Tag Archives: Shawn Henry

CONGRATULATIONS – THE FAMILY PORCH RAIT PROJECT TO BENEFIT THE OPEN DOOR RAISES $21,000.00!!!

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Thank you so much for your interest in The Family Porch-Rait Project!!
This whole fundraiser could not have gone any more spectacularly. We initially thought we’d get a little interest and raise a little money. Instead, we got tremendous interest and we raised A LOT of money – as of right now, over $18,000 is going to help provide much needed food to members of our community in The Open Door service area. This amazing organization has seen a massive spike in need because of the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent job losses and layoffs and, with your help, has risen to meet that need.

Unfortunately, all that success means that we’ve reached absolute saturation point and can no longer accept any more requests. By the time we’re finished with our existing requests and schedule, we will have photographed nearly 200 families. We know this is disappointing, but we have to draw this fundraiser to a close.

While we can’t accommodate a photo session, the need by The Open Door remains extreme and on-going. If you’d like to donate anyway, please know that your contribution will go directly towards relieving food insecurity to, literally, your neighbors, friends and relatives. Please consider making a donation of any size to help this effort. DONATE HERE

Thank you, and again we regret the disappointment, but deeply appreciate the amazing community support!

Best
The Family Porch-Rait Project Crew

Bill Sumner, Jason Grow, Shawn Henry, Paul Cary Goldberg, Normanda Newport, Hannah Sumner

 

 

MORE SNAPSHOTS FROM THE WORLD’S BEST LOBSTER TRAP MAGICAL TREE LIGHTING

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Photos from Saturday evening’s tree lighting event, including several of Traci Thayne Corbett, Art Haven’s director, and her super helpers Lily and Cee Cee. Traci is the person who helps the kids in creating all the fabulous hand painted buoys that adorn the tree.

Traci, Lily, and Cee Cee

Tremendous thanks and huge shout outs to David Brooks, Shawn Henry, Traci Corbett, Warren Waugh, Cape Ann Art Haven, Three Lantern Marine Fishing, Great Marsh Brewing Co, Gloucester Fire Department, the City of Gloucester, and to all the great people volunteering their time and money towards continuing this fabulous and uniquely Gloucester tradition <3

David Brooks, also known as Spider Man, securing the star atop the tree.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE LOBSTER TRAP TREE LIGHTS POLL!!!

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The polling has shown fairly consistently that approximately 60 percent are in favor of multi-colored lights and 40 percent favor warm white lights.

The final number as of 6pm tonight is that of the 1,605 people who participated, 58.75 percent voted for multi-colored lights and 39.31 percent voted for warm white lights (1.9 percent voted for other).

Thank you so much to Everyone for voting!!!

LOBSTER TRAP TREE UNDER CONSTRUCTION, WITH A VISIT BY MAYOR SEFATIA, KEN RIEHL, THE DI STEFANO FAMILY -AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE FOR WHITE OR COLORED LIGHTS

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By noon today the super dedicated Lobster Trap Tree building team had made great headway. With snow predicted for tomorrow, the crew plans to have the tree built by day’s end. Don’t let the photos deceive; Shawn Henry was wearing shorts but it was frigid at noon and only getting colder as the day progressed.

Many thanks to Three Lanterns Marine for providing the 360 lobster traps required to construct the tree.

Mayor Sefatia and granddaughters, Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce CEO Ken Riehl, and Gloucester’s Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano and his wife Maria (and kids), all stopped by to check on the tree’s progress while they were out shopping local for Small Business Saturday.

LOBSTER TRAP CHRISTMAS TREE TAKING SHAPE (and breaking news of sorts!)

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David Brooks and crew spent a solid eight hour day building Gloucester’s famous lobster trap tree, the one and only lobster trap Christmas tree decorated with hand painted buoys by local children and artists. They will be returning tomorrow to finish up, weather permitting. Lending a hand this afternoon when I stopped by to take snapshots were Mark Schlichte, Shawn Henry, Jake Hennessey, Peter Asaro, Jason Burroughs, and David Brooks. If you see these guys around town, let them know how awesome you think they are!

The exciting news is that this year we will be enjoying COLORED lights!!! Although white holiday lights are wonderful and beautiful, it just seems to me that colored lights on our lobster trap tree are more festive and compliment better the hand painted buoys. For the past several years, the tree was decorated with white lights and I am glad to see they are mixing it up with colored lights this year. What is your personal preference?

DID YOU KNOW THAT IT COSTS APPROXIMATELY $800.00 FOR LIGHTS EACH YEAR? THE COST SEEMS RELATIVELY MODEST WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THE DELIGHT AND WONDERMENT THIS MOST UNIQUE OF HOLIDAY TREES AND ACCOMPANYING BUOY PAINTING BRINGS TO OUR COMMUNITY. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP WITH THE EXPENSE OF THE LIGHTS, PLEASE CONTACT DAVID BROOKS AT 978-335-2219. THANK YOU!

THIS YEAR’S TREE LIGHTING TAKES PLACE ON DECEMBER 8TH, FROM 4:30 TO 5PM.