Renee Zaugg, Sabrina Tavalone and Jennifer Pappalardo at Hookers Ball XXIV. Photo by Salty Broad Studios.
By Doreen Leggett
With 400 people gathered under a party tent on an August night, one would expect plenty of noise, but during John Pappalardo’s speech there was silence.
“We are here tonight because we belong to a place—a real place. Cape Cod is not an idea or a brand,” Pappalardo, CEO of the Fishermen’s Alliance, told the crowd. “It is a stretch of coastline carved by time and tide, filled with working hands and living stories. The men and women who fish its waters have done so not for fortune, but for sustenance, for dignity, and for the hope of passing something along.”
Pappalardo was speaking at the 24th Hookers Ball, the non-profit’s biggest annual fundraiser, and many Pappalardo spoke of were in the audience because although the ball is a community celebration, at heart it is meant to recognize the Cape’s commercial fishermen and what they mean to the peninsula.
Pappalardo’s message resonated with those who filled the ‘big white tent’ at the Harwich Community Center Saturday, Aug. 2 and $350,000 was raised to help the Fishermen’s Alliance continue its mission.
“This coastline, these boats, these people—this is not something we can replace. If we lose them, we lose more than jobs. We lose a language, a rhythm, a way of belonging to the earth and to one another,” said Pappalardo. “Thank you for standing with us.”
Supporters did more than stand with the Fishermen’s Alliance, they danced, raised their bidding paddles on everything from naming your own sushi roll at Bluefins to being a fisherman for a day, mingled with friends and browsed silent auction items. They ate and raved about the abundance of local skate, monkfish, squid, tuna, scallops, surf clams, oysters and littlenecks.
“We extend sincere thanks to our sponsors, guests, fishermen, and volunteers who came together to celebrate the Cape’s fishing traditions,” said Director of Development Brigid Krug. “The generosity and community spirit at Hookers Ball continues to inspire us, and we are grateful to everyone who helped achieve our fundraising goal.”
One highlight was a trailer of an upcoming documentary, “The Hand That Holds The Line,” with the Chatham Fish Pier, John Our’s F/V Miss Fitz and Sam Linnell’s F/V Great Pumpkin in the opening shot.
The documentary is the culmination of months of work by Geoff Bassett and Kim Roderiques. The two spent hours visiting with more than a dozen local fishermen and shellfishermen learning about their lives on the water and what called them to the sea.
“I don’t think I could have picked a better thing for me to do in my life, for myself,” said Captain Kurt Martin, who is featured in the trailer. “It’s not for everyone.”
The documentary premiers at the Chatham Orpheum on October 16. The show sold out moments after being announced so another show was added on Thursday, Nov. 6.
Money raised at the Hookers Ball will go toward policy and scientific initiatives, including fishermen training, sensors to gather ocean salinity and temperature readings, and continuation of the Small Boats, Big Taste program which supplies delicious, nutritious chowders and stew to food banks and helps keep fishermen on the water.
“The Fishermen’s Alliance does not exist for show. It exists for service. It works in quiet ways, though the seas it deals with are not always calm,” Pappalardo said. “It helps fishermen stay on the water—not with promises, but with patience. It leases quota at fair prices, trains new hands to respect the work, feeds hungry neighbors with the harvest that comes from small boats, not distant corporations.”