Hi All,

Okay we have all had our fair share of receiving those great e-mails that promise eternal happiness or millions of dollars or whatever if we just pass it along to 10 of our friends. So we are all multi millionaires and have experienced divine happiness, right?

Okay maybe not but here is just one more for you to read and gain the greatest Karma you have ever experienced provided you follow the important directions.

Once upon a time we each received a letter stating that our application for employment had been accepted. The letter has changed very little over the decades, so much has changed very little over the decades. We were being given an opportunity to leave the confines of home, family, school and mainland and journey to a 40+ acre Island 6 miles of the coast of NH to spend the summer serving a religious and educational conference center. Some of us then, as is still true today, would cook or serve food, wash pots, do dishes, clean rooms, look for Rozzies hidden pennies, guard the dock, wander the island all night, clean the public rooms, manage the front desk, keep the generators, pumps, and toilets working, keep the buildings painted and standing, mow the lawns, prank the managers, run the marine lab, haul the trash, incinerate the aerosol cans, change the hymnals in the chapel, change the hymnals in the chapel again, paint the public restrooms so they appeared clean, land the boat, get yelled at by Arnold (pick your favorite captain) for landing the boat wrong, pump water, try to fix the pumps when they did not pump water, haul food and linens back and forth to and from the boats, haul more luggage than an average airport does weekly, laundry and more laundry, endless changeovers, showers twice a week, creating signs for what not to flush down a toilet or how to jiggle a handle, perform for the conferences, perform for the staff, have banquets on the pier, gatherings on Shack deck, and we loved doing all of it. From these experiences we eventually went out into the real world, many of us with a strong work ethic that we can attribute to what we gained during our time on Star. Some of us found our callings from our years on Star. Some of us have never left, wev’e become committee members, employees, Board Members, dedicated ongoing volunteers, conferees. All of us were changed. We found spouses. Our children have been Pelicans. We made friends, some for life, some we have lost touch with, many we would love to see again. Think about it, wouldn’t it be great to reunite with those old friends and aquaintences again. Well why not. Come back to Star for Labor Day weekend September 5th through 7th. You will be amazed to see how much has changed with Star and your friends but at the same time how little has changed. This is a great year to do so. There are many incentives in place to help make a weekend on Star affordable. Contact us and we will fill you in on all the details or go to www.starisland.org….

If you forward this e-mail to as many people in your address book who are, were, have children who were or are Pelicans, then you may just gain eternal happiness, or if you win the lottery then you could be a millionaire(you need to buy a lottery ticket). Mostly you may just connect with an old friend and have one of the greatest weekends of your life. Let’s see how many people we can connect with and how many people we can reconnect with.

Bruce and Carole

By Laura Knoy on Tuesday, April 7, 2009.

An Island Kingdom chronicles the culture, scenery and 400-year history of the Isles of Shoals - an isolated chain of islands ten miles off the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine. A captivating look at a little-known piece of New England by Vermont filmmaker Andrea Melville.

Click Above to Watch a Preview of the Show

Smuttynose offers a new local brew

March 24, 2009 6:00 AM

By Rachel Forrest

PORTSMOUTH — In a city where hundreds line up for a release of the Portsmouth Brewery’s Kate the Great Russian Imperial Stout, a new brew from its sister beer crafter Smuttynose Brewery is also an exciting event.

No one will have to get in line at 5 a.m. to buy this one, however, because the Star Island Single is a full-time beer that will be around for quite some time. But, in order to make room for the new brew, something had to go. After 11 years, Portsmouth Lager is all tapped out.

“It’s an old friend,” said Peter Egelston, owner of the Smuttynose Brewery and the Portsmouth Brewery. “I’ll miss being able to order one at the brew pub. It’s been a hard one for us. We’ve always liked that beer. At beer festivals it’s usually the most popular beer we serve and it’s popular in the brewery. It’s always been well-received.”

Egelston said it was a challenge to figure out why the beer didn’t sell as much as brewery staff thought it would over the years.

“Maybe it’s the image — the lobster buoy on the barn door didn’t tell the story,” he said. “But I do think lager beers tend to have an uphill battle in the world of craft beers.”

Other factors like hometown branding might also have been a factor, Egelston said.

“We tried to identify it with our hometown, but it wasn’t an easy sell,” he said. “New Hampshire has a history of shooting itself in the foot — it’s separated into little fiefdoms: the White Mountains, the Monadnock region, the Seacoast. It’s difficult to market.”

Egelston said the new Star Island Single reflects the growing awareness of the convergence of two trends in the beer world: a growing awareness of Belgian beers and some hip packaging, which will help get the word out that this new beer should be noticed.

“We saw the pendulum swinging hard toward extreme beers,” he said, “but the Star Island Single is designed to be the beer to have — like the old Schaefer commercial: ‘The one beer to have when you’re having more than one.’ It’s the more user-friendly, ’session’ beer.”

David Yarrington, executive brewer at Smuttynose Brewery, said he and his staff worked on the beer for about a year.

“We had different variations of it floating around; one was under the Blond Ale name, but we decided to go closer to the Abbey style. It’s a Belgian ale style that even if you don’t understand what it is, it’s accessible.”

