CapeCodToday Featured Event

9th Annual Hookers Ball to be held Saturday, August 15th

Bringing the community together to celebrate local fishermen and fishing heritage

  Always a lively event, folks take to the dance floor at last year's Hookers Ball. Photo courtesy of the CCCHFA.

Each year, the Cape Cod community comes together to celebrate local fishermen, local seafood, and the Cape's working waterfronts at the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association's Hookers Ball. The annual gala is one of the main sources of revenue for the Hook Association, helping the non-profit organization to  protect and preserve Cape Cod's historic fishing communities.

This year in particular, with skyrocketing prices for fishing permits, increasingly-stringent regulations, and low fish stocks, the local small boat fishing fleet is struggling to stay afloat.

"Now, more than ever, we need to work to protect Cape Cod's working waterfronts," said Susan Nickerson, Executive Director of the Hook Association. "Coming to the Hookers Ball is a way for the community to show appreciation for our hardworking fishermen."

This year's Hookers Ball will feature a raw bar, scallop and fish fry, and steamed clams and mussels, including seafood caught  sustainably by Cape Cod fishermen; an open bar; live music and dancing with the Total Strangers; make your own sundae bar sponsored by Ben & Jerry's; and a live auction. Auction items include a stay in an Italian villa, a stint as an honorary bat boy or girl with the Chatham A's, and the chance to captain a tugboat at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

The 9th Annual Hookers Ball will take place Saturday, August 15, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the white tents outside the Chatham VFW at 150 George Ryder Road in Chatham.

TICKETS: General tickets are $125; industry member tickets are $75; and premium tickets are $200, including exclusive check-in, reserved seating, tableside service, and limited edition gift. The public can purchase tickets by calling (508) 945-2432, emailing info@ccchfa.org, or going online to ccchfa.org/about/about_ball.htm.

Release courtesy of CCCHFA.

The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association is a nationally recognized, non-profit organization that aligns protection of the oceans with the economic interests of our historic fishing community. CCCHFA supports stewardship of coastal ecosystems through education, research, and policy programs. Started in 1991 by the local fishing fleet, CCCHFA is now the leading community fisheries organization in the region. CCCHFA is taking action now to make sure there are fish for future generations.

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Brewster hosts the 31st Annual Brew Run this Saturday

Annual race benefits Brewster Fire and Rescue

On Saturday, August 8th, the Town of Brewster will be hosting the 31st Annual Brew Run.  The Brew Run is a 5.2 mile road race beginning and ending at The Woodshed, located on Route 6A near Route 124. 

Just prior to the 4 p.m. kickoff, "The Singing Trooper," Dan Clark will perform a tribute to America.  The opening ceremonies are a tribute to all our fallen servicemen, fire fighters, and police officers.

Heavy traffic delays should be expected on Route 6A, Route 124, Route 137, Tubman Road, and Lower Road between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.  Motorists should seek alternate routes if possible.

Release courtesy of the Brewster Police Department.

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NMLC Mermaid Ball offers pirate chest of treasures

Captain a Supertanker; Pilot a Tug; Snag Original Artworks; Ride a Beemer; Attend Sports Events; Rescue a Sea Turtle; Plan a Wedding; Build a Dream House; Escape the Ordinary

   You won't want to miss this year's Mermaid Ball. Photos courtesy of NMLC.

By Don Lewis

Gorgeous mermaids, square-jawed sailors, swashbuckling pirates, and an honest-to-Neptune admiral party over a treasure chest of booty.  Does this sound like the pitch for a new Jack Sparrow movie, Pirates of Buzzards Bay?  Perhaps; but if the date is August 7th and the place is Massachusetts Maritime Academy, you've discovered the action-packed social event of the Cape Cod season: the National Marine Life Center Mermaid Ball.

Emmy winner Jul3ia will debut the new National Marine Life Center theme song at the August 7th Mermaid Ball at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy campus in Buzzards Bay.
    No, Jul3ia is not a typo.  The "3" is silent when pronounced, but rings loudly and clearly when describing one of the Cape's most talented young artists and performers: Jul3ia Richard.
    Jul3ia scored an Emmy this June for her music video, Reality TV.  She produced, directed, wrote, starred and edited the video which won a regional Emmy in the category of Outstanding Advanced Media and Motion Graphic Design.  Jul3ia is program coordinator at the Cape Cod Community Media Center and one of the original bloggers on CapeCodToday.com. 
    Along with co-creator Evan Kaigle, Jul3ia has written a new theme song called "Pearl Diver" for the National Marine Life Center.  As Jul3ia says, "The theme is sea turtles being released back into the wild.  It's meant to be EXTREMELY uplifting."
    The world will hear the words and music of "Pearl Diver" for the first time on August 7th as Jul3ia and Evan debut the new NMLC theme song.  They are scheduled to perform "Pearl Diver" during the Admiral's Cocktail Reception which opens the ball at 6 pm.  In addition to Jul3ia and Evan, the ball features gorgeous mermaids, square-jawed sailors and swashbuckling pirates; a bounteous buffet dinner; live and silent auctions for once-in-a-lifetime treasures and adventures; and dancing to the music of GQ and the Lady.

Admiral Rick Gurnon hosts the Mermaid Ball on his scenic MMA campus overlooking the entrance to Cape Cod Canal and the headwaters of Buzzards Bay.  The evening kicks off with a real life admiral's cocktail reception at 6 pm, followed by a bountiful buffet dinner, live & silent auctions to share the pirate booty, and dancing to GQ and the Lady until 11 pm.  All proceeds from the Mermaid Ball and auctions go directly to the nonprofit National Marine Life Center to advance its quest to "restore life to the ocean," perhaps another Jack Sparrow sequel.

Guarded by an 8½ foot Captain Morgan, the NMLC pirate chest bulges with treasures collected from the Four Corners of the World and across the Seven Seas.  Once in a lifetime dreams are wedged tightly amidst shiny baubles and beads.  Original artworks lean against a sleek BMW.  Inns, trips, grog; ocean adventures, sporting events, sunset sails and lasting memories more valuable than Spanish doubloons; a literal pirate's chest of treasure awaits the uncanny bidder.

During the course of the night, you'll bid for once in a lifetime experiences.  Captain a supertanker as it leaves Boston Harbor in the state-of-the-art bridge simulator at MMA ... in the same facility that prepares our merchant sailors for high sea adventure.  Join Admiral Gurnon for lunch with five of your friends to relive those magic moments at the helm.  Want more reality?  Pilot a working tug boat through Cape Cod Canal, and again join the admiral for lunch to trade sea stories.  Still not enough excitement?  Take your whole family on a Crocodile Dundee-like adventure on the Outer Cape where you'll rescue tiny helpless hatchlings from the claws of voracious predators.  Watch a baby turtle stir to life in your child's hand. 

You can't buy these moments at department stores, no matter how upscale.  You can't find them at Six Flags or Disney World.  Nowhere else in the whole wide world can you capture these once in a lifetime dreams other than at the NMLC Mermaid Ball on August 7th.

Did you promise yourself that someday you'd own a Beemer?  Well, the economy has been a tad challenging of late, yet at the Mermaid Ball you'll have a chance to bid on an authentic 24-speed BMW cruise bike, an engineering masterpiece for coastal biking in New England.

You yearn to snap up a classic Cape Cod property as a summer home, but the real estate market has been a crapshoot.  What about a traditional late 1800s Upper Cape farmhouse ... a dollhouse replica exact to the smallest detail like its front porch and balcony?  You want the real thing?  A world renowned, award winning architectural firm offers $3000 of design consultation to create your very own dream house.

Planning a wedding or special event?  The chest even includes a wedding cake for 100 people, a professional photographer, and a host of isolated get-away travel spots for the adorable couple.

You're really more of a Pittsburgh Pirate than a Johnny Depp swashbuckler?  The treasure chest includes a set of Bosox autographs including Bobby Doerr, Joe Cronin, Johnny Pesky, Mel Parnell and Louis Tiant; a signed baseball by Kevin Youkilis; two field box seats to watch Kevin swat the winning hit to clinch the AL East for the Sox; a hockey stick signed by NHL star Paul Mara formerly of the Bruins; and tickets to a Foxboro Patriots game.  Want more action?  How about a foursome at a September Cape Cod golf tournament or a guaranteed entry into the world famous Falmouth Road Race?

Perhaps the Arts are more to your liking.  The chest holds tickets to Tanglewood, the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Cotuit Center for the Arts.  Every corner of the treasure box holds original artworks of mermaids and mysteries of the sea.  You can find certificates for fine restaurant dining and a dinner trip on the Cape Cod train, tucked next to Hy-Line ferry tickets, canal cruises and sunset sails.  Exquisite pieces of jewelry crafted by local artists line the bottom of this bounteous pirate's chest stuffed full with treasures, gifts and memories too numerous to mention.

A complete listing of treasures can be found on the National Marine Life Center web site at www.nmlc.org.  An auction catalogue will be available for the event.  While anyone can bid on auction items, guests at the Mermaid Ball have the inside edge as bidding tables close and live auctions commence.

Yet those items are just the tip of the iceberg.  At 9:30 pm on August 7th, the NMLC team will unveil an opportunity so rare, so unique and so secret that the lid's still tightly sealed.  It's called KABOOM! because it will rock the ballroom like a base drum when the lid's popped.

Wild rumors abound, but no one will talk.  I interviewed Don Lewis, the NMLC Chief Operating Officer, for the straight scoop and all he'd say is that this offering is rarer than the rarest diamond.  "There has never been anything like it and there never will be ever again; once in a lifetime.  KABOOM! is the most unique item ever offered for auction, the absolutely perfect gift for someone you adore, and only those guests who are present at the ball will have an opportunity to bid for it."

Tickets for the Mermaid Ball can be obtained on line at www.nmlc.org, by phone at 508-743-9888 or by visiting the NMLC Discovery Center opened seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm at 120 Main Street, Buzzards Bay.

Don Lewis, the Turtle Guy, serves as Chief Operating Officer of the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay.  The new NMLC animal hospital is under construction today and will open for sea turtle patients on October 31st.  In addition to most endangered turtles in the world, the new 15,000-square foot, 100,000-gallon marine animal hospital will treat seals, porpoises, dolphins and small whales that strand on Cape Cod, one of the most active stranding hotspots in the Americas.  For more information about the NMLC, visit www.nmlc.org.

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Neve Gordon to speak at Cape Cod Community College

Gordon to speak on prospects for peach in Israel and Palestine

Neve Gordon, an Israeli professor, writer and activist who teaches in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University, will speak on Prospects for Peace in Israel & Palestine, Wednesday, August 12, 7 p.m., in Lecture Hall C, Science Building, at the Cape Cod Community College.

This event is sponsored by the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, and cosponsored by Cape Codders for Peace & Justice, Falmouth Peace, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Upper Cape Green Party.

Gordon has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the Watson Institute at Brown University. During the first intifada, he was the director of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel. Gordon is the co-editor of Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel; the editor of From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights; and most recently, the author of Israel's Occupation. His writings have appeared in numerous scholarly journals as well as in publications like The Guardian, The Nation, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Chronicle of Higher Education and The National Catholic Reporter.

Release courtesy of WILPF.

The Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom was founded at the Hague in 1915 by some 1400 women who were determined to abolish the root causes of war. The U.S. and many other national WILPF sections, have long worked for a just peace between Israel and Palestine, and the Cape Cod branch has an active Western Asia committee.

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Cape Cod Ride for the Fallen this Saturday on the Rail Trail

30-mile bike ride honors America's wounded warriors

Yarmouth Police Officers, family and friends to participate

A group of Yarmouth Police Officers, family, and friends will be voluntarily participating in a 30-mile bicycle ride in special memory of our courageous Troops who had special connections to Cape Cod that have been killed in combat operations in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In special memory of United States Army SGT Mark R. Vecchione, Eastham, KIA Ramadi, Iraq July 18, 2006; United States Army SGT Alexander H. Fuller, Centerville, KIA Baghdad, Iraq January 25, 2007; United States Army SSGT Alicia A. Birchet, Mashpee, KIA Baghdad, Iraq August 9, 2007; United States Marine PFC Daniel A. C. McGuire, Mashpee, KIA Fallujah, Iraq August, 14, 2008; United States Army PFC Paul E. Conlon, Mashpee, KIA Afghanistan August 15, 2008; United States Marine LCPL Jordan C. Haerter, Sag Harbor, NY, KIA Ramadi, Iraq April 22, 2008; United States Marine CPL Jonathan T. Yale, Burkeville, VA, KIA Ramadi, Iraq April 22, 2008

This special fundraising event, sponsored by the Yarmouth Police Relief Association, is serving in conjunction with a similar bicycle ride occurring at the same time in Sag Harbor, New York honoring fallen United States Marine Lance Corporal Jordan C. Haerter.

Lance Corporal Haerter and fellow Marine Corporal Jonathan Yale were posthumously given the Navy Cross for Valor for saving the lives of 50 fellow Marines and Iraqi Police Officers during a suicide bomb attack in Ramadi, Iraq. One of the Marines saved that day was Corporal Nicholas G. Xiarhos of Yarmouthport.

Both events will raise funds for the Wounded Warrior Project which is a non-profit organization founded on the principle that veterans are our nation’s greatest assets and dedicated to assisting the men and women of our armed forces who have been severely injured in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations around the world.

The ride will start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 25, 2009 at the beginning of the Cape Cod Rail Trail on Route 134 in Dennis and will end in Wellfleet.

All funds raised by this event are tax deductable and will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Anyone who would like to contribute to this event can drop off or mail a check made out to the Wounded Warrior Project at Yarmouth Police Headquarters at anytime.

For additional information please contact Yarmouth Police Patrol Officer Erica Wenberg at 508-775-0445 ext 2352 or at capecodforthefallen@yarmouth.ma.us   or www.woundedwarriorproject.org.

Release courtesy of the Yarmouth Police Department.

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