For the most part those involved with lighthouse preservation are those at or near retirement age. Sure we read about lots of kids getting involved in various individual projects and some of the younger and middle age working people, however for the most part this is not the norm.

Could it be, for the most part, that only the seniors have the real time to devote to the cause and the rest of the world is too busy with raising their families, taking the kids from one school activity to another or just too busy watching the junk on television these days?

On the other hand I see commercials for some retirement communities with golf courses where a paid spokesperson says something the effect of how much he or she loves living there because they can play golf every day. Yikes, is that what many people have come to in their retirement age — self indulgence.

Then I read about some wealthy person donating gigantic sums of money to Africa or the United Nations and not one dime for local community causes or preservation needs. This makes me wonder what the future will hold for the lighthouse preservation movement.

And of course there are the grant givers, who will donate to a particular lighthouse preservation cause, but will not donate to help a group manage its affairs, staff an office, or pay for other expenses.

Yes, it is true that the lighthouse preservation movement has made great strides in the last fifteen years, but those strides have been advanced by only a small fraction of the people who could and should volunteer and donate to lighthouse preservation.

It's time we all make an extra effort to draw public attention as to why it is vital to save our historic lighthouses and the history associated with them and one small way to do that is by helping us get Lighthouse Digest into more homes, waiting rooms, schools, offices and libraries, something that can only happen when you purchase gift subscriptions for those.

Please help us to make a difference with lighthouse preservation; the future is in your hands.

This story appeared in the August 2007 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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