The deWitt Cottage was supposed to celebrate her 125th birthday on September 22, 2020. We all know what happened in the preceding March with the pandemic outbreak that prevented us from having this celebration. So,we are planning a large celebration here at the deWitt cottage on October 17th 2021. It will be our annual Fall Barbeque and Oyster Roast. In addition, we will be having a Back Bay Wildfowl Guild homecoming and reunion. It will also be the 46th anniversary of the Back Bay Wildfowl Guild and the 26th anniversary of the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum.
I wish to thank Pastor Ray Bjorkman and Kara Leigh Sakis, both from Beach Fellowship Church, for conducting a beautiful “Celebration of Life” for our members at the historic deWitt Cottage on Tuesday evening, May 25th. We have had such terrible loss in the past year. We dedicated two brass plaques in our sculpture garden for Alice Walsh and Joshua Ramsay. We also installed seven bricks into our memorial walk. We hope to make this an annual event.
The Museum has started its summer schedule and will now be open seven days a week, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Monday through Sunday. We have continued the Antique Decoy display, in our main gallery, on loan from Bill Hall of Bloxom, VA on the Eastern Shore. Please come and visit with us!
The garden is just starting to bloom into its full glory. A lot of hard work has been put in by the members of the deWitt Cottage Garden Club. The gardens have been cleaned up, expanded, and had new plants added. If you have any desire to garden, please consider joining the deWitt Cottage Garden Club. It is an opportunity to learn how to garden in a hostile, saltwater environment from Master Gardeners.
As we come to the end of our fiscal year, June 30, 2021, we anticipate that we will end the period with a nice surplus this year. This is the fourth consecutive year in a row we have accomplished this task, and it is a direct result of the hard work your Board of Directors has invested. I would like to thank each one of them for their continued support.
If you have not paid your membership dues for 2021, please consider doing so soon. All memberships now run from the date you last paid your dues for 365 consecutive days. For example, if you paid your dues on January 6, 2021, then your dues for 2021 will not be due until January 30, 2021. I promise to help you stay current and in good standing.
