SEAPORT ASSOCIATION TO HOST
ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
The largest environmental film festival in North America is coming to Fairfield County on Friday, January 23, as the Norwalk Seaport Association joins 74 other nonprofit environmental organizations around the country that have been selected to host the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Tour presented by Patagonia. The event will be from 7:00-10:00 p.m. at the Dolce Norwalk Center, 33 Weed Avenue.
Susan Snider, executive director of the Norwalk Seaport Association, says, “We are honored to have been chosen by Patagonia to host this exciting event, which brings communities together around film and allows audiences an opportunity to evaluate local issues affecting their surrounding area. The festival is a natural extension of the Norwalk Seaport Association’s mandate to restore and preserve the historic 140-year-old Sheffield Island Lighthouse, which we have owned since 1986, and of our partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to restore natural habitat in the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.”
The film festival tour brings together a selection of films from the annual Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival, which is held each January in Nevada City, CA. “The films include narratives that come directly from people throughout the world who are engaged in protecting our natural resources and wild places,” says tour manager, Susie Sutphin.
Additional details about the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival will be added to the web site soon.
Norwalk Seaport Association
Operating since 1979, the Norwalk Seaport Association is a non-profit environmental, preservation and maritime educational organization offering a wide array of educational programs, special events and community projects.
The organization’s best-known event is the annual NSA Oyster Festival, now looking forward to its 32nd year, which attracts as many as 50,000 people during three days in early September and also provides $240,000 in fund-raising opportunities for more than 20 other local non-profit organizations.
Sheffield Island & Its Lighthouse
The Norwalk Seaport Association has owned, restored and maintained Sheffield Island Lighthouse since 1986 and is the official U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Friends group for the Norwalk Islands.
Sheffield Island with its historic 140-year-old lighthouse, beaches and wildlife refuge offers abundant summer fun for visitors.
From May through September, visitors can board the Seaport Association’s 42-foot G.W. Tyler ferry for a cruise to the island then tour the lighthouse, observe wildlife in their natural habitat in the Stewart B. McKinney Sildlife Refuge, hunt for shells along the beach, dine on a picnic lunch, play on the lawns around the lighthouse and just have a good time. The lighthouse tower provides magnificent views of Long Island Sound and, on a clear day, of the New York City skyline.
