A lot of us up here in Northern Virginia have made the trek to Broomes Island, Maryland for some great seafood at Stoney’s Seafood House. Here, not only will you find an array of fresh local seafood, but also, the best crab cake that you will ever eat. As soon as springtime arrives and Stoney’s opens for the season… this is the place to be.

If you happen to go on a Saturday you will find Jeannie Stone working hard behind the Tiki bar. Even though she and husband Phil Stone own the place, you will always find Jeannie working up a sweat keeping everyone’s drink fresh and conversation lively. Some times just watching her work makes me tired!

Born 44 years ago on the Mississippi gulf coast, this southern belle came to Southern Maryland in her early 20s and took a job at the Rod ‘n’ Reel restaurant in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland (day trip article Old Town Crier June 2008). Just as she is now, she was the best behind the bar. In 1989 local businessman Phil Stone bought an old restaurant named Gatsby’s and renamed it Stoney’s and thus began the evolution of the famous crab cake. In need of a good bartender, Phil Stone turned to his good friend Jimmy Hunt. Jimmy said that he knew of the best bartender in the county working over at the Rod ‘n’ Reel. “ I’ll introduce you to her,” Hunt said. So in 1979 Jeannie became the bartender at Stoney’s and the journey began. Today, Jeannie and Phil are married and have four restaurants in Calvert County.

Jeannie not only sets the bar by her level of work, but also expects the same from her staff. All of her managers and workers excel at their jobs and do so because of their dedication to Jeannie… and she is as dedicated to her employees. In the off-season Jeannie takes her staff on various vacations, all paid for.

On occasion Jeannie gets away also, but is never far from work. Last year on a trip to Virginia Beach, with Captain Phil Stone at the helm Jeannie put her commercial fishing license to good use and caught 9,500 pounds of rockfish all of which was served at the restaurants. It was gone in a month and a half.

Always willing to tackle a problem at the restaurant and solve it, Jeannie has recently taken that attitude to the community. A few years ago ten of Jeannie’s friends were diagnosed with breast cancer. When talking with them she discovered that they were being treated in the hallways of the Chemo-Infusion Center in Calvert County Hospital. There simply was not enough room in the treatment areas and people were being given chemo in the hallways. After farther investigation it was discovered that Southern Maryland was in the top 5% of cancer cases in the United States. She went to work.

Jeannie began to raise funds for the Cancer-Infusion Center and for cancer research. Last year, she and husband Phil, were co-chairs of the 27th Cancer Gala, “A Celebration of Life”, held at the Rod ‘n’ Reel in Chesapeake Beach. She and her contributors raised over $528,000. Jeannie did not stop there. Stoney’s has joined with the American Cancer Society in an effort to help citizens of Calvert County struggling with cancer. Their goal is to provide support to the Infusion Center. As mentioned, currently the center is so small patients are often forced to wait days or miss their chemotherapy treatments all together. A $1,000.00 donation secures the chair and 100% of the donation goes directly to the Infusion Center of Calvert. The chairs are side-by-side handcrafted Adirondack chairs with a connection table between that allows for a nice shady spot to sit and enjoy a drink while visiting Stoney’s of Broome’s Island. The chairs are the donors for life and will have their name or business on it and will be available to the donor and only the donor whenever they visit Stoney’s. A modest reward for a priceless gift!

Says Barbara Pollach of the Infusion Center, “ I cannot believe how much Jeannie does for us, not only the Cancer Gala, but she has raised $27,000 through “Lounge for Life”.

And now it comes full circle and the reality of her cause comes home to rest. On a recent sailing trip to Stoney’s at Broome’s Island I made my way to the bar to see Jeannie. As usual, she was hard at work taking care of her customers but had a smile and time for my friends and myself. It was then that I noticed and Jeannie confirmed that she had skin cancer. “We think we got it all,” she says with a twinkle in her brown eyes as she served another cold beer to a customer. Never having concern for herself, Jeannie tells me. “I feel blessed by my customers and friends. I wanted to give something back to the community.” Her mantra is if everyone would give just a little, we would get back a lot! Jeannie Stone gives a lot… all of the time!!

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