A network of help

Townonline and North Shore Weekly
September 9, 2005

By Janelle Randazza
Correspondent


Plans to transplant thousands left homeless by Hurricane Katrina to states that have offered them shelter have been put on hold by federal officials, but North Shore residents are ready, willing and able to offer their homes and support to displaced Gulf Coast residents should the need arise. And they're using the Internet to get the word out.
Craigslist.org has over 275 postings from Massachusetts residents offering free housing to displaced Gulf Coast residents, including one from Vincent Deno, an electrical engineer from Gloucester.
"I wanted to give something tangible," he says. "I wanted to know where my offer was going and I didn't want 30 per cent or whatever to go towards 'administrative costs' - I wanted to make sure what I gave went to the right people."
Last week Deno called radio stations, television stations and finally Gov. Mitt Romney's office to see what was being done to help people trapped in their homes or left to endure sordid living conditions in New Orleans' Superdome.
"I just felt totally helpless. It seemed like the logical thing to do," he says. "I just remember thinking how we aren't sending folks down to help those people.'"
So Deno began calling shelters and hotels to offer the extra bedroom in his home to anyone who might need it and posted his housing offer on Craigslist. So far Deno hasn't had any takers, but says that the offer will stand for as long as there is a need.
HurricaneHousing.org, a branch of MoveOn.org Civic Action, is being endorsed by U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who says the response has been "incredibly heartening."
On Sept. 7, the HurricaneHousing.org Web site listed 1,131 offers for shelter in Massachusetts alone.
Serena Howard and her husband founded Openyourhome.org to find housing for a few Arkansas-area residents, but saw that the response was almost as great as the need. Based out of their home in Fayetteville, Ark., Openyourhome.org places an individual or a family with people who will provide not only shelter but who will be a good, supportive match, just as they have done in the past for foreign exchange students. According to Howard, the response has been overwhelming.
"Everyone across the country feels the same way we did here and everyone wants to help," says Howard. Openyourhome.org has thousands of applicants eager to provide to help; while she is unsure of the number of people offering shelter in Massachusetts, she believes there are hundreds from the New England region.
Howard says that to help is simple: "These people just want to know that somebody cares and to be assured that everything is going to be OK. Our only vision is to offer something as straightforward as that and to help out as many people as we possibly can."
Rosemary Fiori, a single mother of two in Georgetown, has posted her guest bedroom on different Web sites and is eager to help whomever stays with her get back on their feet. Fiori knows what it is like to open her home to someone in need. She has volunteered with the Fresh Air Fund for the past 10 years.
"When you stand in a parking lot and meet someone that has been bused to your area and needs to call someplace new their home, it becomes a leap of faith on both your parts, but I can't tell you how rewarding it is," she says.
Fiori counts herself fortunate to have the extra space to offer, but doesn't discount those who can only give in smaller ways.
"You don't have to be Curt Schilling to help. This is a way for communities to share and help each other help others. We need to let these people know that they don't just have a bed, they have a community, for however long they have to stay."
Hurricane housing
For more information on how to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina find housing, visit the following Web sites:
neworleans.craigslist.org
jackson.craigslist.org
Openyourhome.com
Hurricanehousing.org
Homeflood.org
KatrinaHousing.org

Iconic Gloucester church celebrates its 200th anniversary

Gloucester Daily Times
September 16, 2005

By Janelle Randazza
Times Correspondent


The church that was instrumental in the separation of church and state and a strident voice in both women' rights and the abolitionist movement will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its historic meetinghouse Sunday.

Sept. 18 will mark the launch of a yearlong celebration, commemorating the historic Unitarian Meeting House on Middle Street. Organizers say the celebration is designed to honor one of Gloucester's most important architectural structures as well as commemorate the rich significance of Gloucester's Universalist congregation in America's religious and political history.

Formally and officially known as the Independent Christian Church Unitarian Universalist, the Universalist Church Meeting House is the home of the first Universalist Church congregation in America.

"The Independent Christian Church, Universalist, of Gloucester occupies a unique position in both the religious and political history of the United States," says John Hurley, director of information at the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston.

When Gloucester residents formed the Universalist Church in 1779 under Rev. John Murray, followers refused to pay taxes to support the established church — which they did not attend — then known as the First Parish. The case was taken to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and in 1786 it was ruled that citizens of the commonwealth were not obligated to pay taxes to support churches they did not attend. The decision set a precedent for the separation of church and state and played an important role in the framing of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"This courageous stand of the early Gloucester Universalists helped create the notion of church-state separation and led to the vibrant religious pluralism that is a characteristic of our country today," says Hurley.

"The Universalist Church is based on thought, questioning and discussion," says Wendy Fitting, who has been pastor at the church for the past 16 years. "In Gloucester there is an acceptance of thoughts, beliefs and individuality that you would never see elsewhere in a city this size."

Fitting says she would like to think the long history of independent thought fostered by the founding Universalists has played a part in Gloucester's independent spirit.

"In Universalism there is no hell; all souls are ultimately saved," she says. This belief has historically stressed an individual's responsibility to use their talents to their greatest ability and to the greatest good of their community.

Judith Sargent Murray was one of the founding members of Gloucester's Universalist movement and was renowned for her work as a published writer, a supporter of her church and as an advocate for gender equality.

"Judith's work for female equality was completely tied to her Universalist beliefs; her faith completely permeated her life," says Bonnie Hurd Smith, director of the Judith Sargent Murray Society and co-chair of the Unitarian Universalist Women's Heritage Society. "Universalism informed her thoughts and her actions and she found that writing was one way in which she could have her voice heard."

Married to Rev. John Murray for 27 years, Sargent Murray used her writings to promote the ideals of the Universalist faith.

In addition, the Universalist church was a strong supporter of the abolitionist movement. Rev. Murray went to Congress to voice his opposition of slavery and Gloucester's congregation was one of the first organized institutions to condemn slavery. In 1785, Gloster Dalton, a free black man, was one of 85 charter signatories of the Gloucester Universalist Society.

"The Unitarian Church has always been one that is for all of the community; it is part of our history but it's also what we stand for now," Fitting says.

Fitting says she looks forward to the anniversary as being a welcoming celebration of the church's liberating beliefs and says the church has many discussions and lectures planned for the coming year. Most notably she looks forward to a discussion planned for January on the separation of church and state.

"It will be a very important discussion," she says. "People are feeling that basic right is being challenged right now."

Despite Universalism's importance in Gloucester's history, Fitting's hope for the anniversary celebration is simple:

"We want everyone to feel welcome and to know that this is 'Gloucester's church', but our main goal with this celebration is to just have fun."

Breakout

The Rev. Wendy Fitting leads a special worship Sunday at the Independent Christian Church, Unitarian Universalist, in Gloucester, celebrating 200 years since the laying of the church building's cornerstone in September 1805. The ICC is located at the corner of Church and Middle Streets; all are welcome to attend. Worship begins at 10 a.m. David Bergeron, choir director and organist, has composed an original hymn for the occasion. Gordon Baird will inaugurate a "moment in Universalist history" which will be featured each week over the coming year. A program of celebration and brunch follows the worship service; all are welcome. Official proclamations will be presented by Gloucester Mayor John Bell, state Rep. Tony Verga, and state Sen. Bruce Tarr.

New book brings together the pieces of the Can Do puzzle

Gloucester Daily Times
September 6, 2005

By Janelle Randazza
Times Correspondent


In the Blizzard of '78, skipper Frank Quirk and a crew of four friends, Don Wilkinson, Charlie Bucko, Norman David Curley and Kenny Fuller, boarded the Gloucester pilot boat the Can Do, heading toward Salem to assist the crews of both a stranded oil tanker and its Coast Guard rescuers.

As the storm wrapped its claws around the coast, Quirk and his crew battled 30-to-40-foot seas, winds gusting above 75 knots and frigid temperatures. Throughout the night, Quirk radioed back to the Coast Guard station; his last transmission arrived faintly at 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 7, 1978. The oil tanker and Coast Guard rescue boat survived but the Can Do and all five of its crewmen were lost.

Over the decades, the story of what led the Can Do crew into the heart of such a vicious storm was twisted by speculation. The truth lay in desperate journal entries, broken hearts and somber memories. It took 25 years and Massachusetts author Michael Tougias to bring the scattered pieces of the puzzle together.

Tougias' new book, "Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do," chronicles the vessel's fated rescue mission and looks into the lives of those left behind by the tragedy.

Tougias stumbled upon the story of the Can Do while collecting material for his 2002 book, "The Blizzard of 78." The small newspaper article included astounding excerpts of recorded exchanges between the Coast Guard and the Can Do during its final hours.

"When I read the story and saw how they quoted the captain from his radio messages it hit me that there might be more recordings somewhere," he said. Intrigued, Tougias contacted Quirk's son, Frank Quirk III.

Just two days earlier, Frank Quirk III and his daughter had begun researching authors in the hope they could convince one to write their father's story. When the call came from Tougias, the 47-year-old Peabody resident was astonished.

"I had been waiting for that call for 25 years," Quirk said. "It was like my dad said, 'OK, it's time to tell the story'. There were so many different versions about what happened that day and why they went out; we really just wanted to set the record straight and we really wanted people to know the kind of guy my father was."

Quirk and his sister, Maureen Oullette, 49, knew the minute they met Tougias that the right author for their father's story had found them.

"Mike was just so interested in knowing every detail. We knew if anyone was going to get the whole story out there it would be him," said Oullette.

They sent Tougias off from their first meeting with a recording of the transmission between their father and the Coast Guard, which the author listened to on his drive home.

"When I listened to the tape I just got goosebumps," Tougias said. "I was in the car on Route 128 and had to pull over. I just thought, 'This is the book I've been searching for'. How often do we get to find out what it was like on a boat where all hands were lost? Without that tape the book wouldn't be the same. The heart of the book is that we know exactly what happened."

For two years Tougias, a 50-year-old Franklin resident, abandoned all other projects and immersed himself in every angle of the Can Do's story, listening to hours of tapes and interviewing more than 200 people. Over the two years it took Tougias to write the book, he found himself not just transported into the storm but absorbed into the minds of the loved ones the crew left behind.

Sharon (Watts) Fish, fiancée of Charlie Bucko, recalls people retreating into their grief after the Can Do crew was lost, each coping with the loss of the men alone. Fish looked at the writing of the book as a way to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.

"Everyone was dealing with their own grief and no one really knew what everyone else was going through," she said. "For whatever reason we didn't reach out to each other, but we needed to."

Fish offered Tougias the journal she kept after Bucko's death.

"Sharon was a key person in the book," Tougias said. "She was the best way to get inside the head of someone who is going through this, knowing that your loved one is out there and knowing that something is terribly wrong but not knowing what to do."

On that day in 1978, Louis Linquata and Gard Estes were having lunch with Quirk and some of his crew at the Cape Ann Marina when they first heard the 682-foot Greek tanker Global Hope was having problems and dragging its anchor.

Estes was leaving with the rest of the Can Do crew when Linquata asked him to stay behind to help him ready the Cape Ann Marina for the storm. Twenty-seven years later Estes, now 63 and still living in Gloucester, is still wrought with emotions as he recounts that evening.

"It was supposed to be me that night," he said. "David Curley took my spot. When I think 'Why wasn't it me?' I get chills."

Quirk and his crew left Gloucester Harbor in the early evening when they learned that not only was the Global Hope in trouble, but so was a Coast Guard patrol boat that had been dispatched to assist the tanker.

When the CB transmission reported the Can Do's radar and antenna had been swept overboard and the boat was sailing blind in the storm, Linquata and Estes jumped into their Jeep and frantically combed the coast. They never knew, until Tougias brought them together, that fellow Gloucester resident Doug Parsons, Bucko's best friend, was only minutes behind them in the same search effort.

"It's unbelievable. We were all together that night and we didn't even know it," Estes said.

They all feel like Tougias and the book finally brought together the pieces of the puzzle and helped bring closure to the different parts they played in the 47-foot pilot boat's tragic story.

"We are all best friends now," said Quirk. "Sharon, Doug, Gard, Mike — we call each other all the time. Mike just did such an incredible job. We can finally put the pieces together and talk about what's been weighing on us all this time. We've all become such good friends now. I enjoy Gloucester again: the people, the Boulevard, the boats. It's my second home again."

Quirk hopes that the crew's legacy is one of compassion and selflessness.

"I just want it to be known that there are people that will go out of their way to help anyone for no other reason than they needed help," he said. "Maybe this book will bring to light that the people of Gloucester will go out of their way to help their neighbors. There is a special kind of camaraderie in this harbor and I don't think it was lost with the Can Do. It was my father's legacy and all their legacy but I think it's Gloucester's legacy, too."

The next four months are busy ones for Tougias. He will be touring the region with presentations about the Can Do, including a slide presentation with maps of the Can Do's course, the site where it was found and photos of the Can Do when it was a working vessel. Quirk will be accompanying Tougias for many area presentations.

A Gloucester stop on this tour is expected but an official date has yet to be confirmed.