Events | Alliance MRW

Community Gatherings and Events

Click here for Community Conversation Circles

A Day of Fun Learning Activities, Community-Building, and opportunities to share your knowledge and hear from local experts about how to care for the water and keep each other safe.

Location: Enter 79 Homestead Road Ledyard into your nav. The site is actually between the end of Homestead Rd and the end of Long Pond Road, but you MUST ENTER from Homestead Road.

Admission is free but we encourage you to make a donation to support this event. Your support helps keep all of the Alliance's programs free and helps fulfill our mission of caring. You are welcome to do that here or at the event.

Not canceling for rain -- only a thunderstorm. Check the website on the day of the event.

7:30-9 For early-bird hikers! Choose easy or rugged guided hikes on Lantern Hill. Parking and both hikes start at the Two Trees Inn parking lot. After the hike, 9:30-10, Hot cider and donuts at the Graham Farm.

10:00-4 Seeqanamâhs Spring Celebration, Graham Farm, Long Pond (between Homestead and Long Pond roads). Booths for learning and demonstrations open all day. Free Food!! Paddling! Live Music! Spoken Word. Fish & Bird Puppetry with Heather Henson.

Please visit our Living Atlas Booth to tell your stories about Floods, Heat, and What We Love About This Place!

10 Yootây Singers honor the water that gives us life

10:45 Conversation Circle: How to tend to the Water through our relationship with Land

11:45 Boat-cleaning demo

12 00 and 2 Guided Paddles to see where the fishway will go

LUNCH and Door Prize Giveaway (12:30)

1pm Conversation Circle: Threats to Thriving and What We Can Do About Them

4pm Community Clean Up!

Please consider donating to our educational, community-centered gatherings!

Make a Gift

Memory Lane: Our First Events

1. Meet the Alliance Gathering, Coogan Farm

April, 2023. Coogan Farm and Denison-Pequotsepos Nature Center was our first organizational ally. 10 more, including Mystic Seaport, joined that night.

30+ people, ranging in age from 5 to 96

We talked about our personal connections to the waters we love and how we might work together across boundaries of all kinds.

A new community connected by the waters we love

So many new relationships were formed and commitments to continue researching, learning, and acting together. Carl Kaufmann, a cherished elder essential to the efforts to protect water quality on Block Island, created a guide for us with key questions we should be asking.

2. Wetlands & Floods, Old Mystic Methodist Church

We reminisced about the 2010 flood and learned about its causes upstream. Barbara Fontanella read a statement from the church district newsletter affirming the importance of caring for the rest of the natural world.

Viewing damage to the wetland at Smith St

The Alliance was awakened by the town's weakness in the face of an aggressive developer. We walked to the site and discussed the importance of wetlands for water retention and protection from more intense spring rains and summer storms.

Rep. Aundré Bumgardner asking, how can policy help?

Aundré Bumgardner represents both Stonington and Groton and tries to attend all of the Alliance gatherings. He is acutely aware of how policy needs to change at the state and local level to ensure healthy lives in the Mystic River Watershed.

3. Oyster Culture Gathering, Palmer's Provisions, Noank

Rahiem Eleazer and Mike Thomas (Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation) shared knowledge about the symbiotic relationship between Pequot culture and oysters. They also informed the group that the reason there is no longer a shellfish festival in Noank at Pequot-owned land is because the state now requires Native people to purchase licenses (unlike neighboring states). SeaGrant's Shellfish expert Tessa Getchis is working with the Tribes and the state on a solution now.

Oysterculturalists shared how important oysters are for regenerating whole ecosystems by cleaning the water and breaking waves, but also how important it is for them to grow in clean water in order to be at their best (and to be edible).

Underwater Community, Photos made by Bob Degoursey

Bob Degoursey, marine biologist and underwater photographer, shared some of his tremendous collection of photos from Noank Harbor 30 years ago, Now we need to take more to compare!

4. Honor the River & Paddle Culture, Mystic Seaport

Steve Fagin, Nature columnist and global kayak adventurer, led a paddle to honor the Mystic River. Starting from Old Mystic and Paddling to Noank and back to the Seaport celebration were 15 or so hardy souls...

Muhshoon Making at the Seaport Museum

Native American and African artists collaborated to create a beautiful muhshoon (dugout) which will be featured in an upcoming exhibit called Entangled. We were so lucky that they were still there to share some of their wisdom.

Short recording: Mike Thomas honors the river in the traditional way

Mashantucket Pequot Knowledge Keeper and Keeper of the Sacred Drum Mike Thomas honored the river with a prayer song. This is only one tiny piece of a moment that helped us all to reflect on our relationship to the river. Courtesy of Mike Thomas.

Community Gatherings and Events

Seeqanamâhsak Spring Celebration 2025 Registration Form

Please consider donating to our educational, community-centered gatherings!

Memory Lane: Our First Events