s a two-phase strategy – start, gap, start,” he said.
“Our hope is we will have identified a candidate by mid-January and that person can hopefully be on board by March 1, 2023,” Combs said in referring to the hiring process for the new executive director. “That’s our hope.”
Combs noted that CAMP Rehoboth, which was co-founded in 1991 by LGBTQ rights advocates Steve Elkins and his then partner and subsequent husband Murray Archibald, has grown tremendously over the years and has developed and updated strategic plans during those years.
Elkins, a beloved figure in Rehoboth for many years, served as CAMP Rehoboth’s executive director until he passed away in 2018.
Combs said plans began to update the strategic plan shortly after David Mariner began as executive director in 2019 and continued through early 2020. But with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sweeping restrictions it brought about for all public spaces later that year, CAMP Rehoboth under Mariner’s leadership had to dramatically “pivot” to a virtual operation, Combs said. Nearly all its in-person operations and programs had to be suspended or switched to online operations.
All of that meant the strategic planning process had to be put on hold, Combs said. And while it resumed earlier this year, Mariner’s decision to resign prompted the board to reassess how to move forward with the strategic planning process.
“The thought was, we have a lot of the work that was done,” Combs said. “But it was four years ago, three years actually, when the outreach to the community was done,” he said. “We had focus groups, we had surveys done. So, some of that information may still be relevant. But some of it obviously needs to be revisited because the demographics of Delaware and our community have changed in that three-year period.”
Added Combs, “Plus, Rehoboth and the surrounding area has become a much bigger retirement community for a lot of LGBTQ people…We want to make sure we understand what the needs are of the various stakeholder groups that CAMP Rehoboth serves,” he said. “And that also includes the increased visibility of transgender people in lower Delaware. And, the increased visibility of LGBTQ youth who are coming out,” Combs told the Blade.
“So, the plan is designed to ensure that we understand who the demographics of this community are, what support they need, and what role will CAMP play in helping to address them,” he said. “Every nonprofit does this every three to five years.”
Below is a list of CAMP Rehoboth’s numerous programs and activities that it has carried out in recent years, as shown on its website:
Rehoboth Beach
Rehoboth’s Blue Moon is for sale but owners aim to keep it in gay-friendly hands
$4.5 million listing includes real estate; business sold separately
Gay gasps could be heard around the DMV earlier this week when a real estate listing for Rehoboth Beach’s iconic Blue Moon bar and restaurant hit social media.
Take a breath. The Moon is for sale but the longtime owners are not in a hurry and are committed to preserving its legacy as a gay-friendly space.
“We had no idea the interest this would create,” Tim Ragan, one of the owners, told the Blade this week. “I guess I was a little naive about that.”
Ragan explained that he and longtime partner Randy Haney are separating the real estate from the business. The two buildings associated with the sale are listed by Carrie Lingo at 35 Baltimore Ave., and include an apartment, the front restaurant (6,600 square feet with three floors and a basement), and a secondary building (roughly 1,800 square feet on two floors). They are listed for $4.5 million.
The bar and restaurant business is being sold separately; the price has not been publicly disclosed.
But Ragan, who has owned the Moon for 20 years, told the Blade nothing is imminent and that the Moon remains open through the holidays and is scheduled to reopen for the 2026 season on Feb. 10. He has already scheduled some 2026 entertainment.
“It’s time to look for the next people who can continue the history of the Moon and cultivate the next chapter,” Ragan said, noting that he turns 70 next year. “We’re not panicked; we separated the building from the business. Some buyers can’t afford both.”
He said there have been many inquiries and they’ve considered some offers but nothing is firm yet.
Given the Moon’s pioneering role in queering Rehoboth Beach since its debut 44 years ago in 1981, many LGBTQ visitors and residents are concerned about losing such an iconic queer space to redevelopment or chain ownership.
“That’s the No. 1 consideration,” Ragan said, “preserving a commitment to the gay community and honoring its history. The legacy needs to continue.” He added that they are not inclined to sell to one of the local restaurant chains.
You can view the real estate listing here.
Rehoboth Beach
Clear Space Theatre to remain in Rehoboth Beach
New arts center to be built on city-owned land
Clear Space Theatre Company and the City of Rehoboth Beach have agreed to create a public-private partnership to redevelop city-owned land into a new performing arts center, the theater announced Friday.
The CSTC board of directors formally accepted the letter of intent from the city on Oct. 23, wrapping up an 18-month process for site selection for its new performing arts center.
With the agreement, Clear Space commits to remaining in Rehoboth Beach, where it has been based since 2010.
