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October 7, 2025
This year’s Taste events were great successes once again! Many thanks to our sponsors and friends for raising $135k leading up the three events to celebrate the Chesapeake across the watershed. We had our biggest turnout in recent years with 400 guests attending during the three events. See more from each location, and learn about our 2025 Taste awardees below.
This year, 150 of our friends and partners gathered at the Railroad House Inn in Marietta to celebrate the Chesapeake.
David Wise is the Watershed Restoration Manager for Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, PA. Dave enjoys working to improve methods for forested buffer restoration. He convenes and connects peers from across the mid-Atlantic to share questions and insights, and leads field research overlaid on buffer restoration projects to improve reforestation methods.
When Cindy became a Master Watershed Steward, she hit the ground running exploring the many different projects the MWS are engaged in, including stream monitoring, trash cleanups, rain garden installation, leading youth programs, and of course, planting trees. She now has over 3,000 hours as a MWS and spends much of her time planting trees or ankle deep in the streams just as she envisioned.
see more pictures from the Pennsylvania Taste
In Virginia, 65 of our friends and partners gathered at the Robins Nature Center at Maymont in Richmond to celebrate the Bay and this year’s Virginia Watershed Champion.
It was our pleasure to award Nissa Richardson as our 2025 Virginia Watershed Champion. Nissa holds her B.S. in Environmental Studies from VCU. The past 25 years of her career have focused on Chesapeake Bay restoration initiatives, with a keen focus on local water quality improvements. She is currently the deputy director of RVA Parks & Recreation, overseeing $150 million in Capital Improvement Program projects for 188 park facilities in the James River Watershed.
See more pictures from the Virginia Taste
Last but not certainly not least, 185 of our friends and partners joined us at the Atreeum at Soaring Timbers in Annapolis to celebrate the last Taste event of 2025. This year, we celebrated both our DC and Maryland Watershed Champion awardees.
Jeanne Braha has dedicated her career to connecting people with nearby nature to catalyze environmental stewardship. From her first job at a tiny nature center to roles at the National Wildlife Federation, the National Academy of Sciences, Alice Ferguson Foundation, and Rock Creek Conservancy, she has worked globally and locally to empower communities, often through public lands partnerships. She currently serves as Head of Development at iNaturalist.
Over the last four years, Father Francisco Aguirre has worked with the Alliance and our partners at EcoLatinos to install two rain gardens, over 1,300 feet of conservation landscaping space, one rain barrel, two cisterns, one permeable pavement parking lot, and 22 trees on St. Catherine’s Church property. As an enthusiastic and dedicated partner advocating for these installations, Father Francisco Aguirre has been the liaison between the Alliance, installers, and the parish, making a big impact in our watershed.
see more from the Maryland Taste
Thank you to all of our sponsors, partners, and friends who attended each Taste event to make this year a success! We can’t wait to see you next year.
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