September 2020 | Page 63

This page, clockwise from top: Bakemaster Jeff LaValley — who met his wife at a Fishermen’s Clambake thirty years ago — carts coffee bags for volunteers from the Buzzards Bay Coalition, they met at Boathouse Row in Westport, Massachusetts, to pack and hoof wet bags of rockweed in preparation for the next day’s clambake. Buzzards Bay Coalition’s Colin Zeigler hoists a full bag; volunteers filled forty in all. Left to right, Jeff LaValley, Suwin Chan, Claude Cobert, Donna Cobert (front), Colin Zeigler, Lisa Daniels and Nikki Cuoco all volunteered the day before the clambake to gather rockweed. They celebrated their work with Flounder ales from Buzzards Bay Brewing Co. Opposite page, from top: A volunteer lifts new growth to expose and excavate greenishbrown rockweed for the clambake. Clams were sourced from a local shellfishermen. RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2020 61