The Alliance held its annual fundraiser, The Taste of the Chesapeake, on Thursday evening, September 19, at Quiet Waters Park, in Annapolis,  accompanied by starry skies, music by The Fiddle Oaks, and a sellout crowd of almost 300 sponsors, partners and supporters. Alliance Executive Director, Al Todd, along with the Chair of the Board, Alex Beehler, presenting the Environmental Leadership Award to Ann Pesiri Swanson.[title class=”acb-page-content-title” ]Awards

It was a tremendous  event that enabled the Alliance to celebrate the Bay and to showcase our restoration programs. The Alliance honored three environmental award winners; the crowd’s reaction reinforced the importance of honoring these three diverse watershed champions.

The Alliance was very pleased to offer the 2013 annual Environmental Leadership Award to Ann Pesiri Swanson, Executive Director, Chesapeake Bay Commission who has been deeply involved in the Bay restoration effort for nearly 30 years.

In addition, two Special Recognition Watershed Champions are being awarded to Carin Bisland (EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office) and Steven W. Koehn (State Forester/Director, Maryland DNR Forest Service). Microphone in hand, Al Todd leads the evening’s festivities at the 2013 Taste of the ChesapeakeThe evening included oysters from the Oyster Recovery Partnership, beer from Fordham Brewing and tastes of local food and drink from many generous caterers. The Taste is  a reflection of the kind of organization that the Alliance is nurturing- professional, inclusive, purposed and innovative! The Taste puts an animated face on the Alliance and on our sponsors. This year, the Alliance designed and presented a slide show that highlighted the corporate sustainability efforts of our major Sponsors. It showcased the very broad range of efforts by our corporate sponsors to reduce their footprint, from industrial recycling to green buildings to employee participation in Bay clean ups and restoration.See more photos from the night’s event on flickr in our Taste of the Chesapeake 2013 set.

The Taste was a lively and memorable gala event. I hope that you will join us in 2014 and that you will contact Laura Ricciardelli (laura@allianceforthebay.org) to participate as an individual or corporate Sponsor for next year… because “together we can get the job done!”