A crowded Greenport Fire Department meeting room erupted in cheers and applause last night as Erin Short of Tall Ships America presented the village with the 2015 Port City of the Year Award.
The award, announced by Tall Ships America on Jan. 30 at its annual conference in Quebec City, is given in recognition of the event’s overall success, according to Erin Short of Tall Ships America.
Village officials could not attend the January conference, so Tall Ships America came to Greenport yesterday.
Short presented Mayor George Hubbard Jr. with a framed award that Hubbard said the village will proudly display in Village Hall.
“2015 was the third time Greenport has hosted the ships. You knew what you were getting into and yet you persevered,” Short said.
“To be a Tall Ships Challenge port you must be creative, resourceful and enthusiastic,” she said. Greenport was all of those things, in stellar fashion.
“You had a strong team – community, stakeholders, sponsors volunteers and staff,” she said, praising the efforts of staff, the steering committee, the East End Seaport Museum, the Business Improvement District, the mayor, Village Clerk Silvia Pirillo and Trustee Julia Robins.
“It is my absolute honor to present the Tall Ships America 2015 Port Of The Year Award to the Village of Greenport,” Short said, handing Hubbard the award and posing for pictures.
“Without all of us pulling together, it never would have happened,” Hubbard said, accepting the award on behalf of the village, “the village board, the steering committee, the sponsors, all the volunteers, everybody that did this. We all worked together for a common goal and it all went so smoothly.” The mayor thanked the community for its support and “putting up with the traffic.”
“The whole community did this and I just want to thank everybody for that. We made Greenport shine really bright.”
