Star Island is one of the rocky, wind-swept Isles of Shoals, located off the coast of Rye, New Hampshire. For over 100 years, summers here have provided individuals and families with a welcome respite from their busy mainland lives. Star Island Corporation is a nonprofit organization which maintains the island and its facilities and provides hospitality services for visitors.
The sounds have changed on Star...
As the season of conferences, personal retreats, and visitors comes to a close, the sounds on the island make a dramatic change...
From the laughter and running feet of children on the porch, we hear the hammering and drilling of the carpenter reinforcing the deck for another year...
From the rhythmic creak of the rocking chairs on the porches, we now hear the tap-tap-tap of the team re-roofing Newton...
From the quiet songs drifting across the rocks from the chapel, we now hear the clinking and keyboard tapping of the consultant who is helping us define the capacity for the fire inspectors...
The "close-up" time on Star Island is a critical period for the successful opening of the 2009 Season. We have much work to do in a very short window of time...by the first of November, the island must be completely shut down, the winter caretakers arrive, and begin operating on solar power and a small generator. So for the next several weeks, much work must be completed before the really harsh Atlantic Ocean winter weather sets in. In addition, the end-of-season Pelican crew is busy with many tasks including washing and storing all the linens, cleaning the main kitchen, and packing away our precious art and artifacts.
So, we would like to remind you that we still need to meet our goal for the Annual Fund to pay for this end of the season work...our version of a fundraising thermometer, the "Tucke Monument", tells us that we have a good bit of work to do...but we know how wonderful your time on Star was this summer, so please join us in reaching our goal for 2008.
From your spirit home...best wishes!
Vicky Hardy
"...The spirit of the Shoals absorbs what we consider highest, noblest, and even most heroic in the human spirit. We have become a community of the spirit reaching together toward our ideas and encouraging one another in the process. Star Island, simply, asks of us a certain height. Our island has been asking this of us ever since we first came here. We have all responded by stretching a bit and feeling a bit taller. We expect it of other Star Islanders. They expect it of us. We feel we must not let one another down."—Fred McGill