Are there any HL Collector's Clubs that are strictly for collecting, buying, selling, or trading Harbour Lights? My definition of this type of club would be a group of individuals who meet every so often to help other members of the club with finding those missing pieces for their collections. Are you out there?

Bob

Bob, I personally don't think you will find such a club for Harbour Lights since the Harbour Lights pieces are based on real lighthouses. Lighthouse lovers collect Harbour Lights for many reasons but one of them is the fact that they are replicas of actual places where the collector can visit, photograph, study the history of the people who manned them and admire the architecture.

To me this is what helps to make a club so much fun. Meeting these people, traveling to the real lighthouse and exchanging experiences regarding lighthouses, the real thing as well as replicas. Being able to collect replicas is wonderful and nobody makes them more true-to-life than Harbour Lights.

Harbour Lights is not just a maker of miniature lighthouses. They have increased awareness in the plight of the lighthouse and have worked hard to help restore and preserve the real thing for future generations. They have taken all of us on a wonderful journey and made a platform for forging lasting friendships.

For these reasons I feel that you will be hardpressed to find a club of HL collectors who are interested only in the collecting, buying, selling or trading of Harbour Lights.

Now if you were talking Beanie Babies, Cherished Teddies or Dept 56 I think you would find a club where people can only be interested in collecting, buying, selling & trading.

Ron
(CT Keeper)

Bob - I've not been to a collector club meeting yet. But from the conversations I've had with those who have lead me to think that the PRIMARY reason for organizing and meeting is to see and talk to other people who are as crazy as I am about Harbour Lights and lighthouses. They might share ideas, share sources, come to trade once in a while.

OK Club Leaders, tell us what brings collectors together?

Why do collectors get together in clubs?

Because we can!

As Ron so eloquently discoursed, there are many reasons for lighthouse collectors to gather, not the least being the real drama and romance of the actual towers. There is a place in each club for the specifics of HL information sharing, such as what is coming out and where can we find retired pieces, but I do not think that subject is substantial enough to dominate the meetings of any club for very long. Charitable fundraising is also important and lets us feel good about ourselves. But the real reason people get together is to enjoy themselves with like-minded people, passionate about real lighthouses as well as their resin statues.

I discovered years ago that collecting HL is a journey, not a pastime. What may start out being about statues turns into something about towers and buildings which may turn out to be something about traveling which may turn out to be something about people. This is not accidental; Bill Y. has always been more interested in the stories around lighthouses than the buildings themselves.

Club membership can also be such a journey. Even collectors who come the first time to find out info on retired pieces will hopefully return next meeting to see friends and plan lighthouse getaways.

I think Ron Foster and Jim Rutherford both gave an excellent review of what a well-balanced Harbour Lights collectors club should be. When Henry and I founded the New England Lighthouse Lovers last November and sat down to write goals, they pretty much included what I am seeing here: to educate ourselves about our maritime history with a heavy emphasis on lighthouses; to work together to help save lighthouses in New England through fundraising and hands-on involvement; to see lighthouses firsthand through quality club Outings; to appreciate the fine art of Harbour Lights miniatures through club panel discussions, member programs, and displays; and to have fun while doing all of the above.

Our club is less than one year old, but is meeeting all of the above goals except hands-on and public fundraising (waiting to get our non-profit status first).

I think any serious Harbour Lights collector should, and eventually will, become more concerned with the real lightouses. For what pleasure will only the miniatures have for us, if we know we have not done our part to try and save the real thing.

We had a slide lecture by Connie Small a few weeks ago. Here is a 98 year old wife of a lighthouse keeper, who still, in her own way, tries to spread the word about these beautiful lighthouses and motivated us all the more to strive for more active participation in club activities to help the lights.

I would hope that more HL collectors would form clubs throughout the U.S., even if you are landlocked as is the enthusiastic TN Smoky Mt. HL club. The more clubs and enthusiasm, the more that can be done through club projects to help save these lights.

Wackos are to be congratulated. Though not a "club", we have banded together to do support a worthy restoration project.

Keep the HL Flame burning even brighter through some worthy club memberships.