Massachusetts Oyster Project is proud to release our 2022 Annual Report. In these pages you’ll learn about who we are and what we do, our team, our projects, our fundraising and finances, our partners, and more.
This is a letter from the president, as published in the report.
As we begin another year here at Mass Oyster, I’d like to take the opportunity to share our successes. This was a stellar year with meaningful growth.
We are excited to add our first year-round paid staff member, Erika Smith. Erika was part of our shell recycling program over the summer months and is now our program coordinator. Erika brings many years of professional experience with her and being located on the cape, she has a boots on the ground view of our work.
I would like to thank outgoing board members. Andrew Hultin, Sarah Valencik, and Alexandra Coughlin have served as critical members of our team and we are thrilled they will be staying on as advisors. I also thank outgoing board members Joel Samen and Jon Pollak for their service and contributions to our success.
We doubled the effort in our shell recycling program this summer. Our staff of five took in over 36,000 pounds of shell from 17 participating restaurants. That shell will be aged in Wellfleet and put back into local waters.
We picked up another upweller in Manchester-by-the-Sea, bringing our total to five, and once again were able to place oysters in our waters. Thank you to our partners who help to maintain our tanks; without them, the program would not be a success. We had a successful fundraiser at the House of Blues in Boston and forged several new partnerships. Thanks to them and our donors, we increased our reserves significantly and ended our year with a 440% increase. This has put us in a strong position for next year to add more paid staff to our ranks and expand our programmatic impact.
On the following pages you will find more details of our efforts this year. I thank all our staff, volunteers, friends, and families for all the effort put into making 2022 a success. I hope you continue to support us, follow us, and stay in touch as we work to improve the world in which we live, one gallon of water, one oyster at a time. Stay tuned…we have another exciting year ahead.
Sincerely,
Theresa N. Baybutt