An EPIC Thank You to All Who Helped at the Moonalice Benefit

On behalf of the Environmental Protection Information Center, event coordinators Amber Shelton, Mitra Abidi and Natalynne DeLapp would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who turned out on Friday, March 27th to help make the Moonalice fundraiser a successful event! Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate activists that have put their all into environmental advocacy and restoration work to make our community a better place for the forests, rivers and wildlife that we share this beautiful land with. The event began many years ago as the Pisces Party to support the work of Richard Gienger and his forest protection and watershed restoration efforts that have been at the core of EPIC’s work for decades. This year, in addition to honoring Richard, EPIC also recognized the Eel River Cleanup Project (ERCP), which Mike Miller breathed new life into a few years ago, and with the social networking efforts of Amy Machado, Chris Anderson and Brian St. Clair, the cleanup became a team effort to get trash out of the river and help keep it clean. The proceeds from the event benefited EPIC’s forest advocacy work in general that is done by a number of Epicureans. It is people like this who inspire us to continue the work we do, and who make us grateful to have such a wonderful community that has made 38 years of environmental advocacy work possible.

A special thank you goes out to the artists and local businesses that made contributions to the event. A huge thank you goes out to Moonalice for rocking the house with their psychedelic music and light show and for gifting attendees with beautiful artistic posters, to Dian Patterson for her amazing songs and beautiful voice, to Sue’s Organics for catering a delicious meal and Bergin Sipila Wines for donating quality wine. Thank you to Eureka Natural Foods, Wildberries Marketplace, Signature Coffee, Mad River Brewery, Kathleen Bryson, Redway Liquor and Rays Food Place in Garberville for contributing raffle items, food for the event and for selling tickets.

So many volunteers put their all into promoting the event, creating a welcoming atmosphere and producing a fabulous meal and a stunning show. A huge thank you goes out to Sue Maloney and her kitchen crew Barbara Kennedy, Leo Power, Lois Cordova, Michael McKaskle, Barley, Marcy Olson, Dan Reiss, Chip Tittmann and Wes Demarco for whipping up a delicious organic feast. Thanks to Bobby Shearer for booking Moonalice, Dian Griffith for welcoming people at the front door, Tom Wheeler for doing the dishes, to Lucy Allen for serving dessert and Gisele Albertine and Rob Diperna for helping setup and staffing the Dutch raffle table. Thank you to Bob Special, Caelidh Liddell and the Funk House crew for helping with cleanup. Thanks to Elizabeth Morgan for rocking it all day and night from setup to kitchen to cleanup. Thank you to Rob Fishman, Nat Pennington, Josh Brown, Erin Leonard and Megan Smith for serving up drinks to keep us going all night long.

Thank you to Tanya Lynne for helping with dishes, Cecilia Lanman for bringing scrumptious desserts, and to Rob Seifert, JIM FULTON, Eric, Gage & Johnny for helping with the sound, light and stage effects. A special thank you goes out to KMUD, Redwood Times, the Independent, Lost Coast Communications, KZYX, Jama Chaplin, BR, Lauren Oliver and Karin the publicist for promoting the event.

And many thanks to anyone who contributed but may not have been included in this publication, we appreciate all of your contributions and look forward to the next time we are all brought together for a common cause.  When it came time to recognize those who were important to the EPIC organization, it became apparent that just about everyone who filled the room was deeply involved with EPIC at some capacity.  This is the kind of community that makes a difference.  Thanks to each and every one of you, your participation fuels our forest protection efforts.