Thank You to the CEED Community!

We had such a great time at our CEED 2020 Virtual Summer Solstice Festival on Saturday, June 20, and we all welcomed the first moments of Summer 2020 with a blessing from Chief Harry Wallace from the Unkechaug Indian Nation. We’re so grateful to Ranger Eric and his co-host, storyteller Uaian, to all our participants, and to the more than 1,000 people who either joined us live on Zoom or Facebook, or who later viewed the video on Zoom or Facebook. 

On the longest day of the year, it was wonderful to reach out with positive stories about the natural world of Long Island, and share a message of hope about improving the environment. 

Highlights included:

• Great music from Long Island-based group The New Students
• Solstice insights and dancing from the Shinnecock Indian Nation! 
• Introductions to Long Island raptors by Tonito and Cara from Quogue Wildlife Refuge.
• Kevin Walsh’s amazing trail camera videos proving the return of river otters to Long Island! 
• Rain gardens at the Long Island Explorium
• Tips to create stunning natural plant gardens in your yard from Anthony Marinello.

Here are a few comments about the festival from Facebook friends of CEED:

• “I’m glad I got to attend the second half of this wonderful program and hear the Unkechaug Blessing from Chief Harry Wallace. Well done, Eric and CEED!”
• “Really enjoying the program, Great job!”
• “This is pretty awesome! HAPPY SOLSTICE!!”
• “Love to learn about Shinnecock history. Thanks so much.”
• “This is such a unique celebration! Thank you for doing this!”

Click here to see the festival on Zoom video.

CEED relies on donations to continue to offer festivals and other public programs that connect people to the natural world.  If you can help, please click here.

We had a technical glitch with the raptor demonstrations from Quogue Wildlife Refuge, so if you’d like to see these amazing demonstrations about Red-tailed hawk, Great-horned owl, American kestrel, and Screech owl, click here to go to our YouTube channel. You can also view an on-demand video recording of the entire festival here.