The News Tribune (Lite) - We can do it: We can repeat as Port of the Year

TheNewsTribune.com
Section: Kits Merryman

We can do it: We can repeat as Port of the Year

KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
I love Victoria.

Who doesn’t?

It’s a city famous for making anyone who’s just stepped off a ship feel right at home.

That’s why the known world was stunned when first-time contender Tacoma won American Sail Training Association’s Port of the Year honors after Tall Ships 2005. We were great to the crew members, and they voted for us.

Tacoma is not primarily known for harvesting cash from visitors.

On meeting a tourist, Tacomans are likely to say, “Thank you so much for coming. Can we do anything for you? Need the keys to my car?”

That, car keys and all, turned out to be the winning attitude during the 2005 festival. Let’s repeat that: Let’s win 2008 Port of the Year.

Tacoma has two teams on this, and the rest of us to play.

The Tall Ships Tacoma organization will stage the first line of hospitality along the Thea Foss Waterway.

Shore Leave in Tacoma will take the party downtown. Both groups have plenty of opportunities for us to add our own brand of hospitality.

The formula is simple, said Joe Jadwin, Tall Ships Tacoma’s board president: “Treat every visitor and crew member as our guest.”

The logistics are more complex, starting with the sailors’ Grail: hot showers. A shipboard shower is a three-minute soap-up-and-rinse-off drill. Tall Ships is setting up a shower facility by the old Sea Scout building, Jadwin said.

Thanks to Laundry Mart of Tacoma, our sea-weary guests will dry off with fresh towels and step into clean clothes. The company will pick up every ship’s dirty laundry in the morning and bring it back clean that afternoon throughout the festival.

Thanks to Tall Ships volunteer Dick Collins, every crew member will get a gift bag of treats and discount coupons.

Each ship will have a liaison. If you, for example, lose your heart to a vessel and want to give the crew steaks and homemade rhubarb crisp for their next dinner, the liaison’s the person who’d make the arrangements.

Even happy guests can get too much of their hosts and yearn for a brief retreat. Mike Cohen of MC Construction has that covered with the loan of the Point Ruston ferry as a crew’s lounge. It’ll have Internet access, a barbecue and, thanks to King’s Books, a book exchange. You’re welcome to donate books, DVDs, CDs and playing cards to the library, Jadwin said. Just drop them off at the festival’s logistics center at 1179 Dock St.

Don’t stop there.

The festival is organizing a food service for ships, and it has plenty of room for cash and in-kind donations. “Fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, buns, that kind of thing,” Jadwin said.

And chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Bring chocolate, and cadets aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle will keep Tacoma in their hearts forever. Add some off-the-boat fun and a guide to good music and pizza, and they’ll be thrilled.

Shore Leave in Tacoma is on it.

Inspired by Cheryl Gorsuch’s loan of her vintage yellow convertible to a cadre of sailors from Pallada in 2005, the group of downtown merchants is planning a parade, art shows and a free concert starring Kimya Dawson, Heathers and Ghost Mice. Gorsuch’s Sanford & Son Antiques has a vintage U.S.O.-style dance in the works.

The group has printed up “The Seamen’s Handbook for Shore Leave” brochures listing shops, restaurants and events. Merchants have minted $1 tokens to give to crew and volunteers. They want to turn Tollefson Plaza into Tacoma’s living room for the duration of the festival. Sounds fun.

They’d appreciate your help, especially if you like to dress up like a pirate. If you’re up for that, contact Patricia Lecy-Davis at 253-576-4006 or dmgpresident@gmail.com.

If we pull this off, you could be the face of fun and hospitality in the 2008 American Sail Training Association’s Port of the Year.

Victoria will forgive you.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com