EDDON BOAT TO WELCOME THE PUBLIC IN GIG HARBOR SEPTEMBER 30TH

http://www.gigharborguide.com/

Gig Harbor makes a giant leap forward in completing its vision to preserve its unique maritime heritage when the Eddon Boat Building opens to the public on Wednesday September 30th 2009. The public is invited to join the celebration with an open house beginning at 1:00 p.m., dedication and ribbon cutting at 4:00 p.m. and food and fun following.

The story of Eddon Boat is an exciting tale of how people with a passion can make things happen in any community. In 2004, a grassroots group, called Friends of Eddon Boat, spearheaded a campaign to save Eddon Boatyard - a historic boat building facility right on Gig Harbor Bay. As a result of this effort, sixty-two percent of Gig Harbor residents voted "yes" to pass a $3.2M bond that year, enabling the City of Gig Harbor to purchase the site and preserve both the building and its historic use as a community boatyard.

In 2005 core members of Friends of Eddon Boat formed a non-profit organization called Gig Harbor Boatshopo and began a partnership with the city to plan for the future use of the Eddon Boat site as a publicly accessible boat building programming facility. In 2006 the City of Gig Harbor was awarded a Washington State Heritage Gran for $1M to begin work on the site.

Now, late in 2009 the public is invited to have a look at all the work that has been done to the facility. The September 30th event will also serve as Gig Harbor BoatShop's introduction, now that they have entered into a 20 year lease with the city to use the location. The Gig Harbor BoatShop's mission "To preserve, interpret and perpetuate Gig Harbor's historic working waterfront, the traditional small boatyard and Northwest maritime heritage" shows their committment to providing interpretive and public education programs.

The September 30th event will provide the public information regarding the planned programming and use of the building and what the next steps are to pilot this new and exciting development in Gig Harbor's commitment to maritime heritage preservation in our community.