Yarrington said they added a little coriander to it.

“With a great Belgian beer you should understand there’s something special about it but not quite what it is,” he said. “This has a little honey malt with the Belgian-style wheat strain.”

The team came up with packaging for the Star Island Single that reflects both the character the beer and the area. A photo of a mermaid with flaming red hair, relaxing against tall gray rocks, gazing at a golden chalice filled, one imagines, with the new brew, calls beer lovers like a siren.

“At first, we had a hard time coming up with a visual concept for the beer. We wanted to tie it to the Seacoast,” Egelston said. “Joanne (Francis), who does all the graphic design, wanted to have a mermaid and we were at the brewing conference in San Diego. We walked into a consignment shop, and the woman running the shop had this towering flaming red hair and Joanne asked her if she would model for the label.”

The woman turned out to be a model and burlesque performer called Miss Dixie von Trixie.

“She came out last June,” Egelston said, “donned a complex costume complete with fins and became the Star Island Single mermaid, flaming red hair and all.”

While Egelston said he’s sure there will be many who’ll miss the Portsmouth Lager, including himself, he hopes the new beer will be much like the vibrant new packaging.

“We hope it’s alluring,” he said.

Try the Smuttynose Brewery’s new Star Island Single at a launch party at The Press Room in Portsmouth Thursday, March 26 at 6 p.m. and on tap now at The Portsmouth Brewery.

Source: www.scifi.com…

• ” title=”http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20081216-BIZ-81216022

” class=”autohyperlink” target=”_blank”>www.seacoastonline.com…

Video - You can watch this episode on hulu.com… at:

www.hulu.com…

112-year-old Star Island makes 21st century upgrades
By Karen Dandurant
kdandurant@seacoastonline.com…

November 23, 2008 6:00 AM

PORTSMOUTH — People have been visiting Star Island since 1987, 112 years.

At that time, the rates at the island retreat were $10 a week and covered the room and three meals a day for a week.

Times have changed, but the island hasn’t changed much. It still has that unique 19th-century feel that is guaranteed to put anyone’s mind at ease.

Today, the island is changing in subtle ways designed to maintain the character that makes people want to visit, but add amenities important today.

While a lot of people are involved in Star Island’s operation, its evolution is the work of the new head of the corporation, Victoria Hardy.

“Someone said to me that there’s a new sheriff in town,” Hardy said in her easygoing manner. “I think it’s important to send a signal to the people that we understand what we’re doing now.

“My goal is for Star Island to be here for another hundred years. There are so many options for ways families can spend time together. The changes are marketing tools, but Star Island is unique. Our niche is who we are. We have a 19th-century ambiance that’s different from the Balsams. So, we’re adding gentle additions to the basic Star Island.”

Hardy said $435,000 was put into the facility last spring and summer as officials continue to upgrade the life-safety elements of the Oceanic Hotel and the other buildings scattered across the island.

Hardy said this year, Star Island sent three signals to the community to get its attention.

“First, we restored the flagpole,” she said. “It had been down for many years. “When the season opened, the flag was there and that’s a symbol. It is also a memorial for a man who died at war. It needed to be done.”

For those who have visited the island, it’s no secret that the back, or west wall, was in deplorable condition.

“It faces the Atlantic, with the harshest weather,” Hardy said. “We renovated it. We scraped and painted. The signal that (it) sends is that we understand the basics have to be done.”

Hardy said she never realized how many boats passed between Star Island and White Island until people started letting her know they had seen the new and improved wall.

“The other day I was at the Seacoast Science Center looking out toward the island,” Hardy said. “The sun hit the wall and it was like a big white light.”

The third change concerns a part of Star Island that is one of the most well-known and visited places.

“We improved the path to the chapel,” Hardy said. “If there is one, the chapel is the iconic symbol of Star Island. It’s been there since 1800 and is in pristine condition. It was the linchpin in getting Star its Natural Historic designation.”

The path was in poor condition, making it hard for seniors and people with disabilities, and impossible for a person in a wheelchair.

“My goal became to be able to bring a wheelchair to the base of the path,” Hardy said. “We put a lot of stone dust down on that path. Now we can use our golf cart to bring the chair to the base and go to the chapel.”

Making Star Island more accessible to the general public is another goal of Hardy’s.

Read more at www.seacoastonline.com…

PORTSMOUTH — The investigators behind the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Ghost Hunters” program can’t get enough of the Seacoast’s spooky history, so they returned this past week to film a second episode seeking out paranormal activity on the Isles of Shoals.

Producers, a film crew and the stars behind the hit cable reality show spent two days in October looking for scientific proof of ghostly activity at the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse and Fort Constitution. Results from that visit are slated to air on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

On Friday, a black van with yellow letters spelling TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) pulled up in front of the Athenaeum historical museum in Market Square with other vehicles, and crews began unloading equipment for an afternoon shoot.

Jim Dugan, a supervising producer with “Ghost Hunters,” said his crew spent the week working on a second Seacoast-based episode where they studied the paranormal history of Star Island on the Isles of Shoals, which is a cluster of islands six miles off Portsmouth.

