IN THIS ISSUE – August 2023

• Support the Philanthropy Challenge for the 2023 SCI Mountain Challenge
• CME Offers Customized Training Module to Longstanding Client
• Women Offshore Podcast: Featuring SCI's Phil Schifflin, Esq. and the Rev. Christine Brunson
• Chaplaincy: the Heart of SCI — "Routine" Visits
• Alison Odermann wraps up CMA/Tulane Law Summer Internship

Photo: David Rider Photography

Thank you to our Corporate Sponsors

THE PHILANTHROPY CHALLENGE!

SCI Mountain Challenge Team Registration is Closed, But You Can Still Make A Difference to Mariners and Seafarers

This fall, from September 28 – October 1, 2023, SCI will host its biennial Mountain Challenge! Teams of three competitors will push their physical limits in support of mariners—who often face extreme conditions and isolation—on a race course that includes hiking, paddling, and obstacle elements at Mount Snow.

Though Team Registration is closed, you can support our competitors in the Philanthropy Challenge! Teams are actively fundraising to meet their goal of $3,000 per team, which will support SCI’s mission. Funds raised will count towards overall team rankings and awards.

CME Offers Customized Training Module to Longstanding Client

SCI's Center for Maritime Education (CME) has created a new simulator model for AET, tailored for their Offshore and Global Lightering Division. This model aims to facilitate training for mariners who operate the Lightering Support Vessels (LSV) in collaboration with Ship-to-Ship Mooring Masters during the deployment and retrieval of Yokohama fenders.

To build this simulator model, assistance was provided by Kongsberg Digital in Groton, CT, and the STAR Center in Dania Beach, FL. The model facilitates the placement of actual Yokohama fenders on the aft deck of the LSV. It also enables the loading and unloading of jumbo Yokohama fenders alongside the service ship and the vessel undergoing lightering operations.

This model aims to assist AET with enhanced training and development of its vessel crews, enabling them to practice emergency and non-standard maneuvers in the safety of a controlled virtual environment. The model will also AET to evaluate external providers in different lightering areas.

The Center for Maritime Education is thrilled to deliver this customized model design to their longstanding client, AET. CME believes it will significantly enrich the training experience for AET's crews throughout their global operations.

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e-Learning, Simulator Training, Maritime Feasibility Studies — Click below to explore more about what SCI's Center for Maritime Education can offer its clients.

Women Offshore Podcast:

Featuring SCI's Phil Schifflin, Esq. and the Rev. Christine Brunson

SCI's Center for Mariner Advocacy Director Phil Schifflin and Ministry on the River + Gulf Chaplain Christine Brunson address the topic of mariner resilience on the Women Offshore podcast, Episode 163.

SAVE THE DATE

"Routine" Visits

by the Rev. David Shirk,

SCI Chaplain, Ministry on the River + Gulf

One of my favorite ways to conduct a boat visit is to ride along with a boat store delivery. Larry Barnes and his two crews from Barnes Boat Store know the impact of SCI’s ministry on mariners and always welcome SCI Chaplains to ride along with their grocery deliveries. After meeting with the Barnes crew in Metropolis, IL, we loaded up groceries to catch a line boat passing through the area. As they unloaded the groceries with the crew's help, I met with the captain in the wheelhouse and we chatted about how he and the crew were doing. These conversations are always helpful for the mariners, and such visits also spread the word about SCI Chaplaincy, serving as a reminder that we are always there for them. 

On this visit, after unloading the groceries, I made my way back down through the hatches and ladder wells to the store’s boat. While passing through the galley, I was stopped by the cook, and she asked me if I could pray for her. I said, “Of course. Is there something specific you would like me to pray for?” She told me she had fallen a few days earlier, and her knee and hip were still in pain. Taking her hand and placing my other hand on her shoulder, I prayed for her right there in the galley. When I was done, I looked up and noticed three crew members also in the galley with their heads bowed and hats in hand. Boat crews are like family and I could tell they were moved by the experience. I was moved, too. They all thanked me for the prayer and visit as I was leaving. 

