2003LanternRoomContinued

Tom & Arlene Pregman did a wonderful job of planning the Fall Business Meeting in New Bedford, MA. Of course, you would expect nothing less from the new Vice President and the new Ms. NELL (after-all, percentages were on their side after Hurricane NELL in May). It was a bit crowded but the food was good and we all enjoyed our Guest Speaker Sally Snowman, the visit to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, our walk to Palmer Island lighthouse with Art Motta plus the boat trip around the harbor.

Prior to NELL’s Fall Business Meeting many of us were able to partake of the final event of the week-long International Lighthouse Conference sponsored by the American Lighthouse Foundation, the awards dinner. This groundbreaking conference, the first ever to focus on the education of our children about lighthouse history, was a huge success and attended by many lighthouse groups throughout the country and Canada. Tim Harrison and Kathy Finnegan (ALF) were on hand for the dinner and program which included wonderful food, fun educational games, awards and, of course, many, many prizes for raffles and auction.

Throughout 2002 NELL set up tables at various Harbour Lights dealerships where Nancy or Bill Younger were signing Harbour Lights and at the Spring Harbour Lights Northeast Regional Event (Berkeley, NJ) where Harbour Lights continued giving away the “Gold Harbour Lights”. At these events we promote NELL and sell our merchandise for lighthouse preservation as well as recruit new members. One of these events was held at Melissa’s Hallmark in Guilford, CT where Nancy displayed the new Minots Ledge Light, HL646. The lantern in the lantern room actually blinks 1-4-3 for I-Love-You.

Nancy at Melissa's Hallmark	NELL at Noah's
Tom Pregman admires Fort Tompkins	Lee & Cliff Olson with Bill at Noah's
Bill signing at Lighthouse Depot	Dale & Anne Pleau with Bill at Lighthouse Depot

This is the first Harbour Lights lighted piece and uses an acrylic-type medium for the waves, allowing the light in the base to shine through. This is a leap away from the traditional Harbour Lights pieces and has stirred the emotions of a few of the “hard-core” Harbour Lights collectors who aren’t certain they like this new medium. I, for one, like the lighted Minots. This new piece is just the next step in the Harbour Lights’ tradition of evolving and trying new things.

I would like to see Harbour Lights use this same medium when producing the New London Harbor lighthouse, located on the Thames River in New London, CT, just downriver from Electric Boat (EB, the world’s premier builder of submarines). EB built the U.S. Navy’s first submarine. I can envision acrylic water with this very small sub 2/3 submerged as it passes the white octagonal lighthouse tower. There are three men standing on the top of the sub and a fourth with his head poking up out of the hatch as they head toward the open waters of Long Island Sound to test the new vessel. The lighthouse keeper is on the shore and waves. The acrylic allows you to view the part of the sub that is underwater. There is much history waiting to be captured here as the New London Harbor light station is the site of the fourth lighthouse in our nation and to have the Navy’s first sub would add even more.

It looks as though Harbour Lights will continue this tradition of excellence in 2003. Recent images of Harbour Lights upcoming pieces includes HL662 Southeast Light Block Island, RI “on the move”. Harbour Lights has produced another famous lighthouse, Hatteras, on the move but Southeast Light is on the historically accurate rails on which it actually moves. This special piece is being done to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the move of this historic structure away from the eroding bluffs and certain doom.

You may see other Harbour Lights releases scheduled for 2003 via the following link:

Mark your calendars for the fun and excitement on Block Island on Aug. 9, 2003. NELL will be celebrating the important 10-year anniversary of the moving of Southeast Lighthouse with a super fundraising event. This will be sponsored by NELL and will include such things as good food, lighthouse tours, special raffles, an auction, limited edition event merchandise, etc. NELL members Frank & Carolyn Carbone, who spend a lot of time as Block Island residents, have been working hard putting together this event, the details of which will be announced soon and may include some very special guests. We will be canvassing merchants, artisans and the general public for donations of items for this event. Volunteers will be needed. If you wish to volunteer to help with this event please contact Frank FCarboneJr@aol.com or Carolyn CWCarbone@aol.com or by calling 978.927.1101.

Early Morning at SE Light	Early Morning at SE Light
Early Morning at SE Ligh

Plans will also be announced soon for our Spring meeting and event so visit this site often. We would love to hear from you with tales of your lighthousing adventures. Please, send your articles and pictures you wish to share to our Webkeeper, Penny Miller. You may do this via email at webkeeper@nell.cc or via USPS at:

I look forward to seeing you at a future NELL event, maybe our Lighthouses, Hot Chocolate & YOU, 2003 in Portland, Maine in late January. Until we meet again I wish you good health, good spirits and good company.