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Lustgarten Foundation

2024 Port Jefferson Village Cup Regatta draws large crowd for a cause

by Ava Himmelsbach - September 13, 2024

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By Ava Himmelsbach

This past Saturday, Sept. 7, the Port Jefferson Yacht Club and Village of Port Jefferson held their annual Village Cup Regatta to raise money and awareness for Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Anyone interested was allowed to be a crew member on the sailboats, with no experience required.

The event included multiple activities throughout the day, with two main parts: a parade followed by a race. The parade ran from the outer harbor on the west across to the waterfront on the east. In the race, participants from the Village of Port Jefferson and Mather Hospital competed as part of the Village Cup Charity Fundraiser.

The parade allowed teams to circle the port on their boats, all of which were decorated with flags and banners, and wave to the large crowd of guests as a prelude to the race. Families gathered on the docks to view the parade, which was managed by Port Jefferson Yacht Club staff and accompanied by bagpiper Marty Sexton. The parade lasted about 45 minutes and helped the sailors adjust to sporadic wind patterns throughout the day.

Despite overcast weather and sudden rain, sailors and guests had a great time, creating memories of a lasting tradition likely to continue in years to come. Rain began shortly after the parade and continued lightly for a couple of hours. Fortunately, the showers did not interfere with the race, and sailors proceeded as planned.

Port Jefferson Yacht Club Village Cup Regatta Committee member Dianna Stackow managed the setup process for the post-race gathering. “We are here to set up for the party that happens after the race,” she said. “They have speeches, raffles, food, wine, beer; Ralph Macchio will be here, and some government representation.” The party began around 3:30 p.m., welcoming guests and participants as they finished the race and celebrated another year of the tradition. “This is our 15th year, and we are going to break $1 million [in donations]. We’re very proud because we’re such a small club, so it’s such a large thing for us to do. It’s just such a good feeling, all around, everyone, our little club, you know, close together, and it’s nice to see what we accomplish.”

After an exhilarating race, participants, families, and guests gathered at a party in the Port Jefferson Village Center to celebrate their efforts and the successful fundraising brought by this year’s regatta. Celebrity ambassador Ralph Macchio has supported the regatta — along with the two programs funded by it — for the last 10 years. He was present at the event this weekend, along with many returnees who have helped uphold this tradition for the past decade and a half.

The friendly competition ended with the Village of Port Jefferson team winning.

Port Jefferson Village Cup Regatta sets sail Sept. 10

by Heidi Sutton - September 8, 2022

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It’s time once again to sail for a cure as the 13th annual Village Cup Regatta, a friendly competition between Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson, returns on Saturday, Sept. 10.

Mayor Margot Garant, pictured with Regatta Ambassador Ralph Macchio, Mather Hospital Executive Director Kevin McGeachy and Stephanie McGeachy, accepted last year’s Village Cup on behalf of the Village of Port Jefferson.

Presented by the Port Jefferson Yacht Club, the Regatta raises funds for Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic cancer research. Last year’s Regatta raised more than $104,000 — a record sum — which was divided between Mather Hospital and the Lustgarten Foundation. The event has raised more than $750,000 over the past 12 years.

The Regatta consists of Yacht Club-skippered sailboats divided into two teams representing Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson. Employees from the Hospital and Village help crew the boats, which race in one of three classes based on boat size.

The festivities begin in Harborfront Park, 101 East Broadway in Port Jefferson Village, at 10 a.m, where you can purchase shirts, commemorative hats, nautical bags and mugs. The Memorial Parade of Boats begins at 11 a.m. at the Port Jefferson Village dock. All sailboats participating in the Regatta will pass by the park dressed in banners and nautical flags on their way out to the Long Island Sound for the race which begins at 1 p.m.

Actor, director and local resident Ralph Macchio will once again serve as Village Cup Regatta Celebrity Ambassador for the event. Macchio has helped to publicize the important work of the two programs funded by the Regatta for the last ten years. Macchio’s wife, Phyllis, is a nurse practitioner in Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program.

Following the Regatta, a celebratory Skipper’s Reception and presentation of the Village Cup will take place at 3:30 p.m. in a restored 1917 shipyard building that today serves as the Port Jefferson Village Center.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the reception ($50 per person includes food, wine, beer and raffles), please visit www.portjeffersonyachtclub.com or www.facebook.com/villagecupregatta. For further questions, call 631-512-1068.

