 This is Roger Burley. It's a July afternoon. We might have a storm approaching, but nonetheless, I am out here on Fort Gorge's in Portland Harbor for CTN member highlights. And today, we're here witnessing and filming an event which is being put on by our newest member of CTN, Friends of Fort Gorge's. And this is going to be a picnic and a friend razor and a moment for people who have never been out to Fort Gorge's, where people have been able to see from about a mile away for most of their lives, if not all of their lives, and are now here for the first time. And so, we are going to talk to a lot of the folks who are here, some of the folks who are organizers, some of the folks who are guests, and just see how this event takes shape. So, right now, at the beginning of this event, I'm standing here with Paul Drynen, who is the Executive Director of the Friends of Fort Gorge's. So, Paul, it's a great day here in the harbor. This is a fabulous historic fort that I've had the pleasure of being on many times. But what is going on today? Today, we're having a picnic for supporters and people who are potential supporters. To bring them out to the fort, this is an opportunity for people who have been here before to meet our historian, maybe hear some things that they don't know about the fort, and to give people who haven't been here before an opportunity to see this amazing structure and to actually see how it's falling apart and really needs help being restored. Well, the Friends of Fort Gorge is about 15 years old, I think. And so, there's new energy in the organization, and its charitable status has been resuscitated, and we even have a boat that we are going to be looking at in a moment. That's exciting, but the whole idea of spending a beautiful July afternoon here on the fort, and especially in the weekend where the tall ships are right over there across the way in Portland Harbor. So, how is this tied in with the tall ships event, if at all, Paul? Well, we wanted to bring people out here on this day in particular because these magnificent tall ships are here, and Alex Agnew, the head of the tall ships project, contacted us months ago, and just we've been partnering and sharing social media, and we really wanted people to be out here tall ships weekend and see these magnificent vessels. And there were camera crews out here yesterday shooting the vessels as they went by in the parade of sail. And it was just an amazing sight to see these old, the El Galeón and the Columbia and these amazing schooners and these tall ships to go by this beautiful structure, which, you know, of course, was being built at the time that these ships were being used. Yeah, this fort dates to 1858, and had plans to defend Portland Harbor for the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II. It's quite a history here, and there's some great forts along the New England coast. I believe that this one is matched up with one in Boston Harbor. It's the only mate to this one, as Joel Eastman, I believe, has told me. There had to be 500, 600, 700 pleasure boats out here watching the tall ships yesterday, and it was just a chilling experience. So where were you yesterday for that event? Well, Friends of Fort Gorgias was lucky enough to have a boat donated to us to bring our feasibility team out here and supporters back and forth. So yesterday was our first day on the water with the new vessel, and we want to thank Tim Nichols, who ironically is a historic preservation engineer from New Hampshire. That's why he was supportive of this project. And so I was out there with our board treasurer, Susan Hasson, and we went out and just got an up-close look at these amazing, amazing ships. And ironically, I wanted to, you mentioned the fort being built in 1858, was actually completed in 1865. So this year, 2015, is the fort's 150th birthday, and the guests don't know it yet, but we have a 150 birthday cake waiting for people. So that's sort of the trick up the sleeve today is we're going to sing happy birthday to the fort. Sesquicentennial, maybe? 150? Something like that. Five, five souls. Okay. So you were resting all day yesterday, and so was I. Let's get some of these granite blocks moved back in place. What do you say? We'll start with this one right here. Sounds good. Okay. So now I'm here inside Fort Gorgias with Hillary Bassett, the head of Greater Portland Landmarks. Hillary, is this your first time in the fort? This is actually my second time that I've forgotten how incredible it is. It's really a surprise to see the scale of this building on the inside and the great ground, the construction, all the details of the brickwork and the granite work. It's really quite spectacular. It is a spectacular, unique place right in the middle of the city of Portland that people rarely can get to. So what does this mean in a sense of landmarks? Well I think this is a place that is very special to Portland. It really helps to find our city and our harbor, and it would be incredible to have more access. It's going to be a challenge to keep the right balance in my mind, to have the safety and accessibility, but without changing it and making it a Disney world. I have no interest in that myself. Because it has a lot of needs. It has some structural needs that really have to be addressed. There's masonry that needs to be repaired, there's safety aspects. But given that, we know sites all over the country where they were overcome, those kinds of obstacles, and this is a really special place. So I think we need to find a way to get this back in the public domain so people can enjoy part of their history. And that's what the Friends of Fort Gorges intends to shepherd and manage along in partnership and collaboration with the city of Portland, which will retain ownership. That's great. The Friends of Fort Gorges are fantastic. I have not met a group that is more energetic and more committed to saving this place. And we're very, landmarks, very excited about supporting those efforts and helping them get as much visibility and support as possible. Great. Thanks a lot. And now I'm back outside the fort with Aaron Frederick, who I came to know through another island association, Ripple Effect Program, Cow Island. Aaron, you're on the board of the Friends of Fort Gorges with me. As Paul said, name and name. I'm looking forward to doing some fun stuff and some important stuff here. But tell us how you became involved with Friends of Fort Gorges. Well, originally I met Paul on this founding Ripple Effect expedition. In 1999, we both met Ted Regan, who invited us to paddle from Lubex, Maine, all the way down east at the Canadian border down to Key West Florida. And that was the original incarnation of Ripple Effect, the organization. When we came back, we started doing the more of the organization as it's known today, serving youth in Casco Bay. So Paul pulled me aside about a year ago and said, hey, I'm thinking of getting more involved with Fort Gorges. And there was a nonprofit organization that needs some energy. Would you be interested in helping out? And helping out, of course, turned into becoming vice president of the board very quickly because Paul's got that kind of skill. Very clear. Yeah, yeah. So I also recently took a job with the Friends of the Presumscot River, which is another small nonprofit. And as I started that organization, working with them, Paul and I put in at Subego Lake, paddled all the way down the Presumscot River and ended up just out here in Casco Bay. So it feels very fitting. I feel excited to be serving with both organizations and bookending the Presumscot River. So it feels good to be a board. We have a ton of work to do here, but it's also amazing to see what's possible. I think for a lot of folk, they look at Fort Gorges as a white whale, something that can't be achieved. But you look at some of the other stage three ports, what they're called stage three. They all the way down the coast. We just heard from the historian that there are many more of these, and they have been renovated well. They have been dealt with. So some of the structural issues that are here, we're going to take care of.