Read more at:

www.fosters.com…

We will be sending out periodic newsletters through this web site over the next 9 months to keep you all posted on what the conference will look like, opportunities for scholarships, etc.  We are very much looking for your input so please contact us anytime with your thoughts, questions and ideas.

Idea number one for you all to work on:

We want to build an Island Trivial Pursuit game, Pelican Edition.  We want to have a very large possibly ongoing trivial pursuit game going during Reuniion  but to do so we need all your help.  We need from all of you questions and answers of trivial facts and events that have happened during your time on the island or stories you have heard.  We need to know the year of your event.  Things like what year did B.J. and Tom set the Chapel on fire, those kinds of things.  The more questions/answers we get the better the game will be.  Start those memories going but remember we do not want to make anyone too uncomfortable or ruin any relationships or political careers.  We will establish teams of competitors with a mixture from all the decades.  This will help us all get to know what has happened over theyears and get to know some new people.

Look for a Pelican Reunion page on Facebook coming soon.

We are gladly sharing the weekend with Laity once again this year.

There is one week this year between LOAS II and Pel Reunion.  We are working to see if we could create a work conference during that time to be able to give back to the Island, stay tuned for more information on this.  We are also going to look into an earlier arrival option for those traveling further or wanting an extra day on the Island.

Here is the really big challenge, we need you all to talk to everyone you possibly can about how great Pel Reunion is, dig through those old pel papers as well as your Christmas card list, connect with others through facebook.  This is our 29th year as a conference.

Talk with you all soon,

Bruce and Carole

Prudence C. Randall

If you have any audio or video of any Pel Show performances please let us know so we can work on building an online archive.

You can download the entire album in zip format (including LP Cover Art) (35.8 MB) or you can download individual songs, or play them through your web browser below.

The Pelican Show — 1974

Highlights From The Summer’s Best Performances

Star Island

Isles of Shoals, Off Portsmouth, New Hampshire

The Pelican Show — 1974

RAYMOND HARDIN, Musical Director

Side One

Band 1. The Introductory Skit

• A Television Parody, Featuring (in order of appearance.) Terry Bouricius, Leslie Bannon, John Robbins, Dave Phoenix, and Brian Fey. - MP3

Band 2. The Pelican Chorus

• The Drummer and the Cook (arr. Jacobsen) - MP3
• The Barbershop Quartet
  • Wiffenpoof Song [Trad. Yale Song] - MP3
  • Coney Island Baby [Anon.] - Ray Hardin, Terry Bouricius, Peter Kolbjornsen, and Dean Jorgensen. - MP3
• Pelican Solo - I Sit Beside the Fire (word by J. Tolkien) - John Robbins, vocal and guitar - MP3

Band 3.

• Down East Monolog - Stu ‘George’ Georgitis - MP3
• The Maintenance Crew (words by R. Joffe) - Featuring Paul Coleman, Stu Georgitis, Peter Kolbjornen, and Lyle Ramshaw (piano and earphones) - MP3
• The Kitchen Crew (represented by Dean Jorgensen and Dennis Walsh - MP3

Side Two

Band 1. Summer’s Song

• Here Comes the Sun (G. Harrison) - Randy Good (guitar) and John Robbins (guitar and vocal) - MP3

Band 2. The Madrigal Singers

• Fa Una Canzona (O. Veech) - MP3
• Awake! (R. Wagner) - MP3
• Breathe Soft, Ye Winds (W. Paxton) - MP3

Band 3. The Best of Pel Show Performances

• Listen, People (Anon.) - Randy Good, guitar, Robin Lovely (guitar and vocal) - MP3
• Melissa (G. Allman) - The Jazz Quartet: Randy Good, Hadrian Merier (guitars.) John Robbins (guitar and vocal), Dean Jorgensen, electric organ. - MP3
• Farewell To Tarwathie (Trad.) - Sung by Vange Bicknell - MP3

Band 4. Finale

• Oil Refinery Blues - Words by the Staff of ‘74 - MP3
• Pelican Encore - Words, V. McGill, Tune, J. Marais - MP3

Ever since 1947, when John Woodworth organized the first Pelican Chorus, the Pelican Show has been put on weekly each summer for the entertainment of the conferees. But, in truth, it seems as if the Pelicans themselves enjoy it even more than do the conferees. The summer of 1974 stands out in particular for two reasons. First, there was a well of talent to be tapped on the island, as well as people who had inherent talents for making people laugh. Above all, the Music Director was outstanding for putting it all together each week.

But the second reason is not so obvious. Living and working together creates a unique opportunity for a great spirit of unity to form amongh the Pelicans on Star. It is hoped that this can be felt while listening to this album.

This record was made possible by several people: Lynn Stewart, the president of Pel Club, Terry Ward, the Treasurer, and most of all, Ray Hardin, whose patience each week was as durable as East Rock in a nor’easter. And, of course, the Pelicans helped a little bit, too!

H. P. M.

January 1975

The Pelican Club

• Lynn Stewart, President
• Raymond Hardin, Musical Director
• H. Perry Mixer, Recording Engineer & Producer
• Recorded Live in August, 1974

Contact; registrar@pelicansarepelicans.org…