Happy anniversary, CLF! Best wishes for a financially secure future--in your bright new home.

• Author: Levin, Dan
• Position: Bulletin from Massachusetts - Conservation Law Foundation of New England

It was October 6, CLF was celebrating its 36th anniversary, and had gray old Summer Street ever seen such joy? The anniversary was reason aplenty, but other goodies abounded: many alumni had gathered, it was Doug Foy's 25th year as president, and Charlie Cabot's 10th as board of directors chairman; The Campaign for CLF was being launched, and our "green" and eagerly awaited new/125-year-old office space was ready for move-in day.

And where did they find those old photographs for the slide show in the new meeting room? Mark Sinclair wore a Batman outfit, and was that a pancake on Peter Shelley's head? It was grins all around, on screen and off, where CLF founder Ben Nason had the story to tell. In 1965, a developer had his eyes on Mt. Greylock, a state reservation, for a ski resort. Nason was a leading conservationist of the day, and now he said, "I thought it might be a good idea to form an organization that would fight environmental battles in court." What else is there to say?

Above Summer Street, cordoned off for the festivities, a new CLF flag had finally replaced the McDonald's version. Chairs had been set up in the street, and a stage on the sidewalk, where Marie Wright (CLF `88-`98)--now a musician and DJ, with bright orange hair, an incandescent smile and personality, and the show-biz name "Free"--introduced a parade of CLF legends. Stephanie Pollack said, "I think of CLF as family. I say, `I'm Stephanie Pollack. I was born and raised at the Conservation Law Foundation.'" Pollack called Foy "the moral compass of CLF," and presented him with a framed timeline of the organization--from its Joy Street beginnings, to successive Summer Street digs and the four state offices.

Later, Foy called Cabot to the stage, describing him as...