The Assateague Coastal Trust is having two Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour Events: October 29th at Salisbury University and November 5th at Seacrets, Morely Hall. Audiences can expect an evening filled with incredible stories, beautiful places, inspiring people, and plenty of reasons to care a little more about our planet. A carefully curated collection of short environmental films will make them laugh, think, feel, and hopefully leave inspired. Attendees will have good food, drinks, music, raffles, silent and live auctions, and many opportunities to connect with fellow people who love the outdoors and want to see our natural world protected. The magic really happens when the lights come up and the conversations begin.
Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT) was first established as The Committee to Preserve Assateague Island. The catalyst for the creation of this all-volunteer, grassroots group was the introduction of legislation that established Assateague Island National Seashore, including a provision that would have allowed a significant portion of the island to be developed as a resort, destroying the unspoiled beauty of the island. The Committee fought to eliminate that provision, and the island’s pristine landscape today is a testament to its success and the crucible for ACT’s ongoing commitment to protecting this coastal environment. Assateague Coastal Trust has stayed true to their founders’ legacy of fighting to protect our coastal landscape and waterscape. Over time, their vision has expanded and their membership has grown. Now they work to protect not only Assateague Island but the entire Atlantic Coastal Bays watershed and the surrounding Lower Shore region. In 2002, ACT strengthened its capacity to watch over the Coastal Bays watershed of Maryland and Virginia’s Eastern Shore by joining the Waterkeeper Alliance and launching the Assateague Coastkeeper program.
ACT regularly monitors the quality of their local waters and publishes the data in MyCoast App, SwimGuide, and WaterReporter. Their Coast Kids program educates youth and their families through hands on outdoor experiences in how to care for the coastal bays, creating the next generation of environmental stewards. Additionally, ACT engages the community about the environment through informative lectures, trash clean-ups, nature exploration, and other hands-on opportunities.
The Assateague Coastkeeper is an on-the-water advocate who patrols and protects the Maryland, Southern Delaware, and Northern Virginia Eastern Shore coastal bays, standing up to polluters, and granting everyone’s right to clean water.
Debbi Dean, ACT’s Community Engagement Manager, says, “Wild & Scenic gives us another way to tell the story of why the work we do matters. As an organization focused on clean water and protecting our coastal bays, we spend a lot of time talking about environmental challenges. These films allow us to tell those stories in a different way, through adventure, emotion, humor, and the incredible people around the world who are finding solutions. The event also helps us raise funds for ACT’s programs while introducing our organization to people who may not know us yet. It brings longtime supporters together with new faces, and that connection is incredibly valuable to us. And honestly, who doesn’t love an evening of great films and good people coming together for a cause they care about?”
Debbie says that the best thing about putting on this event is, “The people. Hands down. There is something special about looking out at a room full of people who are laughing, cheering, getting emotional, and completely caught up in these stories. For a couple of hours, everyone is connected by a shared appreciation for the wild places and creatures that make our world so incredible. I also love the conversations that happen afterward. Someone will tell us, ‘I never knew about that,’ or ‘That film really made me think,’ or ‘we want to advocate like they did right here on the Eastern Shore’ or share a story about their own connection to the environment. After 16 years of hosting the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, seeing those little sparks of inspiration happen over and over again never gets old.”
