SeaLife Ships Blog: Inaugural Alaska Marine Gala

The spectacular octopus garden created in the Denaina Center by Char McClelland (GA)

Auction Items on Display at the Gala proved popular with guests! (CM)

Our inaugural Alaska Marine Gala on January 17th, 2010 was one of those experiences one wishes could be captured and replayed again and again - what a fantastic evening! I want to again thank everyone who helped make the evening such a tangible success. With some 570 registered participants (we unfortunately turned away @ 40 other inquirers in the last few days as we had no more space), 50 talented volunteers helping out and a superb team of around a dozen staff, the gala really put the Alaska SeaLife Center firmly on the Anchorage Social Map!

Gala Emcee John Tracy and his family with Jean-Michel Cousteau before the gala (GA)

It was fantastic to see such great participation by people from all walks of life – as Board Chair Todd Allen noted during his welcoming remarks at the VIP reception, this event was a big deal for the Center and it was thus really helpful for us to have so many partners, supporters and members engaged in preparing for the event and linked in with the evening program. As you can see from the photos in this blog provided by Glenn Aronwits (see http://www.ga-digitalphotos.com/index.html) and Clark Mishler (http://www.mishlerphotos.com/), the venue was stunningly decorated and we had some very stylish and dapper looking guests, staff, volunteers and Board members present – all of whom had a differering creative interpretation of the "blue tie dress code"!

Distinguished guests, Senator Mark Begich, Jean-Michel Cousteau with IMD (CM)

As Board Treasurer, David Gottstein and others on the event committee have constantly reminded me, this was a ‘friend and profile raising’ event – we now have a lot of re-invigorated and new friends in both the Anchorage and wider marine science community and have built stronger relationships with many key donors and prospective partners in government, industry, the community and in the education sector. Funds raised from the event are targeted to support our education programs in 2010, particularly Internships and Sea Trek.

I have met with dozens of event attendees over the past 4 days at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium and the overwhelming message is that "we changed the game for marine science week in Anchorage". Dr. Clarence Pautzke from the NPRB commented in his opening remarks that the event is now firmly part of the marine science community schedule – he worries that instead of a gala as a side event for the symposium, the symposium is now in danger of being a side event to the gala!!

Jean-Michel Cousteau receiving a beluga sculpure made especially for the event by local artist Gina Hollomon (GA)

We are meeting with various key event partners (Char McClelland our superb event planner), donors and others key participants over the next 2 weeks to seek their inputs on what we might do better in future. The good news is that we have already locked in the same date and place for 2011 (the Sunday night before the start of the Alaska Marine Science Symposium) - save the date.

We’d very much welcome your thoughts and ideas also on the 2011 gala – please feel free to call me anytime if you’d like to discuss directly or send me a note.
This was on heck of a team effort and I could not be more proud of what we accomplished as a team this first time out! A big thank you again to our sponsors and supporters (see http://www.alaskasealife.org/ for full details).