Every November, hundreds of people gather on the grounds of the Washington Civic Center, dressed for weather and armed with knives — oyster knives.

The PTRF oyster roast — Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, the former name of Sound Rivers — has been going on for 30 years, and has evolved into the environmental advocacy agency’s major yearly fundraiser, drawing people from across North Carolina to shuck oysters beneath the stars, dance to live music, sample eastern North Carolina brews and bid on the many items offered up for silent auction.

These days, the PTRF oyster roast is an event. But the fall tradition came from much humbler roots, evolving from the founders and like-minded, those who’d gotten PTRF up and running as the organization that would become the environmental watchdog for local waters, simply getting together to have a good time.

“A bunch of us on the board had been working tirelessly for years,” said Dick Leach, one of the founding members of the organization. “We hadn’t done anything in all that time to have fun. It wasn’t to raise money; it was just to have a good time.”

Local attorney Keith Hackney assumed the oyster-cooking responsibilities from the first, marshaling volunteer forces and steamers. Oysters from Mattamuskeet Seafood were hand-tonged from the Pamlico Sound, and washed of mud with a garden hose hooked up to a Civic Center spigot, a long and arduous process, Leach said. Poles for stringing lights over the tables meant holes had to be dug in the gravel and dirt lot that was then the Civic Center parking lot.

“It was quite an ordeal,” Leach laughed.

But it was a meaningful one, he said. The organization’s supporters were far and wide, but there were only a few events, largely guided kayak/canoe tours, where PTRF members could actually meet one another.

“Not only was the oyster roast about having fun, but it was about getting everybody together,” Leach said.

That first year, 1985, 60 people feasted on eight bushels of oysters, and the organization made no money because tickets prices were based on the cost of actual materials.

“It was a break even proposition — that’s what we were shooting for,” Leach said.

At the same time, two endowment balls, fundraisers with silent auctions, fell flat with the PTRF membership. The oyster roast, however, continued to be a hit, year after year. Leach said over a few years’ period, there was a gradual shift of the oyster roast from a get-together to a fundraiser. As its popularity has grown, so has the event itself. The silent auction offers high-end items like a week at a Montana condo, a pig-pickin’ for 50 people, fly-fishing trips — just some of the items in this year’s auction.

What was once eight bushels of oysters for 60 people has become 100 bushels for over 400 and an event that brings upwards of $20,000 to the organization’s coffers each year.

The majority of the organization’s money is used for the many programs that Sound Rivers provides, starting with the riverkeeper program, for which Pamlico-Tar riverkeeper Heather Jacobs Deck serves as part investigator, scientist, educator, lobbyist, advocate and public media spokesperson. The oyster roast isn’t the only funding for  programs: memberships, donations, grants and an endowment that a core group of founders worked hard to establish in the early years also contribute to Sound Rivers’ annual budget, Deck said.

The services and programs offered are broad: helping with restoration of wetlands to prevent storm water runoff from dumping excess nutrients into the water — nutrients that can cause algal blooms, low oxygen levels and death to marine life in the local rivers; educational outreach, river cleanups, translating pending state legislation and how it affects local waters and residents and stepping in legally when the state fails to protect its waters and its residents, Deck said.

“It all comes back to the main mantra of helping provide a voice for the river,” Deck said.

But for one night every November, it all comes back to a good time, shucking oysters under the stars.

For more information about the PTRF oyster roast or make a reservation, call 252-946-7211. The event will be held on Nov. 14. Tickets are $50 for Sound Rivers members, $55 for nonmembers, until Nov. 12. After Nov. 12, tickets are all $65.