American Littoral Society Annual Holiday Fundraiser

Ecowatchers Awarded at Littoral Society Fundraiser

The American Littoral Society held their annual holiday fundraiser on Sunday, December 8th, in which Dan Mundy Sr. and Dan Mundy Jr. of the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers were honored with the first-ever Citizen’s Coastal Conservation Award in recognition of their outstanding work preserving and protecting Jamaica Bay.

“It is an honor to be selected as one of the first recipients for the American Littoral Society’s first ever Citizen’s Coastal Conservation Award. The Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers take great pride in our past accomplishments and in our working relationship with the American Littoral Society,” Dan Mundy Sr. said. “We are dedicated to the preservation, protection, enhancement, and restoration of the fragile ecosystem of Jamaica Bay and we accept this award in the name of all the stewards of the bay.”

¦Assemblyman, Phil Goldfeder presented ¦ the award and Eric Ulrich addressed¦ the crowd of more than 140 guests¦ at the American¦Legion Hall in Broad Channel. Among some of the guests were friends and supporters of the Ecowatchers and the American Littoral Society’s Northeast Chapter and Venetia Lannon, Regional Director of NYS DEC, Lilo Stainton of the NY/NJ Harbor Coalition, Nancy Barthold from the NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation¦ and members¦ ¦ of NYC Audubon, National¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦Park¦ ¦ ¦Service,¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ Nature Conservancy and CUNY.

The evening was a celebration of a long year rebuilding as a community post-Sandy and that was best illustrated by filmmaker Dan Hendrick, who showed a sneak preview of his upcoming documentary film “Jamaica

Bay Lives.” The preview featured pre and post-Sandy interviews with Dan

Mundy Sr., Dan Mundy Jr. and Don

Riepe, Chapter Director of ALS’

Northeast Chapter.

Broad Channel boat captains, local youth from ALS’ Restoration Corps program and community members were also honored for volunteering their boats and labor as part of the

Marsh Restoration Initiative, the first-ever community led restoration effort in a National Park. The Marsh

Restoration Initiative is co-led by the

Ecowatchers and ALS and resulted in the restoration of two badly degraded salt marsh islands in Jamaica Bay,

Rulers Bar and Blackwall, which will continue to be maintained and monitored over the next several years.

Guests got to participate in an ugly auction and a raffle and silent auction featuring items from REI, The Estee

Lauder Companies Inc., Starbucks

Howard Beach and the American

Museum of Natural History. One of the most entertaining parts of the evening was when Don Riepe performed a flamenco dance.

The American Legion Hall –Post ¦1404, King Kullen,¦ Brooklyn Brewery,

Pernod¦ ¦ ¦ Ricard and Whole¦ ¦ ¦Foods¦ made the event possible.