Many thanks to the paid Lake Host Team for the Summer of 2005 Left to right : Tessa Venell, Jay Fugarazzo, Linda Schier, Lake Host Director and GELIA President, Matt Jantzen, and Dan Field. Kerry Polmanari was not available for the picture.

The GELIA Lake Host program has become a real community fixture in its fifth year. Ourresidents and visitors are accustomed to the friendly inspection that accompanies a boat launchand the response is overwhelmingly positive. Our surveys show that almost every boater ispleased to see that we are being excellent stewards of the lake and doing our best to prevent aninfestation of an invasive aquatic plant. This season our volunteer and staff Lake Hostsinspected 1025 boats, found 16 stowaway weed fragments and one was determined to be aninvasive species, Eurasian Water Milfoil, coming in on a jet ski from Vermont. We are veryproud of our staff and look forward to many more seasons of top notch performance. Job welldone to the staff of Tessa Venell, Jay Fugarazzo, Matt Jantzen, Dan Field, Kerry Polmonari and Maggie Schier.  Once again we thank both the NH Lakes Association and the Maine Lakes EnvironmentalAssociation for their generous support. We would also like to thank all the GELIA memberswhose contributions help us make our match dollars for the grants. The majority of our matchcontribution comes from the volunteer hours that go into keeping the Lake Host programrunning. Recognition for their tireless volunteer efforts go to John Ciardi, Diane Frithsen, Steve Fugarazzo, MaryKraft, Don and Catherine Mills, Win Robin, Dorothy Smith, Doug Smith, Nancy Smith (norelation between any of them!) and Charlie Wills for giving up their summer weekend hours toeducate the boaters at the launch. A very special thanks goes to John Ciardi who volunteeredEVERY weekend during the summer in the popular (NOT) Sunday 6-8 am time slot. Not manyvolunteers are willing to share so much of their time and John never missed a beat. We are veryfortunate to have John on our team.We can use more volunteer lake hosts next season so please stay tuned for info about training.Our volunteers will tell you that it is a great way to meet our neighbors and contribute to thepreservation of the quality of life on Great East.

We look forward to seeing you all at the launch for an invasive weed free season at the lake.