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Writer's pictureMaggie Favretti

Waterfest 2024! Saturday, September 21

Updated: Sep 19



This Saturday, September 21st join us at Lantern Hill and Long Ponds for honoring our waters at Water Fest 2024! Meet other people who care about our watershed as much as you do!! Learn and have fun! All are welcome!


Hosted by the Lantern Hill Valley Association and supported by our Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Allies this event is totally free with gracious support from UConn Sea Grant’s Sustainable and Resilient Communities program. 


As a member run Alliance your donations are critical for expanding our capacity, including developing our water quality monitoring program, enhancing outreach, and developing our watershed resilience action plan! 


You can pre-register for the event to save time and help us plan on the Alliance webpage at https://www.alliancemrw.org/ and click the orange button. 


Come for some or all of our action packed day! Unless there is thunder and lightning, we will not cancel due to rain, it is a celebration of water after all.

 

Guided Hikes

Starting at 7:30 am, we will have two guided hikes at the same time departing from the rear parking lot of Two Trees Inn, located across from the Mashantucket Casino entrance on Rt 214. One with Eastern Pequot knowledge keeper Derrick Strong, will lead a group to the top of Lantern Hill (~2mi round trip), and the other by Mashantucket Pequot knowledge keeper Gary Carter, will go to split off on a slightly easier view of Lantern Hill Pond, combine both hikes for a ~3 mi round trip!

 

The Main Venue

After these educational and sun greeting journeys, we will reconvene at 9:30am at 79 Homestead Rd, Ledyard, the home of one of our Board of Directors, Betsy Graham, for donuts and to start connecting with partner organizations that will be at Waterfest 2024. 


Raffle and Partner Organization learning experiences:

Get a raffle ticket for every booth/table of a partner or you visit! The first raffle drawing will be at 11:55, and the second at 3:15 - we will have two adult and six youth raffle prizes. Get an additional raffle ticket at the door for bringing your own reusable water bottle. 


Tables and Booths to visit include the Lantern Hill Valley Alliance; Avalonia; Eastern Pequot Tribe; Mashantucket Pequot Tribe; Wild Ones; Ledyard Conservation Commission; Mystic River Historical Society; North Stonington Conservation Commission; Keep No. Stonington Affordable; CT Land Conservation Council; Preston Conservation Commission; Eastern CT Conservation District; Yootay Singers; The Nature Conservancy; Wequetequock Cove; Pattagansett Art Center; and Artists and Poets.


Ongoing Activity - Relationship Mapping: 

A key part of our Water Fest 2024 will be the development of our physical relationship map - come add your location within the watershed and map out your relations with other watershed residents and share stories about what you love about our watershed. This effort will support our currently funded Climate Vulnerability Analysis, and our ongoing WRAP process.

 

Boat Cleaning Demos and Paddling Trips:

At 9:45 we will have the first of our boat cleaning demos (with two other sessions at 11:45 and 1:45), a vital part of keeping invasive aquatic species, like Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) and Eurasian Water Milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) out of our local waterbodies. Clean, Drain, and Dry your boat! 


At 11:45am we will have the first of two guided paddles led by Steve Fagin and Alex Kroft (from Save the Sound) down to the Long Pond dam to discuss the potential future of a Nature-like fishway. The second paddle will be at 2pm.

 

Singing to the Sacred Drum!

At 10am we will get to experience the Grammy nominated and spirit rousing traditional singing to the sacred drum of the Yootay Singers.

 

Conversation Circle 1: Cross cultural collaboration

At 11am we will kick of a conversation among Allies Rahiem Eleazer, Maggie Favretti, Brenda Geer, Tobias Glaza, Alex Krofta, and Katie Lund about Tribal and non-Tribal collaborations which we will open up to q+a from the audience to have a robust discussion about the future of the Alliance.

 

Free Food and the Harvest Moon Market! 

As we reflect upon the mornings events, we will have a community building lunch catered by local nnn marketplace, although we also encourage participants to check out the Harvest Moon Market at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center which will be going from 11am to 3pm.

 

Conversation Circle 2: Water Pollution and Solutions

Post lunch we will host a 1pm conversation around water pollution and solutions via a demonstration of our Long Island Sound Community Impact Fund supported Enviro-scapes watershed model.


Open Networking 

From 2pm we will have time for open networking and connecting with our partners who have set up tables for information about allied organizations and happenings in our watershed, all of which we will wrap up around 3:30 before we end Waterfest 2024 at 4pm.

 

Hope to see you there!



Yours in mutual support of life-giving water,

Maggie, Rahiem, Tara, Zoe, Lynne, Brenda, Z, Betsy, and Beth

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