Narragansett, RI -- July 2, 2002 -- What better way to celebrate summer in the Ocean State than to drive down to the URI Bay Campus in Narragansett, enjoy chowder, clamcakes, and a chicken barbecue, listen and dance to music under a huge outdoor tent, talk to Rhode Island’s own Don Bousquet as he signs his latest book of cartoons, and participate in a silent auction featuring hundreds of items and services, some of which are absolutely one-of-a kind!

Friends of Oceanography at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) will hold a Summer Festival by the Bay on Friday, July 19, beginning at 5 p.m. Between 5 and 6 p.m., patrons can look over and bid on the collection of silent auction items and view exhibits on display from the Graduate School of Oceanography and the Naval Underwater Warfare Center in Newport while feasting on chowder and clamcakes prepared by The Company Picnic Company of North Kingstown.

Tickets for the Summer Festival by the Bay are $20 per person. Proceeds from this event will support the URI Graduate School of Oceanography fellowship program.

The chicken barbecue will be served between 6 and 8 p.m. while diners enjoy the music of the "Three Tenors," a trio of GSO scientists with exceptional voices, and a cabaret produced by URI’s Judith Swift and musician Charles Cofone. The music continues after dinner for dancing under the stars or just tapping to the beat.

"We have an exceptional array of items for people to bid on," said festival committee member Jane Miner of Jamestown. "John Dunn of Charlestown donated an oversized gold boxing glove signed by 31 members of the 1990 Division Championship Red Sox. It’s quite impressive and for a sports fan, it’s priceless. Also, our newest faculty member, Dr. Bob Ballard, donated a luncheon with him for a high bidder and nine friends."

Other items include original artwork and signed prints by Joan Boghossian, Solace Loven, Joan McLellan, Richard Parker, and, of course, Don Bousquet. The silent auction will also include cruises on the Bay, a tour of the Providence waterfront with waterfront architect Bill Warner, season tickets to URI Rams football games, dinner for six prepared in the high bidder’s home by famed Rhode Island chef Normand Leclair, a Boston Red Sox batting helmet made into a telephone, signed by power hitter Wade Boggs, and many more items and services.

To reserve tickets, call URI Friends of Oceanography at 874-6602. For more information and a complete list of silent auction items, visit the Festival website.

Contact: Lisa Cugini, 874-6642, lcugini@gso.uri.edu