|
SEARCH ALF WEB
Help ALF
Today!
American Lighthouse Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 565
Rockland,
Maine 04841
Phone: 207-594-4174
Fax: 207-596-1091
info@lighthousefoundation.org
The American Lighthouse Foundation is a
Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Organization dedicated to the
preservation of America's historic
lighthouses & lightships and
their heritage.
|
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
Proud to Be a Friends of Wood Island
Lighthouse “Woodchuck”
By Bob Trapani, Jr.
|
|
| |
|
Becoming a volunteer “Woodchuck” at Wood Island Lighthouse is no easy
task. First an individual must be willing to commit personal time and
work hard at an offshore light station like
Wood
Island. Secondly, the volunteer’s work must meet the approval of head
“Woodchuck” Mal Stallings, who is “all business” when it comes to
helping save this beautiful historic site. Mal is never shy about
telling interested volunteers that if you want to become a “Woodchuck,”
you will be expected to shoulder your share of the work load at the
lighthouse – for there are no |
Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.
"Woodchucks"
Frank & Sandy Wolcott
|
|
|
| |
slackers in this
elite group of Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse volunteers!
Two
volunteers who have earned the honor and title of Wood Island Lighthouse
“Woodchuck” is Frank and Sandy Wolcott. Together, this husband and wife team
doesn’t simply volunteer when time is convenient – they have made a
dedicated commitment to helping the light station throughout the summer
months. Just about every week, “Woodchucks” Frank and Sandy can be found at
the island working hard to keep the light station’s landscape looking great
and ready to pass even the most stringent of bygone U.S. Lighthouse Service
inspections.
“Each
Tuesday at 9:00 a.m., six or more dedicated “woodchucks” meet Mal Stallings
– a.k.a. Captain Owl, and the Lightrunner at Vines Landing |
|
| |
|
Photo by Tim Harrison
Mal Stallings leads the "Woodchucks" at
Wood
Island Lighthouse
|
in Biddeford
Pool for our weekly trip to Wood Island to “do our magic” with
lawnmowers, weedwackers and flowers,” says Sandy Wolcott. “For the last
two years from June through September this group has met like clockwork.
As we leave the “gut” we always talk about the weather, the water and
our work at the lighthouse, and after arriving at the light station,
everyone is always light hearted – you can tell each volunteer loves
what they are doing.”
The
landscape at Wood Island Light Station isn’t exactly your normal
domesticated home type though. Wild grass, poison ivy, salt air, sea |
|
|
| |
spray, rocky
terrain and even a nesting seagull or two make the job of caring for the
grounds more complex and challenging. Given the inherent time restraints
associated with a day’s work at the island, volunteers waste little time
getting started upon arrival. “Once we reach the lighthouse, the lawn
equipment is taken out and the work begins,” says Wolcott. “Each person is
busy and no one ever stands around – except to sometimes stop a minute to
enjoy the beauty of the lighthouse and peacefulness of the island.”
Sandy
goes to say, “Frank looks after the flowers, which included planting,
weeding, scratching the earth, fertilizing and watering. As for |
|
| |
|
Mal, he
always has a project but some of his time is usually spent maintaining
equipment. It is a cohesive group who enjoys each others’ company –
creating a beautiful memory for all who visit the lighthouse as well as
volunteering for such a wonderful project.
|
Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.
View of the landscape around the oil
house as seen from the light tower
|
|
|
| |
Volunteering at a lighthouse restoration
project like Wood
Island Light isn’t just about helping save a historic site, though this is
obviously our collective mission as “keepers of the lights.” By freely
giving of our time as volunteers, we reap many personal rewards too that
include the opportunity to make new friends and experience the satisfaction
of knowing that our efforts are making a positive and lasting difference in
the community.
Sandy
Wolcott explains how her husband Frank and her got involved with
volunteering at the light, saying, “After spending my whole life watching
the beacon at night, listening to the fog horn and looking
cross the water to Wood Island Lighthouse, I was ecstatic when I learned
about the restoration project. All these many years I had longed to visit
the lighthouse and now my dream was going to come true. The first time as we
walked up the ramp I was so excited to see it up close. Today, after many
trips to the lighthouse I still have that same wonderful feeling.”
For
Sandy and Frank Wolcott, becoming a “Woodchuck” and working to save Wood
Island Lighthouse for future generations makes volunteering |
|
| |
|
Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.
The "Woodchucks" are helping the
Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse
save this historic site
|
a at the
light station a very enriching personal experience. “Being part of this
wonderful group called the Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse is one of
the nicest things we have ever done together,” says Sandy. “It pleases
me that Frank has come to love the lighthouse and Biddeford Pool as much
as I always have. We both look forward to the day when the project is
|
|
|
| |
complete, but in
the meantime we hope that our small part will help to make this goal a
reality.”
Thanks
to people like Frank and Sandy Wolcott – and all the “Woodchucks” of the
Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse, the historic light station has a bright
future. If you are interested in helping the Friends of Wood Island
Lighthouse – a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, contact the
group at:
Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse
P.O. Box 26
Biddeford Pool, ME
04006
www.woodislandlighthouse.org
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