This boat visit was written in the report as a “routine,” but I think it was more than that. It was meaningful; I felt blessed by the experience. If I had not been out there, I never would have had the opportunity to connect and share God’s love with this dear cook and crew. 

Crises responses, ceremonial invocations, worship services, and mariner training, just to name a few, are all important roles we play. But this routine boat visit, like many such visits we do throughout the year, served to lift spirits and highlight our ministry of presence. A seemingly modest meeting with mariners passing through can play an essential role in our Chaplaincy on the rivers and Gulf.

Your donations make a difference!

READ — Op-Ed: A Closer Look at MLC 2006, by CMA Director Phil Schifflin, Esq. MarineLog, July 14, 2023.

Alison Odermann wraps up SCI/Tulane Law Summer Internship

With Chaplain Tom Rhoades, Ali went along for vessel visits in New Orleans—here meeting some of the crew members of the MV Kristen Golding, Golding Barge Lines.

For 28 years, SCI's Center for Mariner Advocacy has welcomed students from Tulane University School of Law to intern during their 1L summer. This summer, CMA welcomed Alison (Ali) Odermann to the longstanding program. Here are a few of the projects in which Ali participated: 

• A long-term research project surrounding port security access for seafarers. In light of the 2019 Seafarers’ Access to Maritime Facilities regulation, Ali’s research will provide CMA with more tools and information to assist mariners with obtaining access to the port.  
• A long-term project communicating with various P&I clubs and open flag registries: this research will provide CMA with more tools and resources when providing seafarers with legal advice.  
• Ali connected with Ally Cedeno, the founder and CEO of Women Offshore, to assist with research projects surrounding new Title IX legislation. This research will aid in the enforcement of sexual assault/sexual harassment cases that occur while students, faculty, and staff are attending or working at the academies.  
• A visit to New York City, where Ali met with the American P&I Club, the Liberian Ship Registry, SCI Chaplains at the International Seafarers’ Center, seafarers at Port Newark (while on ship visits), and U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York Port State Control Division.  
• Attended meetings with the Mariner Wellness Steering Committee: work that brings together leaders and experts in the maritime field to discuss mental health issues mariners face and how to address them best.  
• Assisted CMA with a case in which a seafarer was injured and communicated with the seafarer and outside attorney to assist in providing a resolution of the claim. 

Ali plans to return to Tulane Law in the fall of 2023 to begin her second year of law school. She will also act as a junior member of the Maritime Law Journal, Vice President of First-Generation Law Society, and Liaison for the Young Lawyer’s Division with Tulane’s branch of the Federal Bar Society.

"I deeply appreciate and thank everyone that I met throughout this program. It was truly an invaluable experience," she said. Ali passes along her thanks to Douglas Stevenson, the Reverend Mark Nestlehutt, Chaplain Tom Rhoades, and all of the great staff at Seamen’s Church Institute. She would like to extend special thanks to Phil Schifflin for his support and mentorship during her time at CMA. 

Ali visited with The American Club. Pictured (left to right): Molly McCafferty (SVP, Co-Global Claims, The American Club), Alison Odermann (Summer Intern, SCI-Center for Maritime Advocacy), Danielle Centeno (VP, Loss Prevention Executive), and William Moore (SVP, Global Loss Prevention Director).

Ali was part of our team attending the North American Maritime Ministry Association Conference in Seattle. Pictured (left to right): Phil Schifflin (Director, Center for Mariner Advocacy), Michelle McWilliams (Chaplain, International Seafarers' Center), Alison Odermann, Tim Wong (Director, International Seafarers' Center).

 FROM THE SCI ARCHIVES 

It's Black Cat Appreciation Day. According to a story printed in the July 1939 Lookout, two black cats were born inside the chapel organ at our 25 South Street location. The article quotes SCI’s legendary house mother, Janet Roper, who noted, much to her amazement, that “those kittens were coal black except for a pure white cross on each of their backs.”

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