28th ANNUAL KEEPERS' WEEKEND
-- SEPTEMBER 30th--OCTOBER 2nd, 2022 -- Bodie Island Lighthouse, Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station
It has been three years since our Society has held an in-person Keepers’ Weekend and we are really looking forward to this October’s special weekend. Our last gathering was in 2019 in Corolla, where we honored Currituck Beach Lighthouse with Site Manager Meghan Agresto guiding us on tours of the 1875 lighthouse and the Double Keepers’ Quarters. Participants also had the option of visiting the Corolla Wild Horse Sanctuary or taking a Wild Horse Jeep tour, and visited historic Corolla Village, including the Whalehead Club and the Center for Wildlife Education. Since that time, because of COVID-19 restrictions and cautions we have held two virtual Keepers’ Weekends in 2020 and 2021.
However, this coming October 1st will be the same weekend as the Bodie Island Lighthouse’s 150th anniversary of lighting in 1872 and there will be special activities at the lighthouse and fee-free climbing all day.
Our awards dinner will be held Friday, September 30 at the Comfort Inn on the Ocean (North) in Kill Devil Hills. Back in 2013, OBLHS and the NPS (Cape Hatteras Group) hosted a reunion of the descendants of the Keepers at Bodie Island Lighthouse. We hope that the celebration of Bodie Island
Lighthouse’s 150th anniversary will be as successful as the 2013 descendants’ homecoming.
We will hold a brief members’ meeting, and then have our popular raffle drawing and a fun lively auction of exciting lighthouse-themed items. All those who register will be sent an updated itinerary shortly before the event. There will likely be opportunities to volunteer to help.
Saturday morning activities begin with breakfast at the hotel ballroom and Dave Hallac, Superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore will join us and give a short address. After breakfast our group will relocate to the Bodie Island Lighthouse where, at 10 a.m. a ceremony and program commemorating the 150th anniversary of the lighting of the lighthouse with the US Coast Guard band and color guard, invited speakers, and descendants of lighthouse keepers will participate. There will be activities for children and a special display in the Keepers’ quarters as well as music, videos and free climbing of the lighthouse.
ON Saturday afternoon at 3 P.M. at Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station in Rodanthe, the US Coast Guard will give a special presentation for the Society of the Beach Apparatus drill. This is a drill that surfmen used to practice weekly for rescuing the stranded crews of shipwrecks. The Life-Saving Station will be open for a tour and shopping after the event.
Our group will gather again at dusk at the lighthouse, to witness the light within the original Fresnel lens come on as it did 150 years ago on the same date. There will also be light refreshments and other activities.
Sunday morning, back at the hotel, Keeper James Charlet will ‘edutain’ us with “Cape Hatteras Ephraim Williams Rescue: Maker of Mottos.”, a presentation we will not forget.
To register, please click on the BLUE BAR above and fill out the online registration form. Registration for the weekend is $100 per individual.
We have long-awaited this gathering of lighthouse friends and descendants and hope that you will be with us for this very special weekend, the 150th anniversary of first lighting of the 1872 Bodie Island Lighthouse.
