If you are in the neighborhood, this is a most worthwhile event.  There is also exiting news. At the fundraiser, the Lilac Preservation Project will announce the launching of a campaign to restore steam to the Lilac, a 1933 lighthouse tender that once carried supplies to lighthouses and maintained buoys for the U.S. Lighthouse Service and the U.S. Coast Guard. Decommissioned in 1972, USCGC LILAC is now a museum ship owned by the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project. The project will restore her boilers and overhaul the original machinery to put her back in operation. From their press release:

On Wednesday, November 12, Lilac Preservation Project will host its first fundraiser at Cercle Rouge Restaurant in Tribeca. The organization is celebrating a record-breaking year of attendance at its public arts and education programs on board the lighthouse tender Lilac at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25. Lilac Preservation Project’s Museum Director and President, Mary Habstritt will announce plans for 2015, including launch of a capital campaign to restore the steam boilers and overhaul the ship’s systems to operate as a sustainable seafaring vessel.

Habstritt says, “Historic ships, like Lilac, play an important role in waterfront education and revealing the value of skilled maritime trades. Our efforts to restore steam boilers will put a rare ship back into operation and showcase steam propulsion as a valuable and under-recognized energy system.”

The fundraiser will be a cocktail reception at Cercle Rouge restaurant, within view of the ship at 241 W. Broadway. A silent auction includes one 14-pound chocolate turkey donated by Li-Lac Chocolates, one naval pea coat donated by Schott NYC, one 1882 print of John Stobart’s “Maiden Lane by Gaslight from a Ship at Pier 19” privately donated, and one harbor cruise donated by Tribeca Sailing, among other exciting items. Tickets are available at $50 and $100 levels and may be purchased online here.  To learn more visit the LILAC Preservation Project.