Dear Editor:
The grass has greened up again in Shipyard Park, the tents, trailers and all visible signs of our presence are long gone. Before the memories fade, I want to thank all those who volunteered their time and skills to making this past year’s Harbor Days a huge success.
During the planning of this year’s event, we had an ambitious goal to make this the best Harbor Days ever. We changed the physical layout, hoping to allow the breeze to flow more freely through all areas of the park. We added new events such as the Friday Night Fish Fry, Mattapoisett Fire Department demonstration, the showing of the movie On Golden Pond, featuring a talk by the author and the Oscar he won for it and of course, the World Series trophy was on display making many smiles on faces of young and old fans.
All these changes created many additional hurdles for us to overcome in preparation for the big weekend. One of the biggest hurdles is staffing all these events. There are fewer Lions to staff these events and those that are available are not any younger making staffing a real challenge. We reached out to the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club and other town organizations, to nearby Lions clubs, friends and family looking for volunteers. This is unfamiliar territory for us, as we are usually providing assistance to the community not the other way around. The response was truly amazing: Members the Woman’s Club volunteered as well as members of the Rochester, New Bedford, Fairhaven and Bridgewater Lions Clubs. Without the support of the community, from the businesses that advertise in the book, The Hollywood Scoop, last-minute sponsor of the new Friday Night Fish Fry, Toyota of Dartmouth/Check Collision, sponsor of all the entertainment and finally, the throngs of shoppers, this event would not have happened.
I also want to thank the ORR Football Team for getting to the park at 6:00 am Saturday morning to help vendors unload their vans; the Selectmen, who have always been supportive; the Council On Aging, providing the shuttle service between the park and remote parking; to Barry Denham and his crew at the Highway Department for moving the trailers and emptying the dumpsters; to the Mattapoisett Police Department for their help with security and traffic; to Jill Simmons, our new Harbormaster and her crew; to ABC Disposal for again providing the single stream recycling totes you saw all over the park. Without their support, year after year, we would not be able to do we do best, which is summed up by our motto “We Serve”.
Thank you,
Donald Bamberger
Immediate past President
Mattapoisett Lions Club
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