If you are in the New York area come help celebrate Lilac, America’s only steam-powered lighthouse tender at a Maritime Mardi Gras fundraiser on Fat Tuesday, February 9th from 6 – 8 PM on 79 Walker Street on the 6th floor, (one block south of Canal between Layfatte and Broadway), in Manhattan. Let the good times roll with cocktails, light appetizers, and a silent auction.

Wear your maritime festive best. Mardi gras beads will be provided. Gerry Weinstein will offer tours of his model railroad, steam engines and industrial artifact collection at the end of the evening. The silent auction will include a cruise on the beautiful yacht Ventura, scrimshaw art by Barry Greene, sailing lessons from Sailors NYC, custom maritime tours and more. You must be there to bid! Get your tickets here. Lilac volunteers and former USCG crew and SIU cadets can register for free. If you can’t make it please donate.

The Lilac Preservation Project is celebrating another successful year of public arts and education programs on board the former Coast Guard lighthouse tender Lilac at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25, including a new children’s story hour. Museum Director and President, Mary Habstritt will recognize the team of volunteers who contribute hundreds of hours to the ship every year, announce plans for 2016 and report on progress toward restoring the ship to operate on steam power once again.

Habstritt says, “Historic ships, like Lilac, play an important role in revealing the development of technology over time. Our efforts to restore Lilac will put a rare ship back into operation and enhance opportunities for maritime education. We have the additional honor and duty to tell the stories of the hardworking Coast Guardsmen who keep ships and mariners safe in America’s waters.” The ship has been providing free public programs in Tribeca since 2011.

Lilac is America’s only surviving steam-powered lighthouse tender. The U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Lilac was built in 1933, supplying lighthouses and maintaining buoys for forty years on the Delaware River until she was retired in 1972. This unique ship, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and eligible to be a National Historic Landmark, is open to the public as a free museum from May to October at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25. Founded in 2003, the 501c3 not-for-profit Lilac Preservation Program plans to overhaul the ship and restore the steam boilers, with a mission to preserve stories of the working waterfront and help prepare for a sustainable future using steam technology. For more information click here.