{"id":1694,"date":"2022-11-28T18:54:13","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T18:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marereport.namma.org\/?p=1694"},"modified":"2024-01-19T20:50:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T20:50:35","slug":"christmas-at-anchor-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marereport.namma.org\/index.php\/2022\/11\/28\/christmas-at-anchor-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas at Anchor House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/marereport.namma.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/NAMMA-CHRISTMAS-AT-ANCHOR-HOUSE-NOVEMBER-28-2022-BY-SUSAN-HUPPERT.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption>Article audio (courtesy Don Sheetz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>by Susan Huppert, NAMMA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nestled just south of the bustling Port of Tampa, Florida on Tampa Bay, is Port Manatee; a deep water seaport on the Gulf of Mexico. While a comparatively smaller port, it\u2019s geographic footprint and impact in the shipping industry is increasing with an annual economic impact of more than $5.1 billion. Despite its welcome growth, ships that dock at Port Manatee find it a warm and personal place because of a ministry to seafarers \u2013 Anchor House. Personal care matters, particularly during the holidays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Anchor House mission began its outreach\nto seafarers in 1991. Its initial purpose, to meet the physical, emotional and\nspiritual needs of seafarers included a Christmas Ditty Bag Program to remember\nthose at sea. A hand-knit watch cap for each seafarer was crafted by prayer\npartners and global thinkers. Even through a worldwide pandemic, its\nvolunteers, sewers and knitters continue with seafarers in the foreground of\ntheir Christmas plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t count all the knitters and\nsewers,\u201d said Trish Alligood, Anchor House General Manager. \u201cWhen that\ngeneration dies I don\u2019t know what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anchor House gives a Christmas gift to\nevery seafarer visiting Port Manatee from November to January. The coordinated\neffort involves caring people who create throughout the year, volunteers and\nchurch organizers delivering, and others even adding messages to each knitted hat.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the pandemic, Anchor House, like most other non-profits lost many of its older volunteers. Now, new ones are joining. Eight young women from the State College of Florida recently donated a day to prepare ditty bags for delivery to ships. Snapshots of smiling seafarers holding ditty bags are captured on Facebook pages and are sent to family members around the world. Many captains reserve the gifts to give at sea on Christmas Day.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI took some ditty bags onboard the other\nday,\u201d said Alligood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cThis\nis just what we are going to need Christmas morning,\u201d a Filipino seafarer\nresponded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to face-to-face distribution, Alligood\ncan witness that the mission is bringing holiday cheer that travels. There is\nan understanding among this invisible workforce about strangers caring about them.\nHandmade items impress them that real people really care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI love that they sense that the ditty bags\nand hats are from many hands,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Port of Manatee has four ships that return very regularly. For those, the consistency allows the mission to plan shared meals, worship services, small parties and opportunities for deeper connections and support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the many others sailing the globe with short turn-around times and ever-changing ports of delivery, Anchor House\u2019s Ditty Bag Program will hopefully resonate as sincere care and concern regardless of where each seafarer finds himself on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AnchorHouseMission\">Anchor House Facebook<\/a><\/em>. <em>Eight young women from the State College of Florida recently donated a day to prepare ditty bags for delivery to ships. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Susan Huppert, NAMMA Nestled just south of the bustling Port of Tampa, Florida on Tampa Bay, is Port Manatee; a deep water seaport on the Gulf of Mexico. While a comparatively smaller port, it\u2019s geographic footprint and impact in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[386],"tags":[561,242,562,560,39],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","tag-anchor-house","tag-christmas","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-sailors","tag-seafarers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Christmas at Anchor House - The MARE Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the heartwarming tradition of the Christmas Ditty Bag Program at Anchor House, located near the Port of Manatee in Florida.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marereport.namma.org\/index.php\/2022\/11\/28\/christmas-at-anchor-house\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas at Anchor House - 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