JoAnn Bernier Cornell
Lloyd Center for the Environment
430 Potomska Road
Dartmouth, MA  02748

LLOYD CENTER EVENT RAISES RECORD FUNDS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION - RESEARCH

DARTMOUTH – Friday the 13th may be an unlucky day for many, but for those seeking to raise the level of environmental protection here on the South Coast, that very date just marked a particularly auspicious beginning to the 2007 summer season.  Casting away all superstition, supporters of the Lloyd Center for the Environment filled all 750 seats at the Center’s traditionally sold-out “Simply, the best!” Clambake dinner-dance, bid generously on a fine array of donated auction items and danced the night away to the strains of rocking music from the famous “Men in Black”.

This 22nd running of what has now become a “not-to-be-missed” happening for summer and year-round residents, held under a huge tent right by the side of the sea, here in Dartmouth’s Demarest Lloyd State Park, was again presented this year by Toyota of Dartmouth and sponsored by over twenty other local corporate and institutional backers.  It is the Center’s largest fundraiser of the year, netting over $100,000 for the Center’s critically acclaimed environmental research and education programs.

Over the past twelve months, a core group of hardy volunteers have been meeting regularly under the leadership of Co-chairs Rusty and Marky Shapleigh, lining up corporate sponsors, logging-in unique items donated for auction sale, checking and rechecking the spelling of every patron’s name, ensuring that local artist Sandra Hall’s work was faithfully reproduced on invitations, coordinating endless details with town and state officials, assigning critically important tasks to a growing team of eager helpers and making certain every aspect of the event bore evidence of the “pirate” theme chosen for this year’s event.

Arriving bright and early on the final day of preparation, with the sides of the breathtaking Newport Tent sucking and popping in the wind, a record number of volunteers poured into the State Park and set to work magically transforming the beachside parking lot into an elegant dinner-dance setting.  Seventy-five tables were carefully set and decorated with colorful tablecloths and adorned with three-tiered glass centerpieces, complete with pirate booty and sea-shells.  Guests’ chairs were adorned with environmentally supportive “reduce, reuse, recycle” grocery-shopping bags and classic CLAMBAKE XXII caps bearing the Lloyd Center’s famous Osprey-face logo, disguised as a pirate for the occasion.  Huge banners, each depicting a particular Lloyd Center activity, were hauled aloft.  A gigantic plasma television screen was moved into position to provide a continuous visual presentation of Lloyd Center staffers and volunteers at work, exploring, documenting, monitoring, protecting and teaching. 

As the evening hour drew nigh, bartenders began popping corks, flames leapt into the air from the traditional New England clambake pit, the second wave of volunteers, members of Jimmy Buffet’s local contingent of “Parrot-Heads” scrambled to their stations and a Johnny Depp look-alike, perfectly outfitted as a handsome pirate, started prowling the aisles of the dining area and posing for pictures with arriving dignitaries. 

Despite the air of fun and frivolity that traditionally marks the event, officials at the Center take its success seriously.  Board President Mary Ellen Hawes Lees was effusive in her praise for the Center’s volunteers, noting that “without their generous contribution of time and talent, we could not possibly manage something of this magnitude”.  Executive Director D’Arcy MacMahon remarked on the timely importance of the event, noting that “resources provided through it will continue helping underwrite some of the Center’s costs of bringing first-rate environmental science programs into Dartmouth and Westport’s public schools”.  

Founded in 1978 and situated with its headquarters overlooking Dartmouth’s Slocum River, one of southeastern New England’s most spectacular estuaries, the Lloyd Center for the Environment has achieved a well-earned reputation for excellence in environmental research and education.  Now in its thirtieth year of providing innovative outreach programs, it has established itself as a leader in the ongoing effort to raise awareness of the area’s fragile coastal resources and the importance of protecting them. 

With extraordinary water views and five miles of hiking trails through unspoiled forest and salt-marshes to be discovered at its Hardscrabble Farm coastal nature preserve, the Lloyd Center offers a variety of recreational and educational opportunities for families, birders, school-children, hikers, scientists and nature enthusiasts of all ages.

The Visitors Center, with its new Nature-View Tower, is now open, at no charge to the public, Tuesday through Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Trails are open from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, year-round.

The Lloyd Center for the Environment is located at 430 Potomska Road, Dartmouth, MA.
For more information, visit www.lloydcenter.org or call 508-990-0505.