With enthusiastic budding young environmentalists and a backdrop of history, Green Drinks Thursday night truly celebrated all that is good about our community.

The Charles Carroll House and Gardens was the perfect location to spotlight our cultural heritage. (The "back" part of our theme.)

Here's a big thank you to managers Tim and Eileen Leahy for their gracious hospitality. We hope you had a chance to see a bit of the house and urge you to go back for a full tour. | Learn more about this history property.

Since the property is on Spa Creek, Amy Clements, President of the Spa Creek Conservancy, attended and answered questions about the environmental work done on the St. Mary's property next door and even took a few people on a brief tour of the parking lot's stormwater features. | Learn more about the work of the Conservancy.

And St. Mary's high school teacher Paul O'Hearn added that just changing out the type of lights in the parking lot has saved the school literally thousands of dollars in energy costs. He also introduced a few of the high school students who are working hard to be environmental stewards (The "future" part of our theme.). In fact, high school students who complete the rigorous environmental studies program earn college-level certification in this important field. And the stewardship program of St. Mary's Elementary was showcased too. | Learn more about the school and its programs. | We're looking forward to working with St. Mary's students to establish a corps of Student Ambassadors to get the Green Gospel out about sustainability at our Responsible Events & Festivals events!

And the food! Palate Pleasers brought an incredible spread that even included caviar, all served on very cool banana leaf compostable plates. We are so lucky to have a great relationship with this award-winning catering company -- in business in Eastport for 25 years! Thank you, Eric for the great food and for working under our limited budget! | Learn more about Palate Pleasers.

Finally, we want to thank our volunteers. We can't possibly run a Green Drinks event without help and these folks consistently and happily give of their time (and muscle).

Greeting Green Drinkers were Sandy Williamson, Leslie Sandoz and Mariel Yarbrough. Alexa Zaledonis and Kelly Lange (pictured) served the bar, and Ken Tom took some great photos, some of which are posted here (We'll have a full slide show soon.). And Leslie and Ben Redwine helped us with set-up. Thanks also to Tom Cagle who was stuck in traffic for hours transporting a few of our Eco-Stations to our event to make recycling easy.

Finally, we want to thank our great friend and tireless supporter of Annapolis Green, Anthony Clarke, owner of Galway Bay, Killarney House, Brian Boru and Pirate's Cove restaurants. Already a Founding One Hundred sponsor, he surprised us with an additional $500 contribution! We are so blessed.