So much good news rolling in! We're happy to share the following developments and offer you ways to get involved -- where you can then earn yourself a seat at our table! We also share observations about some waterfront policy issues and resiliency, and introduce you to a maritime yarn bombing program.

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Thanks to those helping us preserve & make history

Hats off to Stetson!

Thanks to a generous offer of December labor by Air Force veteran and ex-journalist Erika Stetson, we are renovating the galley on the MARY A. WHALEN. As Erika put it, MARY's "galley is a treasure within a treasure." The backstory here.

Erika is switching careers and starts at SUNY Maritime in January. PortSide will give her some intro maritime training (fulfilling part of our mission), and she will do shipwork for us. Win, win! Her background in journalism and PR is a help too!

You can get involved! We seek in-kind donations and funds. See the wish list and how to donate here. Donors over $500 get two seats to a Supper Club dinner in the renovated galley- mmmm!

Thanks to FEMA & SHPO we added to Red Hook's historical inventory!

Salute our 1941 "Karry Krane" a workhorse of the WWII era.

Thanks to Jenny Bernstein of FEMA for telling us about a grant to restore Sandy-damaged historical resources. PortSide has $134,000 in Sandy damage, mostly to historical artifacts. We rushed to apply for the MARY A. WHALEN replacement engine parts stored in the shed and our Hyster crane.

In just two days, we did the historical research (fascinating info about these machines and 140 years of Cowhey family marine business in Red Hook!) and applied to determine if the Hyster is "eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places." Thanks to SHPO for giving us the thumbs up in just a few hours! With that, we could apply for their grant and did! Learn about Karry Kranes, WWII history, Red Hook & applying for National Register status in this blog post.

NYC made us a STAR!

Thank you WNYC for selecting us to be featured in their WNYC's STAR Initiative in November! WNYC played a brief promotional message about PortSide throughout the month.

Waterfront Policy & Resiliency

Citywide issues with policy, permits and pier design

Our Director Carolina Salguero is on the Red Hook committee of the NYS resiliency planning process "CRP." The CRP process has stressed that the effort is about more than Sandy recovery, or flood prevention and mitigation. This prompted Carolina Salguero to write a document about how to better leverage Red Hook's waterfront assets and about the impediments currently in the way. PortSide shares that document in a blogpost. Many of the themes about policy, permits and pier design reflect citywide issues, so this blogpost has relevance beyond Red Hook and beyond Sandy issues.

For those of you following Red Hook's Sandy recovery and new resiliency plans, we have reworked many of the Sandy pages on our website to make them more helpful. Check em out!

Watch this Cap! We hide, you find!

PortSide is supporting a mariners' awareness campaign, the Seaman's Church Institute version of yarn bombing. We're talking about mini, hand-knit watch caps left in public places linked to a social media hide & seek, a great way to raise maritime awareness and start some chatter in hip, digitally connected circles.

Your job is to photograph the cap where you found it and post that to Twitter with #WATCHthisCAP, or if you don't tweet, email us the photos and we'll share them. If you want to keep the game going, re-hide the hat so someone else can find it. The campaign runs from Thanksgiving until New Years, and we will be hiding dozens of hats! Enjoy, and remember the sailors who bring you your stuff!

Please help us continue to help others!

In the past year, we stepped up to help others and ran a Sandy aid station in Red Hook and continued helping in many ways over the year.

We won a White House award and New York State Senate recognition for our Sandy work, and our Director won an award from the National Maritime Historical Society. All of this while still looking for a home. We ARE resilient!

Please donate now to propel us strongly into the future. Please help us continue to help others, and create our innovative waterfront educational and cultural programs.

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PortSide brought you... Red Hook Sandy recovery aid at 351 Van Brunt... TankerOpera in the containerport... Dutch Flat Bottom Fleet... TankerTours...concerts... movies... talks... walking tours ... kayak valet... TankerTime... redesign of the BoatBox Red Hook Boaters kayak container... bilingual ship tours at Concierto Tipico... exhibit about maritime response to 9/11... guides to Red Hook and more.

PortSide NewYork is a 501(c)3 profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.