We’d love for you to fill out our survey to help keep you connected all year long – help us by filling out your contact information, tell us about yourself, and let us know how we can get you back to Star Island. STARt getting connected! You will come back!

Get Connected survey:

pelicansarepelicans.org…

Photos from a summer working on Star Island, Isles of Shoals. All photos by Sarah O’Connor.

Video by Candied Camera; music by B.A. Canning.

Star Island is one of the rocky, wind-swept Isles of Shoals, located off the coast of Rye, New Hampshire. For over 100 years, summers here have provided individuals and families with a welcome respite from their busy mainland lives. Star Island Corporation is a nonprofit organization which maintains the island and its facilities and provides hospitality services for visitors.

If you save each month, January – August:

• 3 nights – $42/pp/ month for a double.
• 2 nights – $34/pp/ month for a double.

START planning now for Pelican Homecoming 2010!

“Come Again in 2010“

Pelicans are a rare breed (at least the Star Island version) and many haven’t been back to the island in years. Make 2010 the year you come back again to reconnect with your “Spirit’s Home”. Challenge yourself to find everyone from one of your crews from one of the years you worked on Star Island and have a crew reunion in the midst of the larger gathering. Bring your family and friends to experience a weekend on the island that is a part of your personal history. Black knights and white knights will join together in solidarity and create a fun, restful and restorative, and memorable weekend. We left chanting “we will come back again”…make 2010 the year that you do.

We also have a wonderful new opportunity to offer! This year you can arrive on Friday for a whole extra day on island (see full rates below).

Minister of the Week(end): Rev. Mara Dowdall, Minister of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, VT (Pelican ’95 EOS -’98)

Conference Chairs: Sue Flynn (Pelican ’94 EOS – ’97) and Kris LoFrumento (Pelican ’94 EOS – ’99)

For more details please email:
Kris Lofrumento, lofrumentok@macucc.org…, or Sue Flynn, inlikeflynn7@yahoo.com…

J. Howard Lightfoot
Longtime Contoocook physician
November 15, 2009 – 12:00 am

CONTOOCOOK – J. Howard Lightfoot, 91, longtime resident and retired physician of Contoocook, died peacefully Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, at Presidential Oaks in Concord.

Howard was born Sept. 8, 1918, in Fall River, Mass. He attended B.M.C. Durfee High School and graduated from Boston University School of Medicine in 1941. During World War II, he was a captain in the U.S. Army and served as medical officer in England, Belgium and France.

He married Dorothy Baldwin of Wilton in 1941. After the war, they settled in Contoocook, and he was the town physician from 1946 to 1986. He and Dorothy loved traveling and shared a commitment to Star Island in the Isles of Shoals.

His other interests included stamp collecting, wildflowers, photography and music.

He was predeceased by Dorothy, his wife of 63 years, and two brothers.

He is survived by his children and their spouses, Ann Habafy of Portland, Ore., Jean Lightfoot of Contoocook, Jack and Susan Lightfoot of Goffstown, Bob Lightfoot and Sue Walker of Portland, Maine; four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, a sister-in-law, numerous nieces and nephews, and a multitude of friends.

A memorial service will be held Friday at 2 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 274 Pleasant St., Concord.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Star Island in memory of Howard Lightfoot, at Star Island Corp., Morton-Benedict House, 30 Middle St., Portsmouth 03801.

Bennett Funeral Home in Concord is in charge of the arrangements.

DURHAM — A University of New Hampshire center that researches ocean renewable energy is getting a portion of an $8 million federal stimulus grant awarded last month to the University of Maine, and will use it to conduct wind turbine testing near the Isles of Shoals.

The UNH Center for Ocean Renewable Energy will receive $700,000 in federal stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Energy to deploy and test the first prototype floating structure with a turbine in the United States. The only other one is in Norway, said CORE director Ken Baldwin.

Data received from the UNH center will help UMaine as it launches the first offshore, deepwater wind project in the country. One of the sites being considered for the UMaine project is near Boon Island off the coast of York, Maine.

Read the full article at www.seacoastonline.com…

By Susan Morse
smorse@seacoastonline.com…
September 09, 2009 2:00 AM

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Josh Blake, 19, “the merman” planned on Tuesday to bicycle seven miles from Portsmouth to Fort Foster in Kittery, swim seven miles to the Isles of Shoals, and then run seven miles around Star Island, in a one-man triathlon to raise money to clean up the oceans.

At 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Blake was two miles out to sea and doing well, said girlfriend Rosa Greeley, who was in the lobster boat that was spotting Blake for the trip.

“He’s had a PowerBar,” she said.

There were no signs of Blake’s most dreaded fear in the open ocean: sharks.

Blake took off on bicycle on the first leg of his “777 Triathlon” at 1 p.m., from Hannaford on Islington Street in Portsmouth, wearing a wetsuit and sneakers. He carried swim goggles and strapped a diver’s knife to his leg to help combat any sharks.

In his backpack he carried five Moe’s sandwiches — some for Greeley and lobster boat captain and friend Jimmy Severance — seven Power Bars and numerous bottles of water. He planned to eat at least one Moe’s while he was in the water, he said, while treading water on his back.

“I’ve been a swimmer all my life,” said Blake, who made news last year after swimming across the Piscataqua River at the Memorial Bridge.

Friend and mentor Robert Wheeler called Blake’s swimming style “powerful.” His daughters know Blake from the Portsmouth High School swim team where Blake swam the 50- and 100-meter freestyle and butterfly, he said.

