Photo Courtesy of Donna Collins

This newsletter includes the following topics: 

Winter Greetings to the Shoals Community:

 

I hope that 2025 is off to a good start for everyone. So far, the year is off to a great start for me -- spending time with family and friends, enjoying settling into my new home, seeing the lengthening of daylight hours, and making plans for my time on Appledore.

 

Prior to taking this position, I had wondered what the Shoals team does in the “off season.” I now feel compelled to dispel the myth that there is an off season. The work for the next season begins before we leave the island. The team is quite busy preparing for this summer. We have shepherded course proposals through the curriculum systems at both UNH and Cornell, are fielding questions and beginning the process of engaging prospective students, and are well into the process of hiring our seasonal staff. With Ross’s impending retirement, we are also in the process of interviewing candidates for the Director of Facilities and Sustainability position. Various team members are also writing grant proposals and/or writing the reports documenting how we have used grant funding.  As I write, the 2025 season will begin in just 99 days.

 

In honor of our 60th season, I will be sharing information about the lab throughout the year that honors our history. One of the things I find most meaningful is the opportunity to provide scholarships in the names of people who I have known during my time as a Shoaler and who had major influences on my career like JB Heiser, Rozzie Holt, Bob Tuttle, and Art Borror. Many of these are endowed scholarships, which means they will be able to be given in perpetuity, and I smile each year when we bestow these scholarships. Most people know JB as our second director and Art Borror as the UNH Associate Director and longtime faculty member.  Rozzie Holt was the long-time housekeeper on Star who helped with the housing of the Shoals Marine Lab faculty and students when it was operating in the early seasons on Star Island; she later was a donor toward the R/V Kingsbury and numerous pieces of equipment in the kitchen; and she was a long-time volunteer for Shoals and for the banding station after she retired. Bob Tuttle was the unofficial Shoals historian, who gave a history lecture to every class for years. In an odd twist, he also was the owner of part of the land that is now my home in Lee, NH.

 

The Shoals Marine Lab community is the result of many wonderful people who contribute to making the experience of Appledore meaningful for anyone who visits the lab.  It is my hope that over the next few years, we will gather more of the stories of the many people who have helped develop and maintain the spirit of Appledore.

 

Here’s to a wonderful 2025 and I hope to see many of you on the island and/or mainland this year.

 

In January 2025, we held an informal gathering that included 14 or so SML alumni, 

faculty, and staff, at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and 

Comparative Biology (sicb.org) in Atlanta, GA. 

It was followed by a dinner with SML Executive Director, Sara Morris. 

 

 

We also had an impromptu gathering of SML alumni in Austin TX in 2020, 

with some of the same faces. 

SICB meetings have traditionally had a large marine biology/marine ecology presence, and alumni and friends of the SML attend these annual meetings each year. 

It’s a great venue for presenting research carried out at SML, enhancing awareness of 

SML programs, and recruiting students, faculty, and staff at a national level.

 

UNH grad student Aliya Caldwell presenting their research (left), and Shoalers 

reconnecting at the conference poster session (right) - from left to right, Aliya Caldwell, 

Amber Litterer, Eve Hallock, Gemma Clucas, Tom Good, Liz Craig. 

This year, Shoals is celebrating 60 years of impactful, educational experiences. We are embarking on an ambitious goal of raising $6 million for our 60th anniversary. 

 

We've had questions as to what counts toward this blended appeal. The easy answer is, everything! If you donate to our annual fund, Cornell Giving Day, UNH 603 Challenge, or 

an endowed fund or any SML designated fund at either Cornell or UNH, it counts. If you donate specific items to the lab, they also count (for example, last year we received our winter boat, electric lawn mower, ceiling fans as specific gifts.) If you sign a planned gift agreement as a future bequest to the lab, it counts!

 

Our goal with this appeal is to support the educational activities, research, and infrastructure of the Shoals Marine Lab, an endeavor near and dear to our hearts. We are fortunate to have a loyal community of supporters who will help us ensure another 60 years for SML. 

 

Donations may be designated to our annual fund (unrestricted) or to a specific fund or initiative. Please contact Amy Fish if you would like to discuss the options for support.

If you are enthusiastic about what SML has done for you either personally

and/or professionally, consider getting more involved with the AFA.

Please reach out to Jackie Webb, our AFA Interim Chair to learn more at

 

We are bursting with pride to see SML alumni making strides in the professional world. 

Christine Wilkinson, SML alumnus/gull wrangler, has a piece in a 

recent Nat Geo kids magazine edition - check it out here!