Meetings: Seven business meetings. Three general meetings, and one annual meeting, each with excellent programs.

Communications: Four newsletters (more than 500 each mailing). Website maintained and updated. News articles and program announcements circulated.

Fund Raising: Members continued their generous contributions to the Acquisition Fund. We also received funds from membership renewals and new memberships. We continued to sell T-shirts and FODR hats.

Property Acquisition: Work has continued toward final purchase of the Revere and Bulman tracts. Environmental assessments have been made, appraisals performed, and arrangements were made for Virginia Outdoors Foundation to hold the easement on the Revere tract. Other land acquisition possibilities investigated.

Property Management: An on-the-ground review of the management possibilities for the Revere and Bulman tracts conducted and the findings presented to the board of directors. New preserve monitors for the Mascot and Ware Bridge properties appointed.

Events: Four highway trash pickups, and three property work trips, a volunteer recruitment event, and another successful picnic.

Paddle Trips: Teta Kain, Gordon Page, Rollin Wooley, and others conducted 32 paddle trips that gave 285 people an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the Dragon Run.

Special Projects: Assisted The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to protect the Dragon Run watershed. Participated in the production of “A Step into the Past, A Strategy for the Future” the dvd produced under a grant by The Dragon Run Steering committee and the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission. Continued coordination and participation with Dragon Run Steering Committee efforts. Liaison with Middle Peninsula Land Trust.

We have accomplished much this year through the hard work of our board of directors and other volunteers from our membership.

To continue our success into the future, we need your help. You can do this by participating in our property work days, trash pick-ups at one of the road crossings of the Dragon, work on our committees, help with property management, help with fund raising, help with general meetings, serve on the board of directors, help with the picnic.

There is much for us to do to protect the Dragon Run. Be involved! Contact me ( 804)462-5608, Dragonswamp2@wmconnect.com, or any other board member, for more information.