The Port Townsend Marine Science Center’s annual dinner and auction March 16 not only raised funds for education, but also highlighted the personal impact the MSC’s programs have made on people’s lives.

Janine Boire, executive director of the MSC, reported that the Enchanted Salish Sea event at Fort Worden Commons drew 207 attendees and raised $140,000 overall, of which $73,000 was dedicated to the Make A Difference portion of the live auction.

“The Make A Difference paddle wave has been a pure surge of donations for the past five years, to subsidize our education programs,” Boire said. “This year, thanks to our generous community, we exceeded what was contributed last year by 6 percent.”

Boire attributed this new record to the stories shared by Ella Piatt and Grace Johnson, who each spoke to the crowds how their lives have been touched by the MSC’s education programs.

Piatt’s first memory of the Marine Science Center was coming with her parents to participate in a beach seine as a child.

Piatt later returned as a high school intern, working on an orca skeleton for the Learning From Orcas exhibit, and is now a fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, studying herring.

“I want to restore a world that was once beautiful and pollution-free back to the way it should be,” Piatt said, quoting words she’d typed on Facebook a decade ago. “I want to find ways to encourage the whole world to take a different path that is less harmful to nature. I want to make a global change. It’s a huge goal, but together, it can be done.”

Johnson is the fifth generation of her family to hail from Marrowstone Island, and like Piatt, she came to the MSC’s camps and aquarium as a child.

As a high school student, Johnson started working with the MSC through the Youth Environmental Stewardship program, part of the Northwest Watershed Institute.

“She assisted our aquarist, Ali Redmond, in animal care, including feeding the animals in the aquarium,” Boire said. “Our education programs were started by two science teachers, so this is our bedrock, or maybe the better term is ‘benthic layer.’”

Among the MSC’s programs are its classes and tours for students, to offer them what Boire deemed unique hands-on experiences in the marine sciences, emphasizing active exploration, critical thinking and reflection.

The MSC also offers Water World, a collaboration with Centrum whose activities and projects are intended to expand and enhance students’ experiences in the marine world, through the lenses of both science and art.

Boire offered her “boundless thanks” to the community for its generosity, without which she doubted the MSC could even exist.

“This event raises about 20 percent of our budget each year,” Boire said. “We simply couldn’t do what we do without the community’s support.”

In the meantime, Boire noted that the aquarium on the pier re-opens March 31 from noon to 5 p.m., and will be open during those hours for every day of spring break through April 7.

“Thanks to some capital funding from the Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account, the exhibits have gotten some new updates, so come check it out,” Boire said.

Boire likewise invited the community to join the MSC on Earth Day, April 20, for a beach cleanup and a “Citizen Science Bio-Blitz.”

For further details, visit ptmsc.org.