Thanks to everyone who purchased one of the great Erie Land Lights (including purchasing tickets in the December opportunity drawing as well as the ones that have been auctioned) we will be able to make donations to lighthouse preservation. These donations will be made in the name of the Collector Forums and Harbour Lights collectors. Half the “profits” from this project will be donated; the other half is what is paying the Forum’s monthly server bill.

The task that is now before us is where these donation funds should be directed. At this point I am not going to share how much money is available as I do not want to encourage people to suggest specific amounts for a donation. What I am going to ask is that if you have an idea on a lighthouse preservation project that would benefit from our support that you send me an email with the following information:

• Name of the lighthouse and its preservation group
• What kind of project needs support, if known.
• How to contact this group. Names, phone number, emails, web site.

Lighthouse groups nominated need to be a non-profit organization, and may be asked to provide certification. Generally speaking, lights owned by government agencies do not have a separate non-profit entity and donating to that specific light can be very difficult.

Please DO NOT post any “nomination” in this thread at this point.

Here is what will happen:

• I will collect the suggestions and present them to the ELL Work Group for discussion.

• The group will debate the suggestions and come up with consensus decisions. Believe me, this group will debate the suggestions thoroughly!

• We will publish a list of donations to be made.

Why this kind of process? Why don’t we all get to vote?

No matter how things are done some will be unhappy about the process and/or the outcome. The goal is not to have this become a “popularity” contest, but to be a need based decision, looking at where we can hopefully make some impact with our money. Rather than have a committee of the whole (everyone) debating the various proposals, it is far more efficient to have a small group do so. As I mentioned, the Work Group will thoroughly debate the proposed recipients from a neutral point of view, looking at all the potential recipients.

How do I suggest a recipient?

Please send your suggestions / nominations to me at this address only: forums-hl-project @ sbcglobal.net (take out the spaces – just trying to keep this address from being ‘harvested’ by the bad guys). Please include the words “ELL donation” in the subject line. I will acknowledge receipt of your email. You may include supporting information on why this group should be chosen and how they will (or might) use any donation. Please don’t make your email a long, drawn out one. Brevity will score points!

I have been asked if the ELL itself needs any preservation work. As far as I know, it does not at this point. There is a brand new (less than 2 years old) lantern room). Additionally, the ELL is owned by the city of Erie and a long time city employee and his family have lived there a number of years.

Please be sure to use the email address I gave above to send in nominations. Don't use private mail or click on the email icon. Thanks.

My request to not list your nominations in this thread was not meant to say you can't post anything. Please do feel free to post your thoughts or comments about the process in general. We are open to input and suggestions on the process in general.

Thanks to those who have submitted suggestions. We do have room for more lights to be considered so please do share your suggestions with me via email as listed above.

I think it is great anytime we can donate money to help a lighthouse in need.

If there is $2,000 or more, it would be nice to divide the money up to more than one lighthouse (i.e. $1,000 check a piece). Just my 2 cents.

Still giving it some thought before I send Dave my recommedation(s).

As for the process in general, I'd like to toss this out there for comments.

Can half the money be donated to a lighthouse cause and half torwards the production of another CF exclusive?

This way it's an ongoing process that keeps money coming in for lighthouse/lightship restorations/renavations.

Don't know if half the money would be viewed as only a drop in the bucket towards another CF exclusive by the HL folks?

Just thinking a little bit outside the box.

Loon - since we take deposits with initial orders, it wouldn't be necessary to use any of the money already raised for production.

That and we have good credit with Harbour Lights.

Any more suggestions for where to lend our support? If so, please send to me as outlined in the initial post.