Dearest friends, family, supporters, and members,

Sure as the swelter of August, the holidays have once again delivered us to a bright and beautiful New Year.

But before we shuck our first oysters of 2024, and lose ourselves in the stillness of deep winter on Cape Cod, we here at the Wellfleet Oyster Alliance wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for another wonderful trip around the sun in service to and celebration of our local shellfishing community. As a small, non-profit organization, nothing we do here at WOA is able to happen without people like you. Indeed, our community is our lifeblood.

There are too many of you to thank properly. From our committed core of volunteers and beloved sustaining members to our business partners, sponsors, vendors, and lovers of Wellfleets from all over the world that come to our events and join us on our farm tours, we are humbled by your generosity and deeply grateful for your ongoing support. We are especially grateful to the Town of Wellfleet, The Fire Department, Police Department, Department of Public Works, Board of Health, and The Building Department. Again, none of this happens without you.  

By any measure, 2023 was a wild success, and we can be proud of what we achieved together. Thanks to your donations and membership pledges along with our merchandise sales, sponsors, and ticketed events, WOA raised over $320,000 in 2023. Over 20,000 tickets were sold to our annual Wellfleet OysterFest™ in October which has become the Outer Cape’s number one shoulder season event.

All funds raised by WOA go directly to support our mission: to protect the legacy, the present, and the future of Wellfleet’s historic shellfishing tradition and better serve the men and women who work the tides of our home harbor.

In 2023, WOA provided critical grant funding to the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown to support ongoing research into the cause of increased bamboo worm populations in our local tidal zones, a phenomenon that is wreaking havoc on farmed, hardshell clams. In addition, WOA proudly continued our college scholarship program which annually recognizes one exceptional graduating Nauset High School senior who is passionate about marine sciences. Thanks to your support in 2023, we were able to increase our scholarship awards from $10,000 to $15,000. Better yet, we were also able to award two separate scholarships this year with two whip-smart and inspiring young women receiving the honors: Lucy Swain of Harwich, and Molly Sue Coakley of Wellfleet.

Looking ahead, WOA is committed to ensuring that our funds will continue to be spent in ways that educate the many and support our shellfishing community where they need it most.

??Lastly, but certainly not least, you may have noticed some big new things around here: we have a new name! (Indeed, if you joined us at OysterFest this year, it was impossible to miss.)

Just like the baby oysters that inspired S.P.A.T (Shellfish Promoting and Tasting, our original namesake acronym from 2002), our organization has grown up. Though our mission hasn’t changed, we felt the time was right to unveil a new name that better reflects the breadth of our work and – most importantly – the community of groups and individuals whom we are blessed to count as our co-conspirators. The Wellfleet Oyster Alliance was born, or WOA for those that still love a good, quirky acronym.

New name. Same party.

We hope to see you in the year ahead. Until then, may your slurping be salty and sweet and your oysters always from Wellfleet.

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xo,
WOA Board of Directors