posted 07-31-2000 01:25 AM            

For Immediate Release
For Information Contact
John McPherson
336-724-0803
Fax 336-724-2700
OR email bparrish@outer-banks.com

ANNUAL KEEPERS DINNER

Kill Devil Hills-The Annual Keepers Dinner of the Outer Banks Lighthouse
Society (OBLHS) is to be held September 22 and 23, 2000 at the Ramada Inn
of Kill Devil Hills, NC.

Friday night there is a clambake on the deck of the Ramada with stargazing
following, so bring your telescope.

Saturday there is a bus trip to tour the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and
Keepers Quarters followed by the Annual Keepers Dinner Saturday evening.

Tim Harrison, noted lighthouse author and historian will give a slide/talk
presentation for the Annual Keepers Dinner September 23, 2000. His
presentation will center on lighthouses no longer standing, lighthouses
that are in danger of being lost, and how we can work to save them.

Harrison is president of The American Lighthouse Foundation, a non-profit
group that has 16 lighthouses under its auspices and also has financially
assisted other lighthouse restoration projects around the nation. Harrison
is editor and publisher of Lighthouse Digest, a monthly magazine devoted to
lighthouses, and is co-founder and partner along with Kathleen Finnegan and
Don Devine of Lighthouse Depot, the world's largest lighthouse gift store
in Wells, Maine and the Lighthouse Depot Catalog, which sends out six
million catalogs a year. Lighthouse Depot was one of the principle
underwriters of the recent PBS-TV six-hour mini series, "Legendary
Lighthouses" which was so popular that four more episodes are now near
completion.

A Saturday night auction of lighthouse memorabilia will wrap up the special
weekend. Tickets may be bought for individual activities or as a weekend
package. (Contact information for the Keepers Dinner is at top right.)

HATTERAS KEEPERS DESCENDANTS HOMECOMING

The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society (OBLHS) continues to search for Hatteras
Keepers' descendants to invite them to a special weekend May 4,5,6, 2001.
The OBLHS is organizing the event, the Hatteras Keepers Descendants
Homecoming, to gather as many Keepers' families as possible at the Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse and give them an opportunity to share as well as learn
more about their Keeper ancestor, life on Hatteras Island, and life as a
lighthouse Keeper.

A commemorative book is being compiled of Keepers' oral and family
histories by the OBLHS, a nonprofit organization acting as an advocate for
North Carolina lighthouses.

If you are a Hatteras Keeper's descendant of the 1803 or 1870 towers, the
Hatteras Beacon, or the Diamond Shoals Lightship, please contact OBLHS at
252/995-6891 or email hattkeep@outer-banks.com to receive your invitation.