Port Jefferson’s Village Cup Regatta sets sail Sept. 11

by Press Release - September 10, 2021

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Village-Cup-Regatta-2015-07_Savage — View the Memorial Parade of Boats before race. Photo by Bob Savage

The 12th annual Village Cup Regatta, a friendly competition between Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson, will sail with full crews this Saturday, September 11.

Join Ralph Macchio in supporting a most worthy cause. File photo by Bob Savage

Presented by the Port Jefferson Yacht Club, the Regatta raises funds for Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic cancer research. The event has raised almost $640,500 for the two organizations. Last year’s event was held without crew members due to the pandemic. The event raised $40,000, which was divided between Mather and Lustgarten.

Actor/director and local resident Ralph Macchio will again act as community ambassador for the event. This is the ninth year Macchio has helped to publicize the important work of the two programs funded by the Regatta. Macchio’s wife, Phyllis, is a nurse practitioner in Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program.

The festivities will begin at Harborfront Park in Port Jefferson Village at 10 a.m., where you can purchase t-shirts signed by Ralph Macchio, along with the event’s commemorative hats, nautical bags and mugs. The Memorial Parade of Boats begins at 11 a.m. at the Port Jefferson Village dock. All sailboats participating in the Regatta will pass by the park dressed in banners and nautical flags on their way out to the racecourse on Long Island Sound.

Following the race, a celebratory Skipper’s Reception and presentation of the Village Cup will take place in a restored 1917 shipyard building that now serves as the Port Jefferson Village Center.

Businesses, organizations and individuals can support the Regatta and the programs it funds by making a donation or purchasing tickets to attend the Skipper’s Reception or view the event on a spectator boat.. Sponsorships also are available. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit http://portjeffersonyachtclub.com/community/village-cup/ or www.facebook.com/villagecupregatta

PJ Regatta Raises $40K Despite Pandemic

by Kyle Barr - October 13, 2020

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COVID Race 2020 Checks — Cindy Court (left) from Mather and Susanne Igneri (right) from Lustgarten accepted the donations from Yacht Club members Gary Passavia, Chuck Chiaramonte and Karl Janhsen. Photo from Mather Hospital

The Port Jefferson Yacht Club, just by the nature of their craft, know how to navigate turbulent times.

It’s why even despite the pandemic and setbacks to its 11th annual Village Cup Regatta, the group still managed to raise $40,000 which is split between Mather Hospital and the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic cancer research.

Normally held in September, the regatta is a competition between teams for the Village of Port Jefferson and Mather Hospital. Whichever team wins gains the coveted trophy and bragging rights for the year, but the real purpose is to generate funds for pancreatic cancer research and cancer treatment. Last year the function raised $91,000

Chuck Chiaramonte, a past commodore for the yacht club who helps head the annual regatta, said they were pleasantly surprised to see just how many people still donated even in a time where many are experiencing financial hardship.

While the event is two-fold, one being the club’s outreach to the community to share their love of sailing and the other being its fundraising efforts, only one of those could be focused on this year because of the pandemic, Chiaramonte said.

“When COVID hit, there was no way we could ask club members to have a lot of people crammed into the cockpit of their boats, and so we thought we would have to cancel,” Chiaramonte said. “But then later on we were thinking, pancreatic cancer is as bad as ever, we thought we could still hold the charitable portion.”

The regatta still happened this year, but in a smaller capacity. Instead of boats crowded with people, each sailing craft was only allowed a max of two persons. Normally the event has Mather racing against the village, just using club members’ boats. Calling it the Village Cup “COVID Race” this year, club members still raced carrying banners of sponsors and others who donated to the event, though the village/hospital competition was dropped.

Though it may have raised less than previous years, and even in the midst of so much tragedy due to the pandemic, cancer and specifically pancreatic cancer still weighs heavy on so many club members’ minds, with so many friends and family having been lost to the disease. And this year, with COVID-19, club members knew they had to do as much as they could to help the hospital that went through hell during the pandemic’s height.

Kenneth Roberts, the president of Mather Hospital, thanked the yacht club for its support.

“We are grateful to the Port Jefferson Yacht Club and their continuing commitment to Mather Hospital, even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Roberts said in a statement. “This is a wonderful example of how we will get through this, together.”

Chiaramonte said the yacht club plans to return for the 12th annual regatta in 2021, this time, hopefully, back to its normal self.

Port Jeff regatta raises over $90K for cancer research

by Kyle Barr - September 11, 2019

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The vessels’ pennants and flags quivered in the mid-morning wind. Those who knew their way around a boat could tell Sept. 7 was going to be complicated day for sailing, as a storm that blew over the day previous left lingering swathes of somewhat choppy seas and miniature gales. The 10th annual Village Cup Regatta was going to be interesting one way or the other.

And it was, even before the race started, with the annual regatta raising $91,000 for cancer research, the most it has ever raised since the event started with help from the Port Jefferson Yacht Club 10 years ago. The amount is being split evenly by the national nonprofit Lustgarten Foundation’s pancreatic cancer research program and John T. Mather Memorial Hospital’s Palliative Medicine Program. The event has raised well over $600,000 in the 10 years since it was created.

After hours of tense racing through Port Jefferson Harbor, Port Jeff village regained the cup from Mather, who held it after winning it in 2017. The 2018 event was canceled due to weather, and the winner of the cup went to Mother Nature instead.

At a party after the race at the Port Jefferson Village Center, Mather Hospital gifted the yacht club a plaque commemorating its efforts to help put on the event.

Joan Fortgang, a Port Jeff resident who has raced for the village the past nine years along with her husband Mort, said she has loved the event since the beginning. As part of the yacht club since 1973, she said their group has lost several good people to cancer, which originally helped prompt the idea for the event.

“This is great fun,” she said.

Port Jeff regatta race canceled, but event raises $70K for charity anyway

by Alex Petroski - September 10, 2018

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Choppy conditions in Port Jefferson Harbor forced the cancellation of the race portion of the 2018 Village Cup Regatta Sept. 8, but the annual fundraiser was a success anyway.

For the ninth year, the Port Jefferson Yacht Club and the Port Jefferson Village Center were the home for the event, which features a parade past the village-owned pier at Harborfront Park, a race out in the open water between sailboats representing the village and John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, and a banquet to conclude the festivities. This year, conditions weren’t conducive to holding the race, but the event still raised about $70,000 for two worthy causes, according to Mather’s Facebook page.

Funds raised by the regatta will be split between Mather Hospital’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

For the sixth year, actor/director and local resident Ralph Macchio served as community ambassador for the event. Macchio helps to publicize the important work of the two programs funded by the regatta. His wife, Phyllis, is a nurse practitioner in Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program.

Video: Mather Hospital wins 8th running of Village Cup Regatta in Port Jeff

by Alex Petroski - September 14, 2017

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Port Jefferson Village and John T. Mather Memorial Hospital squared off on the open seas for the eighth time Sept. 9 for the Village Cup Regatta, an annual event that features a parade, sailboat race, a reception and even remarks from actor Ralph Macchio. Representatives from both groups man vessels and race in the Long Island Sound near Port Jefferson Harbor for bragging rights and, more importantly, to raise money for cancer research. The Mather team won the 2017 incarnation of the race and proudly took the trophy back from Village Mayor Margot Garant, who had the cup since the village’s 2016 victory. In total, about $65,000 was raised for Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program and for the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic cancer research. The event is hosted by the Port Jefferson Yacht Club.

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Port Jeff Village captures cup in annual Regatta

by Alex Petroski - September 12, 2016

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Port Jefferson Village snatched ownership of the Village Cup back from John T. Mather Memorial Hospital at the 7th annual Village Cup Regatta boat race on Sept. 10 in Port Jefferson Harbor.

The race, which is presented by the Port Jefferson Yacht Club, features about a dozen competing boats representing either the village or Mather Hospital, and is held for a good cause.

The event has raised more than $300,000 since its inception for Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic cancer research.

The hospital held the cup entering the 2016 race, though the village has now won four of the last six years.

Mather Hospital takes trophy in regatta for pancreatic cancer research

by Elana Glowatz - September 14, 2015

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Port Jefferson Yacht Club hosted its sixth annual Village Cup Regatta on Saturday, raising funds for pancreatic cancer research through the Lustgarten Foundation and for John T. Mather Memorial Hospital’s palliative medicine program.

The regatta pits the hospital and Port Jefferson Village against one another in a friendly competition for the Village Cup, a trophy which the hospital has now won two years in a row following a village reign of three years.

Participants raised about $64,000 for the cause through this year’s race, according to yacht club member Chuck Chiaramonte. The sum will be split between the Lustgarten Foundation and the palliative care program, which is focused on improving patients’ quality of life.

Chiaramonte said over the six years of the regatta, the event has raised more than $300,000.

The yacht club — formerly known as the Setauket Yacht Club — supplied the boats and captains for the event, which included a parade of boats, games and face painting for children at the harborfront park, and a trophy presentation at the adjacent Village Center.

Chiaramonte said the club looks forward to the event every year.

“It was really meant to just be a joyous occasion and share the love of the water and boating with our neighbors,” he said.