The lights dim and slowly a diver (ASLC Dive Officer, Chip Arnold) descends into the audience to welcome more than 570 guests... the crowd hushes repectfully to hear his welcome while taking in the amazing underwater scenery all around them... belugas, orcas, octopii, jellyfish...
This dream script quickly became real as once again the Anchorage Dena’ina Center was magically transformed into an underwater garden for the 2011 Alaska Marine Gala on Sunday 16th January.
Board Vice Chair, Steve Grabacki with ASLC Dive team members, Chip Arnold, Jen Curl and Jared Guthridge
This year we sought to bring the SeaLife Center to Anchorage in ways that enabled our research, education and stewardship work to be easily understood. From the moment guests arrived in the reception area they were greeted by SeaLife on display!
Emcees Maria Downey and Dave Karp amidst some amazing sealife!
Alaska SeaLife Center staff worked closely with Alaska Destination Specialists (http://www.alaskadestinations.com/) and the ever accommodating venue staff to transform the upper level of Dena’ina into a stunning visual celebration of Alaska's oceans. The evening featured many highlights, but the presentation by our guest speaker, Joel Sartore stood out for his ability to help us understand the diverse world we share and the challenges we face in maintaining the remarkable and little known diversity of biological life and human culture on earth...
Award winning National Geographic photographer, Joel Sartore recounting some of his amazing experiences in producing his new book "Rare" (see also http://www.joelsartore.com/)
Senator Mark Begich hard at work helping our auction spotters
The multi talented H3 band made sure we closed the gala in style!
The evening provided a wonderful opportunity for the Center to develop many new friends and renew old friendships. I was particularly struck by a comment from our close colleague, Alaska SeaGrant Director Dr Dave Christie, who noted that this was one of the few marine gatherings he had been to in Alaska where he didn't recognize many of the participants! We agreed that was a good thing as it helped us to better understand and acknowledge the increasing value that society at large places on our amazing oceans.
Clearly we achieved our goal of bringing more people into the Alaska Ocean community and the feedback we received at the event and subsequently suggests that they are now advocates for our work!
We again thank all our sponsors and guests for their support - they make these events possible and we were delighted by the enthusiastic turn out. I'd also like to acknowledge the tremendous work done by our Gala team under the leadership of our Director of Education and Outreach Nikki Nelson; more than 40 staff were present on the evening sharing their work and helping make sure things went smoothly.
Stephen Marquis, our Social Media specialist making sure that all the technology worked and modeling the now famous "blue tie" -- the staff of most retail clothing stores in Anchorage now know what that dress standard actually means - there will be a contest for the best blue tie at AMG3!
Overall, this evening was the most successful single fundraising event in ASLC history! We look forward to bringing you AMG3 in January 2012 - dates will be announced soon...
(Special thanks to our event photographer, Glenn Aronwits - all gala photos will be available shortly on his website - www.ga-digitalphotos.com)
The GALA was amazing. I can't wait to see what you and your staff come up with for next year!
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