Angling for a Sea Change

‘Perfect Storm’ author creates charity to help fishermen’s families

When Warner Bros. Studios blew into town last September to film scenes for this summer’s blockbuster movie, The Perfect Storm, they brought with them a $25,000

check for The Perfect Storm Foundation — a charity set up by Sebastian Junger, who wrote the book on which the film is based.

Two weeks ago, the foundation, which helps the children of commercial fishermen, received a crumpled note from two girls at a summer camp in upstate New York, along with a dollar and three quarters — all the cash they had on hand.

“Dear Ladies and Gentlemen at The Perfect Storm Foundation,” the note read, “I just finished reading The Perfect Storm and was left very sad for the families of men who died at sea. I’m at camp so this is all the money that me and my friends could fish out from our wallets. We hope you appreciate this money.”

Though the fund is associated with a movie that took $160-million to make and has already grossed more than $130-million, the vast majority of donations to The Perfect Storm Foundation, located here in one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial fishing ports, have tended to be relatively small.

Most of the gifts have come from people who were moved by Mr. Junger’s meticulously researched and mesmerizing account of a crew of swordfishermen caught in a brutal tempest at sea. There have been no six-figure donations from the filmmakers or movie stars connected with the picture, nor is there a mention of The Perfect Storm Foundation in the film’s credits, though the charity had made several such requests.

The largest contributions have come from Mr. Junger himself, though he won’t reveal their size. The fund has received more than $250,000 since it was established two years ago, and has distributed $20,000 in grants, including a $12,000 scholarship to a son of one of the fishermen who perished in the 1991 storm chronicled by Mr. Junger in his book.

While the popularity of the book and movie, as well as a link to the charity’s Web site from the movie’s official Web site, are helping to bring in plenty of small gifts, the leaders of The Perfect Storm Foundation know that they need to move fast to capitalize on the opportunities that come from being associated with a popular film.

The big challenge now, says the group’s executive director, is to keep The Perfect Storm Foundation afloat in the public’s consciousness, and to build it into an organization that can provide educational and cultural opportunities not only for the children of Gloucester’s fishing families but also for children from fishing communities all over the world.

Inspired by Sacrifice

Mr. Junger, who serves as chairman of the foundation’s board, decided to start the charity in large part because he was deeply moved by his conversations with commercial fishermen who spent weeks at a time at sea, often in perilous conditions, so that they could earn enough to support their families.

One of those he spoke with was Charlie Reed, former captain of the Andrea Gail, the boat that went down in the 1991 storm.

“His family had been in Gloucester since the 1600’s, and he had quit school at age 14 to work on fishing boats,” Mr. Junger says. “He continued swordfishing much longer than he wanted because it was such good money and he wanted to be able to send his kids to any school that they wanted to go to.” In the case of one son, he says, that meant Harvard. That son is now a successful investment banker.

“I was amazed at how much Charlie Reed valued education,” says Mr. Junger, who grew up in a well-to-do family and graduated from Wesleyan University, “and at the decision he made to do an extremely difficult, dangerous form of fishing just to send a kid to Harvard.”

The other motivating factor, he says, was the phenomenal response to his book, a two-and-a-half-year endeavor through which he supported himself by working as a climber for tree-pruning companies. The book’s popular success, which turned him into a millionaire, took him completely by surprise, Mr. Junger says.

“I was an unsuccessful writer for all of my 20’s and most of my 30’s,” he says. “After the book tour died down, it struck me that I had just experienced a tremendous stroke of good fortune as the result of the death of seven men.”

He adds, “I never felt like I exploited the death, but philosophically, it just felt like the right thing to do to acknowledge that Gloucester and the events surrounding the storm had significantly improved and changed my life in this weird way.”

Mr. Junger explains that he is keeping private the size of his two donations to the Perfect Storm Foundation because he does not want to invite people to speculate about his motivation or make judgments about his financial status, although he does admit that “both times it was more money than I’d ever made in a year in my life before the book came out.”

He adds: “Gloucester is a particularly beleaguered town economically. To have this kind of success as a result of the woes of this industry makes it a sensitive subject.”

Decline of the Fisheries

Indeed, Gloucester’s fishing industry confronts challenges beyond the physical danger faced by fishermen. Several years ago, because of depleted stocks of cod, haddock, yellowtail, and other species, the federal government placed restrictions on commercial fishing, forcing the fisheries to suspend operations for up to six months of the year.

That’s a huge financial loss for a community where 40 percent of residents are tied to the fishing industry, says Ann-Margaret Ferrante, executive director of the Massachusetts Fisheries Recovery Commission, a group that brings fishermen and scientists together to develop ways to resolve fishing crises.

“Some of the fisherman have reported to me that their income is now 30 percent of what it once was,” says Ms. Ferrante, who also sits on the board of The Perfect Storm Foundation.

The situation isn’t entirely bleak. Some fishermen have taken the government up on its offer to buy back fishing permits, and they now participate in job-retraining programs. And the city’s economy is increasingly diverse, thanks to a growing tourist trade and a smattering of new high-technology companies that have been lured to the area by its rugged coastal character and its proximity to Boston. Still, says Ms. Ferrante, for many lifelong fishermen there is no option but the sea.

“These men take pride in being independent and providing for their families,” she says. “From where they stand, it’s not that they don’t have a job, it’s just that they’re being restricted by the government from doing their job.”

Intangible Benefits

Mr. Junger says he is glad that his book has brought some attention to the issues faced by commercial fishermen. But, he says, “the good that a book like mine does is pretty intangible. It raises public awareness, but how do you quantify that?”

He adds: “If you can actually have an impact on people’s lives, that’s even better.”

To make sure his foundation would make a difference, Mr. Junger enlisted the help of Jeanne Blake, a former television medical reporter who runs Family Health Productions, a non-profit organization she started that produces videos, books, and other materials on health issues.

Ms. Blake, a Gloucester resident, shared Mr. Junger’s belief that the children of the town’s fishermen would benefit from learning about opportunities outside the fishing industry. She agreed to serve as the volunteer president of the board.

“We are not trying to talk kids into not being fishermen,” says Ms. Blake. “We just want to make sure that by the time they get there and they’ve made that decision, that they’ve had a choice, that it’s not something they have to do because they can’t do anything else or they haven’t been exposed to any other opportunities.”

While the charity does provide some scholarships, it also encourages youths to seek funds to pursue other sorts of cultural and social activities that interest them.

One teenager, a troubled boy who had spent very little time outside Gloucester, applied for and received a $700 scholarship to spend a week at the Wooden Boat School in Maine. “He didn’t go to learn how to build wooden boats,” Ms. Blake says. “He went to be exposed to new people and to be able to feel good about himself. This was an adventure for this boy, and by all accounts it was a memorable week.”

Another youth received a $1,000 grant so that he could work fewer hours in a local grocery store this summer and use the extra time to be a mentor to a younger boy.

A Volunteer Steps Forward

If Mr. Junger was inspired by the stories of fishermen to start his charity, it was Mr. Junger who inspired Dierdre Savage to take on the day-to-day job of running the charity.

A real-estate developer in Cambridge, Mass., she had little connection to the non-profit world, but like countless others, she had read Mr. Junger’s book. One evening in 1998, while commuting from work to a home she had recently purchased in Gloucester, she happened to tune into an interview with Mr. Junger on National Public Radio during which he mentioned The Perfect Storm Foundation.

“He appeared to be very committed to the foundation, and I thought it was really commendable that he had done it and that he cared enough to have done it,” she says, “and for the first time in my life I called to volunteer.”

Before she knew it, she had left her job and become executive director of the charity, drawing no salary her first year.

“I’m lucky, because I was in a financially sound position where I was able to do that,” she says.

Ms. Savage and Ms. Blake were not the only ones inspired to volunteer their time to make The Perfect Storm Foundation a success.

Ned Savoie, creative director of Harbour Light Productions, in Portsmouth, N.H., offered to design and maintain the group’s Internet site after reading the book and learning about the charity.

Since 1999, Harbour Light has invested more than $15,000 worth of design time on the site, which, among other things, provides a history of commercial fishing in Gloucester and allows visitors to make a donation or purchase T-shirts and other articles with the charity’s logo.

Casting a Wide Net

After Mr. Junger sold the film rights to his book and Warner Bros. took on the project, the fledgling charity decided to focus its energy on preparing to handle the influx of inquiries — and, it hoped, donations — that were likely to come with the publicity surrounding the film.

Ms. Blake flew to Los Angeles and talked to Warner Bros. executives about the charity. She persuaded them to include a link to The Perfect Storm Foundation (http://www.perfectstorm.org) on the film’s Web site (http://www.perfectstorm.net).

And, Mr. Junger got the studio to agree to a preview showing of the movie at a benefit screening in Danvers, Mass., two days before its official release last month — although the charity had to sell at least 500 tickets at $50 apiece before the studio would commit to the event. The benefit raised $25,000 in ticket sales, plus an additional $2,000 in sales of merchandise.

Mr. Junger was disappointed that the filmmakers declined to include any information about the foundation at the end of the movie, but he says the film has helped in numerous other ways.

“My book is still on bestseller lists because of the movie,” he says. “The book has an announcement about the foundation.”

He adds: “There’s going to be a huge influx of people going to Gloucester and spending money in Gloucester because of the movie. We’re selling thousands of dollars a week in merchandise, and it’s all going straight to the foundation.”

Still, only one actor connected with the film has made a donation to the charity, and it wasn’t stars George Clooney or Mark Wahlberg but rather John Hawkes, who plays one of the doomed fishermen.

According to Ms. Savage, Mr. Hawkes mailed in a $500 contribution from Los Angeles before coming to town to film, after he read Mr. Junger’s book. He made no mention of his part in the movie, and it was only months later, after Ms. Savage was introduced to cast members on the set, that she realized the actor was the same John Hawkes from Los Angeles who had sent the donation.

Local Residents Pitch In

Meanwhile, Ms. Savage says, she’s gotten plenty of assistance on the local front. The owners of a small tourist shop volunteered to take over the charity’s merchandise sales. Scott Memhard, president of Cape Pond Ice Company, which supplies ice to commercial fishing boats, has done his part to spread the word.

Thanks to a paragraph in Mr. Junger’s book describing Cape Pond Ice T-shirts (which include the motto “The Coolest Guys Around”) and to the prominent exposure the T-shirts get in the movie, Mr. Memhard has seen mail-order requests skyrocket. With each shirt that he mails out, he includes a brochure for The Perfect Storm Foundation.

And Ann Ziergiebel, a seventh-grade teacher in Gloucester who has used Mr. Junger’s book in her classroom to teach everything from art to history, is helping the charity develop curriculums for junior-high and high-school students that could be shared with school districts across the country.

Eventually, Ms. Savage says, she hopes to create an interactive forum on the charity’s Web site in which students from maritime communities all over the globe can share their work and stories.

She is currently looking for someone with experience in technology in education to take on the project. The next step, says Ms. Blake, is securing the financing from corporations and foundations to develop the Internet project.

“If we’re going to build a lasting legacy, which is what Sebastian wants, then we’ll have to turn to traditional forms of fund raising after we get off people’s radar screens,” she says.

Adds Ms. Savage, “We are going to last a lot longer than a Hollywood blockbuster.”

Purpose:

Established in 1998 by Sebastian Junger, author of the best-selling book The Perfect Storm, to provide educational and cultural opportunities to the children of people who work in the commercial fishing industry. The organization, which currently assists children living in Gloucester, Mass., hopes to grow to support children of fishing families nationwide.

Finances: The organization has brought in about $250,000 since it was created.

Sources of funds: The author has made two large gifts to the organization and has pledged to continue to make annual contributions. Most of the other donations have come from people who have learned about the charity through reading Mr. Junger’s book.

Key officials: Sebastian Junger, founder and chairman of the Board of Directors; Jeanne Blake, president of the Board of Directors; Dierdre Savage, executive director.

Address: P.O. Box 1941, Gloucester, Mass. 01931-1941; (978) 283-2903.

World Wide Web site: http://www.perfectstorm.org