Based on the terms of the letter of intent, Clear Space will enter into a land lease of 11 Christian St. after the Cape Henlopen Senior Center relocates to its next home outside the city limits on Hebron Road, according to the announcement. The senior center has been a tenant on city land for 45 years, but was gifted land to expand its operations and will move after the completion of a capital campaign. At that time, Clear Space will begin a lease of up to 50 years. The land, which has been valued at $7.2 million, will be made available to Clear Space for $1 per year.
The new performing arts center will include a proscenium mainstage, a flexible seating black box, a rehearsal studio, expanded lobby, concessions, and backstage facilities, and gallery space, according to the announcement. Parking will be provided on site
“On behalf of the Board of Commissioners, I am thrilled that Clear Space has selected our offer and plans on staying in the City of Rehoboth Beach,” Mayor Stan Mills said in a statement. “Clear Space has always enriched Rehoboth Beach culturally, socially, creatively, and economically. It is a top-notch performing arts center that is near and dear to our residents, visitors, and business owners. We believe it’s a win-win, and we look forward to many more years of our partnership with Clear Space.”
“We are grateful to Mayor Mills for first proposing that Clear Space consider the site at 11 Christian Street back in March 2024,” said Clear Space Managing Director Joe Gfaller.“Without his encouragement, the site might not have been explored as one of the nine in our 2024 market study. As our analysis winnowed down our preferred sites, the City of Rehoboth Beach’s staff and elected officials were consistently excellent partners, negotiating fairly and transparently in the interest of the citizens, business owners, and visitors of Rehoboth Beach.”
The total cost for the new performing arts center is approximately $40 million, according to the announcement, with a national RFP process for the project’s architect coming soon along with community forums for residents and audiences to follow in 2026.
The development ends years of contentious debate about the location of the new theater complex. In 2021, The Rehoboth Beach Board of Commissioners voted for the second time to overturn a decision by the city’s Planning Commission to approve plans by Clear Space to build a larger theater and adjacent rehearsal theater in a new downtown location.
Supporters of the project expressed outrage at the time over the Board of Commissioners’ 4 to 3 vote to reject the Planning Commission’s approval and deny the Clear Space application to build its proposed new theaters on Rehoboth Avenue, which serves as the city’s main commercial boulevard. The controversy led to speculation that Clear Space could relocate outside of Rehoboth to Route 1 or even to nearby Lewes, Del.
Rehoboth Beach
CAMP Rehoboth announces retirement of executive director
Kim Leisey to leave job at end of January 2026 as ‘true champion’
CAMP Rehoboth, the LGBTQ community services center serving Rehoboth Beach and areas across Delaware, has announced that Kim Leisey, who has served as its executive director since July 2023, will step down to retire at the end of January 2026.
“The Board of Directors has expressed deep gratitude for Leisey’s leadership and confirmed that she will continue to work with the Board and incoming leadership to ensure a smooth and seamless transition,” the organization says in a Sept. 17 statement.
Leisey, who holds a Ph.D. in Human Development, served for 30 years in the field of student affairs and facilities management at the University of Maryland Baltimore County before beginning work as CAMP Rehoboth executive director. Her position immediately prior to starting at CAMP Rehoboth was Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at the university.
At the time of its decision to hire Leisey as executive director, CAMP Rehoboth noted that she had been a resident of nearby Lewes, Del., since 2020 and a Rehoboth Beach visitor since the early 1990s.
The board hired Leisey shortly after CAMP Rehoboth’s previous executive director, David Mariner, resigned to start a new Delaware LGBTQ advocacy group called Sussex Pride.
The board noted the change in leadership came at a time when the COVID pandemic presented challenges to the organization’s operations and during an organizational transition period to reassess and expand its programs that began prior to the pandemic.
CAMP Rehoboth Board President Leslie Ledogar said in the statement announcing Leisey’s retirement that at the time it hired her in 2023 it was confident her 30 years of experience in her prior career as a University of Maryland official would make her the right person to advance CAMP Rehoboth’s mission.
“Thanks to Kim’s steady leadership, her commitment to our mission, and the fact that she truly is a ‘champion for all things that help humans to thrive during their lifespan,’ she leaves CAMP Rehoboth well positioned to emerge from a time of uncertainty to one of strength, with the capacity we need to serve our community for decades to come,” Ledogar said in the statement.
“It’s been a privilege of a lifetime to serve in this role,” Leisey said in the statement. “Together we built something I am proud of, including strengthening a high-performing leadership team, deepening a culture rooted in integrity and excellence, and delivering strong, continuous financial performance,” she stated.
The statement says a search committee, to be chaired by Board President Ledogar, will be formed in the coming weeks to begin the search for a new executive director.
Rehoboth’s Blue Moon is for sale but owners aim to keep it in gay-friendly hands
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