Dear Editor,

The Lions year ended on June 30^th but for me it went through Harbor Days.  This year’s festival was an unqualified success.  Many members of the Mattapoisett Lions and Lions from surrounding towns volunteered many hours to make this event as successful as it is.  All their hard work would be for nothing if the Town of Mattapoisett was not behind Harbor Days 100%.

Without the cooperation and assistance of the Fire Department, Police Department, Board of Selectmen, Building Inspection, Highway Department, Town Administrator and their staff Harbor Days would not be the great festival we all enjoyed last week. On behalf of the Mattapoisett Lions I want to express my sincere gratitude for all that the Town does to make this a success.  I wish I could name everyone individually but there are so many and I don’t want to forget anyone.  Thank you thank you thank you!

I also wanted to tell you all about a couple of firsts for Harbor Days.  On Friday evening towards the end of their set Mike Couto of Couto and Mulligan sang a very special song.  Just as he finished this beautiful love song the words “will you marry me?” were broadcast on the ceiling of the tent just over the stage.  The answer was yes, by the way!

The other first involved the Whale Boats excursions and an unfortunate couple in rowing out to their boat on Sunday afternoon.  The winds were very strong and the harbor was quite choppy.  The couple had just passed the floating dock on middle wharf when a wave came over the bow swamping the dinghy.  They ended up capsizing and drifting into the wharf.  The staff from Whaling City Rowing Club jumped into the whaling boat, moved to the stearn as it was hanging past the end of the floating dock and were able to rescue the couple and their gear and bring them safely unto the dock.

So we had a very exciting Harbor Days in more ways than we planned, but as the old saying goes “All’s well that ends well”.  And Harbor Days ended well for all involved.

Thank you again to the Town and everyone there who helped and all the volunteers from the various clubs and the many others who gave so much of their person time to ensure the success.  There is one person I do want to single out and that is my wife.  She not only put up with the long hours it took to plan and run Harbor Days but also volunteered many hours of her time to help over the weekend.

My term is up and the new King Lion, Joe Murray, will guide us through the coming year as well as Harbor Days.

Thank you all,

Don Bamberger

Mattapoisett