Four-hundred environmental supporters recently gathered at the Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack to attend the Group For The East End: Barefoot Under the Stars event. The evening raised more than $600,000 [whoa!] to benefit Group For The East End. Ina Garten [The Barefoot Contessa] and Special Guest Alec Baldwin were on hand to support the group’s work to protect and restore the environment of eastern Long Island through education, citizen action and professional advocacy.

A bearded Baldwin took the stage to welcome guests and thank his pal Ina for hosting, joking that the best thing about having Ina host is that “You can serve anything…you could serve The Barefoot Contessa Power Bar and everyone would love it..” He went on to say that Group For The East End is the reason we will be able to “keep this place the way we love it,” and kept the crowd chuckling saying, “that you could get a whole zip code in Columbia or Dutchess County for what you pay for your cottage in Water Mill…but we want to be here.” So true!

Of course, the menu was created by Ina, the famed Food Network star, and prepared by renowned local caterer Brent Newsom. Ina featured slow roasted beef tenderloin with basil parmesan aiolo, seared sea scallops and potato, leek and celery root puree with roasted cherry tomatoes, paired with wines from the South Fork’s sustainable Wölffer Estate. Guest worked off the meal dancing to DJ Tom Finn’s tunes!

The evening was a great success for Group For The East End and “shed light on the importance of our participation in accomplishing positive environmental change that will help sustain our planet and meet the rising challenges that face our future.”

About Group For The East End:
For 40 years, Group For The East End has been commited to the protection of Eastern Long Island’s fragile natural environment. Recent victories in the past year include: The Group put a stop to the construction of a 900-acre, Riverhead Resort theme park and resort complex that would have been the single largest development proposal ever contemplated on the East End, and raised over $30,000 in grant funds to help the North Fork community redesign its roadways in a way that will keep millions of gallons of polluted storm water from heading directly into the Peconic Bay.