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Lee Scherwitz has volunteered for the past eight years at the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival in Alpena, Michigan. He has literally raised thousands of dollars for lighthouse preservation as emcee and festival auctioneer. Lee is currently researching the history of the Airways Division of the U.S. Lighthouse Service.
Chris Mills (right) with lightkeeper Peter Coletti on Gannet Rock Lighthouse, New Brunswick, Canada in 1991. Chris is a former lighthouse keeper and author of the book, Vanishing Lights. Chris is a founding member of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Society and occasionally gives presentations where he shares his own experiences. He’s been recording the oral history of lighthouse keepers and their families. So far he’s recorded 51 interviews and transcribed more than 330,000 words.
Paul Conlin of Woburn, MA shown here at Portsmouth Harbor Light in New Hampshire says that people sometimes tell him he’s obsessed with lighthouses. Paul is the unpaid volunteer Secretary of the American Lighthouse Foundation and spends all his free time helping on various lighthouse projects and events throughout New England. He and his wife Peg have been married for 30 years and he is a 20-year employee of BJ’s Wholesale Club. He says his motive behind volunteering is, “I have always believed that if you care about something and want to make a difference, don’t just assume that someone else will take care of it,”
(l-r) Marv Theut, Tom Gagnon and Sally Lappin at last year’s Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival. Marv is cofounder of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival and has dedicated thousands of volunteer hours to raising money for lighthouse preservation. Seventy-eight year old Tom Gagnon has volunteered for the past eight years setting up the entire festival and then tearing it down when the event is over. He has also done volunteer work at the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival Museum in Alpena, MI, and has worked on the restoration projects at Thunder Bay Island and Middle Island lighthouses. Sally Lappin has taken all her vacation time every year (60 days) and spends it working every day between the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival and Middle Island Lightkeeper’s Association.
Shown behind the podium at last year’s Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival is Bob Fournier, who has been an active volunteer for the past eight years. Bob is the president of the newly formed Friends of Middle Island Lighthouse, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation.
Although Rusty Nelson has always been interested in lighthouses, his interest really peaked during a 1991 visit to the Shore Village Museum in Rockland, Maine. In 1995 he became a trustee of the Portland Harbor Museum and their resident “lighthouse person.” When the museum applied for ownership of Spring Point Ledge Light under the Maine Lights Program, he became the first chairman of the newly formed Spring Point Ledge Light Trust and served for five years as its chairman. Rusty was also responsible for spearheading the relighting of Portland Breakwater Lighthouse. Rusty says the best part of working with lighthouses is the people you meet.
This story appeared in the
June 2004 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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