New Jersey Lighthouse Society - Volunteer Recognition Program

Volunteer Recognition Program

The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the introduction of a new program to annually recognize the most outstanding contributions to the New Jersey Lighthouse Society and its goals and objectives. The Society is profoundly appreciative and extremely grateful to all its volunteers and sponsors and fully recognizes that any success our organization enjoys is entirely due to their selfless contributions. The Society further recognizes that some aspects of our mission require extraordinary efforts, outstanding commitment and/or exceptional dedication to achieve its goals. It is these exceptional contributions the Society wishes to acknowledge through this program.

Nominations are requested from the membership for calendar year 2010 recognition. Each nomination should include the name of the nominee and written justification describing the contributions for which the nomination is being made. Nominees must have performed some exemplary function to further the Society's goals of restoration, preservation, education, historical research or must have stimulated public awareness in NJ Lighthouses or those lights in neighboring NY Harbor or Delaware Bay waters or has performed exceptionally dedicated voluntary service. Nominee eligibility is open to: a) members in good standing for the period recognized by the award; or b) an event sponsor, grant provider, cooperating entity or an extraordinary lighthouse proponent.

Generally, nominations will be made in the current calendar year for distinguished contributions in the prior calendar year.

Nominations may be initiated by the general membership, the Board and the President and will be solicited through The Beam and the Society e-mail. Nominee names will be referred to the Nomination Screening Committee comprised of individuals from the general membership and the Board. All awards will be published in The Beam and on the Society web site.

The Society also seeks volunteers from the general membership to serve on the Nominee Screening Committee. Please send Award nominations and Screening Committee volunteer names to Chair, Screening Committee for Volunteer Recognition Program, or to NJLHS President, PO Box 332, Navesink, NJ 07752-0332.

Outstanding Members Recognized

Tom Laverty

Please join the NJLHS in congratulating these members for their outstanding service.

Outstanding Service Awards Presented at the Paulsboro Meeting December 2009.

The NJLHS Recognition Committee (members Mary Beth Doherty, Brett Franks, and Tom Laverty) awarded three members for outstanding service at the December 5, 2009 meeting at the Paulsboro Sportsman’s Inn. Committee Chair Tom Laverty and NJLHS 1st Vice President, Brett Franks, presented the awards. Recognized were:

Doreen Berson
Recognized for the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge 2003-2009
Doreen has been a long time member of NJLHS. In 2003 she became assistant chair of the Lighthouse Challenge Committee. When NJLHS member Rick Weber who had spearheaded the Challenge stepped down from those duties, Doreen took the reins with enthusiasm. Under her guidance the Challenge grew. “It was estimated that approximately 1,500 people took the first New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge® in 2000. A total of 342 people completed the Challenge that year, becoming members of the “11 Points of Light Club” (History of the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge, NJLHS.ORG February 12th 2009) . Since then participation has increased each year. The New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge® 2009, saw 1733 start and 1,359 people finish despite nor’easters that hampered access to a couple of the lighthouses on the tour. Doreen brought focus and organization to what has become an internationally known Lighthouse event.

Laura Portée
Recognized as Assistant Chair, then Co-Chair of the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge 2006-2009

Laura Portee entered the Lighthouse Challenge effort in 2006. First as assistant chair, then co-chair her statistic keeping skills, marketing efforts, and constant correspondence about the Challenge helped get the event recognized in the Press, Magazines, TV, and radio. Laura made up the forms, collected the data, and collated all the information for nearly every aspect of the Challenge. Each year she was able to tell us how far visitors came from, how many states were represented which was well over 30 one year. Foreign visitors came from Sweden, Poland, Germany, Romania, United Kingdom, and Austria. While Laura did not chair the event as long as Doreen her efforts combined with Doreen’s helped make this event the spectacular and fun October weekend that the Challenge was known for.

Marty Hudspeth
Recognized as Chair of Ways and Means Committee 2004-2009

Marty’s husband, Bob, originally volunteered to lead the NJLHS Ways and Means Committee. Shortly after taking over the position he passed away. Marty graciously agreed to step into his position and eventually became both Committee Chair and an NJLHS Board of Directors member. In her tenure in charge of Ways and Means she built the Society’s effort to raise money through the sale of logo shirts, hats, pins, lighthouse books, and other items. She organized, edited and had published a cook book full of Society member’s special recipes. The book was a hit and sold quickly. Each membership meeting Marty could be seen directing a crew of people lugging box after box of items into the meeting hall to be set up, organized, priced, and then sold to members. Each day after the meeting was over the same crew lugged all the material back to her van for transport to her house. It was quite an undertaking. However, Marty’s Ways and Means Committee made money for the Society. They established an on line Ways and Means shop through the NJLHS.org web site, and furthered recognition of the Society through the sale of the NJLHS specialty items.

Marty’s leadership will be missed along with the Doreen and Laura’s Challenge leadership as we move into 2010. Please extend your personal thanks along with the Society’s recognition for volunteer jobs done far above and beyond the call of duty.

Marty Hudspeth, Laura Portée, Doreen Berson

Past Awards given in memory of:

Al Burgess (accepted by Jean Burgess)--Outreach volunteer in the early days of the Society; Sandy Hook volunteer, who kept coming in later years when confined to a wheel chair.

Mike Grant (accepted by his wife, children, and grandchildren)--Sandy Hook volunteer; NJLHS Challenge Volunteer Coordinator–the first one to do that job.

Fredric Thies (accepted by Yvonne Miller Thies)--Served on first Preservation Committee and served as coordinator for preservation issues in the southern part of the state. Known as “Freddie the flying Pharologist”, he was an amateur pilot and documented lots of lighthouses in photographs from the air. Worked to save the Barnegat Lightship.

Jack Thompson (accepted by Tom Laverty)--First Ways and Means Committee chair; First VP of the organization shortly after NJLHS reorganized in 1994.

Recent Members Receiving Keepers Award:

Alvin Brown--Served on the first Preservation Committee; Preservation Coordinator for the “Central Region” which included Barnegat and Absecon. Worked to try and preserve the Barnegat Lightship.

Jean Burgess--Outreach Committee member who, with her husband Al, staffed information tables about NJLHS at dozens of events; Sandy Hook volunteer.

Bill Geilfuss--Served on the first Preservation Committee; former VP of NJLHS; instrumental in preserving the history of lighthouses by visiting many lighthouses in the state in uniform as a lighthouse keeper.

Katie Moser--Secretary of the Society when the responsibility of recording and corresponding was combined; dresses in period clothing her interpretation of a lighthouse keeper’s wife helps further the understanding of lighthouse life through living history.

Ted Panayotoff--Preservation Committee, Ted was the coordinator for the “Northern Region” including Sandy Hook, Conover Beacon, Twin Lights and Sea Girt. Worked to save the Conover Beacon and get people interested in caring for it. Now works with the Rockland Lighthouse Museum where Ken Black’s collection went, as well as doing lighthouse tours in Maine.

Bill Volpe--Second VP; organized the Education Outreach Committee; established the Recognition Awards Program; Chair of the Finance and Budget Committees; Sandy Hook volunteer.