“He’s an animal in the water,” said Wheeler, a teacher at Southern New Hampshire University at Pease. “My daughters think he’s a ‘merman.’”

Blake said he expects the swim to take three-and-a-half to four hours.

He got advice from fellow Isles of Shoals swimmer Gary Sredzienski of Kittery, Blake said, who told him the hardest part was swimming in a straight line in the strong currents.

Blake planned the start of his swim at slack tide, he said. He headed into the ocean at Fort Foster and swam out to Whaleback Light where he met Severance’s boat.

Blake lives on Star Island and works there as a lifeguard. On Tuesday morning, he took the 6:30 a.m. boat to Portsmouth, knowing he’d be treading the same water later that day. He then had breakfast at his grandfather’s and father’s house on Badgers Island.

This is his first long-distance ocean water swim. He’s been practicing, while living on Star, by swimming to nearby White and Lunging Islands.

On the way back from one island swim, “I heard echoes,” said Blake. “It was dolphins.”

He also routinely sees seals, but so far, not sharks, of which he said, “I’m terrified.”

Swimming to the Isle of Shoals is a lifelong dream, he said.

“I love the ocean, I’ve always wanted to swim to the Isles of Shoals.”

Born in York, Blake grew up in Eliot and Kittery where he regularly swims around Badgers Island.

He attended Eliot Elementary School and Marshwood Middle School. He’s moved around a lot, he said, attending Traip Academy and living in Maryland before going to Portsmouth High School where he was a senior last year.

He’s taking classes online to finish high school, he said.

He wants to go to college to major in environmental science. He is also looking at joining the Coast Guard to become a rescue swimmer.

The 777 Triathlon is raising money for the Environmental Cleanup Coalition, an organization working to rid the ocean of garbage. Blake has raised $3,200, with $2,250 coming from people attending the Life On A Star II Conference on Star Island and other donations from individuals who have visited the island, including “The West Wing” actor Bradley Whitford, who gave $500, said Blake.

“I want to raise awareness,” said Blake. “We have huge, huge problems in the ocean and it’s killing us.”

When he arrives at Star Island, his fellow coworkers, called Pelicans, will be there to greet him. On Wednesday, it’s business as usual as he gets up for work at 7 a.m.

This is a first annual event, he said.

“I’m going to make it,” he said, before peddling off.

To date here are some of the people who have registered to come out;

Chris Adams
Mark and Kyle Adams
Jack Alberti
Elise Kolbjornsen Anton
Melissa Bailey
Kate Brady
Joanne Bulley
Emily Cann
Phyllis & Chris Carleen
Buffy Bierman Carson
Greg Case and Hillary Adams
Carol Davies and Judith Hunter
Chris and Jenny Dembergh
Taylor Dumais
Sean & Melanie Elliot
Steve Faust & Mary-Alice Favro
Brad Greeley
Chris Harrington
Margaret Kolbjornsen
Bob Lightfoot
Kris LoFromento & William Pletz
Tom Mansfield
Sarah Mason
Nancy Miller
Bruce & Carole Parsons
Drew Parsons
Dave and Edith Pierson
Roberta Reynolds
Jon Skillman
Robin Smith
Ben & Debbie Soule
Marc and Jane Soule
Nate Soule
Arlyn Weeks
Steve & Edie Whitney

We have representation from many decades of Pelicans. Wouldn’t it be great to come out and reconnect with old friends.

Come Platy With Us,

Bruce and Carole Parsons

The first prehistoric archaeological site in the Isles of Shoals (NH and ME) has been discovered on Smuttynose Island, Maine, by students in Cornell’s Archaeology Field School at Shoals Marine Laboratory. “This is a special discovery,” said Dr. Robin Hadlock Seeley, Assistant Director at the Shoals Marine Laboratory and co-director of the Isles of Shoals archaeology project. “We always suspected that native peoples may have stopped at the Shoals before the 17th century fishing station was established, but now we have clear evidence for their presence.” A guest at the field school this summer was Native American archaeologist, Sharon Moses, who recently received her Ph.D. in Archaeology from Cornell University. Dr. Moses, who has worked on prehistoric sites in Central America and Turkey, was also very excited about the discovery, stating, “Congratulations to Professor Hamilton and the Isles of Shoals archaeology project for confirming what the archaeological community has only been able to speculate about until now.”

The director of the project, Professor Nathan Hamilton of the University of Southern Maine, documented several stone tools (arrow points, knives, and scrapers) recovered along with stone flakes from tool manufacture, ceramics and fire-cracked rock. These artifacts represent a substantial activity area that appears to date to AD 800-1200 on the basis of artifact styles that include a Levanna point, a side-notched point and a Stemmed point. Excavations during 2009 produced evidence sufficient to designate a prehistoric site number, and an application will be filed with Maine Historic Preservation Commission in coming months. The site will be known as the Hubbard-Oberlander Site.

Shoals Marine Lab Director William E. Bemis noted that: “Archaeological studies on Smuttynose Island go hand-in-hand with ongoing investigations on the historical ecology of the Isles of Shoals. As we build a better picture of human habitation of the islands, we can better understand the context for ongoing ecological change in marine and terrestrial environments.”
The Isles of Shoals are most famous for the colonial fishing station sited on Smuttynose Island that existed in the 17th-19th centuries and whose origin predated the arrival of Puritans to Massachusetts. Adjacent Appledore Island is home to Shoals Marine Laboratory, Cornell’s marine field station and the base for the archaeological project on Smuttynose.

For more information contact Robin Hadlock Seeley .

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