Thursday Night we are having a blow out to “Celebrate Gloucester” at Lat 43.  Mark McDonough asked me to put together a movie of man on the street “Why I love Gloucester interviews” which we will show during the evening.  There are going to be free I Heart Gloucester Bumper stickas.  There’s going to be contests and giveaways.   Also there have been a bunch of folks who will be celebrity bartenders.  I’ve also been asked to fill a shift as a celebrity bartender.  My shift will be at 8:30PM if any of my peeps (that means you if you’re reading this) want to come by and show some love.

So let’s get to the good part shall we?  The Hop Skip and Go Nekkid Part.   I knew you wanted to so I won’t bore you with the rest of the details til later on in the post.

This morning at 3:30AM it struck me!  I shot up out of bed with an eureka moment!   I was semi-sweating the celebrity bartender part as I’m no mixologist but y’all know when I have a project I come big!   So this past weekend we had a dinner party at the house of some very special friends- The Foster’s.  The Foster’s served up Hop, Skip and Go Nekkid’s at the dinner party and not only did they serve them, but they served them in Mason Jars!  What’s better than drinking out of mason jars FFS!  so I put in numerous emails and phone calls til I got to my boy McDonough to get the green light for the purchase of several cases of Mason Jars!   He being a man of great wisdom and vision whole heartily agreed with my plan to have each celebrity bartender create a signature drink for the evening.

What’s in a Hop, Skip and Go Nekkid you ask?  Well since you asked I’ll tell ya- Beauport Vodka, Lemonade and Beer!  You can’t even taste the booze but they get you shithammered in a hurry!  You’re gonna love em, trust me!

So make sure all you hot bitches and hos make your way to Lat 43 Thursday night and Party like a rockstar with your boy.

Now for all the other stuff-

Lat 43’s official Press release-

Celebrating Gloucester – Raising Funds for Rebuilding Newell Stadium

On Thursday, April 29, the community of Gloucester will come together at Latitude 43 to celebrate all the people, organizations and places that make this such a great community.  Although one never needs a reason to have a good time, on the 29^th of April we will be partying with a purpose!  The goal of this celebration is to raise funds for The Gloucester Fishermen Athletic Organization (GFAA) in their efforts to keep Gloucester sports alive.  More specifically, the event will help raise funds for the GFAA to offset the continually rising price of sports user fees, thereby increasing access to and participation in youth sports programs, regardless of family income or individual athletic ability.

Mark McDonough, owner of Latitude 43, decided to do a fund raiser for the GFAA after hearing of the cause from Gordon Baird when asked to design the poster for the “Battle of the Bands.”  “I never felt like I had a home town until I moved to Gloucester,” McDonough says, “I’ve never seen a town with as much heart as Gloucester.  We fight a lot over the schools, the fort, the police, the firemen, the hospital, harbor, the traffic patterns, whatever.  But it’s because we care.  I think that our passionate love of our community is worth highlighting and celebrating.”

And, of course, Gloucester loves a party – a block party, a high school super bowl party, a fiesta party, a beach party, a private party.  We love to party.  “That’s why it makes so much sense to raise money for the GFAA with a party.  We may have our issues, and it seems the whole universe knows it, but we love this place and we love to celebrate the GOOD of this island like nobody else,” says Jennifer Goulart Amero, Director of Events and Marketing for the restaurant group.  “We’re going to focus on the positive and make this a fun and memorable evening for a something else we love – Fisherman sports.”

“Latitude is providing free food.  There will be free tasting booths by Gloucester’s own spirit mastes Ryan and Wood Distillery and Fishermen’s Brew.  Joey Ciaramitaro, blog-meister of “Good Morning Gloucester” will unveil his latest video of “man on the street” interviews answering the question, “Why I Love Gloucester…”  Local DJ Leo Francis will be spinning tunes and a host of celebrity bartenders will be serving drinks with all tips going to the GFAA.  Celebrity bartenders include Joe Ciaramitaro, Sefatia Romeo Theken, Geoffrey Richon, Deborah Coull, Ruth Pino, Lenny Linquata, Vito Giacalone, members of the Gloucester School Committee, and more.  A prize raffle including a fully catered graduation party, signed sports memorabilia and other terrific items will contribute to the potential for funds, as well as a 50/50 raffle and I Heart Gloucester T-shirt sales (part of a summer long positive image campaign and long-term sports fundraiser) will add to the mix to help raise even more money, keeping user fees down for even more kids.

$5 at the door goes directly to the GFAA for this year’s user fees.  A 50-50 raffle will go half to athletic fees and half to a lucky winner.  GFAA has organized a silent auction and Jen Waitkus manager of Lat 43 has devised her own raffle for raising funds:

• • FIRST PRIZE: Free Catered Graduation Party valued at $500
  • SECOND PRIZE: Sushi & Spirits Gift Basket with Ryan & Wood Spirits& Latitude 43 Sushi
  • THIRD PRIZE: Beer Lover’s Bash Gift Basket with Fisherman’s Brew & 10 lbs Lat 43 Wings

Current student user fees are between $295 and $395 per sport, a seriously prohibitive amount for many families.  Furthermore, most students play more than one sport within each school year, which increases the financial burden carried by each family.  The increasing cost is the result of a decrease in funding for school sports and the school committee’s efforts to make athletics self-funding.  The GFAA’s creation was prompted by the imbalance in cost and funding, and their sole purpose is to raise money toward universal decreases in user fees for all sports.  According to Jonathon Pope of the GFAA “what happens is top tier athletes will find funding.  It’s the third stringers or the kids that only go in when the team is winning who choose not to pay the fees to play.  So only the stars athletes are out there.  Participation is down all across the board.  We want every kid to get a chance to play, whether they are stars or not.  That’s what we work for”.