The “Boatbusters! Halloween Parade, Race & Fundraiser” sure was a success! According to the History Channel, Halloween tradition is dated back 2000 years ago, where the Celts marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. This tradition was spread through Europe and was modified by the church and different ethnic groups. In America, as the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing. In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. To me, Halloween has always been a holiday I had mixed feeling about. On one hand – I am all in when it comes to wearing costumes, decorating houses and having fun. On the other hand – I always felt a bit quite uncomfortable with the Trick-or-Treat tradition, as kids who are Trick-or-Treating are expecting to get candy, get upset when they don’t get enough and get pulled into crazy sugar-rush caused tantrums.

If there’s one good thing that came out from 2020 is a shift in attitude. Some sociologists and politicians thought that the long months of lockdown, learning, adapting and becoming accountable to new standards of behaviors, such as: personal hygiene, social distancing and mask wearing, would be detrimental to our society. In reality, people who care stepped up in solidarity and took action to make an impact on the lives of the less fortunate.

A few months ago I wrote an article telling about Michele Wiemer and Barry Richards, a sailor couple, who started cooking meals on their boat and delivered them along with masks to Jersey City Homeless in Journal Square. A couple of weeks later, Michele & Barry started a Go-Fund-Me campaign – “Sailors and Seniors Helping Jersey City Homeless” to raise money to fund food products and mask materials. Since then, Michele & Barry’s network of friends and family across the country got inspired by this initiative and joined them in making different nutritious meals every week and making sure that the homeless – who are part of our community and society, are protected and protect others who they come in contact with from Covid-19.

Halloween is always a bitter-sweet time of the year for us, sailors. While it’s fun to go sailing wearing costumes, it’s also the last sail for the season… Remembering Kennedy’s famous quote, I decided not to let covid-19 to get in the way of celebrating our community through extending kindness beyond. In that vein, I decided to re-imagine the Trick-or-Treat custom, from an act of getting something or feeling entitled to something, to an act of giving to others. The Trick-or-Treat became a way to either raise donations to the “Sailors and Seniors Helping Jersey City Homeless”Go-Fund-Me campaign (Trick) or donate a coat, a warm clothing item or a non-perishable food item to the homeless (Treat).

As a new member of Liberty Yacht Club, I was able to present this idea and gain their support. The officers of Liberty Yacht Club recognized the impact we can make as a community by supporting its members in bringing awareness a local NY Harbor region cause, through bringing members last opportunity for this year to get together on the water and to start an annual club tradition. With the assistance of LYC members, LLM tenants and others, I was able to present a day long event that included a boat parade, a sailboat race and a Trick-or-Treat contest.

 

The event started on a very cold morning of Saturday 10/31/2020, with the Boatbusters Boat Parade, led by Le Peniche – with Captain Jim Chambers at the helm. Le Peniche led the 9-boat parade along the Morris Canal from Liberty Landing Marina’s fuel dock west, and then back east towards green buoy 1 at the entrance to the Morris Canal. The parade participants stepped up for the game with decorating their boats, having Halloween theme accessories and costumes. A few kids were sited on board the different boats, and in spite of the cold temperatures, everybody seemed delighted and amused. After the boat parade, 7 of the boats prepared for the race start.

 

The special custom made prizes, created by glass artist Stephanie Baness of Moxie Sorbet Designs. Thank you Liberty Landing Marina and Dockmaster Andrew Licata for your help and support in coordinating the event.

The post Liberty Yacht Club’s First Boatbusters! Halloween Parade, Race & Fundraiser was a great success! appeared first on New York Harbor Channel.

Money donations from the fundraiser will be made through a go-fund-me campaign Sailors & Seniors Helping Jersey City Homeless started by Michele Wiemer and Barry Richards, who are boat owners in Liberty Landing Marina. In addition to money fundraising, they are also looking to collect coats and food items for this same grassroots effort.

The event, presented by Liberty Yacht Club, will take place on Halloween Day, Saturday 10/31/2020 and the schedule is as follows:

• 10:00am -10:45am – a Halloween Boat Parade along the Morris Canal
• 10:45am-12:45pm – Sailboat race in the NY Harbor
• 1-3pm – Trick or Treat on marina’s docks – fundraising for the above cause.

In order to prevent the spread of covid-19 we instruct participants to team up with groups of up to 6 people max on each dock, maintain a social distance and wear masks (not just Halloween masks.

Attached please find a digital copy for the Boatbusters flyer, as well as a banner you can use for a Newsletter in case you’d be willing to participate.

The website link to find more information and to register to the event is: Go to the Quarter Deck section of www.libertyyachtclub.org for more info. (the QR code in the flyer takes you there). Must register no later than October 28th.

So come Join the Liberty Yacht Club for one more Race for the year, along with a food, clothing and Trick or treat fundraising event! It will surely be SPOOK-tacular!

The post Liberty Yacht Club Presents: BOATBUSTERS a Halloween Fundraiser Race for Sailors appeared first on New York Harbor Channel.

Here in New York, Captain Nitzan Levy is offering her expertise to promote initiatives focusing on young women who have an interest in learning to sail in New York’s waters.  Nitzan, a social entrepreneur who started her cruising club in the NY Harbor 7 years ago actively participates as a competitive sailor.  She is no stranger to off-shore sailing regattas.

Nitzan has been influenced by many women before her and she will be celebrating some of their efforts in this month’s series on Women Who Sail. For one, Tracy Edwards will be recognized this month in a series of interviews published over the next eight weeks.

Tracy Edwards’ all-female crew of Maiden won her a berth in the history books.  The 2019 documentary, ‘Maiden’ poignantly depicts the story of how Tracy found the yacht, assembled the crew, and endured the race as a finalist in the Whitbread Around the World Race in 1989.  Her passion is worthy of inclusion as a celebrated sports representative.

Nitzan and the New York Harbor Channel preludes the arrival of The Maiden Factor to New York Harbor.  You can learn more about Tracy Edward’s history and new foundation by following us here.

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