Volunteers on Volunteering

About this project

A couple of years back at a Guild holiday dinner, I was waxing on about how many lives Gazela has impacted since she came west. "We focus on her Portuguese history, and of course preserving and teaching that history is a vital part of our mission" I probably said (there was a fair amount of wine involved), "but what's most interesting to me, and what really doesn't get much press, is the way she's touch the lives of the countless volunteers she's tolerated during her time in Philadelphia. How many came aboard as kids and moved on to maritime careers. How many met their wives and husbands in the rig. How many started out as insecure desk jockeys and became competent deck leaders. How many came on later in life, thinking their best days were behind them, only to find new vitality and purpose. How many worked side by side with people of different backgrounds and generations-people they might have passed by in the outside world-and came to call those strangers shipmate and friend."

I guess I stopped talking (just long enough to ask for another glass of wine), when Mary Smith looked me square in the face from across the table and said, "It's your job to write this down." Mary is a long-time supporter of the ship, and wife of William W. Smith who brought Gazela to Philadelphia. I mumbled something in my embarrassment and went back to my wine.

About a year later, I saw Mary at a party, and don't you know the first thing out of her mouth was, "Have you started on the volunteer story yet?"

So to honor Mary's request, and in honor of the ship we have come to, and given to, and gotten from, and left and returned to, I'm asking for your story.

Write something down. It doesn't have to be long, or poetic, or witty. It just needs to be your story. Why did you come aboard? Why did you stay? What difference did it make in your life? How did you take your experience forward? A picture of you would be fun too.

I'd also ask that you send this request to shipmates that may not be on the current Guild mailing list. And if you have recollections of shipmates who have passed on, you might write something of them as well.

Please use the Guild's email address and put Volunteer Project in the subject line. Or you can mail something to:

The Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild
301 South Columbus Ave.
Phila., PA 19106

I don't know what this will become, but I promise I will put what I receive on the Guild website and add to the story as it (hopefully) grows.

We'll call that a start.

Thanks.

Naomi