The Coastal Conservation Association’s Lower Alabama Chapter is gearing up for its 26th Annual Beach Party at Heron Pointe at The Wharf in Orange Beach. The party is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 22, from 6 to 9 p.m., and it ranks as one of the chapter’s signature fundraisers — a summer evening on the waterfront that raises the money that fuels the group’s conservation work all year.
Heron Pointe at The Wharf provides a suitably scenic stage. The Wharf, Orange Beach’s massive entertainment district along the Intracoastal Waterway, draws crowds from across the Gulf Coast with its marina, amphitheater, restaurants and shops, and its event venues put guests within sight of the very waters the CCA works to protect.
Strutt Douglas will provide live music, and the event will feature both a live auction and a silent auction, along with raffle opportunities. Auction items at CCA events typically span fishing charters, outdoor gear, art and resort stays — plenty for attendees to bid on between sets and visits to the dinner line.
Dinner, Drinks and Deals
Dinner will be catered by BeeBe’s and will include a low-country shrimp boil with jambalaya. Admission includes a full open bar, making the evening as much a social occasion as a fundraiser — and a fitting one for an organization whose members spend their weekends on the bays and Gulf waters of the Alabama coast.
A single ticket is $90, and a couple’s ticket is $120, each including a one-year CCA membership, dinner and drinks. The bundled membership is central to the chapter’s model: every ticket sold potentially adds a new member to the organization’s ranks, extending the event’s impact beyond one night’s proceeds.
Tickets are on sale now at ticketstripe.com/LABeachParty26, and additional event details are available at ccaalabama.org. Interested sponsors can reach the organization by email at [email protected], and businesses and individuals interested in sponsorship opportunities can also reach the chapter directly at that address.
The Work Behind the Party
The Coastal Conservation Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving marine resources along the Gulf Coast, and the Lower Alabama Chapter serves anglers and conservationists throughout the region. The annual Beach Party brings together members and supporters each summer, and its proceeds underwrite the chapter’s advocacy, habitat work and youth programs.
The CCA’s roots run deep in Gulf Coast angling culture. Founded nationally in 1977 in response to threats to recreational fishing access, the organization has grown into one of the most influential marine conservation groups in the country, with state chapters from the Atlantic to Texas. Its focus spans fisheries advocacy, habitat restoration, water quality and the science that informs sound management of marine resources.
In Alabama, that mission touches some of the state’s most treasured resources: the reefs of the artificial reef zone off Orange Beach and Dauphin Island, the seagrass and marsh habitats of Mobile Bay, and the inshore fisheries — speckled trout, redfish, flounder — that define Gulf Coast angling. The state’s artificial reef program, one of the largest in the nation, has long depended on partnerships between state agencies and the angling community that organizations like CCA help mobilize.
Chapters like Lower Alabama translate that national mission into local action. Banquet and party fundraisers — of which the Beach Party is the flagship — fund scholarships, youth fishing events, habitat projects and the advocacy presence that gives recreational anglers a seat at the table when fisheries management decisions are made.
A 26-Year Tradition
Reaching its 26th year makes the Beach Party one of the longest-running conservation fundraisers on the Alabama coast. A generation of Baldwin County anglers has grown up with the event, and its move to venues like The Wharf reflects both the chapter’s growth and Orange Beach’s rise as a resort destination.
The August timing slots the party into the height of the summer social season, when fishing tournaments, bikini benefits and other coastal fundraisers compete for calendars. The chapter’s blend of a serious cause and a serious good time — shrimp boil, open bar, live auction, live music — has kept supporters coming back for more than a quarter century.
Proceeds stay anchored to the chapter’s mission: conserving the marine resources that support Alabama’s multibillion-dollar coastal economy, from the charter fleets and for-hire boats of Orange Beach to the guides and recreational anglers who fish Mobile Bay and the Gulf alike.
For attendees, the evening offers the chance to enjoy dinner and music, win a trip or a charter in the auctions, and leave knowing their ticket bought more than a night out — it bought a year of membership in an organization that defends the resource they love, and a contribution to the conservation work that keeps Alabama’s Gulf Coast fishing strong.
The Wharf itself has become a go-to venue for coastal fundraisers of every kind. Its marina hosts some of the largest sportfishing tournaments in the region, its amphitheater books national touring acts, and its mix of restaurants and entertainment keeps visitors on site from afternoon to late night — logistics that make it an easy sell for organizations drawing guests from Mobile, Pensacola and beyond.
Heron Pointe, the venue within the complex, offers the waterfront setting the Beach Party’s name implies — a space where guests can watch boats on the Intracoastal while the auctions run. The backdrop is not incidental: every dock, channel and reef visible from the property represents the habitat the CCA’s work is meant to sustain.
Sponsorships form the financial backbone of events like this one. Coastal businesses — tackle shops, marinas, boat dealers, restaurants, real estate firms — have long supported the chapter in exchange for recognition at the event, and the sponsor commitments secured ahead of Saturday largely determine how much the night nets for conservation. The chapter’s [email protected] contact channels remain open for sponsors deciding to come aboard.
The online ticketing through Ticketstripe has also modernized the buy-in for an event that once ran on paper checks and will-call lists. Supporters can purchase single or couple tickets, and the automatic one-year membership included with each ticket feeds directly into the chapter’s recruitment — turning first-time partygoers into year-round advocates.
For those unable to attend, the chapter’s website at ccaalabama.org lists its other events and volunteer opportunities throughout the year, from inshore fishing tournaments to habitat workdays — reminders that the Beach Party, for all its shrimp and music, is one night in a twelve-month calendar of conservation.
Doors open at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, with the auctions, raffle and dinner continuing through 9 p.m. at Heron Pointe at The Wharf — 26 years on, the Lower Alabama Chapter’s biggest night, still built on the same formula: good food, good music, and a cause worth the ticket.
The Beach Party’s auctions have become the event’s signature draw beyond the dinner itself. Live auction lots typically command the room’s full attention once the music pauses — offshore and inshore fishing charters with some of the coast’s best-known captains, artwork with Gulf Coast themes, custom outdoor gear and getaway packages. The silent auction runs alongside the social hour, and the raffle spreads the chances across every ticket in the room.
For the chapter’s volunteers, the evening is the culmination of months of work: soliciting auction donations from businesses across Baldwin and Mobile counties, selling tables to corporate sponsors, arranging catering and entertainment, and coordinating logistics with The Wharf. Committee members begin planning the next party almost as soon as the last one ends — the cycle of a fundraiser that has now run for more than a quarter century.
The Lower Alabama Chapter draws its membership from across the central Gulf Coast — Mobile, Baldwin County, the Eastern Shore and the beach communities — and its events double as gatherings of the region’s angling community. Captains, guides, tackle industry representatives and weekend fishermen all move through the same rooms, and the Beach Party is where those networks renew themselves each August.
Conservation With a Local Address
The chapter’s fundraising has supported work with a distinctly local character over the years. Recreational angling advocates in Alabama have weighed in on issues ranging from red snapper management in the Gulf to oyster reef restoration in Mobile Bay, and CCA’s state organization — funded substantially by chapter events like this one — maintains a voice in those debates on behalf of recreational fishermen.
Youth outreach is another pillar. Introducing the next generation to fishing and to the stewardship that sustains it is a mission chapters pursue through kids’ fishing events, scholarship support and educational partnerships, and the money raised in Orange Beach helps underwrite that work across south Alabama.
Habitat projects close the loop between angler and resource. From reef building to coastal cleanup participation, the hands-on side of conservation gives members something beyond advocacy — a way to put a Saturday into the resource directly. The Beach Party funds those Saturdays.
As Saturday approaches, the chapter’s message to the coast is simple: come hungry for a shrimp boil, stay for the auction, and leave a member of the organization that has spent decades looking out for Alabama’s marine waters — one August night at The Wharf at a time.