October 14, 2020
Dear Friends,
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I always feel a bit sad and relieved at the same time when a party is over. The great thing about a virtual event is I can replay the memories and there are no dishes to wash up! I'm so grateful for everyone who made our 11th annual Dinner on the Pacific Plate a success. We proved we can do virtually anything!
If you missed the show on Saturday or want to replay your favorite parts, click here to watch. We spotlighted fire, science, and regeneration through music, videos, interviews, and games. We shared our loving community and also our values of collaboration, resilience, innovation, inclusion, impact, and courage. Feel free to share the program with friends.
Let it Rain
One thing I've learned by producing a virtual event is that film crews don't like the rain. When I could no longer say the rain on Saturday was West Marin mist, I found peace in accepting the things you can't change. I marveled as our film production team and nimble staff worked out a Plan B and C. Hope is not a plan, but having a solid team in place is. I'm so proud of PRNSA's rock steady crew of staff and board. The rain stopped, as I suspected by 6 pm, but even if it hadn't I knew the show could go on. That's the way 2020 rolls. Thanks to our community of supporters we are thriving in spite of the many shocks to our operations, while building our innovation muscle.
Now that our event is over, I look forward to some good, hard rain to kickstart the regeneration of our beloved Park's ecosystems and ease our minds.
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Growing Our Regeneration Fund
One key goal of this year's Dinner on the Pacific Plate was to introduce our community to some of the scientists who study and care for our park. PRNSA's mission combines conservation and education, so for this year's fundraising event we chose to create a special Regeneration Fund to support both fire-focused conservation and fire ecology education programs. All gifts made to this fund will be split between these two goals.
We did not charge a ticket price for this year's event and our generous sponsors supported our overall mission through gifts of $225,000. Gifts raised for our "Fund A Need" Regeneration Fund are now at $47,000. Our revised goal for this critical work is $75,000. If you are able to make a gift of any size to help us raise $28,000 by the end of October we'd be so grateful.
With a gift of $50 you will receive a PRNSA face mask, $150 a Dinner on the Pacific Plate t-shirt, and $500 an invitation to a fire ecology walk when it is safe to enter the burned area of the park.
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Thank you again to everyone who supported and came to our event this year. By offering a virtual experience we've been able to include many more people who care about Point Reyes National Seashore. Let me know what you thought of the program. We are loving learning about new ways to stay in touch. |
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Donna Faure
Executive Director
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PS: Thank you to everyone who made this special production of Dinner on the Pacific Plate possible. Check out the credits here.
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After Party Animal
Meet Honcho and Bonnie, two special guests at our Dinner on the Pacific Plate after party. Honcho and his corral mates were evacuated from the Morgan Horse Ranch during the Woodward Fire. Were you one of the guests who got to meet Honcho on Saturday? What did you learn about Honcho's stay in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area? We are glad to have Honcho and friends back and grateful to Ranger Bonnie Phillips for helping with the horse translation and all her loving care of our Morgan neighbors!
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WOODWARD FIRE UPDATES
Visit this website to get the most up to date information on the fire, including park closures. As of Friday, October 9, the Woodward Fire was 100% contained at 4,929 acres in size.
Visitors are reminded to respect trail and road closures. Fuels on the interior of the fire will continue to burn until the winter rains arrive. The Type IV team has departed and park personnel will now be in a monitoring operating stance and will shift into suppression repair and emergency repair work over the next several months. Keep yourself and park personnel safe by staying out of the closure zone. go.nps.gov/pore/woodwardfire
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Terry Tempest Williams Talk:
Erosion: Essays of Undoing
Friday, October 16, 7 pm
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Terry Tempest Williams's fierce, spirited, and magnificent essays are a howl in the desert. She sizes up the continuing assaults on America's public lands and the erosion of our commitment to the open space of democracy. She asks: "How do we find the strength to not look away from all that is breaking our hearts?"
Erosion is a book for this moment, political and spiritual at once, written by one of our greatest naturalists, essayists, and defenders of the environment. She reminds us that beauty is its own form of resistance, and that water can crack stone.
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PRNSA Community Book Read
& Conversation with Author Dr. Carolyn Finney
Rescheduled to: Thursday October 29, 4-5pm
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Since midsummer, members of the Marin County Free Library & PRNSA community have been reading the book Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors. On Thursday, October 29th at 4pm PST, we will be joined on Zoom by author Dr. Carolyn Finney, who will elucidate our discussion of the histories and critiques in her book. We encourage typed questions using the Zoom Q&A, and a limited number of attendees will be invited to join our panel. Click here to register!
Copies of the book are still available at both Inverness and Point Reyes Libraries. Please call and reserve a copy for pickup, or stop by during curbside hours and request the book. Black Faces, White Spaces is also available on Hoopla through the library with no wait. Instructions for downloading to Hoopla on the library's website: https://marinlibrary.org/ebooks/
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Saturday, October 17, 10am – 2pm
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Sunday, October 18, 9am – 4pm
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Saturday, October 31, 10am – 5pm
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Point Reyes National Seashore | (415) 663-1200 x 310 | [email protected] | www.ptreyes